PublicMind Polling, Surveys, Market Analysis

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For immediate release Wednesday, May 13                              7 pages

Contact: Krista Jenkins 973.443.8390; kjenkins@fdu.edu

Race Still Divides New Jerseyans Over Issues of Criminal Justice

Although the vast majority of New Jersey residents express confidence in the criminal justice system’s ability to treat everyone equally, blacks and whites evaluate institutions differently, with blacks significantly less trusting than whites. The same trend was observed eight years ago in a similar study.

In its most recent statewide survey of New Jersey residents, Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind finds that race is a determining factor in attitudes toward the police and other institutions, including prosecutors and the availability of competent legal assistance.

Three quarters of whites (75%) trust police to treat everyone equally, with only 42 percent of black respondents who say the same. Parsing the numbers even more, almost half of whites (47%) say they have “a lot” of trust in the police, but only 14 percent of blacks express the degree of trust.

A chasm separates whites from blacks on the other two issues as well: prosecutorial fairness and the availability of legal assistance, regardless of income. Forty-five percent of blacks trust prosecutors, with only ten percent who say they have “a lot” of trust, while 77 percent of whites express trust, with over a third (38%) who say they have “a lot” of trust. Over half of whites (54%) trust the system to provide effective legal representation, with more than a full fifth (21%) expressing the most trust. Among blacks, trust in legal help plummets. Only seven percent say they have “a lot” of trust with another quarter who describe their level as “some.”

“With racial tensions running high in the wake of a string of police shootings and other brutality against black suspects, these numbers should give public officials pause,” said Krista Jenkins, professor of political science and director of PublicMind. “Black residents in New Jersey look upon the criminal justice system with suspicion rather than trust. She added  “The racial divide in New Jersey is about on par with what’s been observed across the country.” [See, for example, Pew Research numbers on perceptions of police fairness.]

Overall, most Garden Staters trust the police to treat all suspects equally, regardless of race (66%). Sixty-nine percent trust prosecutors to treat all defendants equally; 48 percent say they have confidence in the ability of all defendants, regardless of income, to get competent attorneys to help defend them. These numbers are largely unchanged from when these questions were last asked in 2006. Back then 74 percent said they trusted police to treat everyone equally, 70 percent said the same about prosecutors, and 48 percent expressed confidence in effective representation for defendants.

             

Percent expressing “a lot” of trust in various institutions regarding equal treatment, regardless of race or income

 

                 

Partisanship also divides Garden Staters on these issues. By wide margins, Democrats are far more distrusting of the system than Republicans. By a more than two-to-one margin, Republicans say they have a lot of trust in the police compared with Democrats (59% versus 22%, respectively). An almost three-to-one margin divides Republicans from Democrats on the issue of prosecutorial fairness (50% versus 17%, respectively). And while a fifth of Republicans say they have a lot of trust in the ability of defendants to secure competent representation (22%), just over one-in-ten Democrats say the same (12%).

“The intersection of crime, race and justice is emerging as an important political issue as we head into the 2016 election. These numbers suggest that at least in our state, whether someone sees the events of late as related to race or something else is partly determined by their political leanings,” said Jenkins.

Having had a suspicious experience with law enforcement also helps to explain why blacks and whites differ in their attitudes toward the system. When asked if you or someone you know has been detained by the police for reasons that you suspect had something to do with who you are rather than what you allegedly did, overall nearly a quarter (23%) of respondents said yes, with 76 percent saying no. However, the rate of suspicious detainment more than doubles among blacks. Forty-two percent believe they or someone they know were stopped for who they are rather than what they supposedly did, with less than half that number of whites (18%) who say the same.

Percent who believe they or someone they know were detained for who they are rather than what they allegedly did

 

 

“Regardless of whether it’s true, the fact that so many more blacks than whites have had a suspicious encounter with law enforcement is no doubt fueling the distrust with the system in general. Perception is key, and right now some minority residents think the color of their skin is what’s behind their unwarranted encounters with police,” said Jenkins.        

The Fairleigh Dickinson University poll of 1314 adults, including an oversample of 403African-Americans, in New Jersey was conducted by telephone with both landline and cell phones from April 13 through April 19. The margin of error is +/- 3 percentage points.

Radio actualities at 201.692.2846                 For more information, please call 201.692.7032

Methodology

The most recent survey by Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind was conducted by telephone from April 13 through April 19 using a randomly selected sample of 1314 adults in New Jersey, including an oversample of 403 African-Americans. Black respondents were identified through their response to the following question:

In addition to being American, would you say you’re… ? [Prompt as necessary]

1          White [INTERVIEWER INCLUDE: Irish, German, Polish, Italian, and all Europeans] 

2          African-American/black

3          Asian-American [INCLUDES: Indian, Pakistani, Indian, Arab, Chinese, Japanese, etc.]

4          Hispanic/Latin American

5          Other [vol] 

9          Ref.

One can be 95 percent confident that the error attributable to sampling has a range of +/- 3.3 percentage points. The margin of error for subgroups is larger and varies by the size of that subgroup. The MoE for African Americans is +/- 4.9; for whites the MoE is +/- 4.3 (N = 524).

Survey results are also subject to non-sampling error. This kind of error, which cannot be measured, arises from a number of factors including, but not limited to, non-response (eligible individuals refusing to be interviewed), question wording, the order in which questions are asked, and variations among interviewers.

PublicMind interviews are conducted by Opinion America of Cedar Knolls, NJ, with professionally trained interviewers using a CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing) system. Random selection >is achieved by computerized random-digit dialing. This technique gives every person with a landline phone number (including those with unlisted numbers) an equal chance of being selected.

Landline households are supplemented with a separate, randomly selected sample of cell-phone respondents interviewed in the same time frame. The total combined sample is mathematically weighted to match known demographics of age, race and gender.

The sample was purchased from Marketing Systems Group and the research was funded by Fairleigh Dickinson University.

 

Tables

 

How much trust do you have in the police to treat all suspects equally, regardless of race? Would you say you have
		PID			Gender		Race		Age
	All	Dem	Ind	Rep	Male	Female	White	Black	18-34	35-59	60+
A lot	36%	22	31	59	40	32	47	14	29	37	40
Some	30%	33	28	30	27	33	28	28	29	29	33
Just a little	21%	31	26	7	19	23	16	31	29	19	17
None at all	11%	13	12	4	12	10	7	24	11	12	9
DK (vol)	1%	1	2	0	1	1	1	2	1	2	1
Refused (vol)	1%	0	0	0	1	1	0	1	0	1	0

 

How much trust do you have in the police to treat all suspects equally, regardless of race? Would you say you have
			Education		Region			Detained
	All	‘06	College Grad +	Some College and Less	North	Central	South	Yes	No
A lot	36%	35%	36	35	29	41	40	20	40
Some	30%	39%	33	27	34	25	31	26	32
Just a little	21%	14%	21	21	23	21	18	28	19
None at all	11%	9%	8	14	12	11	10	25	7
DK (vol)	1%	0	1	2	2	1	0	1	2
Refused (vol)	1%	0	0	1	1	1	0	0	1

 

 

How much trust do you have in PROSECUTORS to treat all defendants equally, regardless of race? Would you say you have
		PID			Gender		Race		Age
	All	Dem	Ind	Rep	Male	Female	White	Black	18-34	35-59	60+
A lot	29%	17	25	50	36	23	38	10	24	32	30
Some	40%	42	43	37	34	45	39	35	38	40	40
Just a little	17%	25	16	8	14	20	13	34	25	14	14
None at all	11%	15	12	3	12	9	7	18	11	12	9
DK (vol)	3%	2	5	1	3	3	3	3	2	2	5
Refused (vol)	0%	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	1

 

How much trust do you have in PROSECUTORS to treat all defendants equally, regardless of race? Would you say you have
			Education		Region			Detained
	All	‘06	College Grad +	Some College and Less	North	Central	South	Yes	No
A lot	29%	28%	33	25	24	34	33	38	33
Some	40%	42%	44	36	43	35	41	37	41
Just a little	17%	16%	13	21	16	19	16	14	16
None at all	11%	9	8	14	13	10	8	10	6
DK (vol)	3%	0	2	4	4	2	2	1	3
Refused (vol)	0%	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	0

 

How much trust do you have in the ability of all defendants, regardless of income, to get competent attorneys to help defend them? Would you say you have
		PID			Gender		Race		Age
	All	Dem	Ind	Rep	Male	Female	White	Black	18-34	35-59	60+
A lot	17%	12	20	22	17	16	21	7	14	18	17
Some	31%	33	21	35	31	31	33	25	29	29	35
Just a little	32%	34	34	31	33	32	29	37	35	32	30
None at all	17%	21	19	9	16	18	14	27	17	20	13
DK (vol)	3%	1	4	3	3	3	3	3	5	1	4
Refused (vol)	0%	0	1	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	1

 

How much trust do you have in the ability of all defendants, regardless of income, to get competent attorneys to help defend them? Would you say you have…
			Education		Region			Detained
	All	‘06	College Grad +	Some College and Less	North	Central	South	Yes	No
A lot	17%	13%	17	16	15	18	18	14	18
Some	31%	36%	30	32	30	32	32	20	34
Just a little	32%	30%	34	30	35	30	30	33	32
None at all	17%	16%	17	17	17	17	17	31	13
DK (vol)	3%	0	2	4	3	3	3	2	3
Refused (vol)	0%	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	0

 

 

Have you or anyone you know personally, been detained by the police for reasons that you suspect had something to do with who you are rather than what you allegedly did?
		PID			Gender		Race		Age
	All	Dem	Ind	Rep	Male	Female	White	Black	18-34	35-59	60+
Yes	23%	30	23	13	25	21	18	42	29	25	15
No	76%	69	74	86	74	77	81	55	71	73	83
DK (vol)	1%	1	1	0	1	1	0	1	0	1	1
Refused (vol)	1%	0	2	0	1	1	0	2	1	1	1

 

 

Have you or anyone you know personally, been detained by the police for reasons that you suspect had something to do with who you are rather than what you allegedly did?
		Education		Region
	All	College Grad +	Some College and Less	North	Central	South
Yes	23%	22	23	22	24	23
No	76%	77	75	77	74	76
DK (vol)	1%	1	1	0	1	1
Refused (vol)	1%	1	1	1	1	0

 

Exact question wording

 

CJ1      How much trust do you have in the police to treat all suspects equally, regardless of race? Would you say you have …

1          A lot

2          Some

3          Just a little

4          None at all

8          DK (vol)

9          Refused (vol)

 

CJ2      How much trust do you have in PROSECUTORS to treat all defendants equally, regardless of race? Would you say you have …

1          A lot

2          Some

3          Just a little

4          None at all

8          DK (vol)

9          Refused (vol)

 

CJ3      How much trust do you have in in the ability of all defendants, regardless of income, to get competent attorneys to help defend them? Would you say you have …

1          A lot

2          Some

3          Just a little

4          None at all

8          DK (vol)

9          Refused (vol)

 

CJ4 through CJ8 withheld for subsequent release

 

CJ9      Have you, or anyone you know personally, been detained by the police for reasons that you suspect had something to do with who you are rather than what you allegedly did?

1          Yes

2          No

8          DK (vol)

9          Refused (vol)

 

 

Sample Characteristics

Gender	Male	48%
	Female	52%
Age	18-34	28%
	35-59	41%
	60+	31%
	Refused	1%
Race	White	61%
	African American	14%
	Hispanic	14%
	Asian	6%
	Other/Refused	4%
Party (with leaners)	Dem	41%
	Ind/DK/Refused	27%
	Repub	31%