Lynchings, racial threat, and whites’ punitive views toward blacks
Disparities in historical and contemporary punishment of Blacks have been well documented. Racial threat has been proffered as a theoretical explanation for this phenomenon. In an effort to understand the factors that influence punishment and racial divides in America, we draw on racial threat theor...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2018
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| In: |
Criminology
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| Online Access: |
Volltext (Resolving-System) |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Keywords: |
| Summary: | Disparities in historical and contemporary punishment of Blacks have been well documented. Racial threat has been proffered as a theoretical explanation for this phenomenon. In an effort to understand the factors that influence punishment and racial divides in America, we draw on racial threat theory and prior scholarship to test three hypotheses. First, Black punitive sentiment among Whites will be greater among those who reside in areas where lynching was more common. Second, heightened Black punitive sentiment among Whites in areas with more pronounced legacies of lynching will be partially mediated by Whites’ perceptions of Blacks’ criminality and of Black‐on‐White violence in these areas. Third, the impact of lynching on Black punitive sentiment will be amplified by Whites’ perceptions of Blacks as criminals and as threatening more generally. We find partial support for these hypotheses. The results indicate that lynchings are associated with punitive sentiment toward Black offenders, and these relationships are partially mediated by perceptions of Blacks as criminals and as threats to Whites. In addition, the effects of lynchings on Black punitiveness are amplified among White respondents who view Blacks as a threat to Whites. These results highlight the salience of historical context for understanding contemporary views about punishment. |
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| Item Description: | The article, published online on 25 March 2018 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) has been retracted at the request of the authors and by agreement with the journal editors and Wiley Periodicals, Inc. The authors were responsive to concerns raised about the original paper and the corrigendum to this article dated 18 August 2019. However, in the course of responding to questions about the data and analysis, they determined that the errors reflected in the paper, including coding mistakes and transcription errors, exceeded what they viewed as acceptable for a published paper. They therefore voluntarily requested that the paper be retracted and chose not to update the original corrigendum/lt. Vol. 58.2020, No. 1 |
| ISSN: | 1745-9125 |
| DOI: | 10.1111/1745-9125.12176 |