Anticipatory injustice among adolescents: age and racial/ethnic differences in perceived unfairness of the justice system

The present study examines age differences in anticipatory injustice, or the expectation of unfair or discriminatory treatment in the legal system. 1,393 adolescents and young adults from the community or from detention centers and jails were interviewed regarding demographic and justice system experience, intelligence, expectations about fair treatment, and legal decisions. African Americans and Latinos and those with more system experience expected greater injustice across multiple legal contexts. Anticipatory injustice increased with age among African Americans and those with the most system experience. It also predicted choices about police interrogation, attorney consultation, and plea agreements. Anticipations of injustice during adolescence may affect future interactions with court officials as well as more general constructs of legal socialization.     

Intersectionality and Crime: An Exploratory Look at How Gender and Race Influence Responses to Injustice Associated with Strain

ABSTRACT

Gender and race condition perceptions of and responses to injustice associated with strain. Yet, it is unclear how various types of injustice (distributive, procedural, and interactional) affect criminal coping by gender and race – especially among Asians and whites. A vignette of an academic group project that depicted a distributive injustice and manipulated procedural and interactional injustice was randomly assigned to a sample of undergraduates. Analyses reveal that injustice is associated with Asian and white males engaging in different types of deviance. Implications for the relationship that gender and race have in affecting perceptions of and responses to injustice are discussed.     

Procedural injustice,police legitimacy,and officer gender: A vignette‐based test of the invariance thesis

Role congruity theory suggests that gender‐based stereotypes can result in female police officers paying a higher price (i.e., viewed as less legitimate) relative to male officers for mistreating people. The invariance thesis posits that the effect of (un)fair treatment by legal authorities on legal attitudes and beliefs is stable across situations, time, and space. This study tested the invariance thesis by assessing whether the effect of procedural injustice on police legitimacy differed across officer gender. A factorial vignette survey that consisted of two types of citizen‐initiated police encounters was administered to a university‐based sample (N = 525). The results showed that the effect of procedural injustice had a powerful and significant influence on participants' legitimacy perceptions. These effects were consistent regardless of whether the treatment was doled out by a male or a female police officer. The findings provide support for the invariance thesis.     

Integrating the criminal justice system into mental health service delivery: the worcester diversion experience

The substantial number of persons with mental illness encountered in many sectors of the criminal justice system has spurred actors from various agencies within that system to take actions aimed at reducing the growth of this population. These actions have included the development of specialty police units, jail diversion programs, and other mechanisms for channeling persons with mental illness out of the criminal justice system and into mental health treatment. The courts, too, have become involved in this effort with the recent development of the "mental health court," the latest of the "specialty" or "problem solving courts." These courts have not been without their critics, however, nor are they the only feasible approach to court-based diversion. This paper identifies and explores a range of options for structuring the relationship between criminal courts and local mental health systems. Beginning with a discussion of the rationale motivating the development of mental health courts, two alternatives to this specialty court model are discussed. One involves judges dealing with defendants having mental illness and substance abuse on a case-by-case basis. The other takes advantages of linkages that may already exist between most courts and the mental health providers who conduct their forensic assessments, expanding the role of these providers to serve as boundary spanners between courts and the components of local mental health systems. Regardless of the model adopted, however, appropriate linkages must exist between the courts and relevant providers. A case study is provided that demonstrates how the status of a locale's linkages can be evaluated and how the information derived from such evaluation can be used to improve the linkages between police, courts, and health and human services agencies.     

The Performer's Reactions to Procedural Injustice: When Prosocial Identity Reduces Prosocial Behavior1

Considerable research has examined how procedural injustice affects victims and witnesses of unfavorable outcomes, with little attention to the “performers” who deliver these outcomes. Drawing on dissonance theory, we hypothesized that performers' reactions to procedural injustice in delivering unfavorable outcomes are moderated by prosocial identity—a helping‐focused self‐concept. Across 2 experiments, individuals communicated unfavorable outcomes decided by a superior. Consistent with justice research, when prosocial identities were not primed, performers experienced greater negative affect and behaved more prosocially toward victims when a superior's decision‐making procedures were unjust. Subtly activating performers' prosocial identities reversed these reactions. Results highlight how roles and identities shape the experience and delivery of unfavorable outcomes: When procedures are unjust, prosocial identity can reduce prosocial behavior.     

Fairness Evaluations of Encounters With Police Officers and Correctional Officers1

The fairness of treatment can be inferred from 2 aspects of the relationship between authority and other party: the person-related aspect and the role-related aspect. One hundred seventy-five American detainees were interviewed about their encounters with police officers and correctional officers. The role-related aspect affected procedural fairness judgments most when first-time incarcerated detainees evaluated the encounter with police officers. The person-related aspect affected procedural fairness judgments most when first-time detainees and repeatedly incarcerated detainees evaluated encounters with correctional officers. Consequences for the group value model of procedural fairness as well as for the legal practice are discussed.     

Young Offenders with Disabilities: Legal Requirements and Reform Considerations

Delinquency rates have been a persistent concern in the United States with juveniles involved in almost a third of arrests for major crimes in 1993. Further, a disproportionate number of youths incarcerated have a disability. Because youths with disabilities in correctional facilities present legal and educational challenges, we explored the parameters of providing appropriate services based on individual needs. Despite applicable federal legislation, the juvenile correctional system often fails to meet the educational needs of those with disabilities (i.e., some youths are denied special education services, services are often inferior to those provided by public schools, and teachers are often inadequately trained). According to federal legislation, juvenile facilities must observe procedural safeguards afforded to those individuals and provide needed services even for pre trial detainees (services, however, may be balanced against legitimate security concerns). Ultimately, state educational agencies have the responsibility for ensuring that youths with disabilities receive a free appropriate education. Promising practices applicable to all youths may include Positive Peer Culture, aggression replacement training, aftercare programs, and research validated instructional interventions.     

Myths and stereotypes of actors involved in domestic violence: Implications for domestic violence culpability attributions

Stereotypes exist about actors involved in domestic violence, particularly women of color. It has been suggested that Black women are more aggressive and accustomed to violence than White women. Moreover, victim resistance, marital status, and perceiver’s sex have all been found to influence perceptions of domestic violence culpability. Since the 1970s, when domestic violence was acknowledged as a social problem, researchers have examined how the lay person’s perceptions of battered women and their batterers are influenced by extralegal factors. Although research on perceptions of domestic violence when White women and men are involved has increased dramatically in recent years, there is a dearth of research on perceptions of such violence when women and men of color are participants. The available findings on the influence of stereotypical notions concerning victims and batterers upon perceptions of domestic violence are examined. This review will provide the available evidence and suggest research areas where information is needed to more fully address the needs of people of color in understanding their own victimization and how actors in the legal system can guard against biased responding.     

Wealth inequality and activism: Perceiving injustice galvanizes social change but perceptions depend on political ideologies

What motivates people to engage in activism against wealth inequality? The simple answer is perceiving injustice. However, the current work demonstrates that these perceptions depend on political ideologies. More specifically, for political liberals who frequently question the fairness of the economic system, messages simply describing the extent of the inequality (distributive injustice) are enough to motivate activism (Study 1). For political conservatives, who are inclined to believe that inequality results from fair procedures, messages must also detail how the system of economic forces is unjust (procedural injustice; Studies 2 and 3). Together, these studies suggest perceiving injustice can galvanize social change, but for conservatives, this means more than simply outlining the extent of the inequality.     

“Everybody is an Artist”: Arts‐based Education and Formerly Incarcerated Young Black Men's Academic and Social–Emotional Development in an Alternative School

Although arts‐based programming is shown to positively influence the development of youth exposed to adversity, little is known about the influence these programs have on formerly incarcerated emerging adult Black men enrolled in an alternative school. With educational resilience as a guiding framework, this qualitative case study explored the ways in which an arts‐based program in the context of an alternative school designed for formerly incarcerated young people facilitates emerging adult Black men's academic and social–emotional development. Data collection consisted of observations and interviews with school personnel and formerly incarcerated Black male students. Analysis and interpretation included a range of inductive techniques (coding, constant comparisons, and memoing). Results indicate that offering arts‐based activities fostered an environment where students could build caring and supportive relationships with peers and school personnel. Instructional practices that integrated music and poetry provided meaningful opportunities for the young men to participate, which appeared to enhance their motivation and attitudes (self, others, learning, and school) and academic self‐efficacy, and lessen their psychological and emotional distress. Study findings provide insights into how an arts‐based program in an alternative school can improve healthy development and academic achievement among formerly incarcerated young Black men transitioning into adulthood.     

Strong body,clear mind: Physical activity diminishes the effects of supervisor interpersonal injustice

We integrate exercise physiology tenets with self-regulation theory to explain how physical activity diminishes the effects of supervisor interpersonal injustice. We posit that individuals can help prevent self-regulation depletion from interpersonal injustice when they engage in physical activity. In Study 1, we manipulated physical activity and interpersonal injustice in a laboratory setting, and in Study 2, utilizing a two-week experience sampling method we examined how employees reacted differently to daily interpersonal injustice as a function of their general level of physical activity engagement. Our results demonstrate that both acute and chronic levels of physical activity attenuate the effects of supervisor interpersonal injustice episodes on self-regulation depletion, which subsequently reduces social undermining directed toward the supervisor. Our findings highlight the theoretical and practical significance of physical activity for interpersonal injustice and for organizations in general.     

Black Applicants’ Reactions to Affirmative Action Plans: Influence of Perceived Procedural Fairness,Anticipated Stigmatization,and Anticipated Remediation of Previous Injustice1

This research was conducted to understand why Black applicants might react negatively to affirmative action plans (AAPs) designed to benefit them. Black engineering students (N= 2,480) reacted to 1 of 8 AAPs, to which they were randomly assigned. Two manipulations were used to form the 8 different plans: plan content (eliminate discrimination, recruitment, training, weak preferential treatment) and plan frame (affirmative action vs. diversity). The effect of plan content on job‐pursuit intentions was mediated by perceived procedural fairness, anticipated remediation of injustice, and anticipated stigmatization. Job‐pursuit intentions were related to interactions between perceived fairness and anticipated remediation, between perceived fairness and anticipated stigmatization, and between plan content and respondent experiences with discrimination and racism. Plan frame affected only anticipated remediation of previous injustice. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Criminal justice and the drug-abusing offender: policy issues of coerced treatment

Criminal justice populations, including arrestees, probationers, inmates and parolees, have become increasingly involved with drugs of abuse. These numbers have seriously impacted the criminal justice system from enforcement to the courts, corrections, and subsequent legal supervision agencies. Prevalence of substance abuse in these populations is reported, as well as the effectiveness of community-based and corrections-based treatment in effecting behavioral changes to reduce drug demand. The characteristics of successful intervention programs are described and an ideal model proposed for better integrating community treatment and criminal justice intervention efforts.     

Parricides: Characteristics of offenders and victims,legal factors,and treatment issues

Parricides account for about 2% of all homicides. Perpetrators are typically White middle-class males without a history of prior criminal convictions. Most parricides involve single-victim, single-offender situations, with firearms more likely to be used against fathers than mothers. The popular literature as well as much of the professional literature have presented youths who killed a parent as prosocial individuals who feared for their lives. Adults who killed a parent have typically been presented as suffering from a severe mental disorder. These two scenarios describe many parricides. However, major mental disorders among youthful parricidal offenders, conduct disorder and antisocial personality disorder as well as other psychiatric comorbidities also occur in a significant proportion of parricides. Youthful and adult offenders experience different legal outcomes and receive mental health services in differing contexts. We review offender and victim characteristics, as well as legal and treatment issues, and outline needs for future research.     

Neither justice nor charity? Kant on ‘general injustice’

We often make a distinction between what we owe as a matter of repayment, and what we give or offer out of charity. But how shall we describe our obligations to fellow citizens when we are in a position to be charitable because of a past injustice on the part of the state? This essay examines the moral implications of past injustice by considering Immanuel Kant’s remarks on this phenomenon in his lectures and writings. In particular, it discusses the role of the state and the individual in addressing the problem.     

Sentencing Convicted Juvenile Felony Offenders in the Adult Court: The Direct Effects of Race

While research indicates that Black and Hispanic adults sentenced in the criminal court tend to be rendered more severe punishments than their White counterparts, only one prior study has examined whether this finding holds for juveniles tried in the adult system. The findings from this sole study need replication, however, since the effects posed by trial type were not taken into account and it is likely that the results are confounded by measurement error resulting from overlap in criminal sentencing. The current study addressed these issues by assessing whether race has a direct impact on waived juveniles being criminally sentenced to restitution, probation, or jail. Data were derived from a secondary, cross‐sectional national dataset on felony juvenile offenders convicted in the adult system. Three hypotheses were tested. After controlling for a number of important legal and extra‐legal predictors of sentencing, race differences in sentencing outcomes were observed and the findings yielded partial support for the hypotheses. The implications of the research are noted. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Methodological, ethical, and legal considerations in drug court research

Since their inception in the late 1980s, drug courts have become the most prevalent specialty court in the United States. A large body of outcome research conducted over the past two decades has demonstrated that drug courts effectively reduce drug use and criminal recidivism, which has led to the rapid proliferation of these courts. Importantly, drug court research has flourished despite the many challenges faced by researchers when working with a vulnerable population of justice-involved substance users. In this article, we highlight the most common methodological, ethical, and legal challenges encountered in drug court research, and discuss ways in which researchers can overcome these challenges to conduct high-quality research. Drug court research exemplifies how rigorous empirical investigation can be accomplished in the criminal justice system, and it can serve as a useful model for researchers working in other parts of the judicial system.     

Editorial: Challenging injustice: Understanding upstanding,civic action,and bystander intervention to promote justice

Throughout history, individuals and communities have come together to challenge injustice in the local community and across the globe. In recent years, we have seen communities rally together to advocate for changes in policy and practice to address injustices faced by marginalized and disenfranchised groups of people. For instance, communities have taken action through the Movement for Black Lives in the United States, the women's uprising in Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini, and the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. These challenges to social injustices are not only led by adults. Rather, youth engage in civic action to amplify the voices of those who are marginalized, isolated, or victimized and frequently organize to protest injustice and foster collective action through social media or other technology. These challenges to injustice often arise from community-led efforts, rooted in the unique contexts and histories of the local community. This special issue considers challenging injustice broadly to include bystander intervention in instances of bullying, harassment, or aggression, political and civic engagement, anti-racist or anti-oppression activism, and resistance to injustice in institutions and communities. Three overarching themes are featured in this special issue: (1) work examining bullying experiences and factors that motivate bystander intervention in response to bullying; (2) scholarship exploring identity, socialization, and critical action and (3) research focused on collective action and challenging inequalities.