IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jscscx/v6y2017i3p67-d102578.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Media Exposure and Racialized Perceptions of Inequities in Criminal Justice

Author

Listed:
  • Valerie Wright

    (Department of Criminology, Anthropology, & Sociology, Cleveland State University, 2121 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44115, USA)

  • Isaac Unah

    (Department of Political Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3265, USA)

Abstract

Does media exposure to salient criminological events exacerbate racialized perceptions of injustice? We examine whether closely following media coverage of the fatal encounter of George Zimmerman’s shooting of Trayvon Martin moderates racial and ethnic differences in opinion surrounding the event and the U.S. criminal justice system. Our analysis addresses several key aspects of the case: Whether Zimmerman would have been arrested sooner if Martin had been white, whether respondents felt Zimmerman’s acquittal was justified, and whether there is racial bias against African Americans in the criminal justice system. Relying on national opinion surveys before and after Zimmerman’s trial verdict, our findings support the racial gradient thesis by demonstrating that sustained exposure to racialized framing of the incident in the media affects Hispanics the most and hardens entrenched attitudes among African Americans relative to whites. The analysis supports the continuing relevance of the mass media in attitude formation.

Suggested Citation

  • Valerie Wright & Isaac Unah, 2017. "Media Exposure and Racialized Perceptions of Inequities in Criminal Justice," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 6(3), pages 1-22, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:6:y:2017:i:3:p:67-:d:102578
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/6/3/67/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/6/3/67/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Arthur H. Goldsmith & Darrick Hamilton & William Darity Jr, 2006. "Shades of Discrimination: Skin Tone and Wages," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(2), pages 242-245, May.
    2. Nelson, Thomas E. & Clawson, Rosalee A. & Oxley, Zoe M., 1997. "Media Framing of a Civil Liberties Conflict and Its Effect on Tolerance," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 91(3), pages 567-583, September.
    3. Carter, David L., 1985. "Hispanic perception of police performance: An empirical assessment," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 13(6), pages 487-500.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Fine, Adam D. & Rowan, Zachary & Simmons, Cortney, 2019. "Do politics Trump race in determining America's youths' perceptions of law enforcement?," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 48-57.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mubashar Hasan & Mushfique Wadud, 2020. "Re-Conceptualizing Safety of Journalists in Bangladesh," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(1), pages 27-36.
    2. William Darity & Darrick Hamilton & James Stewart, 2015. "A Tour de Force in Understanding Intergroup Inequality: An Introduction to Stratification Economics," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 42(1), pages 1-6, June.
    3. Johanna Dunaway & Regina P. Branton & Marisa A. Abrajano, 2010. "Agenda Setting, Public Opinion, and the Issue of Immigration Reform," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 91(2), pages 359-378, June.
    4. Slaughter-Acey, Jaime C. & Brown, Tony N. & Keith, Verna M. & Dailey, Rhonda & Misra, Dawn P., 2020. "A tale of two generations: Maternal skin color and adverse birth outcomes in Black/African American women," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    5. Cao, Liqun & Hou, Charles, 2001. "A comparison of confidence in the police in China and in the United States," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 87-99.
    6. Naomi Kamoen & Jasper van de Pol & André Krouwel & Claes de Vreese & Bregje Holleman, 2019. "Issue framing in online voting advice applications: The effect of left-wing and right-wing headers on reported attitudes," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(2), pages 1-16, February.
    7. Nicholas Jones & Eric Jensen & Karen Battle & Rachel Marks, 2024. "Measuring the Racial and Ethnic Composition and Diversity of the United States Population: Historical Challenges and Contemporary Opportunities," NBER Chapters, in: Race, Ethnicity, and Economic Statistics for the 21st Century, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Priest, Thomas B. & Carter, Deborah Brown, 1999. "Evaluations of police performance in an african american sample," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 457-465, September.
    9. Randall Akee & Mutlu Yuksel, 2012. "The Decreasing Effect of Skin Tone on Women's Full-Time Employment," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 65(2), pages 398-426, April.
    10. Maria Eduarda Tannuri Pianto & Andrew Francis, 2011. "The Redistributive Efficacy Ofaffirmative Action: Exploring The Role Of Race And Socioeconomic Statusin College Admissions," Anais do XXXVIII Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 38th Brazilian Economics Meeting] 218, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics].
    11. Campante, Filipe R. & Hojman, Daniel A., 2013. "Media and polarization," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 79-92.
    12. Akihiko Kawaura & Sumner La Croix, 2016. "Integration Of North And South American Players In Japan'S Professional Baseball Leagues," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 57(3), pages 1107-1130, August.
    13. Huebner, Beth M. & Schafer, Joseph A. & Bynum, Timothy S., 2004. "African American and White perceptions of police services: Within- and between-group variation," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 123-135.
    14. Paul A. Djupe & Andrew R. Lewis & Ted G. Jelen & Charles D. Dahan, 2014. "Rights Talk: The Opinion Dynamics of Rights Framing," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 95(3), pages 652-668, September.
    15. Thomas, Melanee & DeCillia, Brooks & Santos, John B. & Thorlakson, Lori, 2022. "Great expectations: Public opinion about energy transition," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    16. Douglas Auld & Michael Hoy, 2014. "An economic model of Adopt-a-Highway programmes," Journal of Environmental Economics and Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 3(3), pages 268-277, November.
    17. Martin Baekgaard & Søren Serritzlew & Jens Blom-Hansen, 2016. "Causes of Fiscal Illusion: Lack of Information or Lack of Attention?," Public Budgeting & Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(2), pages 26-44, June.
    18. Nalla, Mahesh K. & Heraux, Cedrick G., 2003. "Assessing goals and functions of private police," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 237-247.
    19. Rademakers, Robbert & van Hoorn, André, 2022. "How Racial Measures Affect the Estimation of Racial Inequality," MPRA Paper 121770, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Hwang, Eui-Gab & McGarrell, Edmund F. & Benson, Bruce L., 2005. "Public satisfaction with the South Korean Police: The effect of residential location in a rapidly industrializing nation," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 585-599.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:6:y:2017:i:3:p:67-:d:102578. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.