They have crafted harsh sentencing laws that impact all Americans and disproportionately incarcerate people of color. Whether acting on their own implicit biases or bowing to political exigency, policymakers have fused crime and race in their policy initiatives and statements. Policymakers’ actions and statements amplify the public’s racial associations of crime. 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. Television news programs and newspapers over-represent racial minorities as crime suspects and whites as crime victims. Many media outlets reinforce the public’s racial misconceptions about crime by presenting African Americans and Latinos differently than whites – both quantitatively and qualitatively. Media crime coverage fuels racial perceptions of crime. This relationship exists even after controlling for other relevant factors such as racial prejudice, conservatism, and crime salience. 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. Whites who more strongly associate crime with racial minorities are more supportive of punitive policies. 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. 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%.
White Americans overestimate the proportion of crime committed by people of color, and associate people of color with criminality. Whites misjudge how much crime is committed by African Americans and Latinos. And yet, blacks and Hispanics are far more likely than whites to be victims of violent and property crimes. 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. 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. Whites are more punitive than blacks and Hispanics even though they experience less crime. 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. This report concludes that: White Americans are more punitive than people of color. 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. 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. 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. Nationwide prison counts have fallen every year since 2010, and the racial gap in imprisonment rates has also begun to narrow. In recent years, federal policymakers have called for reforms, following the lead of states that have reduced prison populations without compromising public safety. The American criminal justice system is at a critical juncture. Practitioners and Other Stakeholders: Recognize and Address Implicit Racial Bias and Revise Policies with Disparate Racial Impact.Policymakers: Curb Excessive Incarceration and Tackle Racial Disparities in Crime Policies and Crime Rates.The Media and Researchers: Reduce Racial Disparities in Crime Coverage, Contextualize Stories on Crime and Sentencing, and Improve Public Opinion Polling.Consequences of a Biased and Punitive Criminal Justice System.Whites’ Limited and Favorable Criminal Justice Contact.Punitiveness Linked to Other Racial Gaps in Views and Experiences.Racial Perceptions of Crime Linked to Punitiveness.Overestimating Black and Hispanic Crime Rates.
Historical Changes in Punitive Sentiment.Coming on the heels of the tragic events in Ferguson, Missouri, this report demonstrates that the consequences of white Americans’ strong association of crime with blacks and Latinos extend far beyond policing.
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