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21 Punishment & Soc'y 3 (2019)

handle is hein.journals/punscty21 and id is 1 raw text is: Article Punishment & Society 2019, Vol. 21(1) 3-27 Conflicted conservatives, @ The Author(s) 2017 Article reuse guidelines: punitive views, and sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/1462474517736295 anti -B lack racial journals.sagepub.com/homelpun bias 1974-20 14 SAGE Elizabeth K Brown University of Massachusetts Boston, USA Kelly M Socia University of Massachusetts Lowell, USA jasmine R Silver University at Albany, SUNY, USA Abstract Research suggests that the views of conflicted conservatives, Americans who self- identify as conservative but express support for liberal governmental policies and spending, are particularly important in policymaking and politics because they are polit- ically engaged and often act as swing voters. We examine punitive views among con- flicted conservatives and other political subgroups in three distinct periods in the pol- itics of punishment in America between 1974 and 2014. In particular, we consider the punitive views of conflicted conservatives relative to consistent conservatives, moder- ates, and liberals. Given the barrier that racialized typifications of violent crime may pose to current criminal justice reform efforts, we also explore the role of anti-Black bias in predicting punitive views among White Americans across political subgroups. Our overall findings indicate that conflicted conservatives are like moderates in their support for the death penalty and like consistent conservatives on beliefs about court harshness. These findings, and supplemental analyses on punitive views and voting behaviors across political subgroups, call into question whether conflicted conserva- tives have acted as critical scorekeepers on penal policy issues. We also find that Corresponding author: Elizabeth K Brown, Sociology Department, University of Massachusetts Boston, 100 Morrissey Boulevard, Boston, MA 02125, USA. Email: Elizabeth.Brown@umb.edu