The politics of race and the criminal justice system

The intersection of race, justice and politics create a vicious cycle in the U.S. Those most affected by disparities in the current system are the least likely to participate in politics, while those relatively unaffected are often unlikely to acknowledge the issue as one in need of political solutions. This dissertation makes four contributions to this larger concern. First, using court data paired with voting records, it provides further evidence that contact with the police decreases turnout. By examining how the size of this effect varies based on characteristics of the individuals and their experiences, it also sheds light on the potential mechanisms behind this effect. Second, it offers a holistic framework for thinking about how dispositions, experience, and vicarious information shape attitudes about the criminal justice system. Third, it applies this framework in the analysis of two survey experiments demonstrating broadly that perceptions of injustice vary markedly by race and specifically showing how people unlikely to experience discrimination personally are unlikely to perceive bias in the specific interactions with the police, regardless of their beliefs about the general fairness of the police. Finally, with survey data and a unique experiment, it shows that vicarious exposure to minority experiences with the police may facilitate a common understanding of the racial issues facing the criminal justice system.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Political Science

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2017

Author dc:creator

• Testa, Paul Franz

Contributors dc:contributor

• Mondak, Jeffery J.
• Gaines, Brian J.
• Kuklinski, James H.
• Wong, Cara J.

• Race
• Criminal justice
• Political participation
• Political behavior

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2016 Paul F. Testa

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/95267

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/95267