The study tests the explicit and implicit racial/ethnic divide, gradient, and justice system contact propositions of comparative conflict theory and explores whether prior incarceration experience (personal and vicarious) alters the observed relationship between race/ethnicity and perceptions of injustice. The study uses data from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, the Washington Post, and Harvard University 2006 survey concerning issues relating to African American males. The study found support for the racial/ethnic divide, gradient, and justice system contact hypotheses. The study also found support for the notion that prior incarceration experience intensifies the relationship between race/ethnicity and perceptions of injustice. The gap between African Americans and Whites in perceptions of injustice is more pronounced among persons with prior incarceration experience. The gap in perception of injustice between Whites and Hispanics was also stronger among those with prior incarceration experiences. The gap between African Americans and Hispanics was not impacted by prior incarceration experience. Future research should continue to explore the potential for prior incarceration experience to impact the relationship between race/ethnicity and perceptions of injustice.
AlbrechtS. L.GreenM. (1977). Attitudes toward the police and the larger attitude complex: Implications for police-community relationships. Criminology, 15, 67–86.
BayleyD. H.MendelsohnH. (1969). Minorities and the police. New York, NY: Free Press.
4.
BernardS. J. (1949). Consequences of racial segregation. The American Catholic Sociological Review, 10, 82–100.
5.
BogartR. W.HutchisonE. R. (1978). Public attitudes toward social problems: The impact of shared life experiences in the community of residence. Social Problems, 26, 97–111.
6.
BorduaD. J.TifftL. L. (1971). Citizen interviews, organizational feedback, and police-community relations decisions. Law and Society Review, 6, 155–182.
7.
BrameR.PaternosterR.MazerolleP.PiqueroA. (1998). Testing for the equality of maximum likelihood regression coefficients between two independent equations. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 14, 245–261.
8.
BringJ. (1994). How to standardize regression coefficients. American Statistician, 48, 209–213.
9.
BrunsonR. K. (2007). “Police don’t like Black people”: African-American young men’s accumulated police experiences. Criminology and Public Policy, 6, 71–102.
10.
BucklerK. G.UnneverJ. (2008). Racial and ethnic perceptions of injustice: Testing the core hypotheses of comparative conflict theory. Journal of Criminal Justice, 36, 270–278.
11.
BucklerK. G.UnneverJ.CullenF. T. (2008). Perceptions of injustice revisited: A test of Hagan et al.’s comparative conflict theory. Journal of Crime and Justice, 31, 36–58.
12.
CampG. M.CampC. G. (1985). Prison gangs: Their extent, nature, and impact on prisons. Washington, DC: Federal Justice Research Program, Office of Legal Policy, U.S. Department of Justice.
13.
CarrollL. (1974). Hacks, Blacks, and cons: Race relations in a maximum security prison. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.
14.
CarrollL. (1982). Race, ethnicity, and the social order in prison. In JohnsonR.TochH. (Eds.), The pains of imprisonment (pp. 181–203). Beverly Hills, CA: SAGE.
15.
CarterD. L. (1983). Hispanic interaction with the criminal justice system in Texas: Experiences, attitudes, and perceptions. Journal of Criminal Justice, 11, 213–227.
16.
ClarkK. B.CheinI.CookS. W. (2004). The effects of segregation and the consequences of desegregation. American Psychologist, 59, 495–501.
17.
DawsonM. (1994). Behind the mule: Race and class in African American politics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
18.
DeckerS. (1981). Citizen attitudes toward the police: A review of past findings and suggestions for future research. Journal of Police Science and Administration, 9, 80–87.
19.
DunhamR. G.AlpertG. P. (1988). Neighborhood differences in attitudes toward policing: Evidence for a mixed-strategy model of policing in a multi-ethnic setting. The Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, 79, 504–523.
20.
EisensteinJ. H.JacobH. (1977). Felony justice: An organizational analysis of criminal courts. Boston, MA: Little, Brown.
21.
ElovainioM.KivimakiM.VahteraJ.Keltikangas-JarvinenL.VirtanenM. (2003). Sleeping problems and health behaviors as mediators between organizational justice and health. Health Psychology, 22, 287–293.
22.
EngelR. S. (2005). Citizens' perceptions of distributive and procedural injustice during traffic stops with police. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 42, 445–481.
23.
FeaginJ.SikesM. (1994). Living with racism: The Black middle class experience. Boston, MA: Beacon.
24.
FlexonJ. L.LurigioA. J.GreenleafR. G. (2009). Exploring the dimensions of trust in the police among Chicago juveniles. Journal of Criminal Justice, 37, 180–189.
25.
FrancisL.BarlingJ. (2005). Organizational injustice and psychological strain. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 37, 250–261.
26.
FurstenbergF. F.WellfordC. F. (1973). Calling the police: The evaluation of police service. Law and Society Review, 7, 393–406.
27.
GainesJ. S. (2007). Social correlates of psychological distress among adult African-American males. Journal of Black Studies, 37, 827–858.
28.
GoodmanP. (2008). “It’s just Black, White, or Hispanic”: An observational study of racializing moves in California’s segregated prison reception centers. Law & Society Review, 42, 735–770.
29.
HaganJ.AlbonettiC. (1982). Race, class, and the perception of criminal injustice in America. The American Journal of Sociology, 88, 329–355.
30.
HaganJ.SheddC.PayneM. R. (2005). Race, ethnicity, and youth perceptions of injustice. American Sociological Review, 70, 381–407.
31.
HarrisonP.BeckA. J. (2004). Prisoners in 2003. U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Bulletin NCJ 205335. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice.
32.
HochschildJ. (1996). Facing up to the American Dream: Race, class, and the soul of the nation. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
33.
HuebnerB. M.SchaferJ. A.BynumT. S. (2004). African-American and White perceptions of police services: Within- and between-group variation. Journal of Criminal Justice, 32, 123–135.
34.
HuntG.RiegelS.MoralesT.WaldorfD. (1993). Changes in prison culture: Prison gangs and the case of the “Pepsi generation.”. Social Problems, 40, 398–409.
35.
IrwinJ. (1980). Prisons in turmoil. Boston, MA: Little, Brown.
36.
JacobH. (1971). Black and White perceptions of justice in the city. Law & Society Review, 6, 69–89.
37.
JacobsJ. B. (1974). Street gangs behind bars. Social Problems, 21, 142–155.
38.
JacobsJ. B. (1976). Stratification and conflict among prison inmates. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 66, 476–482.
39.
JacobsJ. B. (1977). Statesville: The penitentiary in mass society. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
40.
JonesR. E.RaineyS. A. (2006). Examining the linkages between race, environmental concern, health, and justice in a highly polluted community of color. Journal of Black Studies, 36, 473–496.
41.
JudgeT. A.ColquittJ. A. (2004). Organizational justice and stress: The mediating role of work–family conflict. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89, 395–404.
42.
LasleyJ. R. (1994). The impact of the Rodney King incident on citizen attitudes toward police. Policing and Society, 3, 245–255.
43.
LemonsM. A. (2003). Contextual determinants of procedural injustice perceptions in the promotion barriers for women. Sex Roles, 49, 247–264.
44.
MacDonaldJ.StokesR. J.RidgewayG.RileyK. J. (2007). Race, neighborhood context and perceptions of injustice by the police in Cincinnati. Urban Studies, 44, 2567–2585.
45.
MauerM.KingR. S. (2007). Uneven justice: State rates of incarceration by race and ethnicity. Washington, DC: The Sentencing Project.
46.
PackerH. (1968). The limits of the criminal sanction. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.
47.
PaternosterR.BrameR.MazerolleP.PiqueroA. (1998). Using the correct statistical test for the quality of regression coefficients. Criminology, 36, 859–866.
48.
RawlsJ. (1971). A theory of justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
49.
RiceS. K.PiqueroA. R. (2005). Perceptions of discrimination and justice in New York City. Policing – An International Journal of Police Strategies and Management, 28, 98–117.
50.
RichmondL. P.JohnsonC. W. (2009). “It’s a race war”: Race and leisure experiences in California state prison. Journal of Leisure Research, 41, 565–580.
51.
RoncekD. W. (1996, April). A simple measure for assessing the relative importance of independent variables in one-sample Poisson and negative binomial regression. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Midwest Sociological Society, Chicago, IL.
52.
RoseD. R.ClearT. R. (2004). Who doesn’t know someone in jail? The impact of exposure to prison on attitudes toward formal and informal controls. Prison Journal, 84, 228–247.
53.
RosenbaumD.SchuckA.CostelloS.HawkinsD.RingM. (2005). Attitudes toward the police: The effects of direct and vicarious experience. Police Quarterly, 3, 343–365.
54.
RousseauV.SalekS.AubeC.MorinE. S. (2009). Distributive justice, procedural justice, and psychological distress: The moderating effect of coworker support and work autonomy. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 14, 305–317.
55.
SapersteinA.PennerA. M. (2004). The race of a criminal record: How incarceration colors racial perceptions. Social Problems, 57, 92–113.
56.
ScaglionR.CondonR. G. (1980). Determinants of attitudes toward city police. Criminology, 17, 485–494.
57.
SchumanH.SteehC.BobL.KrysanM. (1997). Racial attitudes in America: Trends and interpretations. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
58.
SheddC.HaganJ. (2006). Toward a developmental and comparative conflict theory of race, ethnicity, and perceptions of criminal injustice. In PetersonR.KrivoL.HaganJ. (Eds.), The many colors of crime: Inequalities of race, ethnicity, and crime in America (pp. 313–333). New York, NY: NYU Press.
59.
SolomanR. C.MurphyM. C. (2000). What is justice? Classic and contemporary readings (2nd ed.).
New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
60.
StrolovitchD. Z. (1998). Public attitudes toward race- and gender-targeted anti-discrimination policy. NWSA Journal, 10, 27–53.
61.
SunI. Y.WuY. N. (2006). Citizens' perceptions of the courts: The impact of race, gender, and recent experience. Journal of Criminal Justice, 34, 457–467.
62.
TaylorT. J.TurnerK. B.EsbensenF.WinfreeL. T. (2001). Coppin’ an attitude: Attitudinal differences among juveniles toward police. Journal of Criminal Justice, 29, 295–305.
63.
TepperB. J. (2000). Consequences of abusive supervision. Academy of Management Journal, 43, 178–190.
64.
TuchS. A.WeitzerR. (1997). The polls? Trends, racial differences in attitudes toward the police. Public Opinion Quarterly, 61, 642–663.
65.
TylerT. R. (1990). Why people obey the law. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
66.
TylerT. R. (2001). Public trust and confidence in legal authorities: What do majority and minority group members want from the law and legal institutions?. Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 19, 215–235.
67.
TylerT. R.BoeckmannR. J.SmithH. J.HuoY. J. (1997). Social justice in a diverse society. Boulder, CO: Westview.
68.
WebbV. J.MarshallC. E. (1995). The relative importance of race and the ethnicity on citizen attitudes toward the police. American Journal of Police, 14, 45–66.
69.
WeitzerR. (2000). Racialized policing: Residents' perceptions in three neighborhoods. Law & Society Review, 34, 129–155.
70.
WeitzerR.TuchS. A. (1999). Race, class, and perceptions of discrimination by the police. Crime & Delinquency, 45, 494–507.
71.
WeitzerR.TuchS. A. (2004). Race and perceptions of police misconduct. Social Problems, 51, 305–325.
72.
WeitzerR.TuchS. A.SkoganW. G. (2008). Police-community relations in a majority-Black city. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 45, 398–428.
73.
WileyM. G.HudikT. L. (1974). Police-citizen encounters: A field test of exchange theory. Social Problems, 22, 119–127.
74.
WortleyS.HaganJ.MacmillanR. (1997). Just des(s)erts? The racial polarization of perceptions of criminal injustice. Law and Society Review, 31, 637–676.
75.
ZiedenbergJ.SchiraldiV. (2005). Race and imprisonment in Texas: The disproportionate incarceration of Latinos and African-Americans in the Lone Star State. Washington, DC: Justice Policy Institute.
