Lower Class Mobilization and State Welfare Policy in the Era of Welfare Reform

The 1990s played host to the most significant changes in the American welfare system in the last fifty years— in particular, states were granted much wider latitude in deciding who is eligible to receive welfare. Taking advantage of these changes, we examine the linkage between lower class turnout and state adoption of restrictive welfare eligibility requirements after the passage of the historic welfare reform legislation of 1996. We find that in states where lower class turnout was relatively high, lawmakers were much less likely to pass a range of “get tough” welfare rules. Our findings provide novel support for the importance of electoral mobilization in helping the lower class achieve policies consistent with their interests. However, we also uncover evidence consistent with a “group threat” hypothesis in that states with larger lower class populations tended to adopt more restrictive welfare rules

The racial components of “race-neutral” crime policy attitudes

ABSTRACT While past studies find evidence of a connection between race and crime in the minds of many whites, several gaps remain in our knowledge of this association. We use a multi-method approach to examine more closely the racial component of whites' support for ostensibly race-neutral crime policies. First, using conventional correlational analysis, we show that negative stereotypes of African Americansspecifically, the belief that blacks are violent and lazy-are an important source of support for punitive policies such as the death penalty and increasing prison terms. Second, using a survey experiment, we show that negative evaluations of black prisoners are much more strongly tied to support for punitive policies than are evaluations of white prisoners. The findings from our multi-method approach suggest that when many whites think of punitive crime policies to deal with violent offenders they are thinking of black offenders. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of our findings for the intersection of race, crime, and political behavior

Explaining the great racial divide: Perceptions of fairness in the U.S. criminal justice system

Explaining the great racia

2001 US Race & Crime Survey

The Stata data file contains the original survey data for the Hurwitz & Peffley 2001 US Race & Crime Survey, consisting of approx 600 whites and 580 African Americans. See the Word file questionnaire for the survey

Replication Data for: The Vicarious Bases of Perceived Injustice

Profound differences exist in how Americans from various racial and ethnic groups view police and court officials. We argue that vicarious experiences contribute to this racial and ethnic divide. Drawing on research on social communication, social network composition, and negativity biases in perception and judgment, we devise a theoretical framework to articulate why vicarious experiences magnify racial and ethnic disparities in evaluations of judicial actors. Four hypotheses are tested using original survey data from the state of Washington. Results provide strong evidence that vicarious experiences influence citizens’ evaluations of both police and courts, and do so in a manner that widens racial divides in how those actors are perceived

Supplemental Material - Left-Right Social Identity and the Polarization of Political Tolerance

Supplemental Material for Left-Right Social Identity and the Polarization of Political Tolerance by Mark Peffley, Omer Yair, and Marc L Hutchison in Political Research Quarterly</p