RACE AND PUNISHMENT:
RACIAL PERCEPTIONS OF CRIME AND
SUPPORT FOR PUNITIVE POLICIES

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This report was written by Nazgol Ghandnoosh, Ph.D., Research
Analyst at The Sentencing Project. Christopher Lewis, Research
Associate, provided research assistance.
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Copyright © 2014 by The Sentencing Project. Reproduction of this
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Executive Summary
I. Introduction
II. Public Support for Punitive Policies
A. Historical Changes in Punitive Sentiment
B. The Racial Gap in Punitiveness
C. The Racial Gap in Victimization
III. Racial Perceptions of Crime
A. Overestimating Black and Hispanic Crime Rates
B. Implicit Biases About People of Color
IV. Racial Perceptions of Crime Linked to Punitiveness
V. Sources of Racial Perceptions of Crime
A. Racial Differences in Crime Rates
B. Media Portrayals of Crime
C. Policymakers
D. Criminal Justice Professionals
VI. Punitiveness Linked to Other Racial Gaps in Views and Experiences
A. Whites’ Limited and Favorable Criminal Justice Contact
B. Racial Prejudice
C. Individualistic Accounts of Crime
VII. Consequences of a Biased and Punitive Criminal Justice System
A. Eroded Perceived Legitimacy
B. Undermining Public Safety
VIII. Remedies and Recommendations
A. The Media and Researchers: Reduce Racial Disparities in Crime Coverage,
Contextualize Stories on Crime and Sentencing, and Improve Public Opinion Polling
B. Policymakers: Curb Excessive Incarceration and Tackle Racial Disparities in Crime
Policies and Crime Rates
C. Practitioners and Other Stakeholders: Recognize and Address Implicit Racial Bias and
Revise Policies with Disparate Racial Impact

Race and Punishment: Racial Perceptions of Crime and Support for Punitive Policies 1

2 The Sentencing Project

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The American criminal justice system is at a critical juncture. In recent years,
federal policymakers have called for reforms, following the lead of states that have
reduced prison populations without compromising public safety. Nationwide prison
counts have fallen every year since 2010, and the racial gap in imprisonment rates
has also begun to narrow. Yet the recent tragic events in Ferguson, Missouri –
where the killing of an unarmed African American teenager has sparked outrage
– highlight the ongoing relevance of race in the criminal justice system.
To guide and give greater momentum to recent calls
for reform, this report examines a key driving force of
criminal justice outcomes: racial perceptions of crime.
A complex set of factors contributes to the severity and
selectivity of punishment in the United States, including
public concern about crime and racial differences in
crime rates. This report synthesizes two decades of
research establishing that skewed racial perceptions of
crime – particularly, white Americans’ strong associations
of crime with racial minorities – have bolstered harsh and
biased criminal justice policies. The report concludes that:

White Americans are more punitive than
people of color.
Whites are more punitive than blacks and Hispanics
even though they experience less crime. For example,
while the majority of whites supported the death
penalty for someone convicted of murder in 2013,
half of Hispanics and a majority of blacks opposed
this punishment. Compared to blacks, whites are also
more likely to support “three strikes and you’re out”
laws, to describe the courts as not harsh enough, and
to endorse trying youth as adults. And yet, blacks and
Hispanics are far more likely than whites to be victims
of violent and property crimes.

Whites misjudge how much crime is
committed by African Americans and Latinos.
White Americans overestimate the proportion of
crime committed by people of color, and associate
people of color with criminality. For example, white

respondents in a 2010 survey overestimated the actual
share of burglaries, illegal drug sales, and juvenile
crime committed by African Americans by 20-30%.
In addition, implicit bias research has uncovered
widespread and deep-seated tendencies among whites
– including criminal justice practitioners – to associate
blacks and Latinos with criminality.

Whites who more strongly associate crime
with racial minorities are more supportive of
punitive policies.
White Americans who associate crime with blacks and
Latinos are more likely to support punitive policies
– including capital punishment and mandatory
minimum sentencing – than whites with weaker racial
associations of crime. This relationship exists even
after controlling for other relevant factors such as
racial prejudice, conservatism, and crime salience.

Media crime coverage fuels racial
perceptions of crime.
Many media outlets reinforce the public’s racial
misconceptions about crime by presenting African
Americans and Latinos differently than whites
– both quantitatively and qualitatively. Television
news programs and newspapers over-represent racial
minorities as crime suspects and whites as crime
victims. Black and Latino suspects are also more likely
than whites to be presented in a non-individualized
and threatening way – unnamed and in police custody.

Race and Punishment: Racial Perceptions of Crime and Support for Punitive Policies 3

Policymakers’ actions and statements
amplify the public’s racial associations of
crime.
Whether acting on their own implicit biases or bowing
to political exigency, policymakers have fused crime
and race in their policy initiatives and statements. They
have crafted harsh sentencing laws that impact all
Americans and disproportionately incarcerate people
of color. Through public statements, some have
stoked the public’s heightened concern about crime
and exaggerated associations of crime with racial
minorities.

Criminal justice practitioners also operate
with and reinforce racial perceptions of
crime.
Disparities in police stops, in prosecutorial charging,
and in bail and sentencing decisions reveal that implicit
racial bias has penetrated all corners of the criminal
justice system. Moreover, policies that are raceneutral on their surface – such as “hot spot” policing
and certain risk assessment instruments – have
targeted low-income people of color for heightened
surveillance and punishment.

Racial perceptions of crime have distorted
the criminal justice system.

prisoners serving life sentences. Racial perceptions of
crime, combined with other factors, have led to the
disparate punishment of people of color. Although
blacks and Latinos together comprise just 30% of
the general population, they account for 58% of the
prison population.

Racial perceptions of crime have undermined
public safety.
By increasing the scale of criminal sanctions and
disproportionately directing penalties toward people
of color, racial perceptions of crime have been
counterproductive for public safety. Racial minorities’
perceptions of unfairness in the criminal justice
system have dampened cooperation with police work
and impeded criminal trials. In 2013, over two-thirds
of African Americans saw the criminal justice system
as biased against blacks, in contrast to one-quarter
of whites. Crime policies that disproportionately
target people of color can increase crime rates by
concentrating the effects of criminal labeling and
collateral consequences on racial minorities and by
fostering a sense of legal immunity among whites.
Finally, racial perceptions of crime have even led to
the deaths of innocent people of color at the hands
of fearful civilians and police officers.

The report concludes with recommendations for how
By increasing support for punitive policies, racial the media, researchers, policymakers, and criminal justice
perceptions of crime have made sentencing more professionals can address and mitigate the effects of
severe for all Americans. The United States now has racial perceptions of crime, and lay the groundwork for
the world’s highest imprisonment rate, with one in nine more just crime control policies.

4 The Sentencing Project

I. INTRODUCTION
Punishment in the United States is both severe and selective.
With the world’s highest incarceration rate and one in nine
prisoners serving life sentences, the United States remains
the only Western democracy still using the death penalty.1
Low-income people of color2 have disproportionately
borne the brunt of these policies. Nearly 60% of middleaged African American men without a high school degree
have served time in prison.3 And while blacks and Latinos
together comprise 30% of the general population, they
account for 58% of prisoners.4 Criminal justice policies
and practices, and not just crime rates, are key drivers of
these trends: correctional populations have grown during
periods of declining crime rates and people of color are
disproportionately punished even for crimes that they do
not commit at higher rates than whites.5
The United States is now at a critical juncture in
recalibrating its criminal justice policies. The majority of
Americans support easing criminal punishment for drug
offenses.6 The Attorney General, bipartisan Congressional
leadership, and the United States Sentencing Commission
are calling for reforms to reduce the severity and disparate
impact of criminal sanctions.7 A number of states have
led the way: New York, New Jersey, and California
1	

2	
3	
4	
5	
6	
7	

8	

9	
10	

have dramatically reduced their prison populations
without compromising public safety and six other states
have achieved double-digit reductions in recent years.8
Nationwide, prison counts have receded every year since
2010 after 37 years of consecutive growth.9 The racial
gap in incarceration rates has also begun to narrow.10
To guide and give greater momentum to these reforms,
this report examines a key force driving criminal justice
outcomes: racial perceptions of crime. A complex set of
factors explains the severity and selectivity of punishment
in the United States, including public concern about crime
as well as racial differences in crime rates. This report
synthesizes existing research showing that skewed racial
perceptions of crime – particularly, white Americans’
strong associations of crime with blacks and Latinos –
have bolstered harsh and biased crime control policies.
White Americans, who constitute a majority of
policymakers, criminal justice practitioners, the media,
and the general public, overestimate the proportion of
crime committed by people of color and the proportion
of racial minorities who commit crime. Even individuals
who denounce racism often harbor unconscious

Walmsley, R. (2013). World Prison Population List (10th Edition). London, U.K.: International Centre for Prison Studies. Available at: http://www.
prisonstudies.org/sites/prisonstudies.org/files/resources/downloads/wppl_10.pdf (pp. 1, 3); Nellis, A. (2013). Life Goes On: The Historic Rise in
Life Sentences in America. Washington, D.C.: The Sentencing Project. Available at: http://sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/inc_Life%20
Goes%20On%202013.pdf (p. 1); Amnesty International (2014). Death Sentences and Executions 2013. London, U.K. Available at: http://www.
amnestyusa.org/sites/default/files/act500012014en.pdf (p. 6).
In this report, the terms “African American” and “black” are used interchangeably, as are “Latino” and “Hispanic.” “People of color” and
“racial minorities” are used to refer to these two racial and ethnic groups since they are the largest affected populations and because of the
preponderance of research about these groups.
Western, B. (2006). Punishment and Inequality in America. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation (p. 27).
U.S. Census Bureau: State and County QuickFacts. Available at: http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html; Carson, E. A. & Golinelli
D. (2013). Prisoners in 2012: Trends in Admissions and Releases, 1991–2012. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Available at: http://www.bjs.gov/
content/pub/pdf/p12tar9112.pdf (p. 37, App. Tbl. 4).
National Research Council (2014). The Growth of Incarceration in the United States: Exploring Causes and Consequences. Washington, DC: The
National Academies Press. Available at: http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=18613 (pp. 47–56).
Pew Research Center (2014). America’s New Drug Policy Landscape. Washington, D.C. Available at: http://www.people-press.org/2014/04/02/
section-1-perceptions-of-drug-abuse-views-of-drug-policies/; see also The New York Times Editorial Board (2014). Repeal Prohibition, Again.
Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/07/27/opinion/sunday/high-time-marijuana-legalization.html.
Peters, J. W. (2014). G.O.P. Moving to Ease Its Stance on Sentencing. The New York Times. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/14/
us/gop-moving-to-ease-stance-on-sentencing.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-thecaucus&_r=1; U.S. Sentencing Commission (2014).
U.S. Sentencing Commission Unanimously Votes to Allow Delayed Retroactive Reduction in Drug Trafficking Sentences. Available at: http://www.
ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/news/press-releases-and-news-advisories/press-releases/20140718_press_release.pdf.
Mauer, M. & Ghandnoosh, N. (2014). Fewer Prisoners, Less Crime: A Tale of Three States. Washington, D.C.: The Sentencing Project. Available
at: http://sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/inc_Fewer_Prisoners_Less_Crime.pdf; Greene, J. & Mauer, M. (2010). Downscaling Prisons:
Lessons from Four States. Washington, D.C.: The Sentencing Project. Available at: http://www.sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/
publications/inc_DownscalingPrisons2010.pdf; Lofstrom, M. & Raphael, S. (2013). Public Safety Realignment and Crime Rates in California. San
Francisco, CA: Public Policy Institute of California. http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/report/R_1213MLR.pdf.
Mauer, M. & Ghandnoosh, N. (2013). Can We Wait 88 Years to End Mass Incarceration? The Huffington Post. Available at: http://www.
huffingtonpost.com/marc-mauer/88-years-mass-incarceration_b_4474132.html.
Carson & Golinelli (2013), note 4 above; Mauer, M. (2013). The Changing Racial Dynamics of Women’s Incarceration. Washington, D.C.: The
Sentencing Project. Available at: http://sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/rd_Changing%20Racial%20Dynamics%202013.pdf (p. 8, Tbl. 1).

Race and Punishment: Racial Perceptions of Crime and Support for Punitive Policies 5

and unintentional racial biases. Attributing crime to
racial minorities limits empathy toward offenders and
encourages retribution as the primary response to crime.
Consequently, although whites experience less crime than
people of color, they are more punitive.

minorities’ perception of unfairness in the criminal justice
system has dampened cooperation with police work and
impeded criminal trials. Excessive criminalization has
left millions struggling to stay afloat against the anvil of
a criminal record. And finally, a racially biased criminal
justice system may foster white Americans’ sense of legal
Other racial differences in views and experiences also immunity, with some studies showing that whites are
contribute to whites being more punitive than people more likely to break rules when they see that enforcement
of color. Black Americans’ negative encounters with the is racially biased.
criminal justice system and greater recognition of the
root causes of crime temper their preference for punitive The media, policymakers, and criminal justice practitioners
policies. White Americans, by contrast, have less frequent can implement several proven interventions to sever
and more positive criminal justice contact, endorse more associations of crime with race, and temper their impact.
individualistic causal explanations of crime, and are more News producers can monitor and correct for disparities
likely to harbor overt racial prejudice.
in crime reporting. Policymakers can curb excessive
incarceration and develop policies to reduce disparities in
Whites’ associations of crime with people of color sentencing and crime rates. All stakeholders – particularly
have helped to make the criminal justice system more criminal justice professionals – can use empirically
punitive toward people of all races, and especially toward validated tools to detect and reduce the impact of implicit
racial minorities, through several mechanisms. First, the racial biases.
public’s racial perceptions of crime have gone handin-hand with its support for punitive crime policy, to The report is organized as follows: Section II examines
which elected officials,11 prosecutors,12 and judges13 have public opinion about punishment, showing that Americans
been responsive. Second, these perceptions directly have grown more punitive over time and that white
influence the work of criminal justice practitioners and Americans are more punitive than African Americans and
policymakers, who are not immune to these widely held Latinos, even though they are less frequently impacted by
biases.
crime. Section III describes explicit and implicit measures
of Americans’ racial perceptions of crime. Section IV
A widespread consequence of racial perceptions of crime presents studies showing that whites with stronger racial
is the overrepresentation of people of color in prisons, associations of crime are more punitive than whites with
jails, and under community supervision. A less common weaker racial associations of crime. Section V examines
but more acutely tragic outcome has been the deaths of the role that crime rates, the media, policymakers, and
people of color due to distorted assessments of threat criminal justice professionals have played in shaping
by police officers and armed civilians. The deaths of the public’s mental image of, and response to, people
Amadou Diallo, an unarmed Guinean immigrant killed who commit crime. Section VI discusses other racial
by New York City police officers in 1999, Trayvon differences in views and experiences that account for
Martin, an unarmed African American teenager killed by the racial gap in punitive sentiment, including experience
a neighborhood watch coordinator in 2012, and Michael with police stops, causal accounts of crime, and overt
Brown, an unarmed African American teenager killed by racial prejudice. Section VII describes the negative
a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri are all-too-common consequences of a biased and punitive criminal justice
flashpoints of the racialization of crime.
system. Section VIII suggests how policymakers, criminal
By disproportionately directing criminal justice penalties justice professionals, and the media can remedy their own
toward people of color, racial perceptions of crime and the public’s perceived link between race and crime,
have been counterproductive to public safety. Racial and temper its influence on criminal justice.
11	

12	
13	

Enns, P. K. (Forthcoming). The Public’s Increasing Punitiveness and Its Influence on Mass Incarceration in the United States. American Journal of
Political Science; Nicholson-Crotty, S., Peterson, D. A. M., & Ramirez, M. D. (2009). Dynamic Representation(s): Federal Criminal Justice Policy and
an Alternative Dimension of Public Mood. Political Behavior, 31(4), 629–55; note caveats discussed in Peffley, M. & Hurwitz, J. (2010). Justice in
America: The Separate Realities of Blacks and Whites. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press (pp. 140–8).
Baumer, E. P., Martin, K. H., Baumer, E. P., & Martin, K. H. (2014). Social Organization, Collective Sentiment, and Legal Sanctions in Murder Cases.
American Journal of Sociology, 119 (1), 131–182.
Brace, P. & Boyea, B. D. (2008). State Public Opinion, the Death Penalty, and the Practice of Electing Judges. American Journal of Political Science,
52(2), 360–372.

6 The Sentencing Project

II. PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR PUNITIVE
POLICIES
Two dominant patterns emerge from public opinion
surveys about criminal justice. First, Americans of all
races are significantly more punitive than they once
were, although punitive sentiment has been receding.
Second, whites are and have been more punitive than
African Americans and Latinos, even though they are less
frequently victimized and are less concerned about crime.
The racial gap in punitiveness persists even after noting
important caveats about criminal justice polling methods.

lowest rate of public support for the death penalty, with
only 42% of Americans supporting and 47% opposing
this form of punishment for a person convicted of
murder.14 The public had already grown more punitive
by 1972, when the Supreme Court declared then-existing
state death penalty statutes to be unconstitutional. That
year, 54% of Americans supported capital punishment.15
Death penalty support reached its peak at 80% in 1994,
and gradually declined to 60% by 2013.16

The dramatic rise and sustained high levels of support
for the death penalty have been accompanied by
support for other harsh punishments. Mark Ramirez
has charted historical changes in the public’s support for
Americans grew dramatically more punitive beginning in the death penalty, harsher judicial sentencing, increased
the late 1960s, and one window into this trend is attitudes law enforcement authority, and increased spending for
toward the death penalty. In 1966, Gallup recorded the tougher police enforcement.17 He found that support

A. HISTORICAL CHANGES IN PUNITIVE
SENTIMENT

Figure 1. Punitive sentiment, 1951 to 2003
70

60

50

40

0

1950

1960

1970

1980

1990

2000

2010

Source: Ramirez, M. D. (2013). Punitive Sentiment. Criminology, 51(2), 329–364 (p. 337).
14	
15	
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17	

Jones, J. M. (2013). U.S. Death Penalty Support Lowest in More Than 40 Years. Gallup. Available at: http://www.gallup.com/poll/165626/deathpenalty-support-lowest-years.aspx.
Saad, L. (2007). Racial Disagreement Over Death Penalty Has Varied Historically. Gallup. Available at: http://www.gallup.com/poll/28243/RacialDisagreement-Over-Death-Penalty-Has-Varied-Historically.aspx.
Jones (2013), note 14 above.
Ramirez, M. D. (2013a). Punitive Sentiment. Criminology, 51(2), 329–364; For recent trends in nationwide views on crime and punishment, see
Ramirez, M. D. (2013b). Americans’ Changing Views on Crime and Punishment. Public Opinion Quarterly, 77(4), 1006–1031.

Race and Punishment: Racial Perceptions of Crime and Support for Punitive Policies 7

for these policies rapidly escalated in tandem during the
1970s and 1980s, and remained at these high rates until
beginning to decrease in 1997 (see Figure 1).
Ramirez also searched for the sources of this
punitiveness. Punitive sentiment increased, he found,
when presidents framed crime as a result of a permissive
criminal justice system. Other factors that were closely
tied to increases in punitive sentiment included: increased
public concern about crime, higher rates of drug use,
and public perceptions of greater racial integration.18 It
is “no coincidence,” he concludes, “that the increase in
support for punitive policies occurred at the same time
as the public turned away from the New Deal and Great
Society solutions to poverty. […] Conservative politicians
implemented a strategy that connected these issues,
along with the civil rights movement, to the coddling
of criminals and need for punitive solutions to crime.”19
After decades of draconian sentencing, a growing share
of the public has described the courts as too harsh in
recent years.20

B. THE RACIAL GAP IN PUNITIVENESS
Strong support for punitive policies is not only historically
novel, it is also racially patterned. A 2013 Pew Research
Center survey found that while the majority of whites
supported the death penalty for someone convicted of
murder (63% supported, 30% opposed), blacks and
Hispanics were more likely to oppose rather than support
this punishment (with only 36% of blacks and 40% of
Hispanics supporting, and 55% of blacks and 50% of
Hispanics opposing, see Figure 2).21 Historical trends also
reveal that “over a 30-year period, the divide between
whites and African Americans in their opinions about the
death penalty has remained virtually the same.”22
Whites are also consistently more supportive of other
forms of harsh punishment, although often the majority
of both whites and blacks support these punitive
measures. A national survey conducted between 2000
and 2001 showed that 70% of whites, in contrast to 52%
of blacks, supported “three strikes” laws that compelled
life sentences for people convicted of a third serious
18	
19	
20	
21	
22	

Figure 2. Support for death penalty for
persons convicted of murder, by race, 2013
63%

50%
40%

White

36%

Hispanic

Black

Source: Pew Research Center. Shrinking Majority of Americans Support
Death Penalty. Washington, D.C. Available at: http://www.pewforum.
org/2014/03/28/shrinking-majority-of-americans-support-deathpenalty/.

Figure 3. Support for various punitive
measures, by race, 2000-2001
White

Black

70%
60%
52%
46%

Three strikes laws

Trying juveniles as adults

Source: Peffley, M. & Hurwitz, J. (2010). Justice in America: The
Separate Realities of Blacks and Whites. New York, NY: Cambridge
University Press (pp. 152–3).

Ramirez (2013a), note 17 above (pp. 347–50).
Ramirez (2013a), note 17 above (p. 357).
Ramirez (2013b), note 17 above; Muller, C. & Schrage, D. (2014). Mass Imprisonment and Trust in the Law. The Annals of the American Academy
of Political and Social Science, 651, 139–158.
Pew Research Center (2014). Shrinking Majority of Americans Support Death Penalty. Washington, D.C. Available at: http://www.pewforum.
org/2014/03/28/shrinking-majority-of-americans-support-death-penalty/.
Unnever, J. D., Cullen, F. T., & Jonson, C. L. (2008). Race, Racism, and Support for Capital Punishment. Crime and Justice, 37(1), 45–96 (p. 54).

8 The Sentencing Project

Figure 4. “Do you think the courts in this
area deal too harshly or not harshly enough
with criminals?” 2000s
73%

64%

(see Figure 4).25 Whites also consistently outpaced blacks
in their preference for more punitive courts during the
1980s and 1990s, when an even higher share of both
blacks and whites supported harsher sentencing.26
Finally, white Americans are also more likely than African
Americans to endorse the use of the criminal justice
system over other social policy tools to reduce crime.
When asked how best to reduce crime, 35% of whites said
by investing in education and job training (versus 58%
of blacks), 10% said by investing in police and prisons
(versus 1% of blacks), and 45% said through both means
(versus 35% of blacks, see Figure 5).27

These figures should be interpreted with three important
caveats. First, the wording of the most widely used survey
questions exaggerates public punitiveness. For example,
support for the death penalty diminishes significantly when
respondents are given the option of sentencing someone
White
Black
to life without the possibility of parole.28 In fact, a recent
poll found that the majority of Americans support life
“Not harshly enough”
without parole over execution for someone convicted of
murder.29 Punitive sentiment also recedes when questions
Source: Wright, J. D., Jasinski, J. L, Lanier, D. N. (2012). Crime,
Punishment, and Social Disorder: Crime Rates and Trends in Public
are reworded to ask whether the courts are “too lenient”
Opinion over More than Three Decades. In Marsden, P. V. (ed.) Social
rather than “not harsh enough.”30 Second, public
Trends in American Life: Findings from the General Social Survey since
1972, pp. 146–176. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press (p. 158).
support for punitive policies is often based on inaccurate
understanding of existing policies.31 For example, research
23
offense (see Figure 3). Asked if juveniles should be tried on federal sentencing shows that juries’ sentencing
as adults, 60% of whites agreed, in contrast to 46% of recommendations are far below applicable sentencing
blacks (see Figure 3).24
guidelines.32 Finally, Americans remain supportive of
rehabilitation as a correctional goal – especially for the
When asked on another national survey whether “the
young33 – and support addressing the root causes of crime
courts in this area deal too harshly or not harshly enough
rather than only responding to crime with punishment.34
with criminals,” 73% of whites responded “not harshly
In fact, the American public is pragmatic in its crimeenough” in contrast to 64% of blacks during the 2000s
23	
24	
25	
26	
27	
28	
29	
30	
31	
32	
33	
34	

Peffley & Hurwitz (2010), note 11 above (p. 153).
Peffley & Hurwitz (2010), note 11 above (p. 153).
Wright, J. D., Jasinski, J. L, Lanier, D. N. (2012). Crime, Punishment, and Social Disorder: Crime Rates and Trends in Public Opinion over More
than Three Decades. In Marsden, P. V. (ed.) Social Trends in American Life: Findings from the General Social Survey since 1972, pp. 146–176.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press (p. 158).
Bureau of Justice Statistics (1996). Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics 1995. Available at: http://www.hsdl.org/?view&did=711243 (p. 172,
Tbl. 2.57).
Thompson, V. R. & Bobo, L. D. (2011). Thinking about Crime: Race and Lay Accounts of Lawbreaking Behavior. The Annals of the American
Academy of Political and Social Science, 634, 16–38 (p. 28, Tbl. 5).
Cullen, F. T., Fisher, B. S., & Applegate, B. K. (2000). Public Opinion about Punishment and Corrections. Crime and Justice, 27, 1–79 (pp. 19–21).
Ergun, D. (2014). New Low in Preference for the Death Penalty. ABC News. Available at: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2014/06/new-lowin-preference-for-the-death-penalty/.
Applegate, B. K. & Sanborn, J. B. (2011). Public Opinion on the Harshness of Local Courts: An Experimental Test of Question Wording Effects.
Criminal Justice Review, 36(4), 487–97.
Roberts, J. V. (1992). Public Opinion, Crime, and Criminal Justice. Crime and Justice, 16, 99–180 (pp. 149–50); see also review in Peffley &
Hurwitz (2010), note 11 above (pp. 140–8).
Gwin, J. S. (2010). Juror Sentiment on Just Punishment: Do the Federal Sentencing Guidelines Reflect Community Values? Harvard Law & Policy
Review, 4, 173–200 (p. 187).
Cullen, Fisher, & Applegate (2000), note 28 above (pp. 48–56); Nagin, D. S., Piquero, A. R. Scott, E. S., & Steinberg, L. (2006). Public Preferences
for Rehabilitation Versus Incarceration of Juvenile Offenders: Evidence from a Contingent Valuation Survey. Criminology & Public Policy, 5(4):
627–651; Bishop, D. (2006). Public Opinion and Juvenile Justice Policy. Criminology & Public Policy, 5(4), 653–664.
When asked which approach would lower crime during the 1990s and 2000s, the majority of Americans agreed that more money and effort
should go to “attacking the social and economic problems that lead to crime through better education and job training” versus “to deterring
crime by improving law enforcement with more prisons, police, and judges”: Gallup. Crime. Available at http://www.gallup.com/poll/1603/Crime.
aspx#3.

Race and Punishment: Racial Perceptions of Crime and Support for Punitive Policies 9

Figure 5. Preferred crime reduction policies, by race, 2001
58%
White
45%
35%

Black
35%

10%

9%

6%

1%
More money for
education and job
training

More money for
police and prisons

Both equally

Neither

Source: Thompson, V. R. & Bobo, L. D. (2011). Thinking about Crime: Race and Lay Accounts of Lawbreaking
Behavior. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 634, 16–38 (p. 28, Tbl. 5).

control preferences35 – simultaneously supporting both
punishment and rehabilitation rather than expressing
ideological support for just one goal, although this finding
is also affected by survey wording.36 Yet the racial divide
in punitive sentiment persists even with more nuanced
survey approaches.37

C. THE RACIAL GAP IN VICTIMIZATION

Black Americans are also exposed to violent crime,
especially serious violent crime, at much higher rates than
whites and Hispanics. In 2012, blacks were 66% more
likely than whites to be victims of sexual assault, robbery,
aggravated assault, and simple assault.40 Hispanics were
37% more likely than whites to experience these crimes.41
Black-white victimization differences are most stark when
considering homicide.

Whites’ greater punitiveness relative to people of color is Homicide is the most common cause of death for African
especially striking because whites are far less likely than American men aged 15 to 34, but it is far less common for
blacks and Hispanics to be victims of crime. In 2008,
African Americans were 78% more likely than whites
Whites’ greater punitiveness relative
to experience household burglary, 133% more likely to
to people of color is especially striking
experience motor vehicle theft, and experienced other
types of theft at about the same rate.38 Hispanics were because whites are far less likely than blacks
and Hispanics to be victims of crime.
46% more likely than non-Hispanics to be victims of
39
property crimes.
35	
36	
37	
38	
39	
40	
41	

Unnever, J. D., Cochran, J. K., Cullen, F. T., & Applegate, B. K. (2010). The Pragmatic American: Attributions of Crime and the Hydraulic Relation
Hypothesis. Justice Quarterly, 27(3), 431–57; for a similar pattern among the Dutch, see Mascini, P. & Houtman, D. (2006). Rehabilitation and
Repression: Reassessing their Ideological Embeddedness. British Journal of Criminology, 46, 822–36.
Pickett, J. T. & Baker, T. (2014). The Pragmatic American: Empirical Reality or Methodological Artifact? Criminology, 52(2), 195–222.
Unnever, J. D. & Cullen, F. T. (2005). Executing the Innocent and Support for Capital Punishment: Implications for Public Policy. Criminology &
Public Policy, 4(1), 3–38 (pp. 16–17, fn. 4).
Bureau of Justice Statistics (2010). Criminal Victimization in the United States, 2008 Statistical Tables. Available at: http://www.bjs.gov/content/
pub/pdf/cvus08.pdf (Tbl. 16). Note figures do not distinguish by ethnicity and therefore include a sizeable proportion of Hispanics as whites.
Bureau of Justice Statistics (2010), note 38 above (Tbl. 17). Note figures do not distinguish by race and therefore include a sizeable proportion of
blacks among non-Hispanics.
Bureau of Justice Statistics (2013). Criminal Victimization, 2012. Available at: http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cv12.pdf (p. 7, Tbl. 7).
Bureau of Justice Statistics (2013), note 40 above (p. 7, Tbl. 7).

10 The Sentencing Project

Figure 7. Respondents who have an area
within a mile of their home where they
would be afraid to walk alone at night, 2002

Figure 6: Homicide victimization rates, by
race, 1980–2011
40

41%

30

30%
20

Black

10
0
1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005

White
2011

Figure 6: Homicide victimization rates, by race, 1980–2011
Source: Cooper. A. & Smith, E. L. Homicide Trends in the United
States, 1980-2008. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Available at: http://
www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/htus8008.pdf (p. 11, Figure 17);
Smith, E.L. & Cooper, A. (2011). Homicide in the U.S. Known to Law
Enforcement, 2011. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Available at: http://
www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/hus11.pdf (p. 4, Tbl. 1).

Whites

Source: University at Albany (2003). Sourcebook of Criminal Justice
Statistics 2003. Albany, NY: Available at: http://www.albany.edu/
sourcebook/pdf/section2.pdf (p. 130–1, Tbl. 2.38).

whites in the same age group and all other age groups.
The overall homicide rate for blacks was 6.2 times higher
than for whites in 2011, a gap that has persisted for over
three decades (see Figure 6). 43
42

Racial minorities’ greater rates of victimization are tied to
their heightened fears about crime, and greater likelihood
to adjust their behaviors because of this perceived risk.
When asked, “Is there any area right around here--that is,
within a mile--where you would be afraid to walk alone at
night?” non-whites have more often said yes than whites
since the 1970s, with 41% of non-whites saying yes in
2002 in contrast to 30% of whites (see Figure 7).44 When
asked in 2007 whether they avoided going to certain
places or neighborhoods that they might otherwise want
to go to, 54% of non-whites said yes, in contrast to 46%
of whites (see Figure 8).45
These measures may even underestimate the full extent
of the racial gap in crime experiences because people who
are exposed to more crime may tolerate more risk than
42	
43	
44	
45	

People of color

Figure 8. Respondents who have avoided
certain places or neighborhoods to which
they might otherwise want to go, 2007
54%
46%

Whites

People of color

Source: University at Albany (2007). Sourcebook of Criminal Justice
Statistics 2007. Albany, NY: Available at: http://www.albany.edu/
sourcebook/pdf/t2402007.pdf (p. 132, Tbl. 2.40).

Heron, M. (2012). Deaths: Leading Causes for 2009. National Vital Statistics Reports, 61(7). Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/
nvsr61/nvsr61_07.pdf (pp. 27–8, 34–5, Tbl. 1). Also available at: http://www.cdc.gov/men/lcod/2009/LCODBlackmales2009.pdf and http://www.
cdc.gov/men/lcod/2009/LCOD_whitemen2009.pdf.
Smith, E.L. & Cooper, A. (2011). Homicide in the U.S. Known to Law Enforcement, 2011. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Available at: http://www.
bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/hus11.pdf (p. 4). Due to limitations in data submitted by law enforcement agencies, these figures do not distinguish
Hispanic ethnicity.
University at Albany (2003). Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics 2003. Albany, NY: Available at: http://www.albany.edu/sourcebook/pdf/
section2.pdf (pp. 130–1, Tbl. 2.38).
University at Albany (2007). Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics 2007. Albany, NY: Available at: http://www.albany.edu/sourcebook/pdf/
t2402007.pdf (p. 132, Tbl. 2.40).

Race and Punishment: Racial Perceptions of Crime and Support for Punitive Policies 11

those in safer environments, and be reluctant to disclose
the full extent of their fear to researchers.46 Nevertheless,
African Americans are more likely than whites to report
dissatisfaction with their level of safety: in 2003, 43% of
blacks said they were “very satisfied” about their physical
safety in contrast to 59% of Hispanics, and 63% of
whites.47 African Americans are also more likely to rank
crime as a major national problem. After crime and drugs
subsided as the most highly ranked national problem
in the mid-1990s,48 more blacks than whites remained
concerned. When asked to identify the nation’s most
important problem in a 2001 survey, 24% of African
Americans pointed to “crime, violence, and drugs” in
contrast to 13% of whites.49 Whites, on the other hand,
were most likely to bemoan the “breakdown of morals/
family.” What then accounts for whites’ greater proclivity
for punishment?

46	
47	
48	
49	

Chiricos, T., McEntire, R., & Gertz, M. (2001). Perceived Racial and Ethnic Composition of Neighborhood and Perceived Risk of Crime. Social
Problems, 48(3), 322–340.
Saad, L. (2004). Blacks Lag Behind Whites in Life Satisfaction. Gallup. Available at: http://www.gallup.com/poll/10258/blacks-lag-behindwhites-life-satisfaction.aspx.
University at Albany (2012). Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics 2012. Albany, NY: Available at: http://www.albany.edu/sourcebook/pdf/
t212012.pdf (Tbl. 2.1).
Bobo, L. D. & Thompson, V. R. (2006). Unfair by Design: The War on Drugs, Race, and the Legitimacy of the Criminal Justice System. Social
Research, 73(2), 445–72 (pp. 455–6).

12 The Sentencing Project

III. RACIAL PERCEPTIONS OF
CRIME
Race influences public opinion about criminal justice
policies in two ways. First, as described above, the race of
respondents is a strong predictor of punitive sentiment.
Second, the perceived race of offenders – as in, people’s
mental image of who commits crimes – shapes views
about criminal justice policies. A number of studies have
shown that Americans, and whites in particular, strongly
associate crime with racial minorities, and racial minorities
with crime.

A. OVERESTIMATING BLACK AND
HISPANIC CRIME RATES
Racial minorities commit certain crimes at higher rates
than whites, but whites overestimate these differences.
When asked for numerical estimates of crime rates, whites
attribute an exaggerated amount to people of color. And
when asked to what degree various racial groups are
“prone to violence,” whites rank people of color as more
violence-prone than their own race.
Survey researchers have measured the “racial typification
of crime” – particularly the extent to which people
associate crime with blacks and Latinos – using two
types of questions.50 One approach has been to ask
respondents to estimate the racial composition of specific
crimes. These studies consistently show that Americans,
and whites in particular, significantly overestimate the
proportion of crime committed by blacks and Latinos.
50	
51	

52	
53	
54	
55	
56	

A national survey conducted in 2010 asked white
respondents to estimate the percentage of burglaries,
illegal drug sales, and juvenile crime committed by African
Americans.51 The researchers found that the respondents
overestimated actual black participation in these crimes –
measured by arrests – by approximately 20 to 30 percent
(between 6.6 to 9.5 percentage points).52 Similarly, a
racially diverse group of participants in a 2002 survey
estimated that 40% of people who committed violent
crimes were African American, when crime victimization
surveys showed this rate to be 29%.53 These respondents
estimated the overall rate of violent crime committed by
Hispanics to be 27%.54 This figure significantly exceeded
Hispanics’ share of the general population (14%) and
prison population (17%) in that year.55 The focus of
these studies – on whites or a racially and ethnically mixed
group of respondents – leaves unclear whether and to
what extent racial minorities also racially typify crime.
But the next measure of racial typification offers some
insights into this question.
The second approach to measuring racial perceptions
of crime draws on the General Social Survey (GSS).
Produced by NORC at the University of Chicago, this
long-running survey has asked respondents to rank
various racial and ethnic groups on a scale ranging from
“tend to be violence prone” to “tend not to be prone
to violence.” This question was last asked in the year
2000.56 On a scale where 1 refers to not violence-prone

See Chiricos, T., Welch, K., & Gertz, M. (2004). Racial Typification of Crime and Support for Punitive Measures. Criminology, 42(2), 359–389.
Pickett, J. T., Chiricos, T., Golden, K. M., & Gertz, M. (2012). Reconsidering the Relationship Between Perceived Neighborhood Racial Composition
and Whites’ Perceptions of Victimization Risk: Do Racial Stereotypes Matter? Criminology, 50(1), 145–186 (p. 155–6, 160), using data from:
Federal Bureau of Investigation (2009). Crime in the United States, 2009. Available at: https://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2009/data/table_43.html
(Tbl. 43).
Respondents overestimated the proportion of robberies committed by blacks by 3% (1.4 percentage points).
Chiricos, Welch, & Gertz (2004), note 50 above (pp. 368–70), using data from: Bureau of Justice Statistics (2003). Criminal Victimization in the
United States, 2001 Statistical Tables. Available at: http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cvus0102.pdf (Tbl. 40). For a similar pattern in a 1991
survey, see Pickett, Chiricos, Golden, & Gertz (2012), note 51 above (p. 150).
Welch, K., Payne, A. A., Chiricos, T., & Gertz, M. (2011). The Typification of Hispanics as Criminals and Support for Punitive Crime Control Policies.
Social Science Research, 40, 822–840 (p. 827).
This is the only reference point because neither national victimization surveys nor national arrest records reported Hispanic ethnicity among
offenders or suspects.
National Opinion Research Center University of Chicago (2013). General Social Surveys, 1972-2012: Cumulative Codebook. Chicago, IL. Available
at: http://publicdata.norc.org:41000/gss/documents/BOOK/GSS_Codebook.pdf.

Race and Punishment: Racial Perceptions of Crime and Support for Punitive Policies 13

and 7 refers to violence-prone, non-Hispanic whites on
average rated whites at 3.70, Hispanics at 4.20, and blacks
at 4.48.57 This represented a reduction in how much more
violent whites rated blacks than their own race in 1990.58
This question, however, is not optimal: the wording
may suggest biological racial undertones that the public
increasingly disavows, and it does not allow a comparison
to actual crime rates.59

how unstated implicit biases influence behavior. Here,
researchers capture unintentional and unconscious
racial biases by observing people’s decisions and actions.
Implicit bias tests have shown that the general public
holds negative associations of blacks and Latinos, and
suspects them of criminality. These biases have also been
documented among police officers and judges, and are
believed to reach all corners of the criminal justice system.

The “prone to violence” survey question can help to The Implicit Association Test (IAT) examines
determine whether people of color
differences in the speed with
also racially typify crime. In 1993,
which
respondents
classify
These
studies
have
uncovered
when violent crime was a major
pictures or words into strongly
implicit racial bias even among
national concern, Reverend Jesse
or weakly associated categories.62
individuals who “explicitly
Jackson famously told a Chicago
In a pioneering study, Anthony
disavowed prejudice.”
audience, “There is nothing more
Greenwald
and
colleagues
painful to me at this stage in my
showed white subjects names that
life than to walk down the street
are associated with whites (e.g.,
and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery— Andrew, Wilbur) or blacks (e.g., Jerome, Leroy), coupled
then look around and see somebody white and feel with positive or negative words (e.g., gentle, honor; agony,
relieved.”60 But the 2000 GSS data suggest that Jackson’s disaster).63 The researchers found that respondents were
racialization of crime may not have been representative much faster to categorize the white-pleasant and blackof African Americans: non-Hispanic black respondents unpleasant pairings than the white-unpleasant and
ranked blacks, Hispanics, and whites at essentially the black-pleasant pairings. Researchers have found similar
same level on the violence-prone scale (4.39, 4.22, and results when using the IAT to measure whites’ implicit
4.45 respectively).61 These results indicate that racial bias towards Latinos.64 Importantly, these studies have
typification occurs more strongly among whites than uncovered implicit racial bias even among individuals
African Americans.
who “explicitly disavowed prejudice.”65
Implicit racial biases also permeate the work of criminal
justice professionals and influence the deliberation of
jurors. When researchers administered the IAT to judges66
and capital defense lawyers,67 they found that the majority
While survey researchers depend on respondents to of white and a minority of black judges and counsel
be fully aware of and willing to disclose their beliefs, exhibited bias favoring whites over African Americans.
experimental researchers have indirectly measured Scholars have also explored the potential impact of implicit

B. IMPLICIT BIASES ABOUT PEOPLE OF
COLOR

57	
58	
59	
60	
61	
62	
63	
64	
65	
66	
67	

Barkan, S. E. & Cohn, S. F. (2005). Why Whites Favor Spending More Money to Fight Crime: The Role of Racial Prejudice. Social Problems, 52(2),
300–314 (p. 307).
Unnever, J. D. & Cullen, F. T. (2012). White Perceptions of Whether African Americans and Hispanics are Prone to Violence and Support for the
Death Penalty. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 49(4), 519–544.
See Bobo, L., Kluegel, J. R., Smith, R. A. (1997). Laissez-Faire Racism: The Crystallization of a Kindler, Gentler, Antiblack Ideology. In Tuch, S. A.
and Martin, J. K. (eds.) Racial Attitudes in the 1990s: Continuity and Change, pp. 15–42. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group.
Quoted in Tonry, M. (1995). Malign Neglect: Race, Crime, and Punishment in America (p. 256). New York, NY: Oxford University Press (p. 50).
Based on the author’s analysis of these data. Hispanics rated Hispanics as more violence-prone than whites (4.40 versus 3.76, respectively) and
less so than blacks (4.98), but this is based on a very small number of respondents (58).
Project Implicit has made a version of the test available on this website: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/user/ncsc/ca/.
Greenwald, A. G., Mcghee, D. E., & Schwartz, J. L. K. (1998). Measuring Individual Differences in Implicit Cognition: The Implicit Association Test.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(6), 1464–80 (p. 1474), discussed in Jolls, C. & Sunstein, C. R. (2006). The Law of Implicit Bias.
California Law Review, 94, 969–996.
Blair, I. V., et al. (2013). An Assessment of Biases Against Latinos and African Americans Among Primary Care Providers and Community
Members. American Journal of Public Health, 103(1), 92–98. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3518332/.
Greenwald, Mcghee, & Schwartz (1998), note 63 above (p. 1475).
Rachlinski, J. J., Johnson, S. L., Wistrich, A. J., & Guthrie, C. (2009). Does Unconscious Racial Bias Affect Trial Judges? Notre Dame Law Review,
84(3), 1195–1246 (p. 1210).
Eisenberg, T. & Johnson, S. L. (2004). Implicit Racial Attitudes of Death Penalty Lawyers, DePaul Law Review, 1545–55 (pp. 1546–51).

14 The Sentencing Project

bias on the work of prosecutors68 and defense attorneys.69
Studies of case outcomes – including bail determinations,
prosecutorial charging, and sentencing – also reveal that
the work of criminal justice professionals is affected by
a defendant’s race even after other relevant factors are
controlled, as described later. Finally, studies of mock
jurors have found that a defendant’s race has some impact
on verdicts and sentencing.70 Mock jurors in one recent
study even exhibited skin-color bias in how they evaluated
evidence: they were more likely to view ambiguous
evidence as indication of guilt for darker skinned suspects
than for those who were lighter skinned.71

with images of a black or white face and then asked to
identify an object that was either a gun or tool (see Image
1).72
Payne found that priming subjects with the image of a
black rather than white face improved the speed at which
they identified guns but also reduced their accuracy by
causing them to mistake tools as weapons.

Video simulated shooter studies are another means of
measuring implicit bias. In these studies, subjects are
asked to quickly identify and shoot armed suspects, but
not to shoot unarmed suspects (see Image 2). One such
Implicit bias research has been extended more directly study found that non-black participants more quickly
into the realm of criminal justice with studies that assess and accurately decided to shoot an armed target when
how the public and police officers evaluate ambiguous, the target was African American, but more quickly and
and potentially threatening, scenarios. In Keith Payne’s accurately did not shoot when an unarmed target was
73
formative study, non-black college students were primed white.

Image 1. Examples of images used in implicit bias
studies

Source: Payne, K. B. (2001). Prejudice and Perception: The Role of Automatic and
Controlled Processes in Misperceiving a Weapon. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 81(2), 181–192 (p. 184).

68	
69	
70	

71	
72	
73	

Smith, R. J. & Levinson, J. D. (2012). The Impact of Implicit Racial Bias on the Exercise of Prosecutorial Discretion. Seattle University Law Review,
35(3), 795–826.
Richardson, L. S. & Goff, P. A. (2013). Implicit Racial Bias in Public Defender Triage. The Yale Law Journal, 122(8), 2626–2649; Lyon, A. D. (2012).
Race Bias and the Importance of Consciousness for Criminal Defense Attorneys. Seattle University Law Review, 35, 755–768.
On mock jury studies showing a small but statistically significant impact of race on the determination of guilt and sentencing, see Mitchell, T. L.,
Haw, R. M., Pfeifer, J. E., Meissner, C. A. (2005). Racial Bias in Mock Juror Decision-Making: A Meta-Analytic Review of Defendant Treatment. Law
and Human Behavior, 627–28; Sommers, S. R. & Ellsworth, P. C. (2003) How Much Do We Really Know about Race and Juries? A Review of Social
Science Theory and Research, Chicago-Kent Law Review, 997–1031.
Levinson, J. D. & Young, D. (2010). Different Shades of Bias: Skin Tone, Implicit Racial Bias, and Judgments of Ambiguous Evidence. West Virginia
Law Review, 307–350.
Payne, K. B. (2001). Prejudice and Perception: The Role of Automatic and Controlled Processes in Misperceiving a Weapon. Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology, 81(2), 181–192. See also Eberhardt, J. L., Goff, P. A., Purdie, V. J., & Davies, P. G. (2004). Seeing Black: Race, Crime, and
Visual Processing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87(6), 876–93.
Correll, J., Park, B., Judd, C. M., & Wittenbrink, B. (2002). The Police Officer’s Dilemma: Using Ethnicity to Disambiguate Potentially Threatening
Individuals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(6), 1314–1329.

Race and Punishment: Racial Perceptions of Crime and Support for Punitive Policies 15

Image 2. Examples of images used in video simulated shooter studies

Source: Correll, J., Park, B., Judd, C. M., & Wittenbrink, B. (2002). The Police Officer’s Dilemma: Using Ethnicity to Disambiguate Potentially
Threatening Individuals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(6), 1314–1329 (p. 1316).

When researchers conducted this study with a
predominantly white group of Denver-based police
officers, they found that the officers were less likely than
the general public to mistakenly shoot at black unarmed
suspects.74 However, the officers more quickly shot at
armed black suspects than armed white suspects. The
researchers concluded that while these officers exhibited
bias in their speed to shoot, their training reduced bias
in their decision to shoot. Another study of police

74	
75	

officers from across the United States found that officers
exhibited similar reaction time bias towards Latinos
relative to whites and Asians.75
The conflation of African Americans and Latinos with
criminality extends beyond perceptions of individuals: it
also shapes impressions of neighborhoods. Residents –
particularly whites but also blacks – of neighborhoods
with higher proportion of racial minorities are more

Correll, J., Park, B., Judd, C. M., Wittenbrink, B., Sadler, M. S., & Keesee, T. (2007). Across the Thin Blue Line: Police Officers and Racial Bias in the
Decision to Shoot. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(6), 1006–23.
Sadler, M. S., Correll, J., Park, B., & Judd, C. M. (2012). The World Is Not Black and White: Racial Bias in the Decision to Shoot in a Multiethnic
Context. Journal of Social Issues, 68(2), 286–313.

16 The Sentencing Project

likely to overestimate their neighborhood’s crime rates.76
Even after accounting for differing crime rates and other
measures of disorder, researchers have found that the
“percentage [of] young black men is one of the best
predictors of the perceived severity of neighborhood
crime.”77
Together, these studies reveal that even white Americans
who denounce racism still hold unconscious and
unintentional racial biases, associating people of color
with criminality. By demonstrating that race distorts
perceptions of risk, this research sheds light on the
circumstances leading to the deaths of unarmed men and
women including Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, Oscar Grant,
Trayvon Martin, Renisha McBride, and Michael Brown.

76	

77	

Quillian, L. & Pager, D. (2001). Black Neighbors, Higher Crime? The Role of Racial Stereotypes in Evaluations of Neighborhood Crime. American
Journal of Sociology, 107(3), 717–67; Sampson, R. J. & Raudenbush, S. W. (2004). Seeing Disorder: Neighborhood Stigma and the Social
Construction of “Broken Windows.” Social Psychology Quarterly, 67(4), 319–342. Whites in neighborhoods with greater racial diversity also
overestimate their personal victimization risk, although this may be because they have fewer social ties and experience weaker community
cohesion: see Quillian, L. & Pager, D. (2010). Estimating Risk: Stereotype Amplification and the Perceived Risk of Criminal Victimization. Social
Psychology Quarterly, 73(1), 79–104: Pickett, Chiricos, Golden, & Gertz (2012), note 51 above (pp. 170–1); Wickes, R., Hipp, J. R., Zahnow, R., &
Mazerolle, L. (2013). “Seeing” Minorities and Perceptions of Disorder: Explicating the Mediating and Moderating Mechanisms of Social Cohesion.
Criminology, 51(3), 519–560.
Quillian & Pager (2001), note 76 above (p. 747).

Race and Punishment: Racial Perceptions of Crime and Support for Punitive Policies 17

IV. RACIAL PERCEPTIONS OF CRIME
LINKED TO PUNITIVENESS
Researchers have shown that white Americans who
more strongly associate crime with people of color are
more likely to support punitive criminal justice policies.
When individuals believe that those who commit crime
are similar to them, they more readily reflect on the
underlying circumstances of the crime and respond with
empathy and mercy. But when people perceive a racial
gap between themselves and those who commit crime,
they are less compassionate and react instead with anger
and outrage.

agreed that “African Americans pose a greater threat to
public order and safety than other groups” were more
likely to hold punitive views than those who did not, and
that the same pattern did not hold for blacks.80 Strong
associations of crime with Hispanics have also been
linked to greater punitiveness.81

To determine whether racial perceptions of crime also
impact views of juvenile justice, Chiricos and colleagues
analyzed a 2010 national survey.82
They found that racialized views
“Public support for punitive
Ted Chiricos and colleagues have
of youth crime and victimization –
juvenile
justice
policies
to
some
demonstrated the link between
in particular, the belief that black
extent represents a desire to
racial perceptions of crime and
youth commit a larger proportion
control
other
people’s
children.”
78
punitive policy preferences. In one
of juvenile crime than whites, or
study, they analyzed a 2002 survey
that whites are more likely than
on preferences for policies including “making sentences blacks to be victims of violent crime – led whites, but not
more severe for all crimes,” “executing more murderers,” blacks, to support punitive juvenile justice policies. The
“making prisoners work on chain gangs,” “taking away researchers concluded that “public support for punitive
television and recreation privileges from prisoners,” and juvenile justice policies to some extent represents a
“locking up more juvenile offenders.” They found that desire to control other people’s children.”83 Whites who
whites – though not blacks and Hispanics – who attributed associate crime with racial minorities therefore support
higher proportions of violent crime, burglary, or robbery both punitive adult and juvenile justice policies.
to blacks were significantly more likely to support these
punitive policies.79 This relationship remained statistically Why are whites with strong racial associations of crime
significant even when the researchers controlled for other more punitive? One likely explanation is that a racial
factors related to punitiveness including racial prejudice, gap between individuals and their conceptions of
conservatism, crime salience, and residence in the South. typical offenders stifles empathy. Lack of “empathetic
Another group of researchers found that whites who identification,” James Unnever and Francis Cullen
78	
79	
80	

81	
82	
83	

Chiricos, Welch, & Gertz (2004), note 50 above (p. 369).
Chiricos, Welch, & Gertz (2004), note 50 above (p. 375–6).
Based on 2003 survey: see King, R. D. & Wheelock, D. (2007). Group Threat and Social Control: Race, Perceptions of Minorities and the Desire to
Punish. Social Forces, 85(3), 1255–1280 (see p.1269 and p. 1276, fn. 20). But note that this relationship is weakened when controlling for how
often whites considered blacks to be an economic threat. See also Wheelock, D., Semukhina, O., & Demidov, N. N. (2011). Perceived Group Threat
and Punitive Attitudes in Russia and The United States. British Journal of Criminology, 51(6), 937–959 (p. 952).
Welch, Payne, Chiricos, & Gertz, (2011), note 54 above (p. 831): note that this study did not disaggregate respondents by race.
Pickett, J. T. & Chiricos, T. (2012). Controlling Other People’s Children: Racialized Views of Delinquency and Whites’ Punitive Attitudes Toward
Juvenile Offenders. Criminology, 50(3), 673–710 (p. 692); Pickett, J. T., Chiricos, T., & Gertz, M. (2014). The Racial Foundations of Whites’ Support
for Child Saving. Social Science Research, 44, 44–59.
Pickett & Chiricos (2012), note 82 above (p. 697), referencing Feld, B. C. (1999). Bad Kids: Race and the Transformation of the Juvenile Court. New
York, NY: Oxford University Press.

18 The Sentencing Project

have theorized, increases the desire for retaliation,
decontextualizes offensive behavior, and decreases
capacity for forgiveness.84
These factors reduce
empathetic concern about the hardships of punishment.
In a study with Bonnie Fisher, these scholars measured
levels of empathy through degree of agreement with
statements such as “When I see someone being taken
advantage of, I feel kind of protective toward them,”
“Other people’s misfortunes do not usually disturb me
a great deal,” and “When I see someone treated unfairly,
I sometimes don’t feel very much pity for them.”85 They
found that individuals who were more empathetic were
less supportive of capital punishment in part because they
were more likely to be politically liberal and racially or
ethnically tolerant. But empathy was linked to decreased
punitiveness even independent of these other attributes.
The authors concluded, “To the extent that people can
begin to imagine ‘what it must be like’ to face the finality
and enormity of execution, they are likely to be more
reluctant to endorse the imposition of the death penalty
as the preferred sanction for offenders.”86

more likely to support capital punishment.87 While
respondents with stronger stereotypical associations of
blacks and Hispanics with violence were more supportive
of the death penalty in both years, this relationship lost
its statistical significance in 2000. Instead, a more general
measure of racial prejudice was one of the strongest
correlates of support for the death penalty in 2000.

Another study examined whether respondents with
stronger racial associations of crime – as measured by
the 2000 GSS violence-prone question – believed there
was too little “spending on halting the rising crime rate.”88
These researchers found that whites who described blacks
– but not Hispanics – as more violence-prone were more
supportive of greater anti-crime spending, which the
researchers argued denoted criminal justice spending. But
they found that this pattern was limited to whites who held
more prejudicial views of African Americans. It remains
unclear, though, how much these findings are products
of the measures used in these studies: the problematically
worded question about groups being “prone to violence,”
the narrow measure of death penalty support, and the
The weight of the evidence suggests that people with ambiguously worded question about anti-crime spending.
racial associations of crime are more punitive regardless
of whether they are overtly racially prejudiced. But studies The more white Americans attribute crime to people of
that have used alternative measures of racial perceptions color, the more they support punitive policies for adults
of crime, or of punitiveness, suggest that overt prejudice and juveniles. Section V examines the factors that shape
plays a stronger role. One study relied on the 1990 and racial perceptions of crime. Section VI describes other
2000 GSS to determine whether whites who believed racial differences in views and experiences that contribute
that blacks were more violence-prone than whites were to the racial gap in punitiveness.

84	
85	
86	
87	

88	

Unnever, J. D. & Cullen, F. T. (2009). Empathetic Identification and Punitiveness: A Middle-Range Theory of Individual Differences. Theoretical
Criminology, 13(3), 283–312 (p. 287).
Unnever, J. D., Cullen, F. T., & Fisher, B. S. (2005). Empathy and Public Support for Capital Punishment. Journal of Crime and Justice, 28(1), 1–34
(p. 12).
Unnever, Cullen, & Fisher (2005), note 85 above (p. 22).
Unnever & Cullen (2012), note 58 above (pp. 530–5). The authors do not state that their study is limited to non-Hispanic whites. For a detailed
look at the conditions under which racially stereotyping blacks as violent predict support for the death penalty, see Weber, C. R., Lavine, H., Huddy,
L., & Federico, C. M. (2014). Placing Racial Stereotypes in Context: Social Desirability and the Politics of Racial Hostility. American Journal of
Political Science, 58(1), 63–78.
Barkan & Cohn (2005), note 57 above.

Race and Punishment: Racial Perceptions of Crime and Support for Punitive Policies 19

V. SOURCES OF RACIAL
PERCEPTIONS OF CRIME
Why do white Americans often associate crime with
blacks and Hispanics? This section explores three causes.
First, racial differences in certain crime rates – resulting
from socioeconomic and racial inequalities – provide
some basis to the public’s racial perceptions of crime.
Second, media representations of crime draw on, and
contribute to, racial stereotypes. Third, through their
statements and policies, policymakers and criminal justice
practitioners have deployed their own and reinforced the
public’s associations of crimes with racial minorities.

violent and property crimes. Comparisons of arrest
records with crime victimization surveys have shown that
especially for the most serious crimes, the race of those
arrested resembles the race of offenders as described
by victims.89 Nationwide arrest records attribute higher
rates of violent and property crimes to blacks than
whites, though whites still commit the majority of these
crimes because of their larger numbers.90 In 2012, blacks
comprised 39% of arrests for violent crimes and 29% of
arrests for property crimes, but represented only 13% of
the U.S. population.91 Blacks accounted for 49% of those
arrested for the most serious and violent crimes: murder
A. RACIAL DIFFERENCES IN CRIME
and nonnegligent manslaughter. These data, which do
RATES
not distinguish by Hispanic ethnicity, depict an overall
overrepresentation of blacks among arrestees, which is
Legacies of overt racism and contemporary practices of
likely to correspond to their overrepresentation in certain
willful neglect have divested many black communities
violent and property crimes. Yet as described earlier,
of the economic and social resources that act as buffers
whites attribute even higher rates of crime to people of
to criminal offending. In large part because African
color, and overestimate rates of white victimization.
Americans are more likely to experience concentrated
urban poverty, they are more likely to commit certain The disproportionate rate of black crime should not be
violent and property crimes – although racial minorities surprising given that African Americans are far more
buy and sell drugs at similar rates as whites. Yet racial likely than whites to experience and to live in communities
disparities in criminal behavior fully explain neither with concentrated disadvantage.92 But the criminal justice
the public’s racial perceptions of crime, nor the racial system does not simply mirror these differences in crime
disparities in the prison population.
rates – it exacerbates them through codified policies and
individual discretion. As Michael Tonry has observed,
Because of limitations in self-reported data on criminal
“Although black Americans continue to be overrepresented
activity, researchers generally rely on arrest records to
among arrestees, the degree of overrepresentation has
measure racial disparities in criminal involvement for
89	
90	
91	

92	

Sampson, R. J. & Lauritsen, J. L. (1997). Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Crime and Criminal Justice in the United States. Crime and Justice, 21,
311–374 (pp. 324–330).
This statement relies on data that do not distinguish between Hispanic and non-Hispanic whites: Federal Bureau of Investigation (2012). Crime
in the United States, 2012. Washington, D.C. Available at: http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2012/crime-in-the-u.s.-2012/
tables/43tabledatadecoverviewpdf (Tbl. 43A).
“Violent crimes” include: murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. “Property crimes” include:
burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson. Federal Bureau of Investigation (2012), note 90 above; Humes, K. R., Jones, N. A, & Ramirez,
R. R. (2011). Overview of Race and Hispanic Origin: 2010. U.S. Census Bureau. Available at: http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/
c2010br-02.pdf.
See Sampson & Lauritsen (1997), note 89 above (pp. 333–341); Brown, M. K., Carnoy, M., Duster, T., & Oppenheimer, D. B. (2003). Whitewashing
Race: The Myth of a Color-Blind Society. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press (pp. 153–159).

20 The Sentencing Project

been falling for a quarter century.”93 And yet the profile
of prisoners has been slow to adjust.94

Criminologist Alfred Blumstein has estimated the degree
to which racial differences in crime rates account for
the disproportionate presence of African Americans
While there are racial differences in violent and property in prisons.101 Based on research showing that the racial
crime rates, the picture is quite different for drug crimes, profile of those arrested for the most serious crimes
which account for one-quarter of state prison admissions is a reliable reflection of those who committed these
and almost one-third of federal prison admissions.95 crimes, Blumstein measured how arrestees compared
Whites comprise the majority of drug users and sellers,96 to prisoners for specific crimes. He found that in 1991,
but were only 30% of the state prison population with blacks were imprisoned for homicide at lower rates than
drug convictions in 2011.97 Surveys by the National they were arrested: given that homicide is a primarily
Institute on Drug Abuse and the Department of Health intra-racial crime, this outcome may be attributable to
and Human Services show that
what Blumstein calls “‘victim
both recently98 and historically,99
discounting,’ a form of racial
If drug laws were equally enforced,
whites, blacks, and Hispanics
discrimination that diminishes
have used illicit drugs at roughly prosecuted, and sentenced, the racial the punishment if the victim is
similar rates, with whites profile of drug offenders in the prison black.”102 But as the seriousness
sometimes outpacing people of population would match that of the of the crime decreased, the
general population.
color. Research also suggests that
racial gap between arrests and
drug users generally purchase
prisoners increased in the other
drugs from people of the same race or ethnicity.100 Thus direction. Differential arrest rates accounted for the overif drug law violations were equally enforced, prosecuted, representation of blacks in prison by 89% for robbery,
and sentenced, the racial profile of drug offenders in 75% for burglary, and 50% for drug crimes.103 Overall,
the prison population would match that of the general this approach determined that racial differences in arrests
population. But police policies and practices, prosecutorial accounted for 76% of the racial disparity in the prison
charging discretion, and sentencing laws have created a population in 1991.104 The remainder might be caused
schism between who participates in the illicit drug market by racial bias, as well as other factors including differing
and who is punished for it.
criminal histories.105 Blumstein concluded, “The bulk of

93	

94	
95	
96	
97	
98	

99	
100	
101	
102	
103	
104	
105	

Tonry, M. & Melewski, M. (2008). The Malign Effects of Drug and Crime Control Policies on Black Americans. Crime and Justice, 37(1), 1–44 (p.
18). Some of the decline in the proportion of black arrests is caused by the growth of the Latino population, see Steffensmeier, D., Feldmeyer,
B., Harris, C. T., & Ulmer, J. T. (2011). Reassessing Trends in Black Violent Crime, 1980-2008: Sorting Out the “Hispanic Effect” in Uniform Crime
Reports Arrests, National Crime Victimization Survey Offender Estimates, and U.S. Prisoner Counts. Criminology, 49(1), 197–251 (pp. 201,
219–222); see also Snyder, H. N. Arrest in the United States, 1980-2009. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Available at: http://www.bjs.gov/content/
pub/pdf/aus8009.pdf.
Mauer (2013), note 10 above (p. 8, Tbl. 1).
Carson & Golinelli (2013), note 4 above (p. 6, Tbl. 4); United States Sentencing Commission (2014). 2013 Sourcebook of Federal Sentencing
Statistics. Available at: http://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/research-and-publications/annual-reports-and-sourcebooks/2013/FigureA.
pdf (Figure A).
Mauer, M. (2009). The Changing Racial Dynamics of the War on Drugs. Washington, D.C.: The Sentencing Project. Available at: http://www.
sentencingproject.org/doc/dp_raceanddrugs.pdf (p. 8, Tbl. 3).
Carson, E. A. & Golinelli, D. Prisoners in 2012 - Advance Counts. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Available at: http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/
p12ac.pdf (p. 11, Tbl. 10).
Johnston, L.D., O’Malley, P.M., Bachman, J.G., Schulenberg, J.E. (2012). Monitoring the Future: National Survey Results on Drug Use, 1975-2012.
Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Institute for Social Research. Available at: http://www.monitoringthefuture.org/pubs/monographs/mtfvol1_2012.pdf (Tbls. 4-5, 4-6, and 4-7); U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2013). Results from the 2012 Survey on Drug Use and
Health: Summary of National Findings. Available at: http://www.samhsa.gov/data/NSDUH/2012SummNatFindDetTables/NationalFindings/
NSDUHresults2012.htm#fig2.12 (Figure 2.12).
Johnston, L.D., O’Malley, P.M., Bachman, J.G., Schulenberg, J.E. (2013). Demographic Subgroup Trends among Adolescents for Fifty-One
Classes of Licit and Illicit Drugs 1975-2012. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Institute for Social Research. Available at: http://www.
monitoringthefuture.org/pubs/occpapers/mtf-occ79.pdf (Figure 6).
Beckett, K., Nyrop, K., Pfingst, L. (2006). Race, Drugs, and Policing: Understanding Disparities in Drug Delivery Arrests. Criminology, 44(1), 105–37;
Riley, K. J. (1997). Crack, Powder Cocaine, and Heroin: Drug Purchase and Use Patterns in Six Major U.S. Cities. National Institute of Justice.
Available at: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles/167265.pdf (pp. 15–16).
Blumstein, A. (1993). Racial Disproportionality of U.S. Prison Populations Revisited. University of Colorado Law Review, 64, 743–760; Blumstein,
A. (1982). On the Racial Disproportionality of United States’ Prison Populations. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 73, 1259–1281.
Blumstein (1993), note 101 above (p. 749).
As Blumstein notes, racial disparities in drug arrests are an especially poor proxy for offending patterns and so racial disparities in drug crimes,
rather than arrests, likely account for far less than 50% of the disparities among prisoners.
See also Langan, P. A. (1986). Racism on Trial: New Evidence to Explain the Racial Composition of Prisons in the United States. Journal of
Criminal Law and Criminology, 76(3), 666–683.
Unwarranted racial disparity in arrests and convictions contributes to racial minorities being more likely to have prior criminal records: see Brown,
Carnoy, Duster, & Oppenheimer (2003), note 92 above (pp. 139–147); Mauer, M. (2006). Race to Incarcerate. New York, NY: The New Press (pp.
141–2).

Race and Punishment: Racial Perceptions of Crime and Support for Punitive Policies 21

the disproportionality [in the criminal justice system] is a
consequence of the differential involvement by blacks in
the most serious kinds of crime.”106

crime trends.113 Drug-related deaths of major figures
spurred crisis coverage about drugs in the 1980s, while
prominent violent deaths led to an upsurge of violent
crime news in the 1990s, even while violent crimes began
Others have updated and qualified Blumstein’s conclusion. to decline. Although audiences do not passively receive
A replication of his study found that differential arrests information, consuming higher levels of television news
accounted for only 61% of the racial disparity in prisons and nonfictional crime programming is associated with
by 2004,107 though this figure is distorted by the growing greater fear of crime among some.114
Latino population being counted as white in arrest
records.108 Nationwide figures also obscure vast regional Media crime coverage not only increases the salience of
variation.109 Still, the overall conclusion is that racial crime, it also distorts the public’s sense of who commits
differences in criminal offending explain a substantial, but crime and triggers biased reactions. By over-representing
incomplete, portion of the racial differences in the prison whites as victims of crimes perpetrated by people of color,
population for non-drug crimes. If racial differences in crime news delivers a double blow to white audiences’
crime rates do not fully account for white Americans’ potential for empathetic understanding of racial
racial perceptions of crime, what else is driving these minorities. This focus at once exaggerates black crime
associations?
while downplaying black victimization. Homicide, for
example, is overwhelmingly an intra-racial crime involving
men (see Figure 9 and Table 1). But media accounts often
B. MEDIA PORTRAYALS OF CRIME
“If it bleeds, it leads,” goes the saying about local news
coverage. But not all spilt blood gets equal attention.
Researchers have shown that crime reporting exaggerates
crime rates and exhibits both quantitative and qualitative
racial biases.110 This includes a tendency, as described
below, to exaggerate rates of black offending and white
victimization and to depict black suspects in a less
favorable light than whites. Although there is a broad
range of media coverage about crime, with some venues
and reporters cautious not to promote biased public
perceptions, less mindful coverage abounds on television
and in print.111 Given that the public widely relies on mass
media as its source of knowledge about crime and crime
policy, these disparities have important consequences.112
Because of the media’s gravitation toward notable
crimes and ensuing policy debates, upticks in news media
coverage of crime often have little to do with broader
106	
107	
108	
109	
110	
111	

112	
113	
114	

Figure 9. Homicides by race of offender and
victim, 1980–2008
50
Black on black
40

White on white

30
20
10
0
1980 1985 1990 1995 2000

Black on white
White on black
2008

Source: Cooper. A. & Smith, E. L. Homicide Trends in the United
States, 1980-2008. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Available at: http://
www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/htus8008.pdf (p. 13, Figure 19).

Blumstein (1993), note 101 above (p. 759).
Tonry & Melewski (2008), note 93 above (p. 18).
Steffensmeier, Feldmeyer, Harris, & Ulmer (2011), note 93 above (pp. 201, 219–222).
See for example, Crutchfield, R. D., Bridges, G. S., & Pitchford, S. R. (1994). Analytical and Aggregation Biases in Analyses of Imprisonment:
Reconciling Discrepancies in Studies of Racial Disparity. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 31, 166–182.
Dorfman, L. & Schiraldi, V. (2001). Off Balance: Youth, Race & Crime in the News. Washington, D.C.: Building Blocks for Youth. Available at: http://
www.bmsg.org/sites/default/files/bmsg_other_publication_off_balance.pdf (pp. 7–22).
While this section focuses on news media, scholars have also documented biases in entertainment media – particularly in dramatizations of
crime and the criminal justice system: see Cavender, G. (2004). Media and Crime Policy A Reconsideration of David Garland’s The Culture of
Control. Punishment and Society, 6(3), 335–348; Beckett, K. & Sasson, T. (2004). The Politics of Injustice: Crime and Punishment in America.
Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publication (Chapter 5).
Warr, M. (2000). Fear of Crime in the United States: Avenues for Research and Policy. Criminal Justice 2000: Measurement and Analysis of Crime
and Justice, Volume 4, 451–489. National Institute of Justice (pp. 466–7).
Chiricos, T., Eschholz, S., & Gertz, M. (1997). Crime, News and Fear of Crime: Toward an Identification of Audience Effects. Social Problems, 44(3),
342–357; Beckett & Sasson (2004), note 111 above (pp. 74–5).
Eschholz, S., Chiricos, T., Gertz, M., Problems, S., & August, N. (2003). Television and Fear of Crime: Program Types, Audience Traits, and the
Mediating Effect of Perceived Neighborhood Composition. Social Problems, 50(3), 395–415; Chiricos, Eschholz, & Gertz (1997), note 113 above;
Kort-Butler, L. A & Sittner Hartshorn, K. J. (2011); Watching the Detectives: Crime Programming, Fear of Crime, and Attitudes About the Criminal
Justice System. The Sociological Quarterly, 52(1), 36–55.

22 The Sentencing Project

Table 1. Homicide offenders and victims by
sex, 1980–2008
Victim/Offender Relationship

Percent

Male offender/male victim

67.8%

Male offender/female victim

21.0%

Female offender/male victim

9.0%

Female offender/female victim

2.2%

Note: Percentages are based on the 63.1% of homicides from 1980
through 2008 for which the victim/offender relationships were
known.
Source: Cooper. A. & Smith, E. L. Homicide Trends in the United
States, 1980-2008. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Available at: http://
www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/htus8008.pdf (p. 9, Tbl. 4).

portray a world overrepresented by black, male offenders
and white, female victims. One study of how Columbus,
Ohio’s major newspaper reported on the city’s murders
– which were predominantly committed by and against
black men – examined whether unusual or typical cases
were considered newsworthy.115 The researcher found
that journalists gravitated to unusual cases when selecting
victims (white women) and to typical cases when selecting
perpetrators (black men). Yet reporters did not choose to
cover the most infrequent murders, of blacks by whites
or of white men by white women. This peculiar focus
suggests that newsworthiness is not a product of how
representative or novel a crime is, but rather how well
it can be “scripted using stereotypes grounded in White
racism and White fear of Black crime.”116 Researchers
have found similar selection bias in coverage of Hispanic
suspects and non-Hispanic victims on television news.117

Racial distortions are pervasive in crime news. A study in
Los Angeles found that 37% of the suspects portrayed
on television news stories about crime were black,
although blacks made up only 21% of those arrested in
the city.118 Another study found that whites represented
43% of homicide victims in the local news, but only 13%
of homicide victims in crime reports.119 And while only
10% of victims in crime reports were whites who had
been victimized by blacks, these crimes made up 42%
of televised cases.120 These disparities exist nationwide
and are greatest when the victim’s race is taken into
consideration.121

Newsworthiness is not a product of how
representative or novel a crime is, but
rather how well it can be “scripted using
stereotypes grounded in White racism
and White fear of Black crime.”
Crime coverage also betrays subtler racial differences. A
study of television news found that black crime suspects
were presented in more threatening contexts than whites:
black suspects were disproportionately shown in mug
shots and in cases where the victim was a stranger.122
Black and Latino suspects were also more often
presented in a non-individualized way than whites – by
being left unnamed – and were more likely to be shown
as threatening – by being depicted in physical custody
of police.123 Blacks and Hispanics were also more likely
to be treated aggressively by police officers on realitybased TV shows, including America’s Most Wanted and
Cops.124 Mass media are therefore a major contributor to
Americans’ misconceptions about crime, with journalists

115	 Lundman, R. J. (2003). The Newsworthiness and Selection Bias in News About Murder: Comparative and Relative Effects of Novelty and Race
and Gender Typifications on Newspaper Coverage of Homicide. Sociological Forum, 18(3), 357–386; see also Pritchard, D. & Hughes, K. D. (1997).
Patterns of Deviance in Crime News. Journal of Communication, 47(3), 49–67.
116	 Lundman, (2003), note 115 (p. 361).
117	 Chiricos, T. & Eschholz, S. (2002). The Racial and Ethnic Typification of Crime and the Criminal Typification of Race and Ethnicity in Local
Television News. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 39(4), 400–420.
118	 Dixon, T. L. & Linz, D. G. (2000). Overrepresentation and Underrepresentation of African Americans and Latinos as Lawbreakers on Television
News. Journal of Communication, 50(2), 131–54; Gilliam, F. D. & Iyengar, S. (2000). Prime Suspects: The Influence of Local Television News on the
Viewing Public. American Journal of Political Science, 44(3), 560–73; Gilliam, F. D., Iyengar, S., Simon, A., & Wright, O. (1996). Crime in Black and
White: The Violent, Scary World of Local News. Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, 1(3), 6–23; Peffley, M., Shields, T., & Williams, B.
(1996). The Intersection of Race and Crime in Television News Stories: An Experimental Study. Political Communication, 13(1), 309–27.
119	 Dixon, T. L. & Linz, D. G. (2000). Race and the Misrepresentation of Victimization on Local Television News. Communication Research, 27(5),
547–73.
120	 Romer, D., Jamieson, K. H., & de Coteau, N. J. (1998). The Treatment of Persons of Color in Local Television News: Ethnic Blame Discourse or
Realistic Group Conflict? Communication Research, 25(3), 268–305.
121	 Dixon, T. L., Azocar, C. L., & Casas, M. (2003). The Portrayal of Race and Crime on Television Network News. Journal of Broadcasting and
Electronic Media, 47, 498–523 (pp. 512–5); Entman, R. (1992) Blacks in the News: Television, Modern Racism, and Cultural Change. Journalism
Quarterly, 69(2), 341–61; Entman, R. & Rojecki, A. (2000). The Black Image in the White Mind: Media and Race in America. Chicago, IL: University
of Chicago Press; Gilens, M. (1996). Race and Poverty in America: Public Misperceptions and the American News Media. Public Opinion Quarterly,
60(4), 515–41; Reeves, J. L. & Campbell, R. (1994). Cracked Coverage: Television News, the Anti-Cocaine Crusade, and the Reagan Legacy.
Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
122	 Chiricos & Eschholz (2002), note 117 above.
123	 Entman & Rojecki (2000), note 121 above.
124	 Oliver, M. B. (1994). Portrayals of Crime, Race, and Aggression in “Reality-Based” Police Shows: A Content Analysis. Journal of Broadcasting &
Electronic Media, 179–192.

Race and Punishment: Racial Perceptions of Crime and Support for Punitive Policies 23

and producers apparently acting based on their own or
expectations of their audiences’ stereotypes about crime.

C. POLICYMAKERS

that the campaign effectively activated racial prejudice.129
The Horton case “was saturated with racial meaning,”
Mendelberg writes, and was especially effective because it
was “very much a deniable play of the race card.”130

Messaging is only one means by which policymakers
contribute to a racialized understanding of crime: policies
leading to the disproportionate incarceration of people of
color are another. Many apparently race-neutral criminal
justice policies collide with broader socioeconomic
patterns to have a disparate racial impact. For example,
drug-free school zone laws mandate sentencing
enhancements for people caught selling drugs near
school zones. The expansive geographic range of these
zones coupled with high urban
George H. W. Bush’s publicization of
density has disproportionately
Willie Horton during his successful
“Survey data have clearly
affected residents of urban areas
presidential bid against Massachusetts
been telling us, for some time
and particularly those in highgovernor Michael Dukakis in 1988 is
now, that the public is not as
poverty areas, who are largely
a famous example of how political
conservative as policy makers people of color.131 Other laws with
discourse influences public views
think them to be.”
disparate racial impact include hefty
about crime and crime policy.
mandatory minimum sentences for
Through ads and fliers supporting
Bush’s campaign, Bush’s speeches, and media coverage, drugs for which people of color are disproportionately
the public learned that Horton, an African American arrested and charged, restrictive admissions criteria for
man who had been sentenced to life without parole for diversion programs and alternative courts, and habitual
first-degree murder in Massachusetts, had raped a white offender laws that disproportionately affect people
woman and assaulted her white fiancé while temporarily of color because they are more likely to have criminal
released under the state’s weekend furlough program.127 records.
Although the Bush campaign never overtly mentioned
race, its frequent references to Horton prompted Policymakers not only help to shape public opinion,
repeated media portrayals of his mug shot. The Dukakis they sometimes misunderstand or are unresponsive to
team, Reverend Jesse Jackson, and others criticized the the public’s preferences. Elected officials sometimes
Bush campaign for flaring racial fears. Susan Estrich, overestimate public support for punitive policies. A study
Dukakis’ campaign manager, told a reporter, “There is no conducted during the peak of the crack epidemic found
stronger metaphor for racial hatred in our country than that Michigan policymakers estimated that 12% of the
sentencing in 1985, when
the black man raping the white woman.”128 Bush and his public supported alternative
132
supporters denied that they were making coded racial the actual rate was 66%. Policymakers are also at times
appeals. But Tali Mendelberg’s analysis of public opinion immune to public support for less punitive policies. Thus
during this episode and experimental research has shown despite decreasing punitive sentiment among the public
Elected officials and candidates do more than respond
to public preferences for harsh punishment. Through
their words and work, they also shape public salience of
crime and its racial associations.125 One study revealed
that federal and state officials’ public statements about
crime and drugs, rather than the actual incidence of crime
or drug use, significantly influenced public concern with
these issues between the 1960s and 1990s.126

125	 Enns (Forthcoming), note 11 above; Nicholson-Crotty, Peterson, & Ramirez (2009), note 11 above.
126	 Beckett, K. (1994). Setting the Public Agenda: “Street Crime” and Drug Use in American Politics. Social Problems, 41(3), 425–447.
127	 Simon, R. (1990). How A Murderer And Rapist Became The Bush Campaign’s Most Valuable Player. The Baltimore Sun. Available at: http://
articles.baltimoresun.com/1990-11-11/features/1990315149_1_willie-horton-fournier-michael-dukakis; Love, K. (1988). Bush Backers Have
Horton Victims Speak. The Los Angeles Times. Available at: http://articles.latimes.com/1988-10-08/news/mn-2925_1_willie-horton.
128	 Rosenthal, A. (1988). Bush Campaign Called ‘Racist.’ Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Available at: http://news.google.com/
newspapers?nid=1129&dat=19881024&id=gNRRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=2W0DAAAAIBAJ&pg=5191,7433713.
129	 Mendelberg, T. (1997). Executing Hortons: Racial Crime in the 1988 Presidential Campaign. Public Opinion Quarterly, 61, 134–57; Mendelberg, T.
(2001). The Race Card: Campaign Strategy, Implicit Messages, and the Norm of Equality. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press; Jamieson, K.
H. (1992). Dirty Politics: Deception, Distraction, and Democracy. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
130	 Mendelberg (1997), note 129 above (p. 152).
131	 Porter, N. & Clemons, T. (2013). Drug-Free Zone Laws: An Overview of State Policies. Washington, D.C.: The Sentencing Project. Available at:
http://sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/sen_Drug-Free%20Zone%20Laws.pdf.
132	 Clark, P. M. 1985. Perceptions of Criminal Justice Surveys, Executive Summary. Lansing: Michigan Prison and Jail Overcrowding Project, cited in
Peffley & Hurwitz (2010), note 11 above.

24 The Sentencing Project

since the late 1990s (see Figure 1 above), policymakers
have been slow and reluctant to implement significant
reforms. In Pennsylvania, the divide between policymakers
and the public – with over 80% of the public supporting
investment in early intervention rather than prison
construction to reduce crime – has led one group of
researchers to conclude: “Survey data have clearly been
telling us, for some time now, that the public is not as
conservative as policy makers think them to be.”133

D. CRIMINAL JUSTICE
PROFESSIONALS

Figure 10. Racial disparities in marijuana
use in past month and marijuana
possession arrests, 2010

Usage rates

1.3
Blacks used marijuana at 1.3 times the rate of
whites.

Through official procedures and individual discretion,
criminal justice practitioners contribute to the racial
imbalance of the justice system. From police officers’
selection of whom to stop and search, judges’ and
administrators’ bail determinations, prosecutors’
charging and plea bargaining decisions, to parole board
recommendations about whom to release – each stage
of the criminal justice system is affected by policies and
discretion that often unintentionally disfavor low-income
individuals and people of color. The resulting racial
disparities in arrests and correctional supervision reinforce
the public’s racialized perceptions of crime.
Police tactics that cast a wide net in neighborhoods
and on populations associated with high crime rates
disproportionately affect racial minorities. Broadly
surveilling neighborhoods that are considered “hot
spots” of criminal activity and disproportionately using
“stop, question, and frisk” tactics on young men of color
have led to their higher arrest rates even for crimes that
are not racially patterned. For example, a recent study by
the American Civil Liberties Union found that African
Americans were 3.7 times more likely to be arrested for
marijuana possession than whites in 2010, despite similar

Prosecutors are more likely to charge
people of color than whites with crimes that
carry heavier sentences under mandatory
minimum and habitual offender laws.

Arrest rates

3.7
Blacks were arrested for marijuana possession
at 3.7 times the rate of whites.
Source: Edwards, E. Bunting, W. Garcia, L. (2013). The War on
Marijuana in Black and White. New York, NY: American Civil Liberties
Union. Available at: https://www.aclu.org/files/assets/1114413-mjreport-rfs-rel1.pdf (p. 47); U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services (2011).Results from the 2010 Survey on Drug Use and
Health: Detailed Tables. Available at: http://www.samhsa.gov/data/
nsduh/2k10NSDUH/tabs/Sect1peTabs1to46.htm (Tbl. 1.28B).

rates of drug use (see Figure 10).134 This outcome stems
from formal police policies and, as will be discussed in
the following section, from implicit bias affecting officers’
discretion.
Differential prosecutorial charging follows differential
arrest rates. Prosecutors are more likely to charge people
of color than whites with crimes that carry heavier
sentences under mandatory minimum and habitual
offender laws. Federal prosecutors are twice as likely
to charge black defendants with offenses that carry
mandatory minimum sentences than otherwise-similar
whites.135 State prosecutors are more likely to charge
black rather than comparable white defendants under
habitual offender laws.136 These disparities indicate

133	 Sims, B. & Johnson, E. (2004). Examining Public Opinion about Crime and Justice: A Statewide Study. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 15(3),
270–293 (pp. 284, 290).
134	 Edwards, E. Bunting, W. Garcia, L. (2013). The War on Marijuana in Black and White. New York, NY: American Civil Liberties Union. Available at:
https://www.aclu.org/files/assets/1114413-mj-report-rfs-rel1.pdf.
135	 Starr, S. B. & Rehavi, M. M. (2013). Mandatory Sentencing and Racial Disparity: Assessing the Role of Prosecutors and the Effects of. The Yale
Law Journal, 123(2), 2–80.
136	 Crawford, C., Chiricos, T., & Kleck, G. (1998). Race, Racial Threat, and Sentencing of Habitual Offenders. Criminology, 36(3), 481–512.

Race and Punishment: Racial Perceptions of Crime and Support for Punitive Policies 25

that mandatory minimum sentencing did not eliminate Judges are also more likely to sentence people of color
discretion in sentencing, but shifted it instead from judges than whites to prison and jail and to impose longer
to prosecutors.
sentences, even after accounting for differences in crime
severity, criminal history, and educational level.139 The
In setting bail terms, sentences, or departing from race penalty is harshest for certain categories of people
sentencing guidelines, judges often favor whites over and offenses: it particularly affects men and the young,
racial minorities, and wealthier defendants over the and is more pronounced for less serious offenses.140
disadvantaged. A growing proportion of pre-trial release
requires money bond,137 and blacks and Latinos are more Through codified practices and use of discretion, criminal
likely than whites to be denied bail or to be imposed a justice professionals contribute to the overrepresentation
bond that they cannot afford.138 Racial minorities are of people of color in the correctional population.
often assessed to be higher safety or flight risks because These biases affect not only the work of police officers,
of their lower socioeconomic status, criminal records, prosecutors, and judges, but also defense attorneys141
and because of their race. Pre-trial detention increases and juvenile probation officers.142 The resulting
the odds that defendants will accept less favorable plea overrepresentation of people of color in prisons and jails
deals.
helps to reinforce the public’s racial perceptions of crime.

137	 Cohen, T. H. & Reaves, B. A. (2007). Pretrial Release of Felony Defendants in State Courts. Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report. Available at:
https://www.accredited-inc.com/pdf/summaries/BJS-Special-Report-on-Pretrial-Release.pdf.
138	 Jones, C. E. (2013). “Give Us Free”: Addressing Racial Disparities in Bail Determinations. New York University Journal of Legislation and Public
Policy, 16(4), 919–62. Available at: http://www.nyujlpp.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Jones-Give-Us-Free-16nyujlpp919.pdf.
139	 See for example, Steffensmeier, D. & Demuth, S. (2000). Ethnicity and Sentencing Outcomes in U.S. Federal Courts: Who is Punished More
Harshly? American Sociological Review, 65(5), 705–729; Steffensmeier, D. & Demuth, S. (2001). Ethnicity and Judges’ Sentencing Decisions:
Hispanic-Black-White Comparisons. Criminology, 39(1), 145–178; Spohn, S. C. (2000). Thirty Years of Sentencing Reform: The Quest for a
Racially Neutral Sentencing Process. Criminal Justice, 3, 427–501.
140	 Steffensmeier, D., Ulmer, J., & Kramer, J. (1998). The Interaction of Race, Gender, and Age in Criminal Sentencing: The Punishment Cost of Being
Young, Black, and Male. Criminology, 36(4), 763–798.
141	 Eisenberg, T. & Johnson, S. L. (2004). Implicit Racial Attitudes of Death Penalty Lawyers. Cornell Law Faculty Publications, Paper 353, 1539–1556.
142	 Bridges, G. S. & Steen, S. (1998). Racial Disparities in Official Assessments of Juvenile Offenders: Attributional Stereotypes as Mediating
Mechanisms. American Sociological Review, 63(4), 554–570.

26 The Sentencing Project

VI. PUNITIVENESS LINKED TO
OTHER RACIAL GAPS IN VIEWS AND
EXPERIENCES
Researchers have identified several other factors beyond
racial perceptions of crime that explain why white
Americans are more punitive than blacks and Latinos.
First, whites have fewer and more positive encounters
with the police and courts relative to racial minorities.
Second, some whites harbor and express overt racial
prejudice, which is strongly linked to punitive sentiment.
Finally, white Americans are more likely than African
Americans to attribute criminal behavior to individual
failure, rather than to contextual causes. These factors
lead whites to perceive the criminal justice system as
legitimate while limiting their ability to “empathetically
identify” with people who have broken the law.143 African
Americans – who hold little overt anti-black prejudice,
are less trusting of the criminal justice system, and are
more likely to recognize structural causes of crime –
more often empathize with people accused and convicted
of crime, and are therefore less punitive than whites.

Racial differences in personal encounters with the police
and courts, and familiarity with the experiences of others
through social networks, have polarized perceptions of
the justice system. Whites have less frequent encounters
with the criminal justice system than African Americans
and Latinos. And when whites do encounter the police
and courts, their experiences are often qualitatively
different from those of people of color. These differences
contribute to whites’ positive views of these institutions
and greater reliance on them for crime control.

Lifetime chances of imprisonment are one measure of
the differing rates of exposure to the criminal justice
system. Bruce Western has determined that “prison has
become commonplace for African American men born
since the late 1960s,” with more than 20% of black
men in that generation experiencing incarceration by
their mid-30s.145 The comparable rate for whites is 3%.
Consider next the chances of being arrested. A recent
study found that although a high proportion of white
A. WHITES’ LIMITED AND FAVORABLE men (38%) reported having been arrested by age 23, the
rate was still higher for African Americans (49%).146 And
CRIMINAL JUSTICE CONTACT
finally, consider police stops. As discussed below, police
A 2013 Gallup survey revealed that while over two-thirds officers are more likely to make discretionary traffic stops,
of blacks believed that the American justice system was to conduct searches, and to rely on physical force against
biased against blacks, only one-quarter of whites agreed.144
143	 Unnever & Cullen (2009), note 84 above (p. 286).
144	 Newport, F. (2013). Gulf Grows in Black-White Views of U.S. Justice System Bias. Gallup. Available at: http://www.gallup.com/poll/163610/gulfgrows-black-white-views-justice-system-bias.aspx. Similarly, Pew’s 2013 survey found that seven-in-ten blacks and one-third of whites said
that blacks are treated less fairly than whites in their dealings with the police while 68% of blacks and 27% of whites said blacks are not treated
as fairly as whites in the courts: see Pew Research Center (2013). King’s Dream Remains an Elusive Goal; Many Americans See Racial Disparities.
Washington, D.C. Available at: http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/08/22/kings-dream-remains-an-elusive-goal-many-americans-see-racialdisparities/.
145	 Western (2006), note 3 above (pp. 25–26); see also Bonczar, T. P. (2003). Prevalence of Imprisonment in the U.S. Population, 1974-2001. Bureau
of Justice Statistics. Available at: http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/piusp01.pdf.
146	 Brame, R., Bushway, S. D., Paternoster, R., & Turner, M. G. (2014). Demographic Patterns of Cumulative Arrest Prevalence by Ages 18 and 23.
Crime & Delinquency, 60(3), 471–486.

Race and Punishment: Racial Perceptions of Crime and Support for Punitive Policies 27

people of color. While some of these disparities may be Among drivers under 25 years old, 28% of black men
due to differences in suspect behavior, a detailed look at had experienced an investigatory traffic stop, as had 17%
the data indicates that bias plays a key role.
of black women, 13% of white men, and 7% of white
women.151 While older age reduced the likelihood of
Traffic stops are a domain of civil law that can lead to experiencing these stops, it did not diminish the racial
criminal charges. While the frequency of stops has not gap. Consequently, “Black men must reach age 50 years
differed significantly by race in recent years, the causes or older to have the same likelihood of being stopped for
and outcomes of stops have. In 2011, blacks were 30% an investigatory reason as white men under age 25.”152
more likely than whites and Hispanics to report a recent Epp and colleagues also found that class differences
traffic stop, though this disparity has faded in some mattered but did not fully account for the racial disparity.
recent years.147 Officers’ stated reasons for making a stop Drivers of lower-valued cars experienced investigatory
differed significantly by the driver’s race. While half of stops more frequently than those in higher-valued cars.
traffic stops for whites were for speeding, the rate for But black men and women under age 40 were over
blacks and Hispanics was under 40%, meaning that racial twice as likely as their white counterparts to experience
minorities were more frequently
investigatory stops for both the
stopped for other reasons. A closer
highest and lowest valued cars.153
Traffic-safety stops, the
look at those reasons suggests that
Traffic-safety stops, the authors
authors
conclude, are based on conclude, are based on “how people
the police relied more on discretion
to stop people of color: blacks and
“how people drive,” whereas
drive,” whereas investigatory stops
Hispanics were significantly more
investigatory stops are based are based on “how they look.”154
likely than whites to be stopped for
on “how they look.”
a record check (14.0%, 9.7%, and
Nationwide surveys also uncover
9.0% respectively), for a vehicle
vast racial differences in outcomes of
defect (19.0%, 16.5%, and 12.7% respectively), or for no traffic stops. Once pulled over, blacks and Hispanics were
reason at all (4.7%, 3.3%, and 2.6% respectively).148 These three times as likely as whites to be searched (6% and 7%
national statistics also obscure staggering disparities in versus 2%)155 and blacks were twice as likely as whites to
some jurisdictions.149
be arrested during a traffic stop.156 Police officers’ greater
reliance on discretion when stopping racial minorities
Charles Epp and colleagues conducted a study of police suggests that differences in drivers’ behavior alone are
stops between 2003 and 2004 in Kansas City, a nationally unlikely to account for these disparities.
representative metropolitan area. 150 The researchers
distinguished between traffic-safety stops (reactive Racial disparities in the causes, rates, and outcomes of
stops used to enforce traffic laws or vehicle codes) and traffic stops contribute to marked differences in drivers’
investigatory stops (proactive stops used to investigate outlooks about their personal experiences. Among whites
drivers deemed suspicious). They found that rates of who were pulled over, 84% believed that the police had
traffic-safety stops did not differ by the driver’s race, but a legitimate reason for doing so, in contrast to 74% of
rates of investigatory stops did, and did so significantly. Hispanics and 67% of blacks.157 Traffic stop trends help
147	 Langton, L. & Durose, M. (2013). Police Behavior during Traffic and Street Stops, 2011. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Available at: http://www.
bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/pbtss11.pdf (p. 3); Eith, C. & Durose, M. R. (2011). Contacts Between Police and the Public, 2008. Bureau of Justice
Statistics. Available at: http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cpp08.pdf (p. 7).
148	 Langton & Durose (2013), note 147 above (p. 4).
149	 Cole, D. (1999) No Equal Justice: Race and Class in the Criminal Justice System. New York: The New Press (pp. 34–38).
150	 Epp, C. R., Maynard-Moody, S., & Haider-Markel, D. P. (2014). Pulled Over: How Police Stops Define Race and Citizenship. Chicago, IL: The
University of Chicago Press (pp. 6–9, 59). Based on respondents’ reports of the officer’s reasons for the stop, the researchers defined trafficsafety stops to include: speeding at greater than 7 miles per hour, suspicion of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, running a red light,
reckless driving, and random roadblock checks for driving under the influence. Investigatory stops were defined to include: failure to signal a turn
or lane change, malfunctioning light, driving too slowly, stopping too long, expired license tag, check for valid license or to conduct warrant check,
and no justification given for the stop. See also Epp, C. & Maynard-Moody, S. (2014). Driving While Black. Washington Monthly. Available at:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/january_february_2014/ten_miles_square/driving_while_black048283.php.
151	 Epp, Maynard-Moody, & Haider-Markel (2014), note 150 above (p. 67). Black respondents viewed traffic safety stops as legitimate but were
critical of investigatory stops. See also Epp & Maynard-Moody (2014), note 150 above.
152	 Epp, Maynard-Moody, & Haider-Markel (2014), note 150 above (p. 67)
153	 Epp, Maynard-Moody, & Haider-Markel (2014), note 150 above (p. 69).
154	 Epp, Maynard-Moody, & Haider-Markel (2014), note 150 above (p. 64).
155	 Langton & Durose (2013), note 147 above (p. 9); see also Epp, Maynard-Moody, & Haider-Markel (2014), note 150 above (Chapter 4).
156	 Eith & Durose (2011), note 147 above (p. 9).
157	 Langton & Durose (2013), note 147 above (p. 4).

28 The Sentencing Project

to explain why people of color are more likely to believe
that the police have discriminated against them because of
their race: one of every three African Americans reported
being treated unfairly by the police because of their race,
whereas closer to only one of ten whites reported unfair
treatment for any reason at all.158 Researchers have shown
similar patterns with youth. In Chicago, black high school
students were more likely to have police contact than
Latinos, who were more likely than whites.159 Students
with more police contact were more likely to perceive the
criminal justice system as unjust.
Perceptions of police brutality – arising from both
personal experience and awareness of others’
experiences  – also differ significantly by race. Several
surveys conducted between 2002 and 2008 have shown
that Hispanics were up to twice as likely, and blacks were
up to three times as likely as whites to experience physical
force or its threat during their more recent contact with
the police.160 Given that most people exposed to force
saw it as excessive, and at similar rates across races,
racial minorities more frequently reported experiencing
excessive force. More broadly, when a 1999 Gallup survey
asked Americans about perceptions of police brutality in
their neighborhoods, 58% of non-whites believed police
brutality took place in their area, in contrast to only 35%
of whites.161
Racial differences in criminal justice experiences have
polarized perceptions of fairness in the justice system, and
assessments of its equal protection. Mark Peffley and Jon
Hurwitz observe that “being treated unfairly by the police
is associated with sharp decreases in appraisals of system
fairness.”162 They also show that evaluations of the police
and criminal justice system are based not only on personal
experiences, but also on “vicarious experiences” – the
experiences of those in one’s community.163 These racial
differences lead to the majority of blacks describing

the justice system as discriminatory and the majority of
whites rejecting this characterization (see Figure 11).164
Similarly, a 2002 survey found that while three-quarters
of blacks and half of Hispanics expressed that the police
treated blacks and Hispanics worse than whites in their
city, three-quarters of whites stated that the police treated
all of these groups equally.165
Black and white Americans’ conflicting evaluations of
the criminal justice system also extend to their differing
explanations for African Americans’ higher rates of arrest
and incarceration. White Americans more often attribute
this disparity to higher rates of crime among blacks
and to lack of respect for authority among black youth;
black respondents more often point to a biased police
force and justice system.166 Whites are also more likely
to see disparate police treatment of blacks as rational
discrimination given differences in crime rates, whereas

Figure 11. Respondents who think the
American justice system is biased against
black people, 1993–2013
68%

67%

68%
Blacks

33%

32%

Whites
25%

1993

2008

2013

Source: Newport, F. (2013). Gulf Grows in Black-White Views of U.S.
Justice System Bias. Gallup. Available at: http://www.gallup.com/
poll/163610/gulf-grows-black-white-views-justice-system-bias.
aspx.

158	 Peffley & Hurwitz (2010), note 11 above (pp. 41–2); Similarly, a 1999 Gallup survey found that blacks are nearly twice as likely as whites to
report personal unfair treatment by the police (43% versus 24%, respectively), and nearly four times as likely to report experiencing unfair police
treatment because of their race (34% versus 9%, respectively): Gillespie, M. (1999). One Third of Americans Believe Police Brutality Exists in Their
Area. Gallup. Available at: http://www.gallup.com/poll/4003/one-third-americans-believe-police-brutality-exists-their-area.aspx.
159	 Hagan, J., Shedd, C., & Payne, M. R. (2005). Race, Ethnicity, and Youth Perceptions of Criminal Injustice. American Sociological Review, 70,
381–407.
160	 Eith & Durose (2011), note 147 above (pp. 6, 12).
161	 Gillespie (1999), note 158 above; See also Peffley & Hurwitz (2010), note 11 above (p. 43) for black-white differences in other measures of
disparate treatment in the criminal justice system.
162	 Peffley & Hurwitz (2010), note 11 above (pp. 92, 124, 132); see also Weitzer, R. & Tuch, S. A. (2005). Racially Biased Policing: Determinants of
Citizen Perceptions. Social Forces, 83(3), 1009–1030.
163	 Peffley & Hurwitz (2010), note 11 above (pp. 42f.); see also Klein, E. (2013). White People Believe the Justice System is Color Blind. Black People
Really Don’t. The Washington Post. Available at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/07/22/white-people-believe-thejustice-system-is-color-blind-black-people-really-dont/.
164	 Newport (2013), note 144 above; Pew Research Center (2013), note 144 above.
165	 Weitzer & Tuch (2005), note 162 above (p. 1017).
166	 Peffley & Hurwitz (2010), note 11 above (pp. 87–88, 170–2, 178–9) see also Unnever, J. D. (2008). Two Worlds Far Apart: Black-White Differences
in Beliefs About Why African-American Men Are Disproportionately Imprisoned. Criminology, 46(2), 511–538 (pp. 523) and note that he finds that
while African Americans are more likely than whites to attribute high rates of black incarceration to structural factors and bias, they are also more
likely to attribute this to a problem with morals and parenting.

Race and Punishment: Racial Perceptions of Crime and Support for Punitive Policies 29

blacks see it as unjustifiable because it leads to lawabiding individuals having to confront a “presumption of
wrongdoing.”167 As a young black man interviewed in one
study observed: “When black people walk with our hands
in our pockets, we look like we’re up to something. When
a white man walk with his hands [in his pockets] we know
he cold.”168 Another young black man stated: “Always
assuming the worst when it’s someone of color.”169

in job openings, but only 3% expressed this opinion in
1972 – such a low rate that surveyors stopped asking
this question in future years.171 Surveys also show
slower-to-rise but eventually overwhelming support for
school integration and lower but rising rates of support
for interracial romantic relationships. But as Bobo and
colleagues establish, Jim Crow racism has been replaced
by a “kinder, gentler antiblack ideology,” which they label
“laissez-faire racism.”172

Whites’ experiences with the criminal justice system –
which are both less frequent and less frequently perceived This modern form of racism, according to Bobo and coas unjust than the experiences of racial minorities – help to authors, includes persistent negative stereotypes of blacks
explain whites’ greater trust in these institutions to address based on culture rather than biology, individualistic rather
crime. Based on personal and
than structural accounts
vicarious experiences, people of
of racial inequality, and
“When black people walk with our
color are more likely to experience
resistance to ameliorative
hands
in
our
pockets,
we
look
like
greater use of discretion in police
public policies. As late as
we’re
up
to
something.
When
a
stops, more intensive investigation
1990, the majority of white
white man walk with his hands [in his Americans expressed the
during these stops, and more
pockets] we know he cold.”
frequent use of physical force.
belief that blacks were less
These experiences lead many to
intelligent, lazier, more
believe that the criminal justice
prone to violence, and more
system is biased, violent, and illegitimate. But whites’ likely to prefer living on welfare compared to whites.173
personal exposure and indirect observations bolster their A smaller proportion of white Americans continued to
view of these institutions as legitimate and effective.
express these views in 2008, with just over 40% describing
whites as more hard-working than blacks and about onequarter describing whites as more intelligent. And while
B. RACIAL PREJUDICE
the majority of whites attributed the black-white economic
Overt racial prejudice is another major reason why inequality during the late 1990s to individualistic factors
whites support more punitive policies than blacks. Most such as the need for blacks to try harder or to have more
white Americans no longer endorse traditional forms of motivation, only a minority endorsed structural factors
prejudice associated with the era of Jim Crow racism – including discrimination in the labor market – though
overt beliefs about the biological inferiority of blacks and a majority agreed with the more ambiguous statement
support for segregation and discrimination. As Lawrence “most Blacks just don’t have the chance for education
Bobo has observed, “The single clearest trend shown that it takes to rise out of poverty.”174 The prevalence of
in studies of racial attitudes has involved a steady and lingering prejudices and the reluctance to acknowledge
sweeping movement toward general endorsement of the structural racism creates a schism for many whites between
principles of racial equality and integration.”170 Bobo widely-held egalitarian principles and support for policies
and his colleagues have illustrated this point by noting to address racial gaps: “Whites are increasingly unwilling
that in 1942, 68% of white Americans supported school to support public policies such as affirmative action
segregation, but only 7% did so by 1972. In 1944, 55% that they believe offer unfair advantages to a group of
of whites thought whites should be given preference people they believe are unwilling to help themselves.”175
167	 African American woman quoted in: Weitzer, R. (2000). Racialized Policing: Residents’ Perceptions in Three Neighborhoods. Law & Society
Review, 34(1), 129–155 (p. 138).
168	 Weitzer (2000), note 167 above.
169	 Weitzer (2000), note 167 above.
170	 Bobo, L. (2001). Racial Attitudes and Relations at the Close of the Twentieth Century. In Smelser, N. J., Wilson, W. J., Mitchell, F. (eds.) America
Becoming: Racial Trends and Their Consequences, Volume 1, pp. 264–301. Washington, D. C.: National Academy Press (p. 269).
171	 Bobo, Kluegel, & Smith (1997), note 59 above (p. 23).
172	 Bobo, Kluegel, & Smith (1997), note 59 above (p. 15).
173	 Bobo, L. D., Charles, C. Z., Krysan, M., & Simmons, A. D. (2012). The Real Record on Racial Attitudes. In Marsden, P. V. (ed.) Social Trends in
American Life: Findings from the General Social Survey since 1972, pp. 38–83. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press (Figure 11).
174	 Bobo (2001), note 170 above (pp. 283–4); see also Bobo, Charles, Krysan, & Simmons (2012), note 173 above (Figure 13).
175	 Bobo, L. D. & Charles, C. Z. (2009). Race in the American Mind: From the Moynihan Report to the Obama Candidacy. The Annals of the American
Academy of Political and Social Science, 621, 243–259 (p. 248).

30 The Sentencing Project

For example, when white Americans were asked in 2008
whether the government has a special obligation to
help improve the living standards of African Americans
because of longstanding discrimination, the majority said
no, with fewer than one in four saying yes.176

more than half of Americans would support the death
penalty.”183

Thus whites who harbor overt racial prejudices – and
many still do – are very likely to support the death penalty
and other harsh penalties. But this alone does not fully
Researchers have shown that both traditional and modern explain whites’ punitiveness: racial perceptions of crime,
forms of prejudice and racism are strong predictors of and the other factors described in this section, inspire
punitiveness. Devon Johnson found that from the late punitive preferences even among those who do not
1970s until the early 2000s, traditional and laissez-faire express overt prejudice.
racism were significant predictors of support for punitive
policies.177 Racial animus and negative racial stereotypes C. INDIVIDUALISTIC ACCOUNTS OF
were also strong predictors of punitiveness in the studies
described above, on the link between racial perceptions CRIME
of crime and punitiveness.178 The strong connection
Another reason that whites are more punitive than racial
between prejudice and punitiveness is perhaps clearest
minorities is their attribution of crime to individual
for the death penalty.
shortcomings, rather than to structural causes. Crime is
James Unnever, Francis Cullen, and colleagues’ sustained the product of both an individual’s choices and the life
investigation of public opinion about the death penalty circumstances that shape those choices. But black and
has led them to conclude that racial animus is “one of white Americans differ in which of these forces they
the most salient and consistent predictors of American emphasize when accounting for crime.
punitiveness.”179 Like others,180 they found that in both
Whites are significantly more likely than blacks to
1990 and 2000, racial prejudice against blacks and
emphasize individualistic causes of criminal behavior
Hispanics – as measured by disapproval of interracial
– agreeing, for example, that “people commit crime
marriage and residential integration – was one of the
because they don’t care about the rights of others or
strongest predictors of support for the death penalty.181
their responsibilities to society,” or because they are lazy
Analyzing a 2000 survey, they estimate that almost one– over structuralist explanations – agreeing, for example,
third of the black-white divide in support for capital
that “people turn to crime because our society does not
punishment could be explained by their measure of white
guarantee that everyone has regular employment,” or
racism.182 Similar findings led Steven Barkan and Steven
that “poverty and low income are responsible for much
Cohn to write in 2005 that “if we had a society composed
of crime.”184 Individualistic explanations of crime are
solely of blacks and nonprejudiced whites, only slightly

176	 Bobo, Charles, Krysan, & Simmons (2012), note 173 above (Figure 7).
177	 Johnson, D. (2001). Punitive Attitudes on Crime: Economic Insecurity, Racial Prejudice, or Both? Sociological Focus, 34(1), 33–54; Johnson,
D. (2008). Racial Prejudice, Perceived Injustice, and the Black-White Gap in Punitive Attitudes. Journal of Criminal Justice, 36(2), 198–206.
For an experimental demonstration of the impact of racial prejudice on punitive policy preferences, see Hurwitz, J. & Peffley, M. (1997). Public
Perceptions of Race and Crime: The Role of Racial Stereotypes. American Journal of Political Science, 41(2), 375–401.
178	 Chiricos, Welch, & Gertz (2004), note 50 above (p. 374); Unnever & Cullen (2012), note 58 above; Welch, Payne, Chiricos, & Gertz, (2011), note 54
above (p. 830); Pickett & Chiricos (2012), note 82 above (p. 692). Prejudice is also related to attributing racial disproportionately in prisons to
crime rates rather than bias: Peffley & Hurwitz (2010), note 11 above (pp. 101–3).
179	 Unnever, J. D. & Cullen, F. T. (2010). The Social Sources of Americans’ Punitiveness: A Test of Three Competing Models. Criminology, 48(1),
99–129 (p. 119).
180	 Barkan, S. E. & Cohn, S. F. (1994). Racial Prejudice and Support for the Death Penalty by Whites. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency,
31(2), 202–209; Cohn, S. F., Barkan, S. E., & Halteman, W. A. (1991). Punitive Attitudes Toward Criminals: Racial Consensus or Racial Conflict?
Social Problems, 38(2), 287–296 (p. 293); Barkan & Cohn (2005), note 57 above; Soss, J., Langbein, L., & Metelko, A. R. (2003). Why Do White
Americans Support the Death Penalty? The Journal of Politics, 65(2), 397–421.
181	 Unnever & Cullen (2012), note 58 above. Racial or ethnic animus is a significant predictor of support for capital punishment not only in the United
States but also in other countries including Great Britain, France, and Japan: Unnever, J. D., Cullen, F. T., & Jonson, C. L. (2008). Race, Racism, and
Support for Capital Punishment. Crime and Justice, 37(1), 45–96 (pp. 73–81); Ousey, G. C. & Unnever, J. D. (2012). Racial-Ethnic Threat, OutGroup Intolerance, and Support for Punishing Criminals: a Cross-National Study. Criminology, 50(3), 565–603.
182	 Unnever, J. D. & Cullen, F. T. (2007). The Racial Divide in Support for the Death Penalty: Does White Racism Matter? Social Forces, 85(3), 1281–
1301. Another study found that racial resentment explains a significant proportion of whites’ continued support for harsh punishments in the face
of information about racial disparities: Bobo, L. D. & Johnson, D. (2004). A Taste for Punishment: Black and White Americans’ Views on the Death
Penalty and the War on Drugs, Du Bois Review 1(1), 151–180.
183	 Barkan, S. E. & Cohn, S. F. (2005). Reaction Essay on Reducing White Support for the Death Penalty: A Pessimistic Appraisal. Criminology, 4(1),
39–44 (p. 42).
184	 Thompson & Bobo (2011), note 27 above (p. 22).

Race and Punishment: Racial Perceptions of Crime and Support for Punitive Policies 31

also more popular among conservatives, Republicans,
southerners, and older individuals.185 Researchers have
shown that those who attribute crime to individual
dispositions are more punitive and less supportive of
rehabilitation than those who emphasize environment
factors.186 Whites who attribute crime more to individual
failings rather than to social contexts are also more likely
to believe that crime rates, rather than bias, drive the overrepresentation of blacks in prisons.187
While accounts of crime “strongly affect how individuals
wish to see public policy respond to the problem of
crime,” they explain only “a small but significant fraction
of the black-white difference in crime policy views.”188
This factor combines with others – association of crime
with racial minorities, evaluations of the justice system,
and overt prejudice – to create a more comprehensive
explanation of whites’ limited empathy toward people
who break the law.

185	
186	
187	
188	

Thompson & Bobo (2011), note 27 above (p. 26).
Pickett & Baker (2014), note 36 above (pp. 209–210); Peffley & Hurwitz (2010), note 11 above (pp. 101–3, 170–2, 178–9).
Peffley & Hurwitz (2010), note 11 above (pp. 92, 124, 132).
Thompson & Bobo (2011), note 27 above (p. 16).

32 The Sentencing Project

VII. CONSEQUENCES OF A BIASED
AND PUNITIVE JUSTICE SYSTEM
Widespread racial perceptions of crime have helped to
make the American criminal justice system more punitive
towards people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds.
Changes in sentence lengths, arrest rates, and prison
admission – rather than crime rates – drove the 260%
increase in incarceration rates between 1980 and 2010.189
Racialized views of crime have also created criminal
justice policies and practices that disproportionately affect
people of color. The heavy presence of racial minorities
in jail, prison, and under community supervision cannot
be fully explained by racial differences in crime rates.190
This section examines the toxic effects of a harsh and
selective criminal justice system.

A. ERODED PERCEIVED LEGITIMACY
Unfair, illegitimate, and excessive – these are descriptors
that people of color often use to describe their own
experiences with the justice system and to characterize
the system as a whole.191 Racial perceptions of crime have
been a driving force of this outcome. People of color who
are not personally impacted by criminal justice policies
are often close to someone who has been. In one national
survey, half of African Americans reported having a
close friend or relative who was currently incarcerated,
in contrast to one out of ten white respondents.192 These
encounters have created “an enormous racial chasm in

responses toward the U.S. criminal justice system.”193
With its legitimacy tarnished, the justice system struggles
to evoke the respect, trust, and cooperation needed for its
effective operation.
When asked to reflect on their personal experiences,
those of their communities, or about high-profile cases,
people of color routinely register disapproval with how
the criminal justice system treats and protects the rights
of racial minorities.194 When 68% of blacks but only 25%
of whites said that they saw the criminal justice system as
biased against blacks in 2013, this represented the largest
gap on this question since the early 1990s.195 Controlling
for class differences between blacks and whites does
not eliminate these differences in views. In fact, more
highly educated blacks and whites are more skeptical
of the criminal justice system than their less-educated
counterparts.196 Whites and blacks also hold divergent
views about instances of police misconduct, outcomes
of high-profile cases, and the overrepresentation of racial
minorities in the justice system.197 For example, blacks are
much more likely than whites to “attribute higher rates
of black male imprisonment to both structural barriers
(e.g. few job opportunities and bad schools) and a racist
criminal justice system (e.g. police targeting AfricanAmerican men and courts more willing to convict black
men).”198

189	 National Research Council (2014), note 5 above. Incarceration rate change calculated using: Beck, A. J. & Gilliard, D. K. (1995). Prisoners in 1994.
Bureau of Justice Statistics. Available at: http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/virtual_disk_library/index.cgi/5772776/FID1/pdf/pi94.pdf; Guerino, P.,
Harrison, P. M., & Sabol, W. J. (2011). Prisoners in 2010. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Available at: http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/p10.pdf.
190	 Blumstein (1993), note 101 above (p. 751).
191	 Gillespie (1999), note 158 above; see also Peffley & Hurwitz (2010), note 11 above (p. 43); Langton & Durose (2013), note 147 above (p. 4); Eith &
Durose (2011), note 147 above (pp. 6, 12).
192	 Bobo, L. D. & Thompson, V. R. (2010). Racialized Mass Incarceration. In Markus. H. R. & Moya, P. (eds.) Doing Race: 21 Essays for the 21st
Century, pp. 322–356. New York, NY: Norton (p. 350).
193	 Peffley & Hurwitz (2010), note 11 above (p. 5)
194	 See Section VII Part A above.
195	 Newport (2013), note 144 above.
196	 Weitzer, R. & Tuch, S. A. (1999). Race, Class, and Perceptions of Discrimination by the Police. Crime & Delinquency, 45(4), 494–507 (p. 500);
Peffley & Hurwitz (2010), note 11 above (pp. 51–2, 92, 95); Unnever (2008), note 166 above.
197	 Hurwitz, J. & Peffley, M. (2005). Explaining the Great Racial Divide: Perceptions of Fairness in the U.S. Criminal Justice System. The Journal of
Politics, 67(03), 762–783; Unnever (2008), note 166 above.
198	 Unnever (2008), note 166 above (p. 530); see also Peffley & Hurwitz (2010), note 11 above (pp. 87–88).

Race and Punishment: Racial Perceptions of Crime and Support for Punitive Policies 33

This distrust has thrown a wrench into the criminal
justice system’s operations. African Americans’ lack of
trust in the police may be one factor contributing to the
lower clearance rates of black versus white murder cases
in New York City.199 Jury mistrust of police officers has
also interfered with criminal trials.200

To summarize, familiarity with injustices resulting from
racial perceptions of crime reduces confidence in the
criminal justice system among people of color. Perceived
illegitimacy breeds limited cooperation. As a result, police
departments struggle to clear cases, prosecutors struggle
to secure convictions, and the public fears unrest after
episodes of police brutality. The racial gap in perceptions
Outrage about the racial inequities and excesses of the of fairness and justice also has more direct implications
justice system has encouraged some public intellectuals for public safety, as discussed next.
to advocate for jury nullification and to encourage
defendants to decline plea offers so as to motivate reforms.
Legal scholar and former federal prosecutor Paul Butler B. UNDERMINING PUBLIC SAFETY
encourages jurors to engage in nullification for many Racial perceptions of crime harm public safety. The most
drug crimes – wherein jurors pronounce defendants acute and severe consequence of these perceptions is the
not guilty despite evident guilt – and to engage in other killing of innocent people because of racially motivated
forms of non-cooperation to help defendants avoid the fear. A broader consequence is a criminal justice system
ramifications of a conviction.201 Criminal justice scholar that is on overdrive, with lifelong consequences for all
and former civil rights attorney Michelle Alexander Americans who are convicted of crimes, and particularly
encourages defendants to decline plea deals and request for low-income people of color. Mass incarceration
trials so as to create a “tsunami of litigation” that would compounds economic disadvantage, increasing the
jam a system that relies on cases being settled without likelihood of criminal offending across generations. The
trials.202 These tactics seek to circumvent the barriers that perception of a biased criminal justice system may also
get in the way of fair outcomes in the justice system.
foster a sense of legal immunity among white Americans.
High profile cases spotlight the racial divide in views of the
criminal justice system. Soon after a jury acquitted George
Zimmerman of second-degree murder and manslaughter
for Trayvon Martin’s death, Gallup surveyed Americans
on their views. The poll showed that 85% of blacks said
the verdict was wrong while a majority of whites, 54%,
said the verdict was right.203 Cases like this have created
a familiar pattern of acquittal followed by expectations
of unrest of the type that Los Angeles experienced after
the 1992 verdicts in favor of the police officers who beat
Rodney King.

The impact of a criminal conviction is felt long before and
after a sentence and affects those around the person that is
being punished. Overcriminalization has led young black
men in Philadelphia who have warrants out for their arrest
to turn away from “the activities, relations, and localities
that others rely on to maintain a decent and respectable
identity.” 204 The “mark” of a criminal record tarnishes
employment prospects,205 contributes to aggregate levels
of racial economic inequality,206 and can bar individuals
from welfare benefits, food stamps,207 public housing, and

199	 Uneven distribution of police resources and fear of cooperating with the police are other reasons: Paddock, B., Riley, S., Parascandola, R., &
Schapiro, R. (2014). Tale of Two Cities. New York Daily News. Available at: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/forgotten-recordmurder-rate-cases-unsolved-article-1.1566572. On the other hand, “snitching” – defined as criminal suspects providing information for reduced
criminal liability – may occur at high levels: Natapoff, A. (2011). Snitching: Criminal Informants and the Erosion of American Justice. New York,
NY: New York University Press (pp. 15, 107).
200	 Eckholm, E. (2014) As Justice Department Scrutinizes Local Police, Cleveland Is Latest Focus. The New York Times. Available at: http://www.
nytimes.com/2014/06/18/us/justice-department-examining-local-police-turns-focus-to-cleveland.html?_r=4.
201	 Butler, P. (2009). Let’s Get Free: A Hip-Hop Theory of Justice. New York, NY: The New Press 2009 (Chapter 4). On the Stop Snitching movement,
see Natapoff (2011), note 199 above (pp. 72–3 & Chapter 5).
202	 Alexander, M. (2012). Go to Trial: Crash the Justice System. The New York Times. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/11/opinion/
sunday/go-to-trial-crash-the-justice-system.html?_r=0.
203	 Newport (2013), note 144 above.
204	 Goffman, A. (2014) On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press (p. 53); Rios, V. M. (2011) Punished:
Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys. New York: New York University Press.
205	 Pager, D. (2007). Marked: Race, Crime, and Finding Work in an Era of Mass Incarceration. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
206	 Western, B. (2002). The Impact of Incarceration on Wage Mobility and Inequality. American Sociological Review, 67, 526–546; Pettit, B. (2012).
Invisible Men: Mass Incarceration and the Myth of Black Progress. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.
207	 Mauer, M. (2013). A Lifetime of Punishment: The Impact of the Felony Drug Ban on Welfare Benefits. The Sentencing Project. Available at: http://
sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/cc_A%20Lifetime%20of%20Punishment.pdf.

34 The Sentencing Project

voting.208 Incarceration has long-term material, physical,
and mental health consequences for prisoners’ children
and other family members.209 Christopher Wildeman
writes that “by promoting incarceration among the
children of the prison boom, parental imprisonment may
have the potential to lay the foundation for an enduring
form of inequality in which the imprisonment of the
disadvantaged is transmitted from one generation to the
next.”210 The criminal justice policies and practices of the
past four decades have not only broadened these impacts,
but concentrated them on racial minorities.

informal interventions to address problematic youth
behavior. “Lack of faith in the police,” resulting from
perceived procedural injustice and inefficacy, “inhibits
informal social control activities, and in fact explains
lower capacities for informal social control in minority
communities.”213 Finally, a criminal justice system that
targets people of color may increase crime among whites.
An experiment about classroom cheating found that white
participants were more likely to cheat on a test in a setting
where black participants were singled out for scrutiny,
compared to whites in a setting where no racial profiling
occurred.214 “Racial profiling could increase crime among
Crime policies that excessively target people of color have nonprofiled groups, having a counterproductive effect,”
been directly associated with increased offending among the researchers concluded.215
both racial minorities and whites.
When people do not see the
Mass incarceration has created
“Racial profiling could increase
police and justice system as fair,
barriers
to
employment,
crime
among
nonprofiled
groups,
they see it as less legitimate and
welfare benefits, and housing,
are less likely to follow its rules.211 having a counterproductive effect.” exacerbating conditions that
Research has shown that youth
promote crime across generations.
who have had contact with the
The labeling effects of contact
police – even just being stopped and questioned – report with the criminal justice system, and dissatisfaction with
higher rates of future delinquent behavior compared the police, degrade barriers to crime. Moreover, racial
to otherwise similar youth, and those who have been profiling of people of color may lead some whites to
previously arrested are more likely to be rearrested.212 take greater criminal risks. These outcomes suggest that
This is in part because labeling young people as criminals excessive incarceration has not only been unjust and
excludes some from activities and peers that deter crime expensive, but also counterproductive. Yet we stand at
and leads to “secondary deviance,” and because police are the threshold of a potential criminal justice awakening.
more likely to identify and intervene in the transgressions A number of field-tested tools can help to eliminate the
of previously arrested youth.
unwanted consequences of racial perceptions of crime,
and undo their damage.
Perceived illegitimacy of the police also erodes
communities’ capacity for, and expectations of,

208	 Manza, J. & Uggen, C. (2002). Democratic Contraction? Political Consequences of Felon Disenfranchisement in the United States. American
Sociological Review, 67, 777–803.
209	 Braman, D. 2004. Doing Time on the Outside: Incarceration and Family Life in Urban America. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; Wakefield,
S. & Wildeman, C. 2011. Mass Imprisonment and Racial Disparities in Childhood Behavioral Problems. Criminology & Public Policy, 10, 791–817.
210	 Wildemann, C. (2009) Parental Imprisonment, the Prison Boom, and the Concentration of Childhood Disadvantage. Demography, 46(2), 265–280
(p. 277).
211	 Tyler, T.R. (1990). Why People Obey the Law. New Haven: Yale University Press; Tyler, T. R. & Huo, Y. J. (2001). Trust in the Law: Encouraging
Public Cooperation with the Police and Courts. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.
212	 Wiley, S. A., Slocum, L. A., & Esbensen, F.-A. (2013). The Unintended Consequences of Being Stopped or Arrested: an Exploration of the Labeling
Mechanisms Through Which Police Contact Leads To Subsequent Delinquency. Criminology, 51(4), 927–966; Liberman, A. M., Kirk, D. S., & Kim, K.
(Forthcoming). Labeling Effects of First Juvenile Arrests: Secondary Deviance and Secondary Sanctioning. Criminology.
213	 Drakulich, K. M. & Crutchfield, R. D. (2013). The Role of Perceptions of the Police in Informal Social Control: Implications for the Racial
Stratification of Crime and Control. Social Problems, 60(3), 383–407 (p. 403).
214	 Hackney, A. A. & Glaser, J. (2013). Reverse Deterrence in Racial Profiling: Increased Transgressions by Nonprofiled Whites. Law and Human
Behavior, 37(5), 348–53.
215	 Hackney & Glaser (2013), note 214 above (p. 351).

Race and Punishment: Racial Perceptions of Crime and Support for Punitive Policies 35

VIII. REMEDIES AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
The media, researchers, policymakers, and criminal justice practitioners can draw
on proven interventions to reduce racial perceptions of crime and mitigate their
effects on the justice system. News producers can monitor and correct disparities
in crime reporting, using the recommendations from the Center for Children’s Law
and Policy as a starting point.216 Researchers and pollsters can improve measures
and representation of public opinion, incorporating lessons from past research.
Policymakers can craft legislation to scale back overly punitive sanctions, and to
reduce racial disparities in sentencing and crime rates.
The Sentencing Project has developed a manual for
assessing and tackling disparities in the justice system,217
the New York University Journal of Legislation and Public Policy
has profiled several reforms in its recent symposium
issue,218 and the Annie E. Casey Foundation and
MacArthur Foundation are among several organizations
that have produced overviews and guides about
successful efforts that have downscaled the juvenile
justice system.219 Finally, all stakeholders – particularly
criminal justice professionals – can tackle implicit bias by
drawing on field-tested methods such as those compiled
by the National Center for State Courts.220

A. THE MEDIA AND RESEARCHERS

assessment of media crime coverage, Lori Dorfman and
Vincent Schiraldi have made several recommendations to
reporters and editors.221 These include expanding sources
beyond criminal justice professionals, contextualizing
crime within broader underlying social problems,
providing in-depth coverage of more typical crimes rather
than highlighting anomalous ones, and auditing content
to compare coverage with regional crime trends. They
describe practices that were adopted by organizations
including the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Sun-Times, and
KVUE-TV in Austin, Texas.

REDUCE RACIAL DISPARITIES IN CRIME
COVERAGE

The media play a crucial role in determining how and how By measuring and tracking the racial composition of
much people think about crime. Following their critical offenders and victims in crime news and comparing these
216	 Dorfman & Schiraldi (2001), note 110 above (pp. 27–36).
217	 The Sentencing Project (2008). Reducing Racial Disparity in the Criminal Justice System: A Manual for Practitioners and Policymakers.
Washington, D.C. Available at: http://www.sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/rd_reducingracialdisparity.pdf (pp. 11–57).
218	 New York University Journal of Legislation and Public Policy (2013). 16(4). Available at: http://www.nyujlpp.org/issues/volume-16-number-4/.
219	 Hoytt, E. H., Schiraldi, V., Smith, B. V., & Ziedenberg, J. (2001). Reducing Racial Disparities in Juvenile Detention (2001). Baltimore, MD: Annie
E. Casey Foundation. Available at: http://www.aecf.org/m/resourcedoc/aecf-Pathways8reducingracialdisparities-2001.pdf; Shoenberg, D.
(2012). Innovation Brief: Reducing Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Pennsylvania. Chicago, IL: MacArthur Foundation. Available at: http://www.
modelsforchange.net/publications/351; National Association of Counties (2011). Juvenile Detention Reform: A Guide for County Officials, Second
Edition. Available at: http://www.aecf.org/m/resourcedoc/aecf-JuvDetentionReformForCountyOfficials-2011.pdf.
220	 National Center for State Courts. Helping Courts Address Implicit Bias: Resources for Education Williamsburg VA. Available at: http://www.ncsc.
org/ibeducation.
221	 Dorfman & Schiraldi (2001), note 110 above (pp. 27–36).

36 The Sentencing Project

with regional crime rates, news producers can improve
the representativeness of their coverage. More nuanced
attention is also needed to improve how  – not just how
much – crime reporting differs by race. Content analysis
can help to identify racial disparities in the extent to
which suspects are presented in non-individualized and
threatening ways. In addition to these recommendations,
media producers should address implicit racial bias using
the tools described later in this report.

IMPROVE PUBLIC OPINION POLLING AND
REPORTING

Researchers and pollsters play a crucial role in measuring
and representing public opinion. Given the repercussions
of presenting distorted measures, the wording and
formats of some survey questions should be revised to
not exaggerate the public’s support for punitive policies.
As described in Section II, Americans are far less
supportive of the death penalty when provided with life
imprisonment as a sentencing option. And although the
CONTEXTUALIZE SENTENCING AND CRIME
public expresses a great deal of pragmatism in its views of
STORIES
crime policy – supporting not just punishment, but also
By reporting on criminal sentences that are representative, rehabilitation and prevention – this range of preferences
and documenting their lifelong consequences, news is lost in many reports.
producers can help to educate the public about the reality
of existing penalties. By contextualizing specific crime B. POLICYMAKERS
stories or policy debates within crime trends, they can
avoid creating the impression of a false crisis. Correctly Policymakers have never simply followed public opinion;
reporting on crime trends in part requires recognizing the they have also shaped it through their words and work.
difference between the Department of Justice’s two crime Elected officials can therefore lead by educating the
measures: the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program public about the harms of excessive punishment, as
and the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS).222 they are beginning to do in the United States and have
been doing in other countries. Canadians are as punitive
The UCR measures crimes reported to the police – which as Americans, but their government has less severe
are affected by changes in victim reporting and police sentences.224 England and France abolished the death
categorization practices – as well as arrests – which are penalty at a time when their populations supported the
heavily influenced by law enforcement practices. The sanction, but now the majority of British and French
NCVS measures crime victimization regardless of whether residents oppose executions.225 With years of declining
incidents were reported to or cleared by the police. The crime rates and reduced public punitiveness, American
two data sources sometimes depict conflicting trends.223 policymakers have the opportunity to develop criminal
Noting these nuances and accurately reporting levels of justice policies that are morally sound, fiscally responsible,
crime and sentencing would help both policymakers and and effective.
the public develop more informed views about crime
policies.

222	 Federal Bureau of Investigation (2004). Crime in the United States 2004. Washington, D.C. Available at: https://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius_04/
appendices/appendix_04.html.
223	 Blumstein, A. (2004). Disaggregating the Violence Trends. In Blumstein, A. & Wallman, J. (eds.) The Crime Drop in America, pp. 13–44. New York,
NY: Cambridge University Press; Beckett & Sasson (2004), note 111 above (pp. 13–23).
224	 Kugler, M. B., Funk, F., Braun, J., Gollwitzer, M., Kay, A.C., Darley, J.M. (2013). Differences in Punitiveness Across Three Cultures: A Test of American
Exceptionalism in Justice Attitudes. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 103(4), 1071–1114.
225	 Death Penalty Information Center (2014). International Polls and Studies. Washington, D.C. Available at: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/
international-polls-and-studies-0.

Race and Punishment: Racial Perceptions of Crime and Support for Punitive Policies 37

CURB EXCESSIVE INCARCERATION

At the federal level, the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010
reduced from 100:1 to 18:1 the weight disparity in the
Several states and the juvenile justice system serve as amount of powder cocaine versus crack cocaine that
models for ending excessive incarceration. New York and triggered mandatory minimum sentences. Greater effort
New Jersey have reduced their prison populations by 26% is needed not only to reduce the remaining disparity, but
since 1999 without harming public safety.226 California’s also to make the change retroactive.
experience with decarceration also offers useful lessons.227
The juvenile justice system, which has reduced youth TACKLE RACIAL DISPARITIES IN CRIME RATES
confinement and detention by over 40% since 2001,228
Eliminating racial disparities in incarceration also
can also serve as a model for the adult system.229
requires addressing the socioeconomic inequality and
Policymakers should support the growing commitment to racial discrimination that underlie differential crime rates.
overhaul excessively harsh sentencing at the federal level. Because the criminal justice system is an institution that
Congress has the opportunity to pass two bi-partisan primarily reacts to – rather than prevents – crime, it is
bills that seek to curb federal prison populations – the ill-equipped to address many of the underlying causes
Smarter Sentencing Act and the Recidivism Reduction of crime. But mass incarceration’s hold on vast public
and Public Safety Act, both of which passed the Senate resources and its collateral consequences have eroded
Judiciary Committee in 2014. These reforms would build the economic and social buffers that prevent crime.
on recent executive action, including Attorney General Consequently, scaling back punishment and reinvesting the
Eric Holder’s guidance to federal prosecutors to curb resulting savings into disadvantaged communities would
mandatory minimum sentences230 and President Barack promote public safety.
Obama’s recent Clemency Initiative.231
Policymakers are increasingly aware that branding people
with criminal records harms public safety and wastes
ELIMINATE RACIAL DISPARITIES IN CRIME
public funds. Accordingly, some states have opted out of
POLICIES
the federal welfare and food stamp ban for people with
Policymakers should identify and reform ostensibly race- felony convictions.234 States and local jurisdictions are also
neutral polices that have been shown to have a disparate lowering barriers to employment for people with criminal
racial impact. Iowa, Connecticut, Oregon, and Minnesota records. Twelve states and sixty cities and counties now
now have a policy in place to conduct racial impact analysis “Ban the Box” in public sector hiring – removing the
before codifying a new crime or modifying the criminal question about conviction history from the initial job
penalty for an existing crime.232 Some jurisdictions have application and delaying background checks until later in
begun to assess the racial bias inherent in risk assessment the hiring process.235
instruments used for criminal justice decision making.233
To fully realize the benefits of these approaches, savings
Addressing class-based inequalities in justice outcomes –
from decarceration should be redirected to crime
by better funding indigent defense, for example – would
prevention and drug treatment efforts. Susan Tucker
also help to reduce racial disparities.
226	 Mauer & Ghandnoosh (2014), note 8 above; Greene & Mauer (2010), note 8 above.
227	 Mauer & Ghandnoosh (2014), note 8 above; Raphael, S. & Stoll, M. A. (2014). A New Approach to Reducing Incarceration While Maintaining Low
Rates of Crime. Washington, D.C.: The Hamilton Project. Available at: http://www.hamiltonproject.org/files/downloads_and_links/v5_THP_
RaphaelStoll_DiscPaper.pdf.
228	 See Sickmund, M., Sladky, T. J., Kang, W., & Puzzanchera, C. (2013). Easy Access to the Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement. Pittsburgh,
PA: National Center for Juvenile Justice. Available at: http://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/ezacjrp/.
229	 In addition to note 219 above, see MacArthur Foundation’s Models for Change. Available at: http://www.modelsforchange.net/reform-areas/
index.html; The W. Haywood Burns Institute. Available at: http://www.burnsinstitute.org/.
230	 Holder, E. (2013). Memorandum: Department Policy on Charging Mandatory Minimum Sentences and Recidivist Enhancements in Certain
Drug Cases. Washington, D.C.: Office of the Attorney General. Available at: http://www.justice.gov/oip/docs/ag-memo-department-policyponcharging-mandatory-minimum-sentences-recidivist-enhancements-in-certain-drugcases.pdf.
231	 Department of Justice (2014). Announcing New Clemency Initiative, Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole Details Broad New Criteria for
Applicants. Available at: http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2014/April/14-dag-419.html.
232	 Clark, M. (2013). Should More States Require Racial Impact Statements for New Laws? The Pew Charitable Trusts. Available at: http://www.
pewstates.org/projects/stateline/headlines/should-more-states-require-racial-impact-statements-for-new-laws-85899493903.
233	 Hoytt, Schiraldi, Smith, & Ziedenberg (2001), note 219 above (pp. 56–60); The Sentencing Project (2008), note 217 above (p. 31).
234	 Mauer (2013), note 207 above.
235	 National Employment Law Project (2014). Statewide Ban the Box: Reducing Unfair Barriers to Employment of People with Criminal Records. New
York, NY: Available at: http://www.nelp.org/page/-/SCLP/ModelStateHiringInitiatives.pdf?nocdn=1; see also National Employment Law Project
(2014). Ban the Box: A Fair Chance for a Stronger Economy. Available at: http://www.nelp.org/page/content/banthebox/.

38 The Sentencing Project

and Eric Cadora’s vision for the concept of “justice
Dispelling the illusion that we are
reinvestment” urges policymakers to redirect some of the
colorblind
in our decision making is
funds that had been spent on corrections to “rebuilding
a crucial first step to mitigating the
the human resources and physical infrastructure — the
schools, healthcare facilities, parks, and public spaces
impact of implicit racial bias.
— of neighborhoods devastated by high levels of
incarceration.”236 Downscaling prisons should therefore and Ethnicity concludes that “education efforts aimed
be accompanied by reinvestment into communities at raising awareness about implicit bias can help debias
harmed by mass incarceration.
individuals.”239 Dispelling the illusion that we are colorblind
in our decision making is a crucial first step to mitigating
the impact of implicit racial bias. Mock jury studies have
C. PRACTITIONERS AND OTHER
shown that increasing the salience of race in cases reduces
STAKEHOLDERS
bias in outcomes by making jurors more conscious of
240
Although implicit racial bias is nearly ubiquitous – and thoughtful about their biases. For criminal justice
affecting both individual discretion and agency policies – professionals, taking the Implicit Association Test can
increase support for
it is not intractable. Several interventions have been shown help raise awareness of biases and 241
to reduce implicit bias among jurors, police officers, interventions to reduce their effects.
prosecutors, and judges, helping to bring their decisions
closer in line with their ideals.237 Defense attorneys can
also benefit from greater awareness of their implicit
biases, raise awareness of these issues during cases, and
implement interventions in the courts.238 Incorporating
these lessons into police work, along with developing
more equitable enforcement policies particularly for
drug crimes, would help to reduce perceptions of overpolicing and mend police-community relations in lowincome communities of color.

ADDRESS IMPLICIT RACIAL BIAS AND REVISE
POLICIES WITH DISPARATE RACIAL IMPACT

The Kirwan Institute describes a number of debiasing
strategies shown to reduce implicit racial bias in both
experimental and non-experimental settings. These
include providing exposure to counter-stereotypic imagery,
increasing inter-racial contact, and monitoring outcomes
to increase accountability.242 Increasing racial diversity in
criminal justice settings also reduces biased outcomes and
tempers punitive sentiment. Research on mock juries has
RECOGNIZE IMPLICIT RACIAL BIAS
shown that a diverse group of jurors deliberate longer
In their comprehensive review of implicit racial bias and more thoroughly than all-white juries, and studies of
research, the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race capital trials have found that all-white juries are far more

236	 Tucker, S. B. & Cadora, E. (2003). Justice Reinvestment. Ideas for An Open Society 3(3). New York, NY: Open Society Institute. Washington, D.C.:
Available at: http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/sites/default/files/ideas_reinvestment.pdf.
237	 Staats, C. (2014). State of the Science: Implicit Bias Review 2014. Columbus, OH: Kirwan Institute. Available at: http://kirwaninstitute.osu.edu/
wp-content/uploads/2014/03/2014-implicit-bias.pdf (pp. 20–1, 25–6, 33–6); Staats, C. (2013). State of the Science: Implicit Bias Review 2013.
Columbus, OH: Kirwan Institute. Available at: http://www.kirwaninstitute.osu.edu/reports/2013/03_2013_SOTS-Implicit_Bias.pdf (pp. 53–63);
Kang, J., et al. (2012). Implicit Bias in the Courtroom. UCLA Law Review, 59(5), 1124–1186 (pp. 1169–86); Fridell, L.A. (2008). Racially Biased
Policing: The Law Enforcement Response to the Implicit Black-Crime Association. In Lynch, M.J., Patterson, E.B., and Childs, K.K. (eds.) Racial
Divide: Racial and Ethnic Bias in the Criminal Justice System, pp. 39–59. Monsey, NY: Criminal Justice Press (pp. 50–58).
238	 Rapping, J. A. (2013). Implicitly Unjust: How Defenders Can Affect Systemic Racist Assumptions. New York University Journal of Legislation and
Public Policy, 16(4), 999–1048 (pp. 1022–42).
239	 Staats (2014), note 237 above (pp. 20–1, 25–6, 33–6); Staats (2013), note 237 above (pp. 53–63).
240	 Sommers, S. R. & Ellsworth, P. C. (2001). White Juror Bias: An Investigation of Prejudice Against Black Defendants in the American Courtroom.
Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 7(1), 201–229.
241	 One version of the test is available on this website by Project Implicit: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/user/ncsc/ca/.
242	 Staats (2014), note 237 above (pp. 20–1, 25–6); Staats (2013), note 237 above (pp. 53–63) Note that one study has shown that interracial
friendships among urban whites increases concern about crime: Mears, D., Mancini, C., & Stewart, E. (2009). Whites’ Concern about Crime: The
Effects of Interracial Contact. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 46(4), 524–552. Another has shown that exposure to counterstereotypic imagery can increase denial of racism: Critcher, C. R. & Risen, J. L. (2014). If He Can Do It, So Can They: Incidental Exposure to
Counterstereotypically-Successful Exemplars Prompts Automatic Inferences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 106, 359–379.

Race and Punishment: Racial Perceptions of Crime and Support for Punitive Policies 39

likely to sentence offenders to death.243 North Carolina’s not report lower rates of support for the death penalty in
Racial Justice Act, now repealed, sought to correct for the murder cases compared with those who were not given this
“stubborn legacy” of racially biased jury selection.244
prompt.249 Another study found a “backlash effect,” with
white Americans who were first told, “Some people say
The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) has that the death penalty is unfair because most of the people
documented pilot programs developed in California, who are executed are African Americans” being more
Minnesota, and North Dakota to educate judges and likely to support the death penalty for murder convictions
court staff about implicit racial bias and has made a than those who did not receive this message.250 Similarly,
number of related resources available on its website.245 white Californians who were encouraged to overestimate
The Vera Institute of Justice’s Prosecution and Racial the proportion of blacks in the state’s prisons were less
Justice program has also worked in several jurisdictions likely to support restricting the state’s “three strikes” law
to reduce unwarranted racial and ethnic disparities caused than those who were not, just as white residents of New
by prosecutorial decision making.246 Prosecutors in New York City who were led to overestimate the proportion
York City are demonstrating how this stage of the justice of incarcerated blacks were less supportive of ending the
system can reduce upstream disparities. The Brooklyn stop-and-frisk policy.251 Resources provided by the NCSC
District Attorney’s office has announced that it will stop and the other organizations mentioned above can help to
prosecuting many minor marijuana arrests to reduce the calibrate interventions to avoid flaring automatic biases.
overcriminalization of young people of color, and the
Manhattan District Attorney has been urged to decrease This is a critical period of declining crime rates,
the role that arrest history plays in shaping plea offers.247 increasing concern about public budgets, and growing
moral ambivalence about blunt criminal justice sanctions.
Information about racial disparities must be presented A clear understanding of the factors that misguided the
carefully to help people reconsider, rather than cement, American criminal justice system will help to steer it to
their views. Being informed about racial disparities reduces a better path. There are many reasons to be optimistic.
punitiveness about some crimes: in one study, whites Substantial portions of the American public support
became less supportive of the disparity in crack-cocaine rehabilitation and less punitive criminal sanctions when
federal sentencing when presented with information provided with alternatives and informed about offenders.
about this policy’s uneven racial impact.248 But support Political leaders on both sides of the aisle have been
for the death penalty has been less responsive to some increasingly rising to this occasion. Advocates, the media,
messages about racial disparities. For example, one study policymakers, and criminal justice professionals should
found that white respondents who were first told that use this opportunity to help align our policies with our
“blacks are about 12% of the U.S. population, but they are principles.
almost half (43%) of those currently on death row” did

243	 Sommers, S. R. (2006). On Racial Diversity and Group Decision Making: Identifying Multiple Effects of Racial Composition on Jury Deliberations.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90(4), 597–612; Bowers, W. J., Sandys, M., & Brewer, T. W. (2004). Crossing Racial Boundaries: A
Closer Look at the Roots of Racial Bias in Capital Sentencing When the Defendant is Black and the Victim is White. DePaul Law Review, 53(4),
1497–1538.
244	 Grosso, C. M. & O’Brien, B. (2012). A Stubborn Legacy: The Overwhelming Importance of Race in Jury Selection in 173 Post- Batson
North Carolina Capital Trials. Iowa Law Review, 97, 1531–1559. Available at: http://digitalcommons.law.msu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.
cgi?article=1455&context=facpubs.
245	 National Center for State Courts, note 220 above.
246	 Davis, A. J. (2013). In Search of Racial Justice: The Role of the Prosecutor. New York University Journal of Legislation and Public Policy, 16(4),
821–52. Available at: http://www.nyujlpp.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Davis-In-Search-of-Racial-Justice-16nyujlpp821.pdf.
247	 Clifford, S. & Goldstein, J. (2014). Brooklyn Prosecutor Limits When He’ll Target Marijuana. The New York Times. Available at: http://www.nytimes.
com/2014/07/09/nyregion/brooklyn-district-attorney-to-stop-prosecuting-low-level-marijuana-cases.html?_r=0; The New York Times Editorial
Board (2014). How Race Skews Prosecutions. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/14/opinion/how-race-skews-prosecutions.html?_
r=0.
248	 When respondents were told “Most of those convicted for crack cocaine use are Blacks and most of those convicted for powder cocaine use
are Whites,” they were less likely to support harsher sentencing for crack versus cocaine offenders: Bobo & Johnson (2004), note 182 above (pp.
166–7).
249	 White respondents who were first told “Blacks are about 12% of the U.S. population, but they are almost half (43%) of those currently on death
row” were not less supportive of the death penalty in murder cases than those who were not given this prompt; Bobo & Johnson (2004), note 182
above (pp. 162–4).
250	 Peffley & Hurwitz (2010), note 11 above (p. 165; see also 157–166); Peffley, M. & Hurwitz, J. (2007). Persuasion and Resistance: Race and the
Death Penalty in America. American Journal of Political Science, 51(4), 996–1012 (p. 1002).
251	 Hetey, R. C. & Eberhardt, J. L. (Forthcoming). Racial Disparities in Incarceration Increase Acceptance of Punitive Policies. Psychological Science.

40 The Sentencing Project

Race and Punishment: Racial Perceptions of
Crime and Support for Punitive Policies
Nazgol Ghandnoosh, Ph.D.

September 2014

Related publications by The Sentencing Project:
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•	
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1705 DeSales Street NW, 8th Floor
Washington, D.C. 20036
Tel: 202.628.0871
Fax: 202.628.1091
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Shadow Report to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination Regarding Racial Disparities in the United States
Criminal Justice System (2014)
Disproportionate Minority Contact in the Juvenile Justice System
(2014)
Report to the United Nations Human Rights Committee Regarding
Racial Disparities in the United States Criminal Justice System (2013)
The Changing Racial Dynamics of Women’s Incarceration (2013)

The Sentencing Project works for a fair and effective U.S. justice system by
promoting reforms in sentencing policy, addressing unjust racial disparities and
practices, and advocating for alternatives to incarceration.