Center for Social Justice and Reconciliation

Using a simple videogame, the effect of ethnicity on shoot/don’t shoot decisions was examined. African American or White targets, holding guns or other objects, appeared in complex backgrounds. Participants
were told to “shoot” armed targets and to “not shoot” unarmed targets. In Study 1, White participants made the correct decision to shoot an armed target more quickly if the target was African American than if he was White, but decided to “not shoot” an unarmed target more quickly if he was White. Study 2 used a shorter time window, forcing this effect into error rates. Study 3 replicated Study 1’s effects and showed that the magnitude of bias varied with perceptions of the cultural stereotype and with levels of contact, but not with personal racial prejudice. Study 4 revealed equivalent levels of bias among both African American and White participants in a community sample. Implications and potential underlying mechanisms are discussed

What, if any, changes have occurred in the nation’s police departments 21 years after the Rodney King beating? To answer this question, this study examined findings provided by the
National Police Misconduct Statistics and Reporting Project (NPMSRP). An additional goal of this study was to examine how the public generally perceive police and how race and racism shape this discourse. To answer this secondary question, we examined narratives provided by 36
contributors to the NPMSRP site. The following two questions were foundational to this study:
(1) What do findings from the National Police Misconduct Statistics and Reporting Project
(NPMSRP) suggest about the rate of police brutality in America? (2) How do individuals
perceive the police department, and what implications do these perceptions hold for Black men
in America? In general, fatalities at the hands of police are higher than they are for the general
public. Grounded theory analysis of the data revealed individuals perceive members of law
enforcement in the following ways: (a) Contempt for Law Enforcement; (b) Suspicion of Law
Enforcement; (c) Law Enforcement as Agents of Brutality; and (d) Respect for Law
Enforcement. Supporting qualitative data are presented in connection with each of the aforementioned themes.

This article explores racial disproportionality in criminal justice processing in an era of punitive criminal justice policies and mass incarceration. Using arrest data from New York State, the authors compare the racial disparity in prison sentencing with the disparity at arrest while controlling for crime type and criminal history of the arrest population. Findings show that the racial disparity in prison sentencing at the state level is established before courts begin criminal case proceedings. Scholars and policy makers interested in the sources of racial disparity in incarceration should concentrate on the processes that generate crime and arrests. However, a decrease in racial disparity at prison sentencing, relative to arrest, suggests that the practices of courtroom actors still merit scholarly attention.