Acceptance of harsh prison policies grows as perception of racial inequality increases

Racism and harsh prison policies unfortunately go hand in hand.

That, as a rule, in correctional institutions, racism and harsh prison policies go hand in hand. correctional institutions members of disadvantaged racial minorities are often held in correctional institutions is a sad and well-known reality. However, it may be that simply knowing this information helps to legitimize and perpetuate this type of inequality.

Prison and racism

At least, this is what some indications seem to suggest. Weeks ago we echoed a chilling study that revealed that African-American children in the U.S. have racist prejudices against blacks. Today, in the same vein, we address the issue of the American penal and correctional system.

Two street-level studies conducted by Stanford University show a tendency for the white American population to recognize the need to maintain harsh policies toward these minorities when confronted with evidence of this inequality. In other words: the more extreme this racial inequality is presented to them in the punitive system, the greater the acceptance of policies that maintain this disparity..

How was this conclusion reached?

First, 62 white males and females were stopped on the street to talk to them about the three strikes law California's three strikes law, a controversial judicial policy that is particularly harsh on people who occasionally commit minor, non-violent offenses. They were then shown a video showing 80 "mug shots" depicting individual arrestees.

However, not everyone watched the exact same video. In one case, 25% of the arrestees shown were apparently African-American, while in another case the percentage of dark-skinned people was 45%. Finally, each of these 62 white people was offered the chance to sign a petition in favor of making the three strikes law less strict. The results: just under 55% of those who had seen the video, a relatively low number of African-American arrestees signed, while in the second group only 28% signed..

Surprising results

A similar study using pedestrians in New York found results along the same lines, this time referring to the policy of unjustified frisking by the police. Of that portion of the sample that had perceived more extreme prison inequality, 12% signed the petition to end this policy, while of the other group nearly 35% signed.

From these results, it can be interpreted that the white U.S. population supports more hard-line punitive policies when they perceive that people who are arrested are largely African American.. A hypothetical greater fear of African American offenders than of any other type of offender could be at the root of this trend. Moreover, this fear would in turn be fueled by the perception that "the African-American population is the one that fills the prisons," a situation that this same prejudice would be feeding.

We would be, then, facing a vicious circle that is maintained at least in part by a cognitive bias. Prison inequality would perpetuate itself by justifying itself to others through its very existence.