Justice in America

As reactions to the O. J. Simpson verdict, the Rodney King beating, and the Amadou Diallo killing make clear, whites and African Americans in the United States inhabit two different perceptual worlds, with the former seeing the justice system as largely fair and color blind and the latter believing it to be replete with bias and discrimination. Drawing on data from a nation-wide survey of both races, the authors tackle two important questions in this book: what explains the widely differing perceptions, and why do such differences matter? They attribute much of the racial chasm to the relatively common personal confrontations that many blacks have with law enforcement - confrontations seldom experienced by whites. And more importantly, the authors demonstrate that this racial chasm is consequential: it leads African Americans to react much more cynically to incidents of police brutality and racial profiling, and also to be far more skeptical of punitive anti-crime policies ranging from the death penalty to three-strikes laws.

Author: Mark Peffley, Jon Hurwitz
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 06/28/2010
Pages: 278
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.85lbs
Size: 8.90h x 5.90w x 0.70d
ISBN: 9780521134750

About the Author
Peffley, Mark: - Mark Peffley is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Kentucky. He is co-editor of Perception and Prejudice: Race and Politics in the U.S. (1998) and the journal Political Behavior. His articles have appeared in numerous journals, including American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, International Studies Quarterly, and Political Psychology.Hurwitz, Jon: - Jon Hurwitz is currently a Professor of Political Science at the University of Pittsburgh. He is co-editor of Perception and Prejudice: Race and Politics in the U.S. (1998) and the journal Political Behavior. His articles have appeared in numerous journals, including American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, International Studies Quarterly, and Political Psychology.