36th Annual Student Research Conference
Do Students Place More Blame on Perpetrators of Hate Crimes and More Blame on Victims of Non-Hate Crimes?
Murray R. Pringle
Dr. Arlen Egley, Faculty Mentor
This study aimed to determine whether perceptions of victims and perpetrators of hate crimes have changed in the last two decades and attempted to replicate a 2003 study by Rayburn et al. In our study, undergraduate criminal justice students from two universities were randomly given one of four scenarios depicting an assault against a student and used a seven-point Likert scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree relating to the level of blame. The independent variable was the perpetrator’s reason for the assault (race, religion, sexual orientation, or unknown), and the dependent variable was the perception of victim blame. Initial results from Truman State University did not show a difference in blame throughout crime scenarios, but three times more blame was allotted to perpetrators compared to victims regardless of the crime. We hope to present the results from the comparison analysis between the data sets of the two universities.
Keywords: Justice Systems, Psychology, Hate Crimes
Topic(s):Justice Systems
Psychology
Presentation Type: Poster Presentation
Session: 2-3
Location: Student Union Building Activities Room
Time: 3:00