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
