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Public Sympathy for O. J. Simpson
Author(s) -
Enomoto Carl E.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
american journal of economics and sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.199
H-Index - 38
eISSN - 1536-7150
pISSN - 0002-9246
DOI - 10.1111/j.1536-7150.1999.tb03291.x
Subject(s) - sympathy , race (biology) , criminal justice , logit , economic justice , criminology , psychology , demographic economics , logistic regression , social psychology , sociology , economics , political science , gender studies , law , medicine , econometrics
This paper examines those factors affecting public attitudes about the O. J. Simpson trial and the American criminal justice system. The separate and combined effects of these factors–which include race, age, gender, income, and education–were estimated using a logit model. It was found that blacks were more likely than whites to be sympathetic to Simpson and to believe he was innocent of the crimes he was charged with. Older individuals, males, those with higher incomes, and those with more education were less likely to be sympathetic to Simpson and more likely to think he was guilty. Finally, it was found that blacks were more likely than whites to perceive that the criminal justice system is biased against blacks.