Victim Race Research Articles

Victim-Offender Racial Dyads and Clearance of Lethal and Nonlethal Assault

Previous clearance research provides an incomplete test of theories emphasizing the role of both victim and offender status in police discretion. Using National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS) data, we investigate the impact of both victim's and offender's race, and, in particular, victim— offender racial dyads on homicide clearance by arrest, using event history (survival) analysis, so that time to clearance and censoring are considered. We also compare models for homicide clearance with those for aggravated assault. For homicides, results indicate that incidents with non-white offenders are more likely to be cleared by arrest than those with white offenders, regardless of victim's race. In contrast, for aggravated assault, dyads are important: incidents involving white victims and offenders are most likely to be cleared, with incidents involving non-white parties least likely to be cleared. Furthermore, the impact of victim—offender racial dyads on clearance is smaller for homicide than for aggravated assault.

Violência conjugal, um problema social e de saúde pública: estudo em uma delegacia do interior do Estado do Rio de Janeiro

This article presents data of an investigation for drawing the profile of men and women involved in domestic violence taken from reports made at a police station in a small city in the state of Rio de Janeiro between 1997 and 2001. Data were crossed with the speeches of the couples at the police station. The article highlights the importance of this issue for public health, confirmed both in the feminist literature and in health studies. The results show that cultural determinants have an important influence on the construction of the roles of males and females, legitimating the power of the man over the woman and turning men violent when they cannot control the situation. More than half of the reports of women (53%) was due to corporal injuries, the rest were threats and attempted murder (39%), and psychological abuse (8%) through insults and defamation. The article presents information about the profile, professional status, color and race of aggressors and victims. It is concluded that, despite the feminist movement and other achievements, domestic violence continues reproducing and investments are necessary for understanding, reporting and overcoming the problem and changing behavior patterns.

RACIAL ANIMOSITY AND INTERRACIAL CRIME*

The primary objective of this study is to determine the effect of a victim's race on the likelihood of him or her being seriously injured during the commission of an interracial crime. We also assess the probability of a homicide occurring during an interracial crime. A multilevel city analysis shows that black offenders are no more apt than white offenders to injure their victims seriously during an interracial robbery or rape. A black offender also does not have a greater proclivity to kill his or her victim during the commission of an interracial crime. Some evidence suggests that white victims are more likely than black victims to suffer serious physical harm during an aggravated assault. Results also reveal that contextual factors related to racial animosity, such as residential segregation, white‐to‐black economic inequality, and black‐to‐white unemployment, fail to have any moderating effect on either the severity of victim injury or the likelihood of a homicide occurring during an interracial crime. Overall, the results generated in this study tend to cast doubt on the validity of racial animosity theory. Our findings also lead us to question the veracity of the oftenmade claim that black‐on‐white crimes are punished more severely because these types of offenses are somehow more heinous in circumstance. At least in regard to serious victim injury and victim death, black‐on‐white crime is no more violent than white‐on‐black crime.

Gender and Suicide Risk: The Role of Wound Site

That males have higher suicide rates than females is one of the most empirically documented social facts in suicidology, but the reasons for this continue to be debated. For the present paper, we tested a neglected contributing factor to the gender suicide ratio: wound site or the area of the body that is wounded in firearm suicides. Males may have a higher suicide rate, in part, due to their greater likelihood than women for shooting themselves in the head as opposed to the body. This has been related to gender differences in fear of facial disfigurement and suicide intent. Data from the Wayne County Medical examiner's office regarding 807 suicides committed with firearms was analyzed. The dependent variable was dichotomous and referred to the location of the site of the wound: gunshot to the head vs. gunshot to the body. Controls for demographic covariates of suicide included age and race of the suicide victim. The results of the multivariate logistic regression analysis determined that women were 47% less apt than men to shoot themselves in the head. Further analysis determined that women were less apt than men to use shotguns and rifles in their suicides (weapons that make head shooting more awkward). The findings are consistent with the notion that women are more concerned than men with facial disfigurement, and that women have a lower desire to die than men.

Capital jury deliberation: Effects on death sentencing, comprehension, and discrimination.

This study focused on whether and how deliberations affected the comprehension of capital penalty phase jury instructions and patterns of racially discriminatory death sentencing. Jury-eligible subjects were randomly assigned to view one of four versions of a simulated capital penalty trial in which the race of defendant (Black or White) and the race of victim (Black or White) were varied orthogonally. The participants provided their initial "straw" sentencing verdicts individually and then deliberated in simulated 4-7 person "juries." Results indicated that deliberation created a punitive rather than lenient shift in the jurors' death sentencing behavior, failed to improve characteristically poor instructional comprehension, did not reduce the tendency for jurors to misuse penalty phase evidence (especially, mitigation), and exacerbated the tendency among White mock jurors to sentence Black defendants to death more often than White defendants.

REASSESSING RACE DISPARITIES IN MARYLAND CAPITAL CASES*

A generation of research studies that were conducted in multiple states and covered different time periods has found evidence that individuals who kill white victims encounter a greater risk of facing the death penalty than killers of black victims. More recently, research has also examined the likelihood of death penalty processing for black defendants who kill white victims in comparison with other defendant–victim race groups. In particular, a study in Maryland conducted by Paternoster et al. (2003) found evidence that offenders in black defendant–white victim cases were more likely to be death noticed by prosecutors and to receive a death sentence than other offenders. A recent analysis by Berk, Li, and Hickman (2005) raised questions about some of these findings. In this article, we conduct new analyses and conclude that black defendants who kill white victims face a greater risk of adverse treatment than other types of defendants.

Who is the victim here?

Participants were exposed to a crime story in a 3 (Victim Race — Black, White, or Unidentified) × 3 (Perpetrator Race — Black, White, or Unidentified) × 2 (Stereotype Endorsement — High, Low) factorial design. Afterwards, participants were asked whether they: a) viewed the featured perpetrator as threatening; b) endorsed punitive crime policies; and c) believed a subsequently described suspect was culpable for his offense. Results revealed that stereotype endorsers were more likely than stereotype rejecters to find the suspect most threatening when he was depicted as African American or was left unidentified. In addition, stereotype endorsers were more likely than rejecters to endorse punitive crime policy. Finally, participants were most likely to find a subsequent suspect culpable after viewing a news story containing a White victim and Black perpetrator. The reverse was true when the news story featured a Black perpetrator and Black victim. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.

Race, Prosecution, and Juries: The Death Penalty in Tennessee

The behavior of prosecutors and juries with respect to the decision to impose the death penalty is examined. Using data on 968 first-degree murder convictions in Tennessee from 1977 to 2006, models of prosecutorial and jury behavior are constructed with a focus on the role of the defendant's race and the victim's race. Once significant controls are introduced, neither the race of the defendant nor that of the victim is a significant predictor of prosecutors' decisions to seek the death penalty. Nor is the race of the victim a significant predictor of the jury's decision to impose the death penalty. The defendant's race is a significant, albeit weak, predictor of jury behavior, but only because white defendants are more likely to be sentenced to death. While a number of other variables are significantly related to both prosecutorial and jury behavior, much of the variance in these decisions remains unexplained.

The influence of licence status on Kansas child fatalities due to motor vehicle crashes

The influence of driver licensure on child motor vehicle crash (MVC) deaths in Kansas was investigated. Fatalities from 1994–2000 due to MVCs were extracted from the Kansas State Child Death Review Board and the Fatality Analysis Reporting Systems databases. It was found that 14% (52 of 363) of child fatalities from MVCs in Kansas occurred in vehicles where the driver was not licensed. Driver licence status was associated with use of safety restraints, the victim's age and race, weekend driving and rural county location. All child deaths involving unlicensed drivers were preventable. New legislation on vehicle sanctions may be required to assist law enforcement. Safety restraint laws should be enforced and promoted to the public. Transportation options are necessary for unlicensed drivers, particularly if they have young children and live in a rural community. Thus, a multi-system approach involving law enforcement, accident prevention strategies and transportation options will save the lives of children.

Life and Death Decisions: Prosecutorial Discretion and Capital Punishment in Missouri

This article presents the results of an empirical study of intentional homicide cases in Missouri. The authors created a database of 1046 cases; it includes substantially all of the homicide cases prosecuted in Missouri over a five year period that were initially charged as murder or voluntary manslaughter and that yielded criminal convictions. The authors selected 247 cases from the larger database for more detailed analysis. We analyzed geographic and racial disparities in the rates at which: prosecutors charge first-degree murder versus lesser charges; prosecutors seek the death penalty, not lesser punishments; defendants are convicted of first-degree murder versus lesser crimes; and defendants are sentenced to death, not lesser punishments. The Missouri statute gives prosecutors very broad discretion. We estimate that at least 76 percent of the cases in the database are death-eligible under the statute. However, prosecutors pursued capital trials in only about five percent of the cases. Thus, death-eligible cases in which prosecutors chose not to pursue capital trials comprise at least 71 percent of the cases in the database. Prosecutors in different counties exercise their discretion differently, leading to substantial variation in charging and sentencing practices in different counties across the state. The analysis of cases by race of victim and race of defendant shows that there are racial disparities in charging and sentencing decisions, but the racial disparities are not as significant as the geographic disparities. The article presents measures of racial and geographic disparities without controlling for individual culpability; a follow-on study will introduce culpability measures as control variables.

UNDERSTANDING THE INFLUENCE OF VICTIM GENDER IN DEATH PENALTY CASES: THE IMPORTANCE OF VICTIM RACE, SEX‐RELATED VICTIMIZATION, AND JURY DECISION MAKING*

Using data from the Baldus, Woodworth, and Pulaski (1990) study of Georgia's death penalty system, we examine the influence of victim gender in death penalty cases. Furthermore, to improve our understanding of the meaning of victim gender, we consider 1) the joint effects of victim gender and victim race, 2) victimization characteristics that might explain victim gender effects, and 3) the impact of victim gender at different decision‐making stages in the death penalty case process. We find that both victim gender and race are associated with death sentencing outcomes and that an examination of the joint effects of victim gender and race reveals considerable differences in the likelihood of receiving a death sentence between the most disparate victim race–gender groups. In particular, it seems that black male victim cases are set apart from all others in terms of leniency afforded to defendants. We also show that the effect of victim gender is explained largely by gender differences in the sexual nature of some homicides. An examination of prosecutorial and jury decision making reveals that although victim gender has little impact on prosecutorial decisions, it has a meaningful impact on jury decisions.

To Blame or Not To Blame

There is a paucity of research on the influence of racist and sexist stereotypes in rape blame attribution, including the jezebel and matriarch stereotypes of Black women. This study extends the literature by examining how victim race, perpetrator race, and participant sex affect perceptions of a rape survivor's promiscuity (jezebel stereotype) and strength and/or toughness (matriarch stereotype). The myth of the Black male sexual predator of White women is also investigated. Data provided partial support for the jezebel stereotype. There were also contradictory findings supporting and challenging the acceptance of the Black rapist of White women stereotype. No significant differences were found for the matriarch stereotype. Reasons for and implications of findings are explored.

The Dynamic Nature of Homicide Clearances

Homicide clearance rates in the United States have been steadily declining from the 1960s through the 1990s. Our study asks: (1) Are the factors commonly identified in homicide clearance research as being related to clearances consistent across time? (2) Can these factors shed light on the decline in homicide clearance rates during the past three decades? (3) How are community area characteristics related to clearances across time? Using Chicago data from 1966 to 1995, we find that the factors vary across time and space in terms of statistical significance and magnitude of their relationships. Specifically, the increasing significance of victim's race and firearm usage may account for some of the decrease in homicide clearance rates. Community area characteristics enhance our understanding of homicide clearances, although to a lesser extent than the victim and situational characteristics of a homicide case.

Police Response to Crime

Based on victim accounts provided by the National Crime Victimization Survey from 1992 to 1999, this paper examines issues related to police responses to reported incidents of assault, robbery, and rape. The primary goal was to determine the extent to which victim and offender race influence police responsiveness at various stages of the criminal justice system. The data indicate that overall, police exert more effort when victims are white. They arrive faster at the scene of the crime, and demonstrate more follow-up effort after the crime has taken place. However, they do not exert more, or less effort, during their initial visit to the crime scene, when there is proximate contact with the victims. This suggests that contextual factors may affect the penchant for discrimination. This relationship held even after controlling for other factors such as poverty, weapon use, injury to the victim, and location.

The Interaction Between Victim Race and Gender on Sentencing Outcomes in Capital Murder Trials

This study extends previous research on the interactive effects of victim race and gender on death sentence outcomes reported by Williams and Holcomb (2004). They report an interactive effect between victim race and victim gender on Ohio death sentencing outcomes, such that killers of White women are especially at risk of receiving death sentences. The study here seeks to determine if the Williams and Holcomb finding holds for a sample of murder cases in North Carolina for which the state sought the death penalty. Initial results of a descriptive analysis suggest a White female victim effect, but the introduction of control variables via logistic regression equations yields no gender or race interactions as predictors of sentencing outcomes. Reasons for the different outcomes are explored, and topics requiring further exploration are discussed.

The effects of defendant race, victim race, and juror gender on evidence processing in a murder trial

The effects of defendant race, victim race, and juror gender on sentencing and information processing were examined within the context of a murder trial. A sample consisting of 96, jury eligible White Australians read one of four versions of a real trial transcript, in which the race of a male defendant and female victim were varied. The participants imposed the severest sentences on the Indigenous (Black) defendant. Jurors were most lenient with White defendants who killed a White victim. Female jurors were more punitive than the males toward the Indigenous defendant. Jurors processed evidence systematically in same-race trials, but used both systematic and heuristic processing in mixed-race trials. In these instances, female jurors employed significantly more emotive responses, especially when the victim was Black. The effects of subtle racism and the black processing effect when the victim was non-White are considered.

White female victims and death penalty disparity research*

Empirical studies of the death penalty continue to find that the race and gender of homicide victims are associated with the severity of legal responses in homicide cases even after controlling for legally relevant factors. A limitation of this research, however, is that victim race and gender are examined as distinct and independent factors in statistical models. In this study, we explore whether the independent examination of victim race and gender masks important differences in legal responses to homicides. In particular, we empirically test the hypothesis that defendants convicted of killing white females are significantly more likely to receive death sentences than killers of victims with other race-gender characteristics. Findings indicate that homicides with white female victims were more likely to result in death sentences than other victim race-gender dyads. We posit that this response may be unique and result in differential sentencing outcomes.

The Interactive Effects of Victim Race and Gender on Death Sentence Disparity Findings

Several death penalty studies examine whether victim race is associated with differential death sentencing outcomes; however, these studies tend to ignore the potential interaction of victim race and victim gender on decision-making outcomes. The present article examines the impact of the interaction of victim race and gender on death sentences in Ohio. When victim race and gender were considered, those homicides with White female victims were significantly more likely to result in a death sentence than homicides with other victim characteristics. This finding expands on previous research by identifying a specific victim gender-race combination, White female victim, as an extralegal factor that may partially explain previously identified race-of-victim disparities in death sentencing.

Impact of emergency department–Based intimate partner violence intervention

Study objectives: Thirty percent of women and 5% of men treated in the emergency department (ED) have been victims of intimate partner violence (IPV); therefore, it is essential that EDs screen and offer intervention for IPV victims. Several studies investigated the performance of ED-based IPV intervention in decreasing medical recidivism and increasing community resource use. At the outset of this study, the investigators were unaware of any published studies assessing the impact of an ED-based IPV program on patient safety. This investigation sought to verify the benefit of ED-based IPV counseling and resource referral on patient safety. Methods: The study hospital was an urban Level I trauma center with an annual census of 110,000 patients. Female patients 12 years and older and male patients presenting with risk factors for IPV were screened using the Partner Violence Scale. Critically ill and non–English speaking, non–Spanish speaking patients were not screened. Consenting patients screening positively who accepted consultation with an IPV counselor made up the study population. Inclusion of a control population, to which intervention was not offered, was considered unethical. IPV counselors completed a safety assessment, developed an individualized safety plan, and provided resource referrals. Patients were contacted at 48-hour and 2-, 6-, and 12-week intervals after ED intervention to reassess safety. The intervention's effect on patient safety was assessed by patient-perceived change in safety and fraction of safety plan completed. Simple percentages were calculated to convey the amount of the safety plan completed and the number of patients with a patient-perceived increase in safety. Student's t test and Spearman coefficients were used for grouped and linear variables, respectively, to examine the relationship between recorded demographic and action variables and change in patient safety. Results: Two hundred seventy-eight patients with a mean age of 32 years and a mean annual income of $6,700 underwent initial IPV intervention during the first 16 months of the program. The group described themselves as predominantly black (64%) and white (26%). The mean length of victim-perpetrator relationship was 4 years, with the predominance (65%) described as heterosexual, unmarried partnerships. Seventy-four (27%) patients have been contacted in follow-up. The majority of failed follow-ups (65%) were due to inability to contact the victim after 3 attempts using the provided information; 22 had disconnected telephone numbers, whereas 4 refused to participate in follow-up after consenting initially. Sixty-eight (92%) of the 74 victims contacted after ED-based IPV intervention stated they felt safer. These 74 victims had implemented a mean of 68% of their safety plan tenets. Law enforcement and legal referrals were reported to be the most helpful in improving safety. Correlation between patient-perceived safety and demographic variables was unable to be examined because only 6 victims did not believe their safety improved after IPV intervention. No statistically significant correlation existed between the victim's age, race, income, or length of relationship with the perpetrator and safety plan implementation. In addition, no relationship could be demonstrated between previous attempts at safety (such as leaving the relationship and filing of a police report) and successful implementation of safety plan. Conclusion: This study was limited by insufficient follow-up, although the rate was consistent with that of previous studies involving similar populations. Such a limitation likely stems from the known difficulty of telephone follow-up in an urban ED patient population and is amplified by the focus of this study on a subsegment of that population with inherently unstable living environments. Assuming previously established recidivism of IPV is present in the study population, the data confirm that ED-based IPV intervention improves patient-perceived safety. In addition, ED-based intervention led to implementation of 68% of safety plans. Success of IPV intervention was equitable between victims of varied ages, races, and incomes. Previous attempts to increase safety did not indicate successful implementation of safety plan.

A COMPARISON OF THREE SOURCES OF DATA ON CHILD HOMICIDE

This study compared data from death certificates (DC), medical examiner (ME) reports, and Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for homicides among children age 5 years or younger in Jefferson County, Alabama between 1988 and 1998. Records from each source were matched independently to records from the other two sources. Kappa coefficients measured the chance-corrected agreement between sources. The strongest correlations were for victim's gender and race. Correlations were weakest for victim's relationship to the offender and offender's gender. DC and ME data demonstrated excellent agreement and provided a comprehensive count of homicides in Jefferson County, whereas UCR comparisons had lower correlations. However, the UCR is a valuable source of child homicide data in the United States that is underutilized in public health research.