NCJ Number
124204
Date Published
1989
Length
22 pages
Annotation
Attempts at attaching absolute meaning to criminal justice have failed because conceptions and perceptions of justice are largely determined by the times, places, and positions in the social structure from which they are derived.
Abstract
Criminal justice is symbolic and variable; even such concepts as equality evolve with time. For instance, old laws designed to render equal justice for women would now be considered discriminatory. A study compared perceptions of injustice among classes such as employers, professional/managers, workers, surplus population and revealed that (1) black Americans are much more likely than white Americans to perceive injustice, (2) regardless of race, those of the surplus population are more likely than those of other classes to perceive injustice, and (3) class position conditions the relationship of race to the perception of criminal injustice, racial division being most acute in the professional/managerial class. Differences in perceptions of injustice can be partly attributable to race consciousness among blacks, who, with past collective experience in the lower classes, may still be sensitized to class/injustice issues, regardless of their current individual class position. 3 notes, 6 tables.