Does the Ethnicity of Offenders in Crime Scenarios Affect Public Perceptions of Crime Seriousness? A Randomized Survey Experiment in Israel

Research into public perceptions of crime seriousness is usually based on the method developed by Sellin and Wolfgang (1964), in which respondents are required to evaluate hypothetical crime scenarios. However, in most cases, offenses are presented summarily, with few or no details on the offenders. A review of the literature shows that the offenders ethnicity plays an important role in shaping the views of the public at large on crime issues. Using a randomized experiment, this study surveyed a large sample of Israeli citizens to determine whether the offenders ethnicity — Jewish or Arab as the independent variable — systematically affected their views of the seriousness of various offenses — the dependent variables. In the overall sample, offender ethnicity was found to have an effect only on less serious offenses. However, when Jewish and Arab respondents were analyzed separately, significant differences were found, especially for interethnic offenses. The implications of the findings are discussed.