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Race, income, and perceptions of the U.S. court system
Author(s) -
Brooks Richard R. W.,
JeonSlaughter Haekyung
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
behavioral sciences and the law
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.649
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1099-0798
pISSN - 0735-3936
DOI - 10.1002/bsl.442
Subject(s) - supreme court , race (biology) , perception , juvenile delinquency , african american , suicide prevention , skepticism , human factors and ergonomics , criminology , poison control , psychology , political science , medicine , law , sociology , gender studies , environmental health , philosophy , ethnology , epistemology , neuroscience
This article reports on the effect of income within race on African Americans' perception of the courts. Our findings are somewhat consistent with the previous research on black middle‐class relative dissatisfaction with various American institutions. That is, unlike whites and Latirios in our study, we find that higher‐income African Americans are more skeptical of the notion that blacks receive equal treatment in the courts. This same group also reported less confidence in the court's handling of specific types of cases (e.g., civil, criminal and juvenile delinquency cases.) However, better off blacks were more likely than poor blacks to have confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court and community courts. These findings point a more complex account of African American perceptions of the courts, an account that draws a distinction between diffused and specific support of the courts. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.