Abstract
Researchers have investigated the race-crime congruency effect for approximately 30 years; however, extant research makes it difficult to draw conclusions about this effect due to varied operationalization, methodology, and statistical reporting. We conducted a systematic review operationalizing race-crime congruency as a crossover effect such that defendants receive harsher punishment when a crime is deemed typical of their race and less punitive punishments when a crime is deemed atypical of their race. The objective of this systematic review is to summarize the current state of the literature and provide recommendations for future research. To identify relevant studies, we searched four databases, 18 conference programs, and reference lists in identified articles. We identified 14 published and unpublished papers that examine a crossover effect of the race-crime congruency effect found in experimental research. We recommend (a) using designs capable of testing a crossover interaction (b) including dichotomous guilt as a primary dependent variable (c) pilot testing race-typical and -atypical crimes (d) identifying crimes that associate equally with target groups (e) utilizing manipulation checks to ensure appropriate comparisons across studies and (f) reporting detailed statistical information to allow future researchers to conduct meta-analyses on this topic. Overall, race-crime congruency literature has important implications for marginalized groups within the United States’ criminal justice system; therefore, researchers should work to appropriately ascertain the robustness of this effect.
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Notes
As a further complication, this term and similar terms (e.g., nonrace congruent, nonstereotypic) are sometimes used to refer to incongruent crimes (Gordon & Anderson, 1995; Jones & Kaplan, 2003; Schuller et al., 2009), but also to describe crimes meant to be neutral (i.e., neither congruent nor incongruent; Gordon, 1993). One potential solution is to follow Petsko and Bodenhausen (2019) and simply refer to white stereotypic crimes and black stereotypic crimes.
Even comparing results across studies, where some studies find crime congruency for one group (e.g., white individuals judged more harshly than black individuals on embezzlement) and other studies find congruency effects for another group (e.g., black individuals judged more harshly than white individuals in assault cases) are potentially problematic due to differences in study characteristics (e.g., sample demographics, changes in social norms to avoid appearing prejudiced, case content unrelated to crime, subtlety by which race is manipulated). Are the results confirmation that race-crime congruency occurs for both racial groups or do the results reflect study idiosyncrasies?
This effect size refers to a Pearson correlation (r) for meta-analyses. The \(\overline{r }\) represents the point estimates sample weighted mean correlations.
To help determine if a meta-analysis was viable, we created a table detailing each facet of the relevant articles.
Though other groups were of interest, too few studies investigated groups other than black and white (N = 3), gender (N = 1), and sexual orientation (N = 1). These studies are included in the search strategy flow chart, and later excluded when the authors realized there were too few.
The ordinal nature of verdict implies severity of punishment, such that not guilty is less severe and of lower rank than rendering a guilty verdict.
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Bitter, A.N., Smith, O.K.H., Michalski, N.D. et al. Examining the Crossover Interaction of the Race-Crime Congruency Effect: A Systematic Review. Race Soc Probl 15, 408–427 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12552-022-09376-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12552-022-09376-1