Explaining the Great Racial Divide: Perceptions of Fairness in the U.S. Criminal Justice System

We examine the huge racial divide in citizens' general beliefs about the fairness of the criminal justice system, focusing on the political consequences of these beliefs for shaping diverging interpretations of police behavior. Predictably, most blacks believe the system to be unfair and most w...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of politics 2005-08, Vol.67 (3), p.762-783
Main Authors: Hurwitz, Jon, Peffley, Mark
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
African Americans
Criminal Justice
Equity
Fairness
Favoritism
Justice
Law enforcement
Perceptions
Police
Police brutality
Political science
Race
Racial Differences
Stereotypes
We they distinction
White people
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Summary:We examine the huge racial divide in citizens' general beliefs about the fairness of the criminal justice system, focusing on the political consequences of these beliefs for shaping diverging interpretations of police behavior. Predictably, most blacks believe the system to be unfair and most whites believe the opposite. More importantly, these beliefs influence the interpretation of events quite differently. African Americans who view the system as unfair are much more suspicious of the police in confrontations with black civilians. Fairness for whites, however, has fewer racial connotations; they naively interpret the confrontations disregarding civilian race. Still, whites holding antiblack stereotypes are much more sympathetic to the police in their confrontations with black civilians.
ISSN:0022-3816
1468-2508
DOI:10.1111/j.1468-2508.2005.00338.x