Avelina Charles

The first article The Enduring Racial Divide in Death Penalty Support discuss the racial division very clear and consistent overtime between African Americans and White's. What the article tried to investigate was the basis for division. During the study two surveys that had been administered and compared with the General Social Surveys. The independent variables examined racial differences in socioeconomic status, religion, political ideology, social issues, fear of crime, victimization experience, experience with the criminal justice system, and philosophies of punishment. The dependent variable was race, and it still is a factor in today's society. Race was the number one factor explanation for support of the death penalty.

The findings revealed that there is a consistency being measured as far back as the 1970's that shows very clearly that African Americans and Whites have been divided on the death penalty. The methods that were used to justify the findings were the consistent numbers shown on the GSS. When looking at who opposes the death penalty and who favors it, always the results show Whites favor the use of the death penalty and African Americans are not in favor of the practice. The article did mention some flaws in the study. For example, the sample size was not as random because it was taken from a similar location. Second, the past experiences of the individuals were not taken into consideration. These factors could in fact affect their views on the death penalty. The bottom line was, has been, and continues to be race.

The second article was titled A Punishing Look: Skin Tone and Afrocentric Features in the Halls of Justice. This article looks at the concept of Afrocentric features effects on sentencing within the criminal justice system. The study that was used consisted of new data collection to see if there was an association between the type of sentence being received based on the offender's skin tone. More so if they carried any Afrocentric facial features or not, and punishment. The method of researched used was looking at over 850 booking photos of black and white male offenders. The area of study was in Minnesota, and performed in two counties. The specific counties were chosen because they carried the highest concentration of African American population. Also, the two counties hold more than over a third of felony convictions for the whole state. To be able to compare the findings with previous studies those two factors were important.

The dependent variables were broken up into two categories. The first one being sentence type, and the second being sentence length. The results showed that the sentence length given was not affected by Afrocentric features as much as sentence type was. As a matter of fact, when it came to sentence type it made a very big difference. The independent variables were severity of crime, crime history, if they were given trial, and if they had a private attorney. The demographic variables had been broken down by county, age, skin tone, and features. The best explanation for reason for sentence showed to be features. Having darker skin tone and Afrocentric facial features are associated with harsher a sentence type. In fact, even Whites and Hispanics with Afrocentric features will receive higher sentences.