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Building a Racially Diverse Movement Against the Death Penalty: The Role of Framing DisputesDr. Sandra J. Jones. The death penalty has received renewed attention in the last few years, primarily due to the significant number of innocent people who have been exonerated from death row. Recent polls reveal the biggest drop in public support for the death penalty in twenty years and a growing number of states are legislating a moratorium on executions. This shift in attitudes has not come without the hard work of a small, yet growing number of activists who are fighting for the abolition of the death penalty.
While a great deal of research has been done about many aspects of the death penalty, little attention has been paid to the movement organized against it. This study aims to bridge that gap with an empirical examination of cultural factors that shape the constituency found within the anti-death penalty movement. Primary attention is given to the way in which the variable of race affects who becomes mobilized to participate and how activists frame their messages against the death penalty. Such questions centering on race arise out of my observation of the obvious racial distinction between death row inmates and the activists in the movement. While the death rows across the U.S. are overpopulated with racial minorities and the poor, the ranks of the anti-death penalty movement are dominated by white, middle-class professionals. To examine the influence of race on the mobilization of anti-death penalty activists, I conducted interviews with 40 activists, 20 white and 20 black, from the Mid-Atlantic region. The perspective of the political process model is used to bring attention to the cultural ground upon which meaning is attached to the activities of those within the movement. This study concludes that the array of framing strategies, and the contests that often emerge between them, is significantly impacted by the race of the activists. The disputes found among activists over the strategies, tactics, and frames that they embrace frequently took on a racial tone. Although the racial tension discovered lies just below the surface, I suggest that it nevertheless creates significant obstacles for a movement that is striving to build a more racially diverse constituency. Presenters Dr. Sandra J. Jones
(United States)
Assistant Professor Sociology Department Rowan University Sandra Jones is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Rowan University, in Glassboro, New Jersey. She received her doctorate in 2002 from Temple University, in Philadelphia, Pa. She is also a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. Her primary interests lie with the topics of race relations, mobilization and the coalition politics that arise in social movements.
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(30 min. Conference Paper,
English)
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