Examining race and culture in psychology journals: The case of forensic psychology

Scholars have argued that racial-cultural issues should be given more attention in psychological research. The American Psychological Association (APA) has instituted guidelines and policies about how to include race and culture in research, theory, and practice. Members of racial minority groups are overrepresented in populations served by forensic psychologists. This article reviews content analyses of racial-cultural issues in psychology and presents a content analysis of the treatment of race and culture in 7 forensic psychology journals between 1998 and 2003. Results indicate that less than 10% of the empirical articles addressed issues of race or culture with any depth and that the majority of the articles used a cultural deprivation paradigm. Results and recommendations for practice and future study are discussed.