The color bias in culpability: Attributional frames of responsibility and their effects on punitive judgements of Black juvenile criminals.

Three studies investigate the use of attributional frames of responsibility and their effects on punitive judgments of Black juvenile perpetrators in newspaper crime stories. Attribution studies generally investigate attributions made by individuals after encountering a target. This research uses theories of social cognition and stereotyping to argue that newspaper crime stories provide attributions for the reader via the framing of responsibility for lawbreaking, and that these frames combined with the race of a suspect affect judgment. It provides some evidence that attribution theory and in-group bias can operate simultaneously and produce more severe judgments of culpability for Black juveniles. A content analysis analyzing the use of attributional frames of responsibility revealed that more internal than external attributional frames of responsibility are used for White juveniles, and that internal and external frames were used equally for Black juveniles. Experiment 1 revealed that providing racial information of a perpetrator can cause readers to perceive the criminal justice system as more fair than when no racial information is provided. It also found the use of attributional frames of responsibility can cause readers to view perpetrators as having more of a criminal personality, but less when attributional frames of responsibility are not used. Experiment 2 revealed that Black suspects were considered less remorseful in internal attributional frames of responsibility than when not framed. The implications for the journalistic practice of framing, public perceptions about juvenile criminals, and the use of racial depictions in news reports are discussed.Ph.D.Communication and the ArtsJournalismMass communicationPsychologySocial psychologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/127067/2/3029287.pd