Choua Yang - Soc111 - Crime Quiz

Choua Yang

537 Words

 

Crime Quiz

 

Article 1: "The enduring racial divide in death penalty support" (315 words)

 

Data from the GSS and from a jury pool were used to try to explain why the black and white gap in death penalty support persists over time. Eleven factors (variables) were introduced as explanations for this divide. Among them are socioeconomic status (income, occupation, education), subculture, political ideology, religious orientation, views on right-to-life, social welfare, prejudice/discrimination/racial inequality, experiences with the criminal justice system, fear of crime and victimization experience, punitiveness, and attribution styles.

The GSS data provided trend information from 1972 to 1996. The cumulative data reveals that 72.4% of whites support the death penalty compared to 43.9% of blacks with a statistical significance of p<.0001. Although both white and black support for the death penalty has generally increased over time, the enduring gap still exists (parallel trend between the two). This increasing pattern of support suggests that both whites and blacks respond equally to the same social influences. However, the long-standing gap cannot be explained simply from the data because race remained significant regardless of the introduction of the controls for all eleven mentioned explanations.

The survey of a jury pool conducted in Florida in 1999 and in 2000 had similar results to the GSS data. However, these two studies also included data on Hispanics. The first study (1999) showed that 69.7% of whites supported the death penalty compared to 51.0% of blacks and 53.0% of Hispanics; the second study (2000) showed that capital punishment support from whites were at 86.4% with 77.1% from Hispanics and 64.4% from blacks. Race and ethnicity still played a role in the differences, with the black and white difference still being the largest. Interestingly, study #1 did show that the effect of race became insignificant when controlling for attitudes toward police. However, this was a localized survey, and both this and the GSS data need more replication and more studies to explain the results/reasons for the disparity.

 

Article 2: "Perceived Racial and Ethnic Composition of Neighborhood and Perceived Risk of Crime" (222 words)

 

            The study draws mainly from a 1996 survey of 3000 Florida adults, but also includes information from previous works. It tries to answer how the perceived risk of crime is influenced by different factors, such as race/ethnicity, gender, age, income, education, victimization experience, crime rates, perceived crime rates in the US and in the neighborhood, and perceived percentage of blacks/Hispanics living in the neighborhood

            The results show that gender and victimization experience increase the perceived risk, whereas age, income, and education reduces it. The findings also reveal that perceived black and Hispanic populations predict perceived risk of crime for Hispanics living outside of South Florida. However, this is true for whites living within South Florida. For blacks outside of South Florida, perceived Hispanic populations increases perceived risk of crime.

            The explanation for these results come from the idea of social threat. When whites are in South Florida, they feel threatened by the increasingly large numbers of minorities, especially the Hispanics (32% in S. Florida). Here, the Hispanics have gained and continue to gain economic and political power, largely due to the Cuban population. Outside of South Florida, the Hispanic population is less homogenous, and they feel threatened by blacks and other Hispanic ethnicities. Here, the whites are a clear majority and do not feel their position in society is threatened by minorities.

Crime Quiz

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Best Wishes,

Savannah Corbin

Crime Quiz Resubmission

The first article I chose was " The Burden of Deportation on Children in Mexican Immigrant Families" and this was a study to see how children were affected by their parents being deported back to Mexico. The families studied in this article were from Ohio, where the Mexican community is small, and New Jersey, also relatively small but larger than Ohio's community. In the Ohio community, immigrants are reported to the U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE), for small traffic violations such as running a stop sign. While those in New Jersey are reported to the ICE for more serious offenses, such as driving under the influence. Through the local Catholic Church, she was able to make connections to families who were interested in being interviewed. She had the interviewees choose where they were most comfortable to be interviewed. In her interviews, she also found that in nine of sixteen families, one or both parents were deported back to Mexico.  Some children who lost their father to deportation lost contact with them, because the father is so far away and has been gone for so long. The ex-wives of the men who were deported claimed that their lives changed for the better, because they were no longer abused and they found a man to take care of them and their children. In the New Jersey portion, the author had made previous contacts from families she kept in contact with; she had lived there previously. Contrary to the interviews in Ohio, the interviews in New Jersey were more structured. The questions for the parents ranged from migrant history to effects of deportation on the children; the children were asked about their families and friends at school, the age of the child depended how in depth the questions would be. The results of this portion showed that the families were largely influenced from the fear of deportation in how they lived their lives.

The second article I chose was the " The enduring racial divide in death penalty support," the main focus of this was to measure the difference in how whites and blacks supported the death penalty. Three different surveys were used to collect data from. The tests were "exploratory," meaning that that were not chosen as definite pieces, but supportive. Two of the surveys were jury pools, so this adds a type of credibility due to the experience in the courtroom. The two different races that were specifically studied in this were Blacks and Whites. However, the study also looked at religion, income, political ideology, and urban or suburban living. These factors showed how these values and ways of living influenced the decisions of support for the death penalty. In the aspects of political ideology,  it seemed that conservative Whites had a higher level support of the death penalty over the more liberal minded Blacks. Another finding was that subcultures have an effect on support as well. The white subculture is portrayed as rural and southern in nature, while black subculture is portrayed as defiant and underclass. The results concluded that race had the most significant impact on the support of the death penalty. Meaning that Whites had a higher level of support of it over Blacks.

Valerie: 536

Nolan Dempsey

Crime Quiz Katerina Davila

Katerina Davila 

Soc 111

MWF 10:00 -10:50

391 words 

The methods conducted in the article "The enduring racial divide in death penalty support", were introduced by first asking multiple english speaking people who were age 18 years or older if they either agreed or disagreed with the death penalty being used as the source of punishment to those who have been convicted of murder. The response to determine the answer was to be given with a yes, or a no. Next, the individuals in question were also asked about some of the aspects of their personal life, such as political party preference, religion, thoughts on government spending, and their personal opinion on abortion o name a few. These questions were asked to see if there were any factors that corresponded to each individuals view on the death penalty. The researchers then took their results to analyze and see if there was any racial divide in the support for the death penalty, and if the death penalty was used fairly. The findings show that there was a difference of support between White Americans and African Americans. There was a much higher acceptance of the death penalty as being the punishment for murders from White Americans, then there was from the African Americans. However, the findings also indicated that there had been a slight rise in support for the death penalty from both groups of people. Both lines of support rose gradually the same which suggest that both are influenced the same in some way that makes them agree to this punishment. 

In the article "The impact of light skin on prison time for black female offenders", the main goal was to see if there was a significant relationship between the time black women spend in jail and the tone of their skin color. The data was retrieved on black women from archives in North Carolina at the prison jails. Pictures were not included but the indicators that helped justify if lightness of someones skin color was provided. Officers rated prisoners on how light they believed the inmates skin was by stating if they had light, medium, light medium, dark, etc skin. Jail time of the inmate was also taken and used to compare other inmates jail time to see if there is a significant difference between the time they are given and how light they are. The results indicated that women with lighter who were incarcerated did slightly have a lighter jail time then that of women who had darker skin. 

Re: Crime Quiz

On Oct 15, 2017, at 5:45 PM, Katerina Davila <katerinadavila21@mail.fresnostate.edu> wrote:

Katerina Davila 

Soc 111

MWF 10:00 -10:50

391 words 

The methods conducted in the article "The enduring racial divide in death penalty support", were introduced by first asking multiple english speaking people who were age 18 years or older if they either agreed or disagreed with the death penalty being used as the source of punishment to those who have been convicted of murder. The response to determine the answer was to be given with a yes, or a no. Next, the individuals in question were also asked about some of the aspects of their personal life, such as political party preference, religion, thoughts on government spending, and their personal opinion on abortion o name a few. These questions were asked to see if there were any factors that corresponded to each individuals view on the death penalty. The researchers then took their results to analyze and see if there was any racial divide in the support for the death penalty, and if the death penalty was used fairly. The findings show that there was a difference of support between White Americans and African Americans. There was a much higher acceptance of the death penalty as being the punishment for murders from White Americans, then there was from the African Americans. However, the findings also indicated that there had been a slight rise in support for the death penalty from both groups of people. Both lines of support rose gradually the same which suggest that both are influenced the same in some way that makes them agree to this punishment. 

In the article "The impact of light skin on prison time for black female offenders", the main goal was to see if there was a significant relationship between the time black women spend in jail and the tone of their skin color. The data was retrieved on black women from archives in North Carolina at the prison jails. Pictures were not included but the indicators that helped justify if lightness of someones skin color was provided. Officers rated prisoners on how light they believed the inmates skin was by stating if they had light, medium, light medium, dark, etc skin. Jail time of the inmate was also taken and used to compare other inmates jail time to see if there is a significant difference between the time they are given and how light they are. The results indicated that women with lighter who were incarcerated did slightly have a lighter jail time then that of women who had darker skin. 

Crime Quiz

Katerina Davila 

Soc 111

MWF 10:00 -10:50

391 words 

The methods conducted in the article "The enduring racial divide in death penalty support", were introduced by first asking multiple english speaking people who were age 18 years or older if they either agreed or disagreed with the death penalty being used as the source of punishment to those who have been convicted of murder. The response to determine the answer was to be given with a yes, or a no. Next, the individuals in question were also asked about some of the aspects of their personal life, such as political party preference, religion, thoughts on government spending, and their personal opinion on abortion o name a few. These questions were asked to see if there were any factors that corresponded to each individuals view on the death penalty. The researchers then took their results to analyze and see if there was any racial divide in the support for the death penalty, and if the death penalty was used fairly. The findings show that there was a difference of support between White Americans and African Americans. There was a much higher acceptance of the death penalty as being the punishment for murders from White Americans, then there was from the African Americans. However, the findings also indicated that there had been a slight rise in support for the death penalty from both groups of people. Both lines of support rose gradually the same which suggest that both are influenced the same in some way that makes them agree to this punishment. 

In the article "The impact of light skin on prison time for black female offenders", the main goal was to see if there was a significant relationship between the time black women spend in jail and the tone of their skin color. The data was retrieved on black women from archives in North Carolina at the prison jails. Pictures were not included but the indicators that helped justify if lightness of someones skin color was provided. Officers rated prisoners on how light they believed the inmates skin was by stating if they had light, medium, light medium, dark, etc skin. Jail time of the inmate was also taken and used to compare other inmates jail time to see if there is a significant difference between the time they are given and how light they are. The results indicated that women with lighter who were incarcerated did slightly have a lighter jail time then that of women who had darker skin. 

Cymone Bell

                                                                                                       Cymone Bell 

                                                                                                         535 words

The enduring racial divide in death penalty support

In this article it examines the many factors that may be huge predictors in explaining the correlation between why there are some people who support the death penalty and why there are some people who oppose it.  Race turns out to be the strongest factor because it dominates.  Race dominates even if we controlled for everything else because Blacks tend to feel more targeted when it comes down to the criminal justice system and this is due to the fact that even if there are some blacks that may be victims to crime, they may not be able to get the justice they may be seeking or hoping for due to the fact that they are a black and so therefore justice may not be on their side. There are huge racial disparities or a divide that perpetuates this cycle of distrust amongst the criminal justice system which keeps this problem ongoing. There were also opinions that were taken from the General Social Survey and these opinions were considered because they included other factors that may be the cause with the enduring racial divide when it comes to death penalty support. The factors that were looked at were religion, political ideology, subcultures, income, experience with the criminal justice system, fear of crime and even raised the question of how harsh should the system should be to criminals. In the General Social Survey due to race and support of the death penalty, starting in year 1972 there was a 28.6 percent difference between whites and blacks who supported capital punishment and the racial divide seems to get bigger as the survey years get older and by the year 1996 the gap seems to get smaller between blacks and whites who support the death penalty but not enough to show a huge significant difference.

 

Black Neighbors, Higher Crime? The Role of Racial Stereotypes in Evaluations of Neighborhood Crime

In this article it examines how residents have a high fear of crime if ethnic groups move into their neighborhoods.  In the article it shows that it if a resident perceives that there are young African American men in their neighborhood, and then they become scared. When it comes down to a resident being scared, it is not the amount of crime that shapes their fear but rather the percentage of African American men that are in their neighborhood. Many whites would rather move or live in neighborhoods that aren't predominately black because on average there are higher crime rates that are in black neighborhoods and also the housing market seems to depreciate.  In the article it also shows how the number of police reports in a neighborhood did create a certain perception and or effect on crime in the neighborhood.  If there a certain crimes that are not being reported to the police then these neighborhoods can give off the perception that they are free of crime and they really are not and if the police at times do not record the crimes that are reported to them then this also can give off the perception that a neighborhood is crime free when in reality actual crimes are occurring. 

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Crime Quiz

Priscilla Gabriel, 445 words

            In the articles, "The enduring racial divide in death penalty support" and "An investigation of reporting violence to the police: A focus on Hispanic victims" they both looked at the different factors that could have led to the racial divide within their results. In the first article "The enduring racial divide.." they looked at different explanations for the racial divide of supporters for capital punishment. For example, they looked at their socioeconomic status, the differences in political party and ideology, religious orientation, and their support for the right-to-life. This article mainly focused on Whites and Blacks. As they were researching they found many reasons as to why they couldn't count on some factors to determine the reasoning for the racial divide. There were many great findings with their research however, it wasn't tested enough to be considered valid information. They began to gather this information to make a more in-depth survey to get more data. Once these findings were accurately tested more and in depth there were even more problems that they found. In their findings, their results didn't come out correctly and were missing some data for certain answers. This just made it harder for them to find what the real reasoning was behind the racial divide of death penalty support. At the end of the article they explained that with the lack of data they needed, it meant that none of the explanations for the racial divide could be accurate to show if they affected the results or not. The second article "An investigation of reporting violence…" was like this one because it also looked at different races and what the results were of the different races. This article was comparing the results of what percentage of the time crime was being reported to the police. They looked at Hispanics, non-Hispanic Whites, and non-Hispanic Blacks. Within these different races, they could find similarities in the characteristics of people who reported crime to the police. One finding they collected was that a similar characteristic between all three races was a female who is more likely to report a crime. They also found that a similar characteristic that was least to be reported is the crime of rape/sexual assault against a female. There was also a similarity between Hispanics and non-Hispanic Blacks which is a never married female who has gone through rape/sexual assault and is uninjured. This result is for those who least reported a crime to the police. To gather this data they had to call people ages twelve and older every six months to get information and to see how and if it changes as time goes on. 

Parinav Kanwar

                                                                                   Parinav Kanwar, 463 words

Ethnicity, information sources, and fear of crime

This study focused on studying gang crime in Orange County in 1997. The researchers used random digit dial to survey residents with equal number of women and men. The population was randomly sampled to represent two primary groups whites and Latinos. The study used computer aided television interviewing system to conduct bilingual interviews. The dependent variable of the study was fear of the crime which was measured on a four point scale of very afraid to not afraid. The study had many independent variables including demographic characteristics, primary source of information about crime, perceived risk of victimization. The results indicated that younger people living in the central district and females felt more as compared to other groups. Regarding sources of information older and educated groups looked primarily for newspaper for crime information. In the study, more educated groups and Latinos felt more at risk of crime as well as relied on television for news source. According to study this could be due to "indirect victimization" resulting from fear of crime because of different media sources used by people to gain information. It could also be due to that newspaper readers are more likely to read articles and skip uninteresting ones and evaluate the articles to gather information. Also, newspaper include more information about context of crime than television.

Fear of crime among Chinese immigrants in Metro-Detroit.

The researchers studied the fear of crime among Chinese immigrant in metro Detroit area. The study collected data in 2011 through a survey translated from English to Chinese. The researcher used convenience purposive sampling to gather detailed information about respondents. A regression analysis and t-test was performed to check for significant differences between variables. Fear of crime was the dependent variable of the study and independent variable was knowledge of crime and perception of victimization and neighborhood conditions and satisfaction with police. The results concluded that higher level of crime was found for violent crime than property crime. It was also found that people ranked racially motivated assault lower. This could be due to that American society have progressed and become much more integrated and tolerant. Researchers also thought that it could be that Chinese are less sensitive to racially motivated crimes.

Both of the studies analyzed fear of crime among groups the former studied wo groups of people whites and Latinos whereas the latter focused on only one groups Chinese. The first studied relied on interviews based on computer whereas the second one relied on survey responses to study fear of crime. The second study also brought an important point of type of crime which was no assessed in the first study while it focused on a small subset of population in a particular area. Both studies resulted in more information about the fear of crime and impact of race on it.

 

Cymone Bell

The enduring racial divide in death penalty support

In this article it examines the many factors that may be huge predictors in explaining the correlation between why there are some people who support the death penalty and why there are some people who oppose it.  Race turns out to be the strongest factor because it dominates.  Race dominates even if we controlled for everything else because Blacks tend to feel more targeted when it comes down to the criminal justice system and this is due to the fact that even if there are some blacks that may be victims to crime, they may not be able to get the justice they may be seeking or hoping for due to the fact that they are a black and so therefore justice may not be on their side. There are huge racial disparities or a divide that perpetuates this cycle of distrust amongst the criminal justice system which keeps this problem ongoing. There were also opinions that were taken from the General Social Survey and these opinions were considered because they included other factors that may be the cause with the enduring racial divide when it comes to death penalty support. The factors that were looked at were religion, political ideology, subcultures, income, experience with the criminal justice system, fear of crime and even raised the question of how harsh should the system should be to criminals. In the General Social Survey due to race and support of the death penalty, starting in year 1972 there was a 28.6 percent difference between whites and blacks who supported capital punishment and the racial divide seems to get bigger as the survey years get older and by the year 1996 the gap seems to get smaller between blacks and whites who support the death penalty but not enough to show a huge significant difference.

 

Black Neighbors, Higher Crime? The Role of Racial Stereotypes in Evaluations of Neighborhood Crime

In this article it examines how residents have a high fear of crime if ethnic groups move into their neighborhoods.  In the article it shows that it if a resident perceives that there are young African American men in their neighborhood, and then they become scared. When it comes down to a resident being scared, it is not the amount of crime that shapes their fear but rather the percentage of African American men that are in their neighborhood. Many whites would rather move or live in neighborhoods that aren't predominately black because on average there are higher crime rates that are in black neighborhoods and also the housing market seems to depreciate.  In the article it also shows how the number of police reports in a neighborhood did create a certain perception and or effect on crime in the neighborhood.  If there a certain crimes that are not being reported to the police then these neighborhoods can give off the perception that they are free of crime and they really are not and if the police at times do not record the crimes that are reported to them then this also can give off the perception that a neighborhood is crime free when in reality actual crimes are occurring. 

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Crime Quiz

                                             Diana Lara Lara
                                                   360 words
In the required article " The Enduring Racial Divide in Death Penalty Support" its methods and findings are in the survey they looked at. The general social survey is about if the people support the death penalty. In this article it surveys the people that identify themselves as Whites or Blacks. As well, it shows that Blacks are less likely to least favor the death penalty than the Whites would. The things that were important in the article was the income they received, the experience with the criminal justice, their fear of crime and how they view how harsh the criminal justice can be. Income had a big difference that lead to have different opinions on the death penalty, also education was one of the factors. In their exerpience with the criminal justice, Blacks are most likely to be the victims when it comes to crime and they may depend on the criminal justice for protection. As well Blacks fear of Care more than Whites do, but the ones who do report to have more fear of crime are Whites. 

Another article "A Punishing Look: Skin Tone and Afrocentric Features in the Halls of Justice" the crime committed, their sentence is determined on the color of their skin. If the person's skin color is darker it was most likely to get a much worse consequence. For example, if the individual's skin color is much darker they are most likely to go to prison rather than going to probation and they are also treated worse. This example implies to Whites as well. Depending on where the individual lives, their age, skin tone and Afrocentric facial features, the crime type determines their sentence and the sentence length. Their sentence type can be to stay or to go to prison and their sentence length can be months. If the crime is violent then its most likely for the individual to go to prison. The case history and criminal history gets looked at. The most important features are the skin tone and Afrocentric facial features; physical features can be broad nose, big lips, etc. The research in this article also process that the African Americans with lighter skin color not only get it easier than darker skin tone African Americans but also have a better income. 

Michael Koontz

Michael Koontz

Soc 111

MWF 10:00 -10:50

484 words

 

Jodi Lane and James Meeker, authors of Ethnicity, Information Source, and Fear of Crime,  wanted to know the type of influence the media and perceived fear had over Whites and Latinos, and also see if education, age, gender, community, culture had anything to do with how they perceived the news. The researchers speculated people who live in high crime areas would have different interpretation information and have a different level of fear to crime than someone who lives in a low crime area.  

A digital survey was conducted in Orange County randomly sampling equal number of men and women to scale from 1-4 the fear level if one of these eight crimes would have happen to them, home evasion, assault, etc. Responded were asked what type of media outlet the used to get their news, if they have been a victim of a crime, and what area they lived in. They than compared the effects between newspaper and T.V, then just newspaper for Whites and Latinos, and then just television.

What they found is young people who live in high crime areas and who have been a victim of one of the eight crime and got their news information from television had a higher rate of fear. But older people, people who lived in other parts of the county and was not a victim from one of the eight crime were not as afraid. Researcher's concluded that people who received their information from newspaper had a higher education and or were older. Also television and newspaper have different ways of delivering information. T.V can make more of a connection while newspaper are about stats and trends. People could actually visibly see the aftermath of the crime and often times were reported in neighborhoods that looked like theirs which heighted the fear. While newspaper only tell you who committed the crime and where it happen.

In the article Black Neighbors, Higher Crime? The role of Racial Stereotypes in Evaluation of Neighborhood Crime what to know the reason why some people associate higher crimes with black neighborhoods. To conduct this survey, researchers use three sources of data that dealt with the person being interview and the neighborhood. The three sources are Crime Factors and neighborhoods decline in Chicago study, the Testing Theories of Criminally and Victimization in Seattle study, and Crime Changes In Baltimore.

The Chicago study and Crime Changes in Baltimore randomly interview Thousands of people and focused on people and their perception of crime and neighborhoods, while the Testing of Criminality and Victimization in Seattle focused more the person attitudes and experience of a crime.

What researchers found is there is a strong assumption between young black males and high crime in a neighborhood even though there no crime being committed. Researchers cannot accurately explain why without speculation, why white people will move out or not move into a neighborhood where African American live.  

Valerie Crime Quiz

The first article I chose was " The Burden of Deportation on Children in Mexican Immigrant Families" and this was a study to see how children were affected by their parents being deported back to Mexico. The families studied in this article were from Ohio, where the Mexican community is small, and New Jersey, also relatively small but larger than Ohio's community. In the Ohio community, immigrants are reported to the U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE), for small traffic violations such as running a stop sign. While those in New Jersey are reported to the ICE for more serious offenses, such as driving under the influence. Through the local Catholic Church, she was able to make connections to families who were interested in being interviewed. She had the interviewees choose where they were most comfortable to be interviewed. In her interviews, she also found that in nine of sixteen families, one or both parents were deported back to Mexico.  Some children who lost their father to deportation lost contact with them, because the father is so far away and has been gone for so long. The ex-wives of the men who were deported claimed that their lives changed for the better, because they were no longer abused and they found a man to take care of them and their children. In the New Jersey portion, the author had made previous contacts from families she kept in contact with; she had lived there previously. Contrary to the interviews in Ohio, the interviews in New Jersey were more structured. The questions for the parents ranged from migrant history to effects of deportation on the children; the children were asked about their families and friends at school, the age of the child depended how in depth the questions would be. The results of this portion showed that the families were largely influenced from the fear of deportation in how they lived their lives.

The second article I chose was the " The enduring racial divide in death penalty support," the main focus of this was to measure the difference in how whites and blacks supported the death penalty. Three different surveys were used to collect data from. The tests were "exploratory," meaning that that were not chosen as definite pieces, but supportive. Two of the surveys were jury pools, so this adds a type of credibility due to the experience in the courtroom. The two different races that were specifically studied in this were Blacks and Whites. However, the study also looked at religion, income, political ideology, and urban or suburban living. These factors showed how these values and ways of living influenced the decisions of support for the death penalty. In the aspects of political ideology,  it seemed that conservative Whites had a higher level support of the death penalty over the more liberal minded Blacks. Another finding was that subcultures have an effect on support as well. The white subculture is portrayed as rural and southern in nature, while black subculture is portrayed as defiant and underclass. The results concluded that race had the most significant impact on the support of the death penalty. Meaning that Whites had a higher level of support of it over Blacks.

Valerie: 536

SOC 111 (MonWedFri 10AM) - Crime Quiz Essay Response - Alexander Ray Salmeron

Alexander Ray Salmeron - 547 words

Today I read two articles, "The Enduring Racial Divide in Death Penalty Support" by John K. Cochran and Mitchell B. Chamlin and "Black Neighbors, Higher Crime? The Role of Racial Stereotypes in Evaluations of Neighborhood Crime" by Lincoln Quillian and Devah Pager. These articles regard racial divisiveness on a political issue and the role race plays in identifying criminal activity, respectively.
In the article "The Enduring Racial Divide in Death Penalty Support", John K. Cochran and Mitchell B. Chamlin conduct a study which attempts to identify the significant factor accountable for the divisiveness between the viewpoints of white and blacks over the death penalty. Countless factors such as race, socioeconomic status, religiousness, and bureaucratic stance of respondents are each taken into consideration in this study. Prior literature analysis concludes that there are eleven significant reasons for racial support of the death penalty from both whites and blacks. A majority of these factors derive from opposing viewpoints of whites and blacks on political stances such as abortion, the criminal justice system, discrimination, religion, government spending, and economic spending. This study collected data from three sources, including two studies conducted in urban populations and one from the NORC- General Social Survey. The GSS prompted three questions regarding the death penalty, with each question worded differently in order to obtain significant data. Subfactors were assessed by measuring the eleven factors of death penalty support from both race groups. Findings exhibit that whites hold elevated levels of support for the death penalty compared to blacks. There is also indication that approval rates of the death penalty from both parties have increased over time. The gap between death penalty approval rates of whites and blacks has also increased, with whites supporting the punishment further. The NORC-GSS was unsuccessful in pinpointing the essence of the racial interstice in capital punishment support.
In "Black Neighbors, Higher Crime? The Role of Racial Stereotypes in Evaluations of Neighborhood Crime", Lincoln Quillian and Devah Pager explore possible relationships between perception of crime in neighborhoods and the population of black men in such neighborhoods. Surveys conducted in Baltimore, Chicago, and Seattle, accompanied by crime statistics provided by police departments from each of these cities, accounted as data for this study. The main sources of data used for this study were extracted from prior findings of researchers like Richard Taub and Garth Taylor (1997), Terme. D. Miethe (1998), and Ralph Taylor (1999). Each of the three prior studies regard individual and neighborhood elements which account for perceptions of crime. The total percentage of black men in a neighborhood served as the independent variable in all three studies. The perception of criminal activity in the respondent's community served as the dependent variable in all three studies. In the Chicago study, a total of 2,796 respondents of Hispanic, Caucasian, and African-American background were extracted from the initial total of 3,312 respondents. The incorporation of Hispanic and Caucasian backgrounds served as a method in identifying significant crimes committed by young African-American males. The Baltimore and Seattle studies gathered a base sample of 4,494 and 609 respondents, respectively. The Chicago study prompted respondents to answer five questions regarding neighborhood crime, whereas the Baltimore and Seattle studies inquired one question. Questions were aimed at finding a correlation between crime rates and young African-American males within a neighborhood. Significant findings were revealed for each city. Each study indicates that there is significant correlation between perception of criminal activity within a neighborhood and the percentage of young African-American males residing in that area.

Megan Dudley

Megan Dudley, 516 words

The article "Ethnicity, information Sources and fear of crime" revolves around the idea that there are connections as to why certain races or genders have higher or lower fear of crime. This survey was quite diverse covering many race and ethnicities as it was done in Orange County. They used random digit dialing to reduce bias. They  specifically did interviews in Spanish to focus on the latino population being represented.   It was discovered that the white population and the hispanic population have very different opinions of fear of crime. The factors accounted for  included where they live, do they live in an urban or non urban area, inner-city or not inner-city because that makes a difference in attitudes. Urban areas tend to have higher crime rates therefore fear of crime is likely to be higher. Another factor was personal experience, in other words,  whether or not  they have been a victim themselves. Education was accounted for as well as age, whether the interviewees were relatively older or younger tended to make a difference.The final factor included was gender. Overall the researchers were trying to look at how individuals felt about crime, essentially whether they had a fear of it or not. 

Basically, they found whites and hispanics have differing approaches to fear of crime. Hispanics overall have higher fear of crime and this is most likely due to their media exposure. Hispanics are more likely to watch the news on televisions, which is much more graphic and emotional. Whites generally get their news from newspapers and therefore they are not seeing what is happening in society rather they are reading about it. Another reason included neighborhoods in which the interviewees live,  as well as personal victimization. Latinos are more likely to live in an inner-city neighborhood. The crime rates in inner-city areas are higher than those in suburban  areas. Gender also played an important factor,  it showed females have higher fear of crime, but actually get victimized less. Also, the younger you are the higher fear you tend to have. The uneducated were also represented with higher fear rates. It is crucial to note here that information sources can be shaped by ethnicities and can shape attitudes of fear of crime.

In the article "The Enduring Racial Divide in Death Penalty Support" the authors are discussing the controversial topic of the death penalty and whether or not individuals are in support of this capital punishment. They looked at factors such as socioeconomic status, religion, political views,urban versus rural, fear of crime, attitudes about racial inequality, and experiences with criminal justice system or personal victimization. This study looks at a general social survey about whether or not you support the death penalty. 

The difference between the white and black populations is generally stable. There is a persistent racial divide in the support for the death penalty and it is constant throughout the study. Whites and blacks remain relatively equal in the support or non support of the issue. The study proved that race is the most crucial factor when looking at this racial divide, because it is consistent throughout even when all other factors are controlled. 

Sara Greenlee

Crime Quiz

    The required article that I chose to write about was the, "Perceived Racial and Ethnic Composition of Neighborhood and Perceived Risk of Crime" by Ted Chiricos, Ranee McEntire and Marc Gertz. This article delves into the racial makeup of residents in Southern Florida, and what these residents in Southern Florida think of the different races in their neighborhoods, specifically looking at Blacks, Whites, and Hispanics in the area. The researchers in this study composed questions asking how safe residents felt in their neighborhoods, with the dependent variable being residents and their perceived risks of criminal victimization. The independent variable was the residents in this study, and their views on the racial makeup of their designated neighborhoods. As for the findings of this study, the authors found that perceptions of certain races in these communities was heavily weighted on whether the residents were Black or Hispanic, whereas White neighborhoods didn't have the negative perceptions about them, like Black and Hispanic neighborhoods do because Florida is a very racially diverse state. My second article of choice to examine was, "Preferences for Juries Over Judges Across Racial and Ethnic Groups" by Mary R. Rose, Christopher Ellison, and Shari Seidman Diamond.

    "Preferences for Juries Over Judges Across Racial and Ethnic Groups" discusses how not every court case is the same. Not the same, in terms of having a judge or jury decide the sentencing of the defendant, and whether or not this difference in court proceedings is dependent on the race of the defendant. To research this, the authors of this study surveyed 1,465 Texas residents. The authors began by explaining four hypothetical circumstances to each resident, and then based off of those four hypothetical circumstances, asking residents if they would choose either a jury or judge to oversee the case on their behalf.  The dependent variable in this article being that of the four hypothetical circumstances. The independent variables were the races of the survey's participants, specifically Hispanics, African Americans, and non-Hispanic whites. As for the results of this article, it was found that whites, or non-Hispanic whites, chose juries over judges overseeing their cases. On the reverse side of things, it was African Americans, and some Hispanics, that chose to have judges oversee their cases, versus juries. The minority participants that have had previous jury duty, however favored juries or judges. Lastly, Hispanics who took the survey in Spanish favored judges over juries. All in all, members of society, specifically minority groups who have histories of mistreatment in the criminal justice system, prefer judges over juries to oversee their cases, due to biases towards the defendant, that may more easily form in juries. In the words, the authors of this article are saying that it is a strong possibility that because everyone has preconceived biases towards certain races, minorities feel that if a wider pool of people is examining their case, minorities have a greater chance of a worse sentence. Thus the reason for why minorities favor judges to oversee their cases, not juries.  

 

Anthony Hernandez Soc 111 M/W/F 10:00-10:50 A.M.

Anthony Hernandez, 549 Words

1. The Enduring Racial Divide in Death Penalty Support

The article examines the effects of socioeconomic status, religion, political ideology, social issues, fear of crime, criminal justice experience, ideas about punishment, and attribution styles on death penalty support. It is known that whites support the use of the death penalty more than blacks for capital punishment. Even while controlling all of these factors, there was no difference found among these factors that changed the perspective of whites' or blacks' support for the death penalty.

For political ideology, the researchers found that even though there were blacks who identified as being conservative, they still did not support the death penalty compared to whites who were also conservative and supported the death penalty. Even after accounting for each unique variable by itself, the researchers found that each variable displayed the same constant disparity of death penalty support between blacks and whites. The data used to present this information was collected by the General Social Surveys as well as two local area surveys. Even before the independent variables were presented, there was a constant divide of death penalty support found throughout the General Social Survey results.

The results in the experiment shows us that there still is a unique factor accountable for the racial divide of death penalty support. Even though the article was not able to find the reason why this occurs, it will be able to help future experiments further by having a basis for what didn't work the first time this was researched on.

2. Ethnicity, Information Sources, and Fear of Crime

The experiment conducted examined how the primary source of information about crime influenced their perceived risk and fear of gang crime in the white and latino population. The article aims to discover if there is a disparity between whites' perceived fear of crime compared to latinos' fear of crime. The article examines five different methods to determine if there is a difference in fear of crime. They look at the fear from gang related crimes, fear about eight specific crimes, perceived risk of being a victim and fear of those crimes, impact of source of crime information, and separation of white and latino data.

The data collected was gathered through a random digit dial survey for Orange County residents in which the genders of the participants were split equally to include an equal amount of males and females. When newspaper is the primary source of information, there is a less perceived risk and fear of crime while television increases both when it is the primary source of information. Latinos use television more often than whites as their primary source of information which results in a higher fear and risk of crimes. Whites commonly use newspaper as their primary source of information which results in less fear and risk of crime. The age for whites impacts their fears and risk of crime while age did not have an effect on the latino population. The researchers found that whites are less likely to use television as their main source of crime information as a result of being more educated as well as living in a more wealthy or safe neighborhood. Latinos are found to live in poorer neighborhoods which ends up causing the television to be one of the main sources of information and results in a larger risk and fear of crime compared to whites.

Victoriano Gutierrez

Victoriano Gutierrez

599

The Enduring Racial Divide in the Death Penalty Support observes explanations for racial divide in the death penalty support. White American support reached 79% and African American support dropped to 28% at times. Racial differences in experiences with the criminal justice system, the fear of crime and victimization experience, prejudice, discrimination, and beliefs about racial inequality accounted for African and white American positions on capital punishment and the death penalty. On average an African American male who appears lower class is judged faster and more negative than a white American male who appears lower class. White Americans and police officers are more likely to judge the African American. Their judgement could either be right or wrong. Police officers are usually people's first interaction with the criminal justice system. African Americans have a disproportionally higher rate of arrest from police scrutiny and brutality. Throughout the criminal justice system: law enforcement, courts, corrections, probation, and capital punishment African Americans are arrested, convicted, and rehabilitated by an unjust system. Disregarding income, political ideology, gender, religion, and neighborhoods African Americans oppose the death penalty. African Americans are unfairly sentenced with the death penalty because it abuses them more than other ethnicities.

Perceived Racial and Ethnic Composition of Neighborhood and Perceived Risk of Crime discussed how Florida residents interpreted the racial configuration of communities and interpreted crime risk. White, African, and Hispanic Americans were interviewed. Southern Florida resides 70% of Florida's entire Hispanic population. In southern Florida the African American population is 41%. African American's perceived crime risk did not relate to the perceived distribution of racial neighborhoods. Within southern Florida, Hispanics did not perceive a crime risk from the vicinity of Hispanic and African Americans. Outside of southern Florida Hispanics did perceive crime risk when nearby Hispanic and African Americans. Outside of southern Florida, whites did not perceive a crime risk from the closeness of Hispanic and African Americans. Whites did perceive a crime risk from the propinquity of Hispanic and African Americans in southern Florida. People feel more comfortable around people like themselves. Southern Florida thrives with Hispanic communities because 70% of Florida Hispanics live in southern Florida. Due to an established Hispanic community, more Hispanics moving in does not create a perceived crime risk for Hispanics. People with the same nationality understand each other better, make stronger evaluations and observations without jumping to conclusions too quickly, and are more capable of seeing the good or the bad within a person because they understand their own culture. In southern Florida, it is easier for a Hispanic than a white American to distinguish if another Hispanic poses as a threat. Whites in southern Florida may have a relation between perceived crime and perceived racial composition of neighborhoods because they cast judgement on the minority groups surrounding them.

Both articles are a demonstration showing people have an instinct for a sense of preconceived judgement. Regardless of race or ethnical background an individual makes judgement on the individual standing across from them. An individual's clothing, means of transportation, and music lead to casted judgement. The judgment could be positive, negative, or neutral; however, it is some type of judgment. This judgment comes as an instinct because it is our first defense against harm. This preconceived judgement is complicated to discuss and nonetheless debatable. The criminal justice system interprets the conduct one way, and everyone else sees it a different way. Society needs to be careful about judgement made towards others because it may not be true. Citizens cannot be so quick to judge, and police officers need to be more careful on who they judge.

Jessica Helm Crime Quiz Essay

Jessica Helm

Perceived Racial and Ethnic Composition of Neighborhood and Perceived Risk of Crime

Black Neighbors, Higher Crime? The Role of Racial Stereotypes in Evaluations of Neighborhood Crime

Crime Quiz

            The perception of crime within the community stems from many concerns about safety within a neighborhood. The two articles Black Neighbors, Higher Crime? The Role of Racial Stereotypes in Evaluations of Neighborhood Crime, and Perceived Racial by Lincoln Quillian and Devah Pager and Ethnic Composition of Neighborhood and Perceived Risk of Crime by Ted Chiricos, Ranee McEntire, and Marc Getrz examine ethnic minorities presence on the perception of safety and crime within their communities and others.

            An African American socioeconomic status, a key factor in the continual segregation within communities. The level of crime perceived in a neighborhood correspondence to influx and departure of the citizens within that neighborhood. The article Black Neighbors, High Crime? The Role of Racial Stereotypes in Evaluations of Neighborhood Crime, provides background into perceived notions of African Americans, neighborhoods, and heightened crime. The main factor that the article found was the percentage of young African American males in a neighborhood, formed the opinion about the degree of crime in a neighborhood. The decline of the white population in integrated neighborhood is cause by the crime and social problems within a neighborhood. Stereotypes about African Americans changed and influence the perception of African American community, into a dangerous community with a heighten level of crimes, even if minimal crime occurs. These stereotypes and factors about African American communities can be attributed to the continual level of segregation within a neighborhood.

            In Perceived Racial and Ethnic Composition of Neighborhood and Perceived Risk of Crime describes the examination of the perceived racial composition of a community and it connection to the fear of crime within that community. The study was conducted on White, Hispanic, and African American are their perceived ethnic makeup of their community within a mile radius. Highest perceived risk came from females, American Americans, Hispanics, and from people who have been victimized in a crime before, level of education had an influence of perceived risks within these communities.

            The racial and ethnic composition of communities correlates with the perceived level of crime. The two articles, Higher Crime? The Role of Racial Stereotypes in Evaluations of Neighborhood Crime, and Perceived Racial and Ethnic Composition of Neighborhood and Perceived Risk of Crime take a look into factors that influence the publics notion of community safety. The articles claim that the perception of crime and perception of than ethnic makeup of a community, can determine public views about the safety in that community, due to the presence of minorities.

            Within the two articles, it is obvious that racial bias whether conscious or unconscious continues to influence people's opinion about safety and crime within their community. People who differ from the majority race within that community are often perceived as a threat, regardless of actual crime rate. Peoples judgement about the security within a community stem from whether they were a victim before and their education level. Ethnic minorities in a community are perceived dangerous even if little to no crime occurs in that community.    

Alina Moua

Crime is an action against humanity. Crime is ubiquitous and happens all over the world. Those who fear crime tries to avoid at risk situations that can lead to physical harm or being victimized. Humans can sense danger when individuals violate expected rules and norms.

In the article Ethnicity, information sources and fear of crime, the author researches more in depth of what makes people develop fear. They conducted a survey about gang crime in Orange County. The dependent variables that were considered are graffiti, rape, drive bys, home invasion robbery, and gang related activities. The independent variable included neighborhood and primary source of information about crime. Where people get their sources about crimes and how they proceed it is an important aspect.

The authors Lane and Meeker found that depending on your ethnicity and where you get your news from, it shapes your fear of crime. For instance, Whites and Latinos have a different approach to fear. From studies, White people get their news source from the newspaper. On the other hand, Latinos get their news from television. Television has the power to portray graphic images and live footage of real world situations. For this matter, minorities such as Latinos have a higher rate of fear than Whites; due to the difference in their media sources. What the authors also found was that education played a factor in people's level of fear. Uneducated people have higher fear versus those who are educated. The educated people tend to have a higher income, therefore it can buy them protection. Fear is a natural response. The riskier the situation you're in, the higher your risk.

How people develop fear can also be due to their perception. In the article, Perceived Racial and Ethnic Composition of Neighborhood and Perceived Risk of Crime, the authors conducted a random sample of 3,000 Florida residents. The dependent variable on racial composition and perceived threat of crime was divided into three categories. They wanted to understand why people feel more afraid of certain neighborhoods.

From their findings, there's no objective measurements of crime. It's not a crime rate that causes an individual's fear of crime, but their own perception. Fear of crime is higher as people perceive a threat of new incoming ethnic minorities regardless of the real crime in the neighborhood. The movement of new people in a community leads to a sense of fear of crime. When there are new neighbors, people get a sense of competition and threat that develops a sense of fear. How a person sees a situation explains why they develop such fear. In this specific article, people's fear of crime is about the sense of their community.

Crime is a deviant behavior that violates social norms. Developing fear of crime depending on the individual's background, resource, and outlook. As humans, there are strong set of rules, roles, and assumptions that shape how people fear crime.