Differential Support for Police Use of Force, the Death Penalty, and Perceived Harshness of the Courts

Abstract

Logistic regression models were estimated using the 1994 General Social Survey to examine effects of race, gender, and geographical region on support for various criminal justice policies. Dependent variables included support for capital punishment, perceived harshness of courts, and support for police use of force under five conditions of escalating severity. African Americans were less likely to support capital punishment and police use of force than their counterparts. These results were enhanced when re-estimated using only the southern sample. Thus, regional prejudices affect minorities' perceptions of bias in criminal justice policy and practices. However, although African Americans were less likely to endorse police use of force in general, we found situationally specific instances in which African Americans did endorse police use of force.