Tou Xiong

Tou Xiong, 461words

Soc 111 M-W 3:30pm

03/19/2017

Crime quiz

            In the article "Perceived Racial and Ethnic Composition of Neighborhood and Perceived Risk of Crime" by Ted Chirico, Ranee McEntire, and Marc Gertz. Johnson studied the relationship of perceived racial and ethnic components within a neighborhood and residents perceived the risk of crime. The information obtained from the study was by a statewide telephone random sample of 3, 000 Florida residents in the fall of 1996. The independent variables used in the study to examine the perceived risk of crime were basic demographic of respondent, perceived percentage of Blacks in neighborhood, perceived percentage of Hispanics in neighborhood, perceived idea of crime in the U.S has increased, index crime rate by city, member of respondent's household been a victim of crime in the past year, marital status, and is respondent currently employed. One finding from the study was that Latinos have more fear of crime due to the influence of news and other media sources on the television. Next, Whites have a lower fear of crime due to more time investing in reading about the news in physical paper form. Another finding is the perceived proximity of Hispanics living nearby is more significant the than the perceived proximity of Blacks for respondents. South Florida Hispanics respondents felt threaten by other Hispanics and Blacks by where they lived. Thus, the perceptions of the racial composition of neighborhood proved to be the main factor in which respondents have the most fear of crime in their neighborhood.

            Next article is called "A Punishing Look: Skin Tone and Afrocentric Features in the Halls of Justice" by Ryan D. King and Brian D. Johnson. In this study, they conducted a research on the association of offender's Afrocentric facial features, offender's skin tone, and criminal punishment. Basically, the study tested if one's offender with Afrocentric facial features and their skin tone affected their criminal sentencing. The sampling frame of 850 cases of booking photographs linked to the offender's criminal sentencing was conducted in Minneapolis and St. Paul specifically in Ramsey and Hennepin Counties. Independent variables used to control for the dependent variable were criminal history, crime type, court trial, demographics, Afrocentric features, private attorney, and the presumption of the offender. One main finding is that offenders, which also included Whites and Hispanics, with Afrocentric facial features and darker skin tone, were given harsher criminal sentencing in comparison to their cohorts. Another finding is that the probability of a dark-skinned Black offender is about 2 times more like to expect probation and 3.5 times more likely to receive a prison sentence increase (King and Johnson, 2016). Another finding is that the more Afrocentric features offenders possessed the odds of staying in prison raises by 30 percent and stay in execution increased by 13 percent (King and Johnson, 2016).