Essentialism and the criminal legal system.

OBJECTIVE: Existing literature has yet to conceptualize and consolidate research on psychological essentialism and its relation to the criminal legal system, particularly in terms of explaining how individuals with justice involvement have been and could be differentially impacted across contexts. This article explores essentialism in the criminal legal system, including its potential consequences for inequity. METHOD: We review research on essentialism as a psychological construct, its common applications to different social categorizations, and its trickle-down effects within the criminal legal system. RESULTS: Empirical work suggests that biases stemming from essentialism have the potential to severely affect individuals within the criminal legal system. Beyond assigning immutable properties across social groups, essentialism can give rise to biased attributions of responsibility and blame and affect decisions and behavior within three core domains of the criminal legal system: jury decision making, sentencing decisions, and public support for punitive policies. CONCLUSIONS: We propose future policy recommendations to mitigate the adverse effects of essentialism in the criminal legal system, focusing especially on how using and adopting person-first language (focusing on people before characteristics) across society and policy can help to combat bias across criminal legal domains. Future research is needed on how to best address the adverse effects of essentialism and its biasing effects in the criminal legal system, as well as to examine the effects of essentialism in different legal contexts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Stress, trauma, racial/ethnic group membership, and HPA function: Utility of hair cortisol.

Discrimination, poverty, and other aspects of the minority experience produce stress associated with health disparities. The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, a neuroendocrine subsystem usually monitored through assay of the hormone cortisol, is thought to play a key role in this relationship. Cortisol assay using hair specimens is a technology that promises to address important methodological problems in large-scale studies of health, well-being, and racial/ethnic status. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the potential of a hair cortisol assay-based method for studying trait-like HPA response to low to moderate levels of stress, associated with racial/ethnic discrimination and related social processes, among well-functioning young adults. The hair cortisol measure was shown to be highly reliable; it detected differences in gender and ethnic/racial identity and was correlated with a history of physical abuse and measures of experienced microaggression. The results support the promise of hair-based cortisol assay as a key methodology in health disparities research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Attitudes Toward Violence and Gender as Predictors of Interpersonal Violence Interventions.

The purpose of the research was to determine whether attitudes toward violence (ATV) and participant sex would influence notions about interpersonal violence (IPV) intervention by university students. It was anticipated those who held stronger cultural and reactive violence attitudes and males would be less in favor of intervention, but it was not certain whether gender or attitudes would be the stronger predictor for intervention approaches. An IPV intervention scale was developed to measure preferred approaches for intervention, which resulted in four approaches (affirmative intervention, no intervention, police intervention, and intervention threshold). A total of 420 university student volunteers completed the IPV intervention questionnaire followed by an ATV scale on an electronic data collection site. Results indicated ATV subtypes were stronger predictors of affirmative intervention than gender, but when considering cultural acceptability of violence, gender was the single predictor for a threshold of intervention. The findings have relevance for university and community intervention programs and public policy makers when attempting to alter the acceptability of violence to promote effective interventions.

The challenge of cultural competence in the workplace: perspectives of healthcare providers.

BACKGROUND: Cross-cultural educational initiatives for professionals are now commonplace across a variety of sectors including health care. A growing number of studies have attempted to explore the utility of such initiatives on workplace behaviors and client outcomes. Yet few studies have explored how professionals perceive cross-cultural educational models (e.g., cultural awareness, cultural competence) and the extent to which they (and their organizations) execute the principles in practice. In response, this study aimed to explore the general perspectives of health care professionals on culturally competent care, their experiences working with multi-cultural patients, their own levels of cultural competence and the extent to which they believe their workplaces address cross-cultural challenges. METHODS: The perspectives and experiences of a sample of 56 health care professionals across several health care systems from a Mid-Western state in the United States were sourced via a 19-item questionnaire. The questionnaire comprised both open-ended questions and multiple choice items. Percentages across participant responses were calculated for multiple choice items. A thematic analysis of open-ended responses was undertaken to identify dominant themes. RESULTS: Participants largely expressed confidence in their ability to meet the needs of multi-cultural clientele despite almost half the sample not having undergone formal cross-cultural training. The majority of the sample appeared to view cross-cultural education from a 'cultural awareness' perspective - effective cross-cultural care was often defined in terms of possessing useful cultural knowledge (e.g., norms and customs) and facilitating communication (the use of interpreters); in other words, from an immediate practical standpoint. The principles of systemic cross-cultural approaches (e.g., cultural competence, cultural safety) such as a recognition of racism, power imbalances, entrenched majority culture biases and the need for self-reflexivity (awareness of one's own prejudices) were scarcely acknowledged by study participants. CONCLUSIONS: Findings indicate a need for interventions that acknowledge the value of cultural awareness-based approaches, while also exploring the utility of more comprehensive cultural competence and safety approaches.

Racial and cultural minority experiences and perceptions of health care provision in a mid-western region.

BACKGROUND: Disparities across a number of health indicators between the general population and particular racial and cultural minority groups including African Americans, Native Americans and Latino/a Americans have been well documented. Some evidence suggests that particular groups may receive poorer standards of care due to biased beliefs or attitudes held by health professionals. Less research has been conducted in specifically non-urban areas with smaller minority populations. METHODS: This study explored the self-reported health care experiences for 117 racial and cultural minority Americans residing in a Mid-Western jurisdiction. Prior health care experiences (including perceived discrimination), attitudes towards cultural competence and satisfaction with health care interactions were ascertained and compared across for four sub-groups (African-American, Native American, Latino/a American, Asian American). A series of multiple regression models then explored relationships between a concert of independent variables (cultural strength, prior experiences of discrimination, education level) and health care service preferences and outcomes. RESULTS: Overall, racial/cultural minority groups (African Americans, Native Americans, Latino/a Americans, and Asian Americans) reported general satisfaction with current healthcare providers, low levels of both health care provider racism and poor treatment, high levels of cultural strength and good access to health care services. Native American participants however, reported more frequent episodes of poor treatment compared to other groups. Incidentally, poor treatment predicted lower levels of treatment satisfaction and racist experiences predicted being afraid of attending conventional health care services. Cultural strength predicted a preference for consulting a health care professional from the same cultural background. CONCLUSIONS: This study provided a rare insight into minority health care expectations and experiences in a region with comparatively lower proportions of racial and cultural minorities. Additionally, the study explored the impact of cultural strength on health care interactions and outcomes. While the bulk of the sample reported satisfaction with treatment, the notable minority of participants reporting poor treatment is still of some concern. Cultural strength did not appear to impact health care behaviours although it predicted a desire for cultural matching. Implications for culturally competent health care provision are discussed within.

Patriotism and the impact on perceived threat and immigration attitudes.

Patriotism and threat have been shown to predict immigration attitudes. We suggest that patriotism is influential in producing threat, and such threat drives anti-immigration attitudes, but this relationship is different for Whites and Latinos. All participants completed a patriotism scale (blind and constructive patriotism measures), a threat scale (realistic and symbolic threat), and anti-immigration attitude scale. Latinos showed lower blind patriotism, realistic threat, symbolic threat, and anti-immigration attitudes compared to Whites, with no differences in constructive patriotism. Threat partially mediated the relationship between blind patriotism and anti-immigration attitudes for Whites and fully mediated the relationship for Latinos. Threat partially mediated the relationship for cultural patriotism and anti-immigration attitude for Whites but not for Latinos. Implications for public policy and education concerning immigrant attitudes are discussed.

The influence of mitigation evidence, ethnicity, and SES on death penalty decisions by European American and Latino venire persons.

The purpose of the research was to determine whether European American and Latino mock jurors would demonstrate bias in death penalty decision making when mitigation evidence and defendant ethnicity and socioeconomic status (SES) were varied. A total of 561 actual venire persons acted as mock jurors and read a trial transcript that varied a defendant's case information (mitigating circumstances: strong/weak, defendant ethnicity: European American/Latino, and defendant SES: low/high). European American jurors recommended the death penalty significantly more often for the low SES Latino defendant when strength of mitigation evidence was weak. In addition, they also assigned this defendant higher culpability ratings and lower ratings on positive personality trait measures compared with all other conditions. Strong mitigation evidence contributed to lower guilt ratings by European American jurors for the high SES European American defendant. Latino jurors did not differ in their death penalty sentencing across defendant mitigation, ethnicity, or SES conditions. Discussion of in-group favoritism and out-group derogation, as well as suggestions for procedures to diminish juror bias in death penalty cases, is provided.

A question of honor: Chief Wahoo and American Indian stereotype activation among a university based sample.

For over 30 years, a debate has raged regarding the appropriateness of high school, university, and professional sports teams using American Indian mascots. Proponents of such mascots state that these images are traditions and honor Indigenous People. Opponents of these images argue that the symbols foster stereotypes (Pewewardy, 1999) and negatively affect American Indians (Fryberg, Markus, Oyserman, & Stone, 2008). The purpose of this investigation was to examine if exposure to an American Indian mascot activated American Indian stereotypes in a predominately European American sample. In addition, we explored the role of personal motivation, prejudice level, and experience on stereotype activation. We found that the Chief Wahoo image (i.e., Cleveland Indian's logo) compared to other images activated negative, but not positive, American Indian stereotypes. Participants' motivation to control prejudice, prejudice level, and experience did not predict negative stereotype activation. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.

Defendant and defense attorney characteristics and their effects on juror decision making and prejudice against Mexican Americans.

Racial bias in legal decision making has been given considerable attention over the past few decades, focusing mainly on African Americans to the exclusion of other minority groups. The purpose of this study was to address the dearth of research examining bias against Mexican American defendants. Two hundred forty-seven participants read through a trial transcript that varied defendant race/ethnicity (Mexican American or European American), defense attorney race/ethnicity (Mexican American or European American), and defendant socioeconomic status (SES; low or high [upper middle class]). Dependent measures included verdict, sentencing, culpability ratings, and trait assessments. Bias against Mexican American defendants occurred most when the Mexican American defendant was of low SES and represented by a Mexican American defense attorney. In addition, attorneys representing low-SES Mexican American defendants were perceived as less competent and rated lower on a number of trait measures. Limitations, applications, and future directions are discussed.