Assessing Racialized Mental Representations of Crack 和 Powder Cocaine Users

D在可卡因流行期间, targeted laws 和 media representation sent messaging that those addicted to crack were Black criminals (Alex和er, 2020). In contrast, the growing prevalence of powder cocaine generated productive responses (e.g., emphasizing treatment; Hansen, & Netherl和, 2016), which may be because powder cocaine being associated with Whiteness. The current work examines whether racialized mental representations (MRs) of individuals experiencing addiction to crack or powder cocaine predicts bias in recommended punishments.
 

在第一阶段, 120 participants completed reverse correlation tasks (see Brown-Iannuzzi, 2017 for detailed methodology) envisioning individuals experiencing addiction to crack 和 powder cocaine.
 

在第二阶段, in three subphases with slightly varying procedures, separate samples of participants viewed composite MRs of each target group 和 rated them on a variety of social characteristics, notably Afrocentricity 和 Eurocentricity. Evaluators then rendered punishment judgments (fines, prison time, community service).
 

Paired samples t-tests were conducted to compare evaluations of MRs by phase 2 evaluators. 裂缝, 相对于粉末, cocaine MR was judged as significantly more Afrocentric 和 less Eurocentric in all three subphases.
 

裂缝 cocaine MR was recommended significantly harsher punishment judgements in phase 2a. The powder MR was recommended significantly harsher punishment judgements in phase 2b. There were no significant punishment judgement differences in phase 2c.
 

This work suggests that people hold distinct 和 racialized mental representations of people who use different drugs, 和 which may influence punishment expectations/judgments. Despite crack 和 powder cocaine having no pharmacological differences, federal crime penalties punish crack much more harshly than powder cocaine (Lynch, 2021). The findings of this study provide some insight in the creation, 保存, 和 consequences of disparities in drug laws 和 their enforcement.