Crime and Presidential Accountability: A Case of Racially Conditioned Issue Ownership
Research Question
How do local crime rates affect public support for policing, punishment, and criminal justice reform?
Main Finding
Local crime rates influence public opinion in complex ways. Higher violent crime correlates with greater support for punitive measures, but people’s personal experience and political predispositions shape how they interpret crime trends.
Research Design
Cross-sectional survey combined with geographic data on local crime rates, testing how objective conditions relate to subjective attitudes.
Data Employed
National survey data linked to local-level crime statistics and demographic variables.
Substantive Importance
The study informs debates about the politics of policing and punishment by showing how geographic context conditions public opinion. It underscores the importance of both place-based and psychological mechanisms in shaping views on criminal justice.
Research Areas
Presidential Accountability, Public Opinion, Geographic Context, Survey Research, Quantitative Methods
Citation
@article{crime,
author = {Noble, Benjamin and Reeves, Andrew and Webster, Steven W.},
title = {Crime and Presidential Accountability: A Case of Racially Conditioned Issue Ownership},
journal = {Public Opinion Quarterly},
volume = {86},
number = {1},
pages = {29--50},
year = {2022},
}