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Race and
Violent Attitudes:
A Study of the
Relationship Between Race and Violence
©2003 by Amanda Brooks Home
Introduction | Statement
of the Problem | Methods | Analysis
| Conclusion | References
Racial issues are far from being a problem of the past. A myth pervades American society that has proven to be detrimental to the well being of a particular racial group. Many Americans believe that African Americans are violent people. This myth must be dispelled for our society function in a more democratic manner. I will study this problem by comparing attitudes of violence among African American and Caucasian Americans.
First, I will research the ties of poverty to crime. Previous studies on African Americans and violence have pointed toward a correlation between poverty levels and crime rate. Where poverty is high, crime rate will in turn be high. For example, Lee (2000) found a positive relationship between black disadvantage and black homicide. Green, Strolovitch, and Wong studied the attitudes of whites during times of economic hardship. Although this finding is debated among scholars, they use the historical example that the number of lynchings in the South increased as cotton prices decreased. As white people in the society faced economic hardship due to the limited income of their biggest cash crop, they became more violent toward their neighbors. This might illustrate that race is not the determining factor in violence, rather economics plays a key role in violent attitudes of people. As white people perceive that the racial homogeneity of their community is threatened, they become more violent to the incoming minority. Chiricos, McEntire, and Gertz also point out an increase in violence among whites when the perception of a minority moving into the neighborhood is high (Chiricos, McEntire, and Gertz 2001:335). Pattillo found that even the middle-class black neighborhoods contained high levels of internal poverty as well as high levels of crime (Pattillo 1998). This problem was due to the fact that these middle class black neighborhoods are situated close to the high poverty black communities as racial segregation is high. Pattillo's article as well as one by Rankin and Quane (2000) turned up a surprise. Both studies found that in black communities of high crime and high poverty, there was greater participation by neighbors in keeping a watch on crime. This was due to an increased fear among the residents. Rankin and Quane found that "families are more likely to participate when they reside in the poorest neighborhoods" (Rankin and Quane 2000: 157). This seems to dissipate the argument that it is race that is the factor in violence when members of that race are taking pro-active measures to stop or hinder the crime rates in their neighborhoods.
On the other hand, some sociologists have found no link between poverty rate and crime levels. Peterson and Krivo found a stronger connection between inequality and crime than between economic deprivation and crime (Peterson and Krivo 1993). Lee also acknowledged that many sociologists have found no connection between black poverty and black homicide while he maintained that there is a connection (Lee 2000:198).
Peterson and Krivo; Lee; and Morenoff and Sampson all discuss a strong connection between crime and spacial dynamics in their studies. They all found a strong correlation between concentrated levels of poverty and high crime rates. In his conclusion, Lee states: "the results suggest that the actual spatial isolation of poor city residents from non-poor residents is a strong, consistent, and primary determinant of homicide levels" (Lee 2000:202). Peterson and Krivo state that "black-white segregation leads to higher rates of black killing" (Peterson and Krivo 1993). This heightens the argument that race is not the factor, poverty is. Pattillo's study is also useful here as she discussed the relation to the location of the middle class black neighborhood in the same vicinity as the high poverty black communities. She is essentially referring to spacial dynamics as well as concentration of poverty in a single area. These studies suggest that white Americans would have the same violent attitudes if they lived in areas of concentrated poverty.
I wanted to use a comparison of levels of use of corporal punishment between African Americans and white Americans as a means to determine attitudes toward violence. I discovered an article written by Christopher G. Ellison, John P. Bartkowski, and Michelle L. Segal entitled Conservative Protestantism and the Parental Use of Corporal Punishment in which they found a strong link between conservative Protestants and the use of corporal punishment ( Ellison, Bartkowski, and Segal 1996). In light of the statistic that ninety percent of the black population is Protestant, it appears that religion is a cause for the high use of physical punishment among African Americans.
I also intended to use gun ownership as a means of determining violent attitudes between the two races. This, too, was hard to support. I found statistics from the General Social Survey that found higher income people (who are most likely white) are more likely to own a hand gun than a lower class person (who are most often black). Forty-four percent of the white population owns a hand gun whereas twenty-six percent of the black population owns a hand gun. A study conducted by Lawrence Southwick Jr. titled Do Guns Cause Crime? Does Crime Cause Guns: A Granger Test, found that for the most part, crime causes guns. More people buy guns for protection than to commit a crime ( Lawrence Southwick Jr. 1997). Those who can afford a gun for protection have the ability to buy one, thus people of higher income are more likely to own a gun.
When considering abortion and its relation to race, it was found in studies done by Medoff; Singy and Darroch; and Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (no author given) that income and marital status directly related to abortion rates. Singy and Darroch found "the national teenage pregnancy rate in the United States was not due simply to the high rate among black adolescents; the rate among white teenagers was also one of the highest among the developed countries" (2000). The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report discovered "unmarried and Caucasian women were more likely to have an abortion than married women or women of different races" (1997). Singy and Darroch also concluded that "the high rate of teenage childbearing among minority and disadvantaged groups...is consistent with the hypothesis that lack of opportunity and socioeconomic disadvantage contribute to teenage childbearing" (2000). Medoff had similar findings: "The racial disparity in the abortion rate or ratio appers to be due to recent increases in the income of black women which resulted in black women increasingly viewing abortion as a more viable and desirable option" (2000). These illustrate that socio-economics play a larger role in pregnancy and abortion than does race. This is important because we see that for white Americans as well as for black Americans, when there is a higher degree of education and greater economic potential, the attitudes toward abortion seem to be favorable and about the same for both races.
Wenger, Pearson,
Desmond, Harrison, Rubenstein, Rogers, and Kahn conducted a study
analyzing affects of race on attitudes concerning euthanasia (1995).
They found the "do-not-resuscitate" orders "were assigned less often to
black patients" although more studies concerning
this relationship need to be done (1995). The lack of participation in
euthanasia among African
Americans is a possible indicator about their attitude toward this form
of violence.
Gallager (2001); and Finkelstein (1987) have done studies concerning capital punishment and race and both have found a correlation. The two studies differ in that Gallager insists that capital punishment is not carried out on the basis of race but is sought by the prosecutor on the basis of race whereas Finkelstein insists that punishment is carried out on the bacsis of race. According to Gallager, the death penalty was sought more often by the prosecutor when the victim is white and the defendant is black.
I hypothesize that
when measuring attitudes of violence using euthanasia, capital
punishment, abortion, and police violence, we will find that race is
not a cause of violence. I
intend to illustrate from data I have collected that there is no
significant correlation between race
and violence.
I am using the 1998 General Social Survey to collect data for my research. My independent variable is race. I used the following question to measure this variable: "Respondent's race?" This is a valid measure because I must know the race of the person to be able to measure the attitudes of violence in relation to race. This question is obviously reliable because a person usually chooses one race with which to identify.
The dependent variables I have chosen to use to measure attitudes of violence are euthanasia, capital punishment, abortion, and police violence. My questions for euthanasia are: "When a person has a disease that cannot be cured, do you think doctors should be allowed by law to end the patient's life by some painless means if the patient and his family request it?" and "Person has right to end own life if this person has an incurable disease?" Validity and reliability are present in both questions.
The question I used to measure for capital punishment is: "Do you favor or oppose the death penalty for persons convicted of murder?" This is valid because it gives a clear measure of the response of each race. It is also reliable data. "Are there any situations you can imagine in which you would approve of a policeman striking an adult male citizen?" and "Does respondent think the government should spend less, more, or about the same amount on the police law enforcement?" are the questions I used for police violence. Once again, both questions are reliable and they are both valid. The first measures wheather a person believes a policeman has the right to use violence against a citizen. The second is valid because people encourage spending and giving in areas they support. For abortion I am using "Does respondent think abortion should be legal if the woman wants it for any reason?" This, too, is reliable and valid although it shows that there is no significant difference between the races in this area. It is good to point out that the two races are not necessarily at opposite poles on all issues.
I had originally planed to use gun ownership as an independent variable with the following questions: "Do you happen to have in your home (if house: or garage) any guns or revolvers?" and "Would you favor or oppose a law which would require a person to obtain a police permit before he or she could buy a gun?" These questions are not suited for my study because research shows that most people who own guns are white, upperclass, and purchase them for protection or hunting. By owning a gun, a person is not committing an act of violence and for the majority of cases is not reflecting violent attitudes. Another dependent variable I originally wanted to measure was spanking. The question for this is: "Do you strongly agree, agree, disagree, or strongly disagree that it is sometimes necessary to discipline a child with a good hard spanking?" Although this data is reliable, it is not valid for this study. The main reason for this non-validity is that the data includes a "pop" on the hand as well and a "whack" across the backside with a belt in the same category. The former is not viewed by many as violent whereas the latter is viewed by many to be violent. It is too broad a spectrum for this study.
People who respond
African American will say they "oppose" when asked, "Do you favor
or oppose the death penalty?" This attitude may be influenced by the
high number of African
Americans on death row. When asked the same question, the majority of
those who respond that
they are white will respond favorably. I predict that these same people
will "yes" to the following
two questions: "When a person has a disease that cannot be cured, do
you think doctors should
be allowed by law to end the patient's life by some painless means if
the patient and his family
request it?" and "Person has right to end own life if this person has
an incurable disease?" African
Americans will say, "no" to these questions, possibly due to high
religiosity, high numbers of
black women in nursing homes, etc. Respondents who answer that they are
African American
will be more likely to answer "no" when asked: "Are there any
situations you can imagine in
which you would approve of a policeman striking an adult male citizen?"
and "Does respondent
think the government should spend less, more, or about the same amount
on the police law
enforcement?" This, I believe, results from the history of the African
American. Historically they
have been abused and mistreated by law enforcement. The Rodney King
trials present a good
example of the African American community protesting police violence
and control. They are less
likely to support police financially because of the mistreatment. I
think white respondents will
answer favorably to the previous two questions because most police are
white and will therefore
defend and support themselves. When asked, "Does respondent think
abortion should be legal if
the woman wants it for any reason?" I believe both white and black
people will answer "yes"
because of the liberal leaning of the public.
I believe that people answering that they are white are more likely to answer favorably to the following question: "Do you happen to have in you home (if house: or garage) any guns or revolvers?" and oppose the question "Would you favor or oppose a law which would require a person to obtain a police permit before he or she could buy a gun?" Whites are more likely to own guns because they can afford them and because they get them for hunting and as means of protection. Blacks would more likely not have a gun in their home and would favor police permits. This may have to do with the financial ability to obtain a gun. The African American is more likely to witness crime in their neighborhood and may therefore be more likely to favor a police-issued permit to own a gun. It must also be noted that many crimes committed with guns are committed with stolen guns or those obtained by some other illegal means.
"Do you strongly agree, agree, disagree, or strongly disagree that it is sometimes necessary to discipline a child with a good, hard spanking?" produces positive results from the African American community and negative from the Caucasian community. There are many factors that I believe contribute to the response to this question, such as educational achievement, religiosity, and political affiliation.
I hypothesize that when measuring attitudes of violence using euthanasia, capital punishment, abortion, and police violence, we will find that race is not a cause of violence.
Many Americans believe that African Americans are violent people. This is a myth that must be dispelled for our society to function in a democratic manner. I hypothesize that when measuring attitudes of violence using euthanasia, capital punishment, abortion, and police violence, we will find that race is not a cause of violence. Previous studies relating to these measures of violence in relation to race have illustrated that Americans erroneously correlate violence to the color of a person's skin. This study is critical to the development of our society as we seek to become more knowledgeable about racism as a social problem.
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Darroch, Jacpueline, and Susheela Singh. "Adolescent Pregnancy and Childbearing: Levels and Trends in Developed Countries." Family Planning Perspectives 32:14. (This source was retrieved from InfoTrac.)
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