The DOI matches its Crossref record; 66 of the 66 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The essence of innocence: Consequences of dehumanizing Black children.
Abstract
The social category "children" defines a group of individuals who are perceived to be distinct, with essential characteristics including innocence and the need for protection (Haslam, Rothschild, & Ernst, 2000). The present research examined whether Black boys are given the protections of childhood equally to their peers. We tested 3 hypotheses: (a) that Black boys are seen as less "childlike" than their White peers, (b) that the characteristics associated with childhood will be applied less when thinking specifically about Black boys relative to White boys, and (c) that these trends would be exacerbated in contexts where Black males are dehumanized by associating them (implicitly) with apes (Goff, Eberhardt, Williams, & Jackson, 2008). We expected, derivative of these 3 principal hypotheses, that individuals would perceive Black boys as being more responsible for their actions and as being more appropriate targets for police violence. We find support for these hypotheses across 4 studies using laboratory, field, and translational (mixed laboratory/field) methods. We find converging evidence that Black boys are seen as older and less innocent and that they prompt a less essential conception of childhood than do their White same-age peers. Further, our findings demonstrate that the Black/ape association predicted actual racial disparities in police violence toward children. These data represent the first attitude/behavior matching of its kind in a policing context. Taken toget…
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“judges possibly are influenced by physical appearance and presentation which can vary widely in this age group rather than the chronological age of the youth (Goff et al., 2014).”
From Transfer of Minors to Adult Court in California: Investigating the Legal/Demographic Factors that Make the Difference (2025) · cites this paper as Goff et al., 2014
In the citing paper
“These narratives are not limited to the discursive realm, as anti-Blackness informs law enforcement practices in relation to Black youth as well as the public and governmental response to incidents of anti-Black state violence (Goff et al., 2014; Hill, 2016).”
From “Thank You, Black Twitter”: State Violence, Digital Counterpublics, and Pedagogies of Resistance (2018) · cites this paper as Goff et al., 2014
In the citing paper
“Importantly, explicit racism was unrelated to either university students ' or police of fi cers ' judgments or behavior”
From A call to dismantle systemic racism in criminal legal systems. (2022) · cites this paper as Goff et al., 2014
In the citing paper
“Indeed, Goff et al. (2014) found that the more of fi cers implicitly dehumanized Black people, the more they reported having used force against Black boys in the past.”
From A call to dismantle systemic racism in criminal legal systems. (2022) · cites this paper as Goff et al., 2014
In the citing paper
“In addition, people implicitly dehumanize Black people.”
From A call to dismantle systemic racism in criminal legal systems. (2022) · cites this paper as Goff et al., 2014
In the citing paper
“Goff et al. (2014) showed that both university students and police of fi cers automatically associate Black boys with apes and perceive them as older than they really are, by an average of 3 years.”
From A call to dismantle systemic racism in criminal legal systems. (2022) · cites this paper as Goff et al., 2014
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Metadata
- Authors
- Goff, P. A., Jackson, M. C., Di Leone, B. A. L., Culotta, C. M., & DiTomasso, N. A.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Los Angeles (US)
- Pennsylvania State University (US)
- University of Pennsylvania (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
- Published
- 2014-04
- Volume
- 106
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 526-545
- ISSN
- 0022-3514 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1315
- OpenAlex
- W2102775714
- Cited by
- 1,134
- References
- 66
- Citations by year
- 2026: 64 · 2025: 105 · 2024: 133 · 2023: 119 · 2022: 124 · 2021: 131 · 2020: 107 · 2019: 91 · 2018: 100 · 2017: 63 · 2016: 61 · 2015: 27 · 2014: 8
- FWCI
- 172.72
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Russel Sage Foundation
- W. K. Kellogg Foundation
- Atlantic Philanthropies
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Racial and Ethnic Identity Research
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Policing Practices and Perceptions
- Keywords
- dehumanization, Black children, innocence, childhood, racial disparities in policing, police brutality, Black boys, intergroup perception, age perception
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Age Factors, Attitude, Child, Crime, Female, Hispanic or Latino, Humans, Male, Morals, Police, Dehumanization, Black People, White People, Young Adult, Racism
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