Date of Conferral
2021
Degree
Ph.D.
School
Psychology
Advisor
Ethel Perry
Abstract
African American men are number one in the United States for wrongful convictions, despite being only 13% of the country’s population. Many wrongful convictions involve a prosecutorial error or Brady violations, which occur when evidence is withheld from the defense. Although wrongful convictions are caused due to several factors, prosecutorial involvement is one reason for false convictions. There is substantial research on wrongful convictions and the causes; however, the scholarly community does not know the perceptions prosecutors have of African American men’s wrongful convictions. The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore eight prosecutors’ perceptions, decision-making strategies, and what these individuals believe can decrease wrongful convictions of African American men. For this study, the generic qualitative approach was used to explore prosecutors’ perceptions of African American men wrongful convictions. Interviews were conducted through via phone and videoconferencing platforms such as Skype, Zoom, WebEx, and Google Hangouts. Email interviews were also an option. Manual hand-coding and NVivo software were used to analyze and organize the data. Critical race theory served as the theoretical framework for this study. The findings revealed that prosecutors believed cultural diversity training needs to be implemented to decrease wrongful convictions of African American men. Understanding prosecutors’ perceptions of wrongful convictions of African American men and of what will decrease false convictions could promote positive social change by creating proper ethical training and resources to decrease prosecutorial error.
Recommended Citation
Watson, Teaonna L., "Prosecutors’ Perceptions of Wrongful Convictions of African American Men" (2021). Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies. 10280.
https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/10280
