Post by sclcookie on May 29, 2006 1:18:28 GMT -5
Stereotypically 'black-looking' criminals more likely to get death
sentence, researchers find
Male murderers with stereotypically "black-looking" features are more than
twice as likely to get the death sentence than lighter-skinned African
American defendants found guilty of killing a white person, Stanford
researchers have found. The relationship between physical appearance and
the death sentence disappears, however, when both murderers and their
victims are black.
"Race clearly matters in criminal justice in ways in which people may or
may not be consciously aware," said Jennifer Eberhardt, associate
professor of psychology. "When black defendants are accused of killing
whites, perhaps jurors use the degree to which these defendants appear
stereotypically black as a proxy for criminality, and then punish
accordingly."
Eberhardt's findings are published in the May issue of the journal
Psychological Science. "Looking Deathworthy: Perceived Stereotypicality of
Black Defendants Predicts Capital-Sentencing Outcomes" is co-authored with
Paul G. Davies, a former Stanford postdoctoral scholar who is now an
assistant professor at the University of California-Los Angeles; former
Stanford graduate student Valerie J. Purdie-Vaughns, now an assistant
professor at Yale University; and Cornell University law Professor Sheri
Lynn Johnson, an expert on the death penalty.
Extensive studies already have established that murderers of white victims
are more likely than murderers of black victims to be sentenced to death,
Eberhardt said. In 1990, the General Accounting Office described this
race-of-victim effect as "remarkably consistent across data sets, states,
data collection methods and analytic techniques."
Eberhardt, who studies race and criminality, said she wanted to find out
whether racial stereotypicality involving African Americans might affect
sentencing outcomes in capital cases. She also was interested in whether
the race of the victim would change the outcome.
"We thought there might be some effect there, but we didn't know how
strong it would be," she said. The study found that 57.5 % of defendants
rated to have "stereotypically black" features-broad noses, thick lips,
dark skin and hair-were sentenced to death compared with only 24.4 % of
men who were rated as less stereotypically black. This effect completely
disappeared, however, in "black-on-black" capital cases: "There was no
relationship between defendants' physical appearances and the sentences
they received," Eberhardt explained.
"These results resonate with previous findings on race and the death
penalty, which consistently show that defendants accused of killing white
victims are much more likely to be sentenced to death than those accused
of killing blacks."
The study
The researchers used a comprehensive database compiled by David C. Baldus,
a law professor at the University of Iowa and an expert on the
administration of the death penalty. The database contains more than 600
death-eligible cases from Philadelphia that advanced to the penalty phase
between 1979 and 1999. 44 of the cases involved black male defendants
convicted of murdering white victims.
During 2 sessions, 51 mostly white and Asian Stanford undergraduates (the
researchers did not include African Americans in case they influenced the
raters' perceptions of stereotypes) looked at photographs of the 44 black
male faces for 4 seconds each. The students, who were not told anything
about the nature of the study, were asked to rate the faces for
stereotypical features on a scale from one to 11. The study controlled for
the defendant's attractiveness and other nonracial factors known to
influence sentencing, such as the severity of the murder, and the
defendant's and the victim's socioeconomic status, Eberhardt said.
The researchers found that "more stereotypically black" defendants
received the death penalty more than twice as much as those who were "less
stereotypically black."
The researchers then looked at whether these findings were consistent when
a black victim was involved. Out of the 600 cases, 308 involved black
defendants and black victims. A group of 18 white and Asian students then
rated the faces of a randomly selected group of 118 men from this group.
"Employing the same analyses as we did for the cases with white victims,
we found that the perceived stereotypicality of black defendants convicted
of murdering black victims did not predict death sentencing," the authors
write. Those who were perceived as "more black" received the death penalty
45 % of the time, compared to 46.6 percent of those perceived as "less
black."
"Thus defendants who were perceived to be more stereotypically black were
more likely to be sentenced to death only when their victims were white,"
the study says.
Discussion
According to Eberhardt, the lower rates of death penalty convictions may
be attributed to the fact that jurors regard black-on-white crime as
interracial conflict compared to black-on-black crime, which could be
viewed as interpersonal. "These research findings augment and complicate
the current body of evidence regarding the role of race in capital
sentencing," the researchers write. "Our findings suggest that in cases
involving a black defendant and a white victim-cases in which the
likelihood of the death penalty is already high-jurors are influenced not
simply by the knowledge that the defendant is black, but also by the
extent to which the defendant appears stereotypically black. The present
research demonstrates that in actual sentencing decisions, jurors may
treat these traits as powerful cues to deathworthiness."
###
This research was supported with grants from the Stanford Center for
Social Innovation and the National Science Foundation.
CONTACT: Lisa Trei, News Service: (650) 725-0224, lisatrei@stanford.edu
RELEVANT WEB URLS:
EBERHARDT'S WEBSITE ---- www.stanford.edu/~eberhard/
News Service website: ---- www.stanford.edu/news/
Stanford Report (university newspaper):---- news.stanford.edu
Most recent news releases from Stanford:
www.stanford.edu/dept/news/html/releases.html
(source: EurekAlert)
sentence, researchers find
Male murderers with stereotypically "black-looking" features are more than
twice as likely to get the death sentence than lighter-skinned African
American defendants found guilty of killing a white person, Stanford
researchers have found. The relationship between physical appearance and
the death sentence disappears, however, when both murderers and their
victims are black.
"Race clearly matters in criminal justice in ways in which people may or
may not be consciously aware," said Jennifer Eberhardt, associate
professor of psychology. "When black defendants are accused of killing
whites, perhaps jurors use the degree to which these defendants appear
stereotypically black as a proxy for criminality, and then punish
accordingly."
Eberhardt's findings are published in the May issue of the journal
Psychological Science. "Looking Deathworthy: Perceived Stereotypicality of
Black Defendants Predicts Capital-Sentencing Outcomes" is co-authored with
Paul G. Davies, a former Stanford postdoctoral scholar who is now an
assistant professor at the University of California-Los Angeles; former
Stanford graduate student Valerie J. Purdie-Vaughns, now an assistant
professor at Yale University; and Cornell University law Professor Sheri
Lynn Johnson, an expert on the death penalty.
Extensive studies already have established that murderers of white victims
are more likely than murderers of black victims to be sentenced to death,
Eberhardt said. In 1990, the General Accounting Office described this
race-of-victim effect as "remarkably consistent across data sets, states,
data collection methods and analytic techniques."
Eberhardt, who studies race and criminality, said she wanted to find out
whether racial stereotypicality involving African Americans might affect
sentencing outcomes in capital cases. She also was interested in whether
the race of the victim would change the outcome.
"We thought there might be some effect there, but we didn't know how
strong it would be," she said. The study found that 57.5 % of defendants
rated to have "stereotypically black" features-broad noses, thick lips,
dark skin and hair-were sentenced to death compared with only 24.4 % of
men who were rated as less stereotypically black. This effect completely
disappeared, however, in "black-on-black" capital cases: "There was no
relationship between defendants' physical appearances and the sentences
they received," Eberhardt explained.
"These results resonate with previous findings on race and the death
penalty, which consistently show that defendants accused of killing white
victims are much more likely to be sentenced to death than those accused
of killing blacks."
The study
The researchers used a comprehensive database compiled by David C. Baldus,
a law professor at the University of Iowa and an expert on the
administration of the death penalty. The database contains more than 600
death-eligible cases from Philadelphia that advanced to the penalty phase
between 1979 and 1999. 44 of the cases involved black male defendants
convicted of murdering white victims.
During 2 sessions, 51 mostly white and Asian Stanford undergraduates (the
researchers did not include African Americans in case they influenced the
raters' perceptions of stereotypes) looked at photographs of the 44 black
male faces for 4 seconds each. The students, who were not told anything
about the nature of the study, were asked to rate the faces for
stereotypical features on a scale from one to 11. The study controlled for
the defendant's attractiveness and other nonracial factors known to
influence sentencing, such as the severity of the murder, and the
defendant's and the victim's socioeconomic status, Eberhardt said.
The researchers found that "more stereotypically black" defendants
received the death penalty more than twice as much as those who were "less
stereotypically black."
The researchers then looked at whether these findings were consistent when
a black victim was involved. Out of the 600 cases, 308 involved black
defendants and black victims. A group of 18 white and Asian students then
rated the faces of a randomly selected group of 118 men from this group.
"Employing the same analyses as we did for the cases with white victims,
we found that the perceived stereotypicality of black defendants convicted
of murdering black victims did not predict death sentencing," the authors
write. Those who were perceived as "more black" received the death penalty
45 % of the time, compared to 46.6 percent of those perceived as "less
black."
"Thus defendants who were perceived to be more stereotypically black were
more likely to be sentenced to death only when their victims were white,"
the study says.
Discussion
According to Eberhardt, the lower rates of death penalty convictions may
be attributed to the fact that jurors regard black-on-white crime as
interracial conflict compared to black-on-black crime, which could be
viewed as interpersonal. "These research findings augment and complicate
the current body of evidence regarding the role of race in capital
sentencing," the researchers write. "Our findings suggest that in cases
involving a black defendant and a white victim-cases in which the
likelihood of the death penalty is already high-jurors are influenced not
simply by the knowledge that the defendant is black, but also by the
extent to which the defendant appears stereotypically black. The present
research demonstrates that in actual sentencing decisions, jurors may
treat these traits as powerful cues to deathworthiness."
###
This research was supported with grants from the Stanford Center for
Social Innovation and the National Science Foundation.
CONTACT: Lisa Trei, News Service: (650) 725-0224, lisatrei@stanford.edu
RELEVANT WEB URLS:
EBERHARDT'S WEBSITE ---- www.stanford.edu/~eberhard/
News Service website: ---- www.stanford.edu/news/
Stanford Report (university newspaper):---- news.stanford.edu
Most recent news releases from Stanford:
www.stanford.edu/dept/news/html/releases.html
(source: EurekAlert)