Education and the Interface between Racial Perceptions and Criminal Justice Attitudes

Recent work has implicated negative attitudes toward blacks in support for toughened criminal-justice measures. This suggests that the issue of crime may be implicitly "racialized," despite a lack of overt racial content. The present study examines the hypothesis that education may weaken the relationship between negative racial perceptions and crime-related policy attitudes. In contrast to traditional views about the role of education in the domain of race-related attitudes, the results of analyses using several different general-population samples suggest that the effects of education are somewhat paradoxical: they reduce the intensity of negative racial perceptions, while bolstering the relationship between these perceptions and criminal justice attitudes.     

Racial Profiling and Criminal Justice

According to the main argument in favour of the practice of racial profiling as a low enforcement tactic, the use of race as a targeting factor helps the police to apprehend more criminals. In the following, this argument is challenged. It is argued that, given the assumption that criminals are currently being punished too severely in Western countries, the apprehension of more criminals may not constitute a reason in favour of racial profiling at all.     

College Student Perceptions of Criminal Justice System Responses to Stalking

In the current study, a survey was administered to 513 U.S. undergraduate college students from a large east coast university to examine whether extra-legal factors influenced their personal judgments of criminal justice system responsiveness to stalking. MANOVA results indicated that students believed police and prosecutors would not treat analogous cases similarly (this bias was not apparent with judges). College students perceived that prior relationship and target/offender gender would impact arrest decisions, and that target/offender gender would also impact police investigations and the filing of criminal charges. Potential explanations and practical implications of these findings are discussed, as well as directions for future research.     

Neuroscience and Criminal Justice: Introduction

This special issue of The Journal of Ethics is devoted to ethical considerations of the use of neuroscience in the criminal justice system. In this introduction, an overview is provided of the different topics dealt with in the volume.     

Race and the Criminal Justice System Response to Sexual Assault: A Systematic Review

Prior research has consistently documented that the vast majority of sexual assault cases do not progress through the criminal justice system. However, there is less agreement in prior work on how race influences case progression, resulting in a literature frequently described as “inconsistent.” This systematic review examines all prior research that has included race as an independent variable in predicting the criminal justice system response to sexual assault (N = 34) in an effort to provide insight into seemingly disparate findings. We assess each study for the degree to which race was a focal point of interest, if and what theory was used to inform the investigation of race, how samples were drawn, and how and whose race was measured. Results illustrate that findings in prior research are not inconsistent, but rather unite to tell a nuanced story of the role of race in the criminal justice system response to sexual assault. The review demonstrates how decisions made by researchers throughout the research process can have significant impacts on reported findings, and how such findings may be used to influence policy and practice.     

修复性正义:基于刑事司法展开的伦理

修复性正义是在反思与批判报应性正义的基础上确立起来的一种旨在修复犯罪人、被害人、社区与社会之间正常利益关系并实现正义和谐的刑事理念或价值取向,修复性正义下的刑事司法制度建设在我国有着广阔的正义基础和制度空间。     

Transgender Criminal Justice: Ethical and Constitutional Perspectives

People identifying as transgender or gender nonconforming (TGNC) face increased discrimination, harassment, and victimization compared to cisgender individuals (whose experienced gender matches their sex assigned at birth). Despite these increased discriminatory experiences, TGNC populations report hesitance to seek assistance from the criminal justice system due to concerns regarding revictimization and criminalization. TGNC individuals face an increased risk for interacting with the criminal justice system as a result of homelessness, socioeconomic status, and historical criminalization of their identities. Many TGNC individuals who experience incarceration report not only discrimination and verbal harassment but also physical and sexual abuse at the hands of criminal justice employees and other inmates. Thus, the incarceration experiences of TGNC individuals differ substantially from those of cisgender individuals. The negative implications of this differential are further exacerbated by a noteworthy lack of structured protocols regarding treatment of TGNC inmates. Existing policies violate the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The present article examines these arguments in relation to the American Psychological Association’s ethics code and relevant specialty guidelines and proposes ways that psychologists working with these institutions could apply their knowledge and skills to reduce human rights violations.     

Perceptions of Partner Violence: How Aggressor Gender,Masculinity/Femininity,and Victim Gender Influence Criminal Justice Decisions

This study examines the extent to which perceptions of partner violence are influenced by aggressor gender and masculinity/femininity, and victim gender. Participants evaluated a case scenario depicting domestic assault. Results found charges were significantly higher and sentences significantly longer when the victim was female. Masculine aggressors were more likely to be perceived as having threatened bodily injury and as having initiated the assault compared to feminine aggressors. Masculine aggressors in heterosexual relationships were more likely to be identified as having initiated an assault compared to feminine aggressors in heterosexual relationships or individuals in same-sex relationships.     

Perceptions of Systemic Justice: The Effects of Distributive, Procedural, and Interactional Justice

The literature on organizational justice has identified 3 key components of this process: distributive, procedural, and interactional justice. On the basis of fairness heuristic theory, we reasoned that employees may use perceptions of these 3 components as a basis for drawing inferences about the fairness of the organization as a whole (i.e., their perceptions of systemic justice). A field study was conducted on a sample of 232 employees working in various organizations. Results show that employees' perceptions of procedural justice and interactional justice in their organizations positively predicted perceptions of systemic justice (i.e., that the organization was fair overall). Perceptions of distributive justice, however, did not predict perceptions of systemic justice. Practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Paternalism and the Criminal Law

ABSTRACT If it could be shown that law is, in some sense, a moral system the apparent contradiction between (moral) autonomy and (legal) heteronomy might be challenged. In order to prepare for such a challenge this paper questions the prevailing view that law is not in the business of enforcing morals. That is done primarily by using decisions of the criminal courts to show that the law does not always criminalise conduct merely to prevent harm to others. Paternalism is distinguished from the harm principle in order to show that the law (rightly or wrongly) sometimes seeks to secure that which is (thought to be) morally good, irrespective of the prevention of harm, at least overall harm.
If such an insight is well founded there are consequences for legal theory in that neither of the ruling paradigms (naturalism and positivism) seems able adequately to accommodate the view of law which emerges. Consequently, an attempt is made in the essay to develop a middle theory of law, between naturalism and positivism, which is referred to as 'normative positivism'. The theory presented has, in turn, consequences for political practice. If law can be seen as community morality rather than as merely the morality of officials, then everyone has a stake in the moral content of law and there may be good moral reasons for disobeying official laws. Civil disobedience is the citizen's ultimate resort against the official morality that has appropriated to itself the eulogistic name of 'law'. That law may be seen as community morality also calls into question some ruling paradigms as to the nature of morality but, if the claim can be sustained, then the legal system may be seen as applied moral philosophy in action.     

Psychoeducational Assessment of Racial and Ethnic Minority Groups: Professional Implications

The authors address the consumer's need for more information by describing a framework for integrating test data when it applies to minority children and their families. Test bias has a long history; the progression to nonbiased assessment includes legal decisions and guidelines, further training and education for professionals who test, and greater awareness of issues for all consumers of test data.     

With Liberty and Some Justice for a Few: Thinking Theologically about Criminal Justice

The current crisis in the American criminal justice system begs for theological response, and its sources need theological critique. The recent proposed statement of the ELCA draws attention to the needs of victims of crime and their families, and makes sensible recommendations for paths to greater justice. In doing so it is important to remember what forms of justice are possible under the jurisdiction of fallible, earthly institutions.     

Minority Group Membership and Perceptions of Self-help: Evidence from Israel

This study explores the meanings associated with the term ‘self-help’ in the general Arab population in Israel. It compares these associated meanings across various groups created by several demographic variables. The Arab population in Israel numbers nearly one million, comprising 18% of the total population of the state. The study used a random sample of 250 participants, representative of the general Arab population in Israel. Data was collected in a telephone survey which lasted 3–7 minutes. Three themes surfaced as the most prevalent meanings associated with the concept ‘self-help’: the individual meaning, which refers to one's ability to solve one's own problems and to rely on one's own strengths and resources; helping the ‘other’; and helping the needy. Significant differences in the associated meanings of the self-help concept related to level of education, marital status, and whether the respondent had heard of the self-help concept. The significance of the findings is discussed within several frames of reference. First, they are examined within the context of a particular minority culture which is constantly interacting with Israeli Jewish cultural values and is undergoing a change from traditional systems of values to modern Western ones. Second, the universal and particular attributes of the self-help phenomenon are outlined. Third, the initial developmental stages of self-help organizations within the Arab population living in Israel are discussed.     

Social Dominance Orientation, Hierarchy Attenuators and Hierarchy Enhancers: Social Dominance Theory and the Criminal Justice System

This study investigated differences in social dominance orientation between incumbents of different social roles (police officers vs. public defenders) and ethnic groups known to differ in general social status (i.e., whites vs. blacks and Hispanics). Consistent with theoretical expectations: (a) Police were significantly more social-dominance oriented than either jurors or public defenders. (b) Public defenders tended to be less social-dominance oriented than jurors. (c) Euro-Americans were significantly more social dominance oriented than Afro- and Hispanic-Americans, (d) Euro-American police officers had, by far, the highest levels of social dominance orientation. Furthermore, all of the effects above held even when controlling for demographic factors such as gender, social class, age, education, and ethnic group. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.