Cl. Ruby et Jc. Brigham, A CRIMINAL SCHEMA - THE ROLE OF CHRONICITY, RACE, AND SOCIOECONOMIC-STATUS IN LAW-ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS PERCEPTIONS OF OTHERS, Journal of applied social psychology, 26(2), 1996, pp. 95-111
This study investigated the extent to which law enforcement (LE) offic
ials' perceptions of criminality are biased by the chronic nature of,
and the racial and socioeconomic status (SES) features of, their cogni
tive schemas of the typical criminal. One-hundred twenty undergraduate
psychology students and 121 LE officers participated in this study. P
art 1 of this study hypothesized that a chronic criminal schema used b
y LE would result in LE subjects perceiving criminality in ambiguous s
ituations. Contrary to the hypothesis, laypersons were more likely to
view an ambiguous situation as criminal than were LE subjects. Part 2
of this study hypothesized that when exposed to the actions of a Black
and/or lower SES criminal suspect, LE subjects would perceive more gu
ilt, perceive more deceptiveness, place less value on exculpatory info
rmation, and place more value on incriminating information than would
students. The results supported this second hypothesis with regard to
race, but not SES.