Sukhdaved Sandhu

Sukhdaved Sandhu

Words:529

The Enduring Racial Divide in Death Penalty Support.

Whites are known to be more supportive of the death penalty than blacks. Data from three studies were collected to understand why each race feels this way. The studies examined divides in socioeconomic status. There was a positive correlation between wealth/education and support for capital punishment. It also examined sub cultural differences, political ideology, racial differences, right to life position, and discrimination. The NORC-GSS took surveys asking whether they favor or oppose the death penalty for those convicted of murder. They were also asked which political party they would favor. This survey was supplemented by another survey given to a jury pool. Each of this jury pool was randomized. The first study had 697 subjects and the second 872 subjects. Questions were different for each of the two study groups.  Study 1 found that 69.7 percent of whites were supportive of capital punishment while only 51 percent of blacks and 53 percent of Hispanics supported capital punishment. The finding from the NORC-GSS data showed that the forces for white and black support for the death penalty was unknown. The divide wasn't because of economic status, sub cultural orientations, political persuasion, religions, right to life, or perceptions about criminal justice. There was a consistent failure to account for the racial and ethnic divide so there must be more testing done to figure out what has caused the divide in the support of capital punishment. The study was very limited and tentative in nature so there is a need to repeat this research.

Historical Events and Spaces of Hate: Hate Crimes against Arabs and Muslims in Post-9/11 America

Hate crime over the last three decades has been a social problem of national concern. The United States has adopted legislation against hate crimes. These hate crimes are best described as offenses against a person or property motivated by bias toward race, religion, ethnicity, disability, or sexual orientation. The collected data shows that hate crimes have decrease over the last 20 years, but hate crime against Arabs and Muslims have increased after September 11, 2001. In their research methods they found that over the period of 2001 to 2002 46.6 percent were motivated by racial bias, 18.9 percent by religious bias, 18.6 percent by ethnic bias, 15.4 percent by sexual orientation bias, and .5 percent by bias against the disabled. By this count all hate crimes except crime motivated by racial bias increased. The dependent variable was the anti-Arab and anti- Muslim hate crimes. Hate crimes were the highest against Muslims in 2001 with a total of 481 reported incidents, as well as crimes against other ethnicity with 1502 reports. There was a dramatic increase in religious bias against Muslims. First hate crime data against Arabs and Muslims before September 11, 2001 was collected. Then negative binomial regression to assess whether county-level characteristics that were related with anti-Arab/Muslim hate crimes before and after 9/11. The objective of this research was to find the correlation between 9/11 and hate crimes against Arabs and Muslims. 8 and ½ months before 9/11 hate crimes against Arabs/Muslims increased from 26 and 260 and 8  and ½ months after 9/11 hate crimes increased 517 and 1502. So there was a positive correlation between 9/11 and hate crimes against Arabs and Muslims post 9/11.