An aversive racism explanation for the influence of race, SES, and race-stereotypical crimes on jury decision biases against East Asian American defendants

Abstract

Aversive racism, a subtle form of contemporary racism for persons who may hold egalitarian values, has been used to explain prejudice by jurors toward Black American and Latinx American defendants, but has yet to examine East Asian American defendants as targets of prejudice. After conducting a pilot study to find race-stereotypical crimes for Asian Americans and White Americans, the purpose of the main study was to examine mock jurors’ prejudice toward East Asian American defendants from an aversive racism perspective. A 2 (Race: White American or East Asian American) x 2 (SES: low or high) x 2 (Race-Stereotypical Crime: embezzlement or computer hacking) between-subjects design was conducted. Participants were randomly assigned to read one of eight trial vignettes describing the crime the defendant had allegedly committed. They were then asked to render a verdict, recommend a sentence, and rate the defendant on various culpability and trait measures. Results showed mock jurors sentenced the low SES East Asian American defendant who committed a race-stereotypical crime more punitively than all other conditions. Mock jurors also found this defendant more culpable and rated him more negatively on a number of trait ascriptions. Limitations and future directions are discussed.

Keywords:

• Juror decision-making
• aversive racism
• Asian-American
• prejudice

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Though racial and ethnic group terms have evolved by both the APA standards and society’s politically correct terms, we use the current terms of White American, Asian American, Black American and Latinx American.

2 Should readers wish to examine the trial study materials they may contact the corresponding author.

Additional information

Funding

This research was conducted by expressed written approval from the Institutional Review Board of California State University, Fullerton.

Notes on contributors

Diana K. Phan

Diana K. Phan is a graduate of California State University, Fullerton, where she received her Master of Arts in Psychology degree. Her broad research interests include race and crime, the influence of race on juror perspectives, the criminal justice system, and social justice advocacy.

Russ K. E. Espinoza

Russ K. E. Espinoza, (Ph.D. - University of Nebraska, Lincoln, 2005) is a Social Forensic Psychologist and Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychology at California State University, Fullerton since 2007. His current research interests include the examination of socio-cultural contributing factors to juror decision making. Specifically, Dr. Espinoza examines how race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and other socio-cultural variables interact to influence criminal case outcomes and juror decisions. In addition, Dr. Espinoza is also a trial consultant in the Los Angeles and Orange County areas of California specializing in jury decision making and voir dire.

Susan R. Sy

Susan R. Sy is a professor in the Psychology department at California State University, Fullerton. Her research program focuses on the cultural and family contexts of children’s achievement and adjustment during school transitions.