Presentation Title
The Color of Crime: Racial Perception of Sex Workers
Faculty Mentor
Dr. Emily Balcetis
Start Date
18-11-2017 2:15 PM
End Date
18-11-2017 2:30 PM
Location
15-1814
Session
Social Science 4
Type of Presentation
Oral Talk
Subject Area
behavioral_social_sciences
Abstract
Studies have illustrated that compared to Whites, Black people are disproportionately incarcerated, insisting there is a significant difference in legal treatment towards Blacks. Although studies have highlighted this division in the conception of criminality in Blacks versus Whites, a limited amount of psychological research has highlighted how racial bias affects legal judgement. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to analyze race influence on legal judgement by measuring participants, perception of a convicted female sex worker’s control over her circumstance if she were Black versus White. We used “sex work” as a manipulation to control for the confound of race being attributed the type of crime. Crimes involving violence or theft have been colored, but sex work has been feminized, being attributed to gender more than race. Thus, we used the feminizing of sex work to analyze if race would still impact the perception of criminality. In this study, the manipulation (sex worker) will be identified as target (e.g. black sex worker = black target and white sex worker = white target). Participants ( N = 171) were asked to read a vignette paired with a photo of either a Black woman (n = 92) or White woman (n = 79). Subsequently, all participants completed a survey rating the targets overall control; their individual sympathy toward the targets circumstance; and the expected sympathy the target would receive from others. We questioned will perceptions of control differ based on the race of the target; does the White target receive more sympathy than the Black target; and will there be a difference between levels of sympathy from self compared to the sympathy ratings of others? We hypothesized that the black target would be judged more critically, being perceived as having more control and receiving less sympathy, than the white target.
Summary of research results to be presented
In a univariate analysis of participants perception of the targets control, there was no significant difference in judgement for the Black target versus the White target. However, when doing a t-test analyzing the participants race influence on the perception of the black target control compared to the white target, significance varied. While white participants perception of the targets control were fairly similar in both conditions, non white participants perceived the black target to have more control than the white target, p = .011. Analyzing participants ratings of individual sympathy for the target compared the expected sympathy of others, t-test analysis shows that participants rated their sympathy significantly higher than how others would sympathize, p = .006. Comparing sympathy scores based on the race of the target through multivariate analysis, significance also varied. While participants rated themselves as having more sympathy for the white target, participants expected others to have more sympathy for the black target, p = .000.
The Color of Crime: Racial Perception of Sex Workers
15-1814
Studies have illustrated that compared to Whites, Black people are disproportionately incarcerated, insisting there is a significant difference in legal treatment towards Blacks. Although studies have highlighted this division in the conception of criminality in Blacks versus Whites, a limited amount of psychological research has highlighted how racial bias affects legal judgement. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to analyze race influence on legal judgement by measuring participants, perception of a convicted female sex worker’s control over her circumstance if she were Black versus White. We used “sex work” as a manipulation to control for the confound of race being attributed the type of crime. Crimes involving violence or theft have been colored, but sex work has been feminized, being attributed to gender more than race. Thus, we used the feminizing of sex work to analyze if race would still impact the perception of criminality. In this study, the manipulation (sex worker) will be identified as target (e.g. black sex worker = black target and white sex worker = white target). Participants ( N = 171) were asked to read a vignette paired with a photo of either a Black woman (n = 92) or White woman (n = 79). Subsequently, all participants completed a survey rating the targets overall control; their individual sympathy toward the targets circumstance; and the expected sympathy the target would receive from others. We questioned will perceptions of control differ based on the race of the target; does the White target receive more sympathy than the Black target; and will there be a difference between levels of sympathy from self compared to the sympathy ratings of others? We hypothesized that the black target would be judged more critically, being perceived as having more control and receiving less sympathy, than the white target.