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Part IV. Ethnic Group Differences in Experiences with the Law
- Russell Sage Foundation
- Chapter
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PART IV ETHNIC GROUP DIFFERENCES IN EXPERIENCES WITH THE LAW IN DESIGNING the sample for the California survey, we focused on the race or ethnicity of the people we interviewed. The study was stratified to draw approximately equal numbers of members of three important groups, African Americans, Hispanics, and whites. We did so because past studies of the American public provide clear evidence that there have long been major ethnic group differences in people's experiences with and attitudes toward the law and legal authorities. In fact, race-ethnicity has always been considered one ofthe central dimensions defining the relationship between the residents of various communities and legal authorities. When legal authorities are engaged in regulation, expressions of discontent are most widespread, and can be particularly troubling and problematic among members of minority groups. In fact, "concern about police behavior toward racial minorities is an enduring feature of twentieth century American politics and public policy. Hardly a week goes by without a newspaper or television account of an incident where police officers are alleged to have treated a person who is a member of a minority group badly, with a subtext that the person's race accounted for the mistreatment" (Mastrofski et a1. 1998,1). In chapter 10, we discuss the background of community relations with legal authorities and give particular attention to the interactions between minority community residents and legal authorities. Using data from the California study, we explore the nature of the outcomes 140 Trust in the Law that minority and white residents receive from the police and the courts and their willingness to accept those outcomes. In chapter 11, we examine the manner in which minority group members evaluate their experiences-whether they feel that the procedures they experience are fair and whether they trust the motives ofthe authorities they encounter. Our goal is to examine whether there are differences in the psychology of personal experience that can be linked to issues of race-ethnicity. Finally, chapter 12 explores the impact ofconnections to one's ethnicracial group. We first examine whether the match or mismatch of ethnicity-racebetween a personand a legal authority makes a difference during a personal encounter. Psychologically, this match or mismatch may changea within-group encounter to an encounter thatcrosses group boundaries. We then examine the role that ethnic group identification plays in shaping the psychology of experience. Here our concern is not with ethnic group membership per se, but with the degree of psychological connection to one's ethnic groUp.l ...