Implicit Social Cognitive Processes Underlying Criminal and Victim Identities: Data from Laboratory Experiments and Field Studies

Session Submission Type: Complete Thematic Panel

Abstract

Implicit social cognition research has provided a new lens for understanding the identity-based processes underlying criminals and victims. Four papers present data on the contexts and their social cognitive processes that influence and maintain implicit identification with criminality and victimization. Rivera and Veysey (Paper 1) and Laws and colleagues (Paper 2) test if individuals with a criminal experience possess a relatively strong implicit criminal identity (especially following a contextual prime), and if it is cognitively (and implicitly) consistent with the related construct of the group Black individuals who are associated with the stereotype of being criminals. Henein and colleagues (Paper 3) extend this work by testing if even parole officers are susceptible to these implicit associations because of their frequent and substantive interactions with criminals. Finally, Sachs and colleagues (Part 4) test if victims of criminal behavior develop an implicit victim identity and discuss the implications for how this identity may make past victims exceptionally vulnerable to re-victimization. Data in all four presentations are based on laboratory experiments and field studies with both college and community adult samples.

Sub Unit

• Area I. Causes of Crime and Criminal Behavior

Individual Presentations

• An Examination of the Implicit Criminal Mind: Priming Criminality Can Strengthen Self and Criminality Associations Outside of Conscious Awareness - Luis M. Rivera, Rutgers University; Bonita Veysey, Rutgers University

• If Me = Criminal and Criminal = Black, then Me = Black? A Cognitive Structure of Criminal Implicit Associations - Valerie Laws, Rutgers University; Bonita Veysey, Rutgers University; Luis M. Rivera, Rutgers University

• The Influence of Intergroup Interactions with Criminals on Parole Officers’ Implicit Criminal Identities - Marina Henein, Rutgers University; Luis M. Rivera, Rutgers University; Bonita Veysey, Rutgers University

• Victim as an Identity: Experimental and Cross-Sectional Data from an Implicit Association Test - Nicole Sachs, Rutgers University; Bonita Veysey, Rutgers University; Luis M. Rivera, Rutgers University