Racial Bias in Offender Identification

Author

Nasya Hammond-Watson, Kean UniversityFollow
Verneda P. Hamm BaughFollow

Periodical Title

Modern Psychological Studies

Volume

21

Number

2

Department

Dept. of Psychology

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Abstract

This study was examined whether there is a bias to attribute criminal activities more to one race than another. Participants read scenarios of different crimes (bank robbery, fraud, and murder) and rated the likelihood that the perpetrator of each crime was Black, White, or Hispanic. As anticipated, the perpetrators were overwhelmingly identified as male. Results also found a strong interaction between race of perpetrator and type of crime. Blacks were more likely identified as the perpetrator of the violent crimes of murder and bank robbery and Whites were more likely identified as the perpetrator of the non-violent crime, fraud. These results suggest that Black-as-criminal and Black-as-violent perceptions exist. Further research should investigate which descriptor terms and racialized language trigger stereotypes.

Subject

Psychology

Keyword

perception; criminal activity; bias; Black-as-criminal; Black-as-violent

Discipline

Psychology

Document Type

article

DCMI Type

Text

Language

English

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Recommended Citation

Hammond-Watson, Nasya and Hamm Baugh, Verneda P. (2018) "Racial Bias in Offender Identification," Modern Psychological Studies: Vol. 21: No. 2, Article 12.
Available at: https://scholar.utc.edu/mps/vol21/iss2/12