The Effect of Exposure to Racialized Cues on Public Support for Justice Reinvestment

• In Event: Perceptions of Deservingness: Rights, Justice Reinvestment, and Appropriate Punishments

Abstract

While the justice reinvestment paradigm of criminal justice reform has been popular among policymakers across the nation, we know very little about public attitudes toward justice reinvestment. In this study, I particularly focus on public willingness to invest money saved through decarceration into criminal justice institutions or into the infrastructure and human resources of disadvantaged communities. We know that disadvantaged communities are disproportionately populated by racial minorities, and the racial priming literature tells us that exposure to racialized cue words, like “inner city” or “welfare,” activate whites’ stereotypes and decrease their support for social policies that would benefit people of color. In this study, I use an experimental design to test whether or not exposure to various racialized or race-neutral descriptions of communities affect people’s willingness to allocate money into community revitalization as opposed to criminal justice agencies. Contrary to prior studies, I find that exposure to racialized but color-blind cues has no significant impact on people’s hypothetical budget allocations, whereas white respondents who were directly told that “African American communities” would receive funding were significantly less likely to support such investment. I consider the implications of these findings for the politics of justice reinvestment.

Author

• Kevin Wozniak, University of Massachusetts Boston