Subjects were asked to attribute rape, armed robbery, burglary, fraud, or no offense to each of the stimulus photographs. All the offenses except fraud were most likely to be attributed to the Arab stimuli than to any other ethnic stimuli. Portraits of Ashkenazic Jews were the least likely to have any offense attributed to them except for fraud. Both extent of contact with a particular ethnic group and attitude toward a group slightly influenced the willingness to attribute a criminal offense. Attributions of Ashkenazic Jews tended to be least stereotypical and most fair, while those of Sephardic Jews tended to be biased against Arabs and in favor of Ashkenazics. The pattern of offense distribution does not correspond to the real distribution of crime in Israel, where Sephardics account for two-thirds of the inmate population and Arabs for less than a third (and then primarily for homicide). Rather, attributions appear to reflect the social structure and intergroup relations within Israeli society. 35 references.