From culture blind to culturally informed: Coverage of sociocultural identities in U.S.-based forensic psychology journals, 2016-2020.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE This study aimed to assess the degree to and manner in which research published in four forensic psychology journals in the years 2016-2020 addressed sociocultural identities. HYPOTHESES This was an exploratory content analysis with no a priori hypotheses. METHOD All empirical articles (n = 859) published in Behavioral Sciences and the Law, Criminal Justice and Behavior, Law and Human Behavior, and Psychology, Public Policy, and Law in the years 2016-2020 (inclusive) were coded. Information on seven sociocultural identities was recorded, including whether the identity was mentioned, participant identities were reported, and participants with different identities were compared, among other information. Additional details were recorded for a randomly selected subset of articles (n = 401). RESULTS Sociocultural identities were infrequently mentioned in titles and abstracts of these articles; for example, gender was mentioned in 31.5% abstracts, and race was mentioned in 13.2%. Almost all corresponding and first authors (97.4%) worked in a United Nations regional group that includes primarily high-income, democratic nations, many of which have predominantly White populations. Gender (95%), race and/or ethnicity (74%), and socioeconomic status (43%) were the identities most frequently reported in the articles; others were very rarely reported (e.g., sexual orientation, 2%). Few studies addressed cultural strengths and/or explicitly recognized the impact of systems-level biases. Few studies explicitly addressed within-group differences for any sociocultural identity group. There was minimal evidence of improvement in the inclusion of sociocultural identities over time. CONCLUSIONS The articles in this content analysis were largely completed prior to the publication of updated guidance regarding addressing the sociocultural identities of participants in publications. The results indicate that despite progress since previous content analyses were published, there was considerable room for improvement as of 2020. Greater attention to sociocultural factors will facilitate our understanding of the generalizability of our research and of the experiences of people with nondominant identities. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).