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9780511760761

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After decades of conjecture and speculation about a fundamental question about justice, Mark Peffley and John Hurwitz, finally, provide a rigorous and definitive analysis of how the different realities of African Americans and whites influence their perceptions of justice and their relation to the legal system. Through the use of new data collected explicitly to explore conceptions of justice and applying the latest experimental techniques, the racial differences in attitudes toward crime and justice are deep and seemingly inexorable. Justice in America makes clear the larger consequences and duplicity that come from individuals who are most must vulnerable to crime and who are most dependent on the legal system to also believe system is stacked against them. We are taught that fundamental beliefs about justice and punitive policies are at stack. -Darren Davis, University of Notre Dame Justice in America is an authoritative account of the racial divide in public opinion about the American criminal justice system. Mark Peffley and Jon Hurwitz trace the divide to differential experiences of discrimination by law enforcement and, as a consequence, divergent views on the fundamental fairness of the police and courts. The insights that emerge from this ambitious study-namely, that it is beliefs about fairness, more so than beliefs about race, that separate blacks and whites in the domain of crime and punishment-demand attention from scholars and policymakers alike. -Claudine Gay, Harvard University With rigorous and innovative scholarship, Peffley and Hurwitz demonstrate the enormous gulf between whites' and blacks' experiences and perceptions of the American criminal justice system. What is more, they show how these perceptions generate a vast racial divide in understandings of crime and anti-crime policies in the US. An eloquent study that anyone interested how race continues to shape Americans' lives will find indispensable. -Martin Gilens, Princeton University Justice in America takes on a controversial subject with elegance, creativity, and thoroughness. I learned a lot reading this important book. It is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the disparate worldviews of Black and White Americans. -Vincent L. Hutchings, University of Michigan

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Mark Peffley is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Kentucky. He is co-editor of Perception and Prejudice: Race and Politics in the U.S. (1998) and the journal Political Behavior. His articles have appeared in numerous journals, including American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, International Studies Quarterly, and Political Psychology. Jon Hurwitz is currently a Professor of Political Science at the University of Pittsburgh. He is co-editor of Perception and Prejudice: Race and Politics in the U.S. (1998) and the journal Political Behavior. His articles have appeared in numerous journals, including American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, International Studies Quarterly, and Political Psychology.

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