The American racial divide in fear of the police
AbstractThe mission of policing is “to protect and serve,” but recent events suggest that many Americans, and especially Black Americans, do not feel protectedfrom the police. Understanding police-related fear is important because it may impact civilians ’ health, daily lives, and policy attitudes. To examine the prevalence, sources, and consequences of both personal and altruistic fear of the police, we surveyed a nationwide sample (N = 1,150), which included comparable numbers of Black (N = 517) and White (N = 492) respondents. Most White respondents felt safe, but most Black respondents lived in fear of the ...
Source: Criminology - January 8, 2022 Category: Criminology Authors: Justin T. Pickett,
Amanda Graham,
Francis T. Cullen Tags: ARTICLE Source Type: research
Sex, drugs, and coercive control: Gendered narratives of methamphetamine use, relationships, and violence
AbstractWhile many of the motives people provide for using drugs transcend gender, there are also notable gendered differences. These differences in motive talk aid in stigma management, shape gender performances, and can encourage or constrain behavior. Using data from a photoethnography with 52 people who use methamphetamine in rural Alabama, we find that men and women articulate their motives for drug use in distinctly gendered ways. Most notably, men emphasized the benefits of sex on meth while most of the women did not. Men's stories of meth as a sex drug shaped how they interacted with women often leading them to use...
Source: Criminology - December 28, 2021 Category: Criminology Authors: Heith Copes,
Fiona Brookman,
Jared Ragland,
Blake Beaton Tags: ARTICLE Source Type: research
In the shadow of 9/11: How the study of political extremism has reshaped criminology*
AbstractWhite-collar crime and illegal political extremism share several characteristics with relevance to criminology. Neither is associated with lower socioeconomic status individuals, both involve perpetrators that rarely see themselves as criminal, and both face unique data challenges. Following Edwin Sutherland's influential research, the study of white-collar crime became a recognized specialization within criminology. Similarly, following the coordinated attacks of September 11, 2001, political extremism became increasingly accepted as a legitimate research topic in criminology. I explore several ways that the study...
Source: Criminology - December 9, 2021 Category: Criminology Authors: Gary LaFree Tags: THE 2020 SUTHERLAND ADDRESS Source Type: research
The price of a sex offense conviction: A comparative analysis of the costs of community supervision
AbstractMonetary sanctions can expand the scope and depth of punishment. Most research on monetary sanctions has centered on fines and fees assessed by the court, but they are also routinely imposed as part of the probation and parole sentence. In this article, we draw on in-depth interview data from a sample of individuals under correctional supervision to document the often hidden costs of correctional control. We further consider a subsample of participants convicted of sexual offenses to illustrate the unique way that monetary sanctions are levied on groups of people who are considered more morally culpable and worthy ...
Source: Criminology - December 8, 2021 Category: Criminology Authors: Beth M. Huebner,
Andrea Giuffre,
Breanne Pleggenkuhle,
Kimberly R. Kras Tags: ARTICLE Source Type: research
“No idea whether he's Black, White, or purple”: Colorblindness and cultural scripting in prosecution*
AbstractProsecutors maintain immense power over criminal case processing. Yet, they have not historically been a major target for reforms designed to foster equality and reduce racial disparity in criminal justice outcomes. Using in-depth interviews with 47 line prosecutors, this study explores how prosecutors think about race in criminal justice, and what they believe their role should be in addressing racial disparities. Results show that prosecutors broadly embrace a colorblind approach to prosecution and argue that race should be disregarded in case processing. Their support for colorblind prosecution is reinforced by ...
Source: Criminology - December 6, 2021 Category: Criminology Authors: R. R. Dunlea Tags: ARTICLE Source Type: research
Police contact and future orientation from adolescence to young adulthood: Findings from the Pathways to Desistance Study
AbstractIn response to the changing nature of policing in the United States, and current climate of police –citizen relations, research has begun to explore the consequences of adolescent police contact for life outcomes. The current study investigates if and under what conditions police contact has repercussions for future orientation during adolescence and the transition into young adulthood. Using d ata from the Pathways to Desistance study, a multisite longitudinal study of serious offenders followed from adolescence to young adulthood, results from a series of fixed-effects models demonstrated three main findings. F...
Source: Criminology - November 24, 2021 Category: Criminology Authors: Alexander Testa,
Kristin Turney,
Dylan B. Jackson,
Chae M. Jaynes Tags: ARTICLE Source Type: research
Issue Information
(Source: Criminology)
Source: Criminology - November 20, 2021 Category: Criminology Tags: ISSUE INFORMATION Source Type: research
Body ‐worn cameras, lawful police stops, and NYPD officer compliance: A cluster randomized controlled trial*
AbstractThe federal court settlement of Floyd, et al. v. City of New York, et al. (2013) mandated that the New York City Police Department (NYPD) implement a series of reforms to address unlawful stop, question, and frisk patterns and practices. Among other changes, the remedial order required the NYPD to implement and evaluate a pilot body-worn camera program to determine whether outfitting officers with the technology led to more lawful and civil police–citizen encounters. A cluster randomized controlled trial involving 40 police precincts and 3,889 NYPD officers was used to evaluate the effects of body-worn cameras...
Source: Criminology - November 16, 2021 Category: Criminology Authors: Anthony A. Braga,
John M. MacDonald,
James McCabe Tags: ARTICLE Source Type: research
Public fear of protesters and support for protest policing: An experimental test of two theoretical models*
AbstractAs protests erupted across the United States in recent years over racialized issues (e.g., Black Lives Matter and Confederate monuments), so too did questions about when and how police should respond. Understanding public attitudes toward protest policing is important for police legitimacy and policy. One theory is that citizens are willing to trade civil liberties, such as the right to assemble, for security, and thus disruptive or dangerous protest tactics should increase support for police control by elevating public fear. Another theory is that citizens view protests through the lens of group position, and thus...
Source: Criminology - October 14, 2021 Category: Criminology Authors: Christi Metcalfe,
Justin T. Pickett Tags: ARTICLE Source Type: research
Prior punishments and cumulative disadvantage: How supervision status impacts prison sentences*
This article explores one way prior punishments may contribute to cumulative disadvantage: through more severe sentencing of those under criminal justice supervision. We examine the impact of being on supervision in Michigan on receiving a sentence of imprisonment —comparing the magnitude of the impact reflected in the formal sentencing guideline recommendation with deviations made by court actors. We find that the formal penalty for supervision status is modest, whereas court actors place substantially more weight on current parole status than do the guide lines when deciding to sentence a defendant to prison. They do n...
Source: Criminology - October 14, 2021 Category: Criminology Authors: Audrey Hickert,
Shawn D. Bushway,
David J. Harding,
Jeffrey D. Morenoff Tags: ARTICLE Source Type: research
Are guns the new dog whistle? Gun control, racial resentment, and vote choice*
AbstractTwo principal movers of American politics appear increasingly to be connected: racism and guns. The racial content underlying gun rights rhetoric, however, is rarely made explicit during political campaigns. As such, it is possible that espousing pro-gun messages may be an effective way to surreptitiously court prejudiced voters without transgressing popular egalitarian norms. In other words, gun rights rhetoric may function as a racial dog whistle. In the present study, we test this theory using data from a survey experiment conducted with a national sample of registered voters. The findings from our experiment sh...
Source: Criminology - October 8, 2021 Category: Criminology Authors: Nathaniel M. Schutten,
Justin T. Pickett,
Alexander L. Burton,
Cheryl Lero Jonson,
Francis T. Cullen,
Velmer S. Burton Tags: ARTICLE Source Type: research
Issue Information
(Source: Criminology)
Source: Criminology - September 23, 2021 Category: Criminology Tags: ISSUE INFORMATION Source Type: research
The accumulation of disadvantage: Criminal justice contact, credit, and debt in the transition to adulthood*
AbstractSocial exclusion of those with criminal justice experience increasingly includes a financial component, but the structure of disadvantage in credit and debt remains unclear. We develop a model of financial disadvantage in debt holding during the transition to adulthood among justice-involved groups. We study cumulative criminal justice contact and debt holding by age 30 using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97). The NLSY97 cohort transitioned to adulthood during an era of historically high criminal justice contact, with many experiencing arrests, convictions, and incarceration. We develop a dist...
Source: Criminology - August 19, 2021 Category: Criminology Authors: Laura M. DeMarco,
Rachel E. Dwyer,
Dana L. Haynie Tags: ARTICLE Source Type: research
Social media, socialization, and pursuing legitimation of police violence*
AbstractEvery day, police departments across America are executing stops, summonses, arrests, and increasingly, tweeting. Although scholarship has focused on how social media democratizes news production and information sharing for activist movements, it has yet to explore how police leverage these attributes to advance institutional interests. I argue that, beyond digital surveillance or community engagement, social media provides police with the technological capacity to pursue both daily socialization of online audiences to their worldview and legitimation in the aftermath of contested police violence. I provide evidenc...
Source: Criminology - August 17, 2021 Category: Criminology Authors: Tony Cheng Tags: ARTICLE Source Type: research
Life lessons: Examining sources of racial and ethnic disparity in federal life without parole sentences*
AbstractAlongside capital punishment, sentences to life without the possibility of parole are one of the most distinctive aspects of the American system of criminal punishment. Unlike the death penalty, though, almost no empirical work has examined the decision to impose life imprisonment. The current study analyzes several years of recent federal sentencing data (FY2010 –FY2017) to investigate underlying sources of racial disparity in life without parole sentences. The analysis reveals disparities in who receives life imprisonment, but it finds these differences are attributable mostly to indirect mechanisms built into ...
Source: Criminology - August 17, 2021 Category: Criminology Authors: Brian D. Johnson,
Cassia Spohn,
Anat Kimchi Tags: ARTICLE Source Type: research
