Gendered Changes in White University Student’s Attitudes on Drug Policy in the United States

• In Event: 519 - Section on Race, Class and Gender Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 02. Attitudes and Identities Among Youth and Young Adults

Abstract

Using a quasi-experimental design to test the “Marshall Hypothesis,” this paper investigates the effects of reading Alexander’s The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration and the Age of Colorblindness on student attitudes on drug policies in America. One hundred and thirty-two undergraduate students at a predominantly-white Midwest university participated in the study. The test subjects, who were assigned the book as part of a Criminology course, received both a pre- and post-test, while a control group, that did not read the book, was also surveyed on their attitudes on drug policies. Findings offer support for the Marshall Hypothesis, that an informed constituency would conclude that certain policies are unjust. White students, in general, showed significant changes on attitudes on drug policies after reading the book. However, disaggregating White students by gender shows that White women, more than White men, are more convinced by Alexander’s arguments that current drug policies unfairly target communities of color.

Authors

• Gloria S. Vaquera, John Carroll University

• Richard D. Clark, John Carroll University