Race, Class, and the Perception of Criminal Injustice in America

TLDR

Research on criminal sentencing and public crime rankings suggests that Americans may not be in conflict over criminal justice issues. The study directly examines public perceptions of criminal injustice to test conflict theory. A national survey examined respondents’ race, class, and status, with class measured in neo‑Marxian terms. Black Americans and members of the surplus population are more likely to perceive criminal injustice, and class moderates the race–perception link, with the sharpest racial divide among the professional‑managerial class, providing evidence that race and class conflict shape perceptions of criminal injustice.

Abstract

The results of two research literatures, one dealing with criminal sentencing and the other with public ranking of crime seriousness, have raised doubts that conflict exists in American society about issues of criminal justice. This paper offers a different and more direct approach to this issue by analyzing public perceptions of criminal injustice and by assessing the capacity of conflict theory to explain them. Our analysis is based on a national survey, and it focuses on the race, class, and status positions of the respondents, with class position measured in neo-Marxian terms. Three major findings are (i) that black Americans are considerably more likely than white Americans to perceive criminal injustice; (ii) that regardless of race, members of the surplus population are significantly more likely than members of other classes to perceive criminal injustice; and (iii) that class position conditions the relationship of race to the perception of criminal injustice, with the division between the races in these perceptions being most acute in the professional managerial class. These findings constitute substantial evidence that race and class conflict exist with regard to issues of criminal injustice, and that neither kind of conflict can properly be understood without consideration of the other. Implications for Marxist and non-Marxist criminologies are indicated.