A Gendered Frame of Mind: Addressing the Impact of Gender on Restorative and Retributive Options and Racial Attitudes
Authors: Ashley Buggage, Zoe Fejes, Gilberto Gil, Jennifer Gil, Santiago Hernandez, Daniela Ibarra, Ismael J Rosas, Joy Sparkman, Ryo Tuso
Faculty Supervisor: Amy Smith
Department: Psychology
The present study examines the relationship of gender to attitudes toward restorative justice, and attitudes towards race and ethnicity, in the context of responses to crime. One hundred twenty-nine(129) participants completed a survey in which they gave their recommendation for the most appropriate punishment response to four crime vignettes (robbery, burglary, drug sale, drug possession), and completed several demographic measures, including questions about their attitudes toward race, and toward restorative and retributive justice.
Consistent with prior research, we found that male-identified participants were generally more punitive in their responses to the crime scenarios. Furthermore, to examine attitudes toward race, we modified the Australian Racism, Acceptance, and Cultural-Ethnocentrism Scale (RACES), a 24-item three-dimensional that measures Accepting Attitudes (12 items), Racist Attitudes (8 items), and Ethnocentric Attitudes (4 items). We conducted a linear regression analysis and our test showed, between male and female, there were statistically significant differences, t=2.52, p = 0.013 on the RACES scale. Alternatively, when we included participants who indicated that they were non-binary or those who preferred not to say their gender, differences were not statistically significant.