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Implicit and Explicit Measurement Approaches to Research on Policy Implementation: The Case of Race-Based Disparities in Criminal Justice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 June 2013

Eugene Borgida  and
Andrea Miller
Eugene Borgida
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
Andrea Miller
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
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Extract

In 2011, more than 3% of all black men in the United States were imprisoned, compared to only 0.5% of all white men. Among prisoners ages 18 to 24, black men were imprisoned at a rate more than seven times that of white men (Carson and Sabol 2012). It is becoming increasingly urgent for researchers to understand what accounts for these race-based disparities. While a broad constellation of social problems exist that likely contribute to these disparities in concert, different fields of social science tend to focus on different types of explanations. Political scientists and sociologists have tended to emphasize the role of institutional factors, including criminal justice policies and practices, in maintaining race-based disparities. Social psychologists, in contrast, have tended to emphasize individual factors, including punitive responses to crime by jurors, judges, and criminal justice professionals.

Type
Symposium: Implicit Attitudes in Political Science Research
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 46 , Issue 3 , July 2013 , pp. 532 - 536
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2013 

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