Jackson Toby

Bio: Jackson Toby is an academic researcher from Rutgers University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Social system & Punishment. The author has an hindex of 12, co-authored 30 publications receiving 1466 citations.

Coping with Crime: Individual and Neighborhood Reactions.

Abstract: How is a social scientist to cope with the cornucopia of already existing studies in his or her area? How to draw useable conclusions from a body of work that might run to 5000 items? Traditional narrative integration fails to usefully portray such accumulated knowledge. Meta-analysis is an approach that systematically analyzes and synthesizes research. This book is its first full explanation. Meta-analysis treats a field of research as a complex set of data to be accumulated and integrated. As such it has much in common with survey research -- though, as causal relationships may have already been established by the studies being surveyed meta-analysis need not suffer from the limitations of survey research as a tool for establishing causes. Besides showing how to derive generalizations from very large and divergent bodies of research, the authors also provide ways for enhancing the findings of few or small research studies, and techniques for evaluating the findings of individual experiments by contrasting them with the combined weight of findings from other studies. Their approach does not enforce uniformity on different research.Instead, it is a way to enhance clarity, explicitness and openness in research reviews. Its use will speed the first step of most research projects -- to see what has been done before -- and will help researchers to avoid costly research duplication.

Social Disorganization and Stake in Conformity: Complementary Factors in the Predatory Behavior of Hoodlums

Abstract: The author is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University and the holder of a Faculty Fellowship of the Social Science Research Council. He was during 1955, Co-Director of the Conference on Juvenile Delinquency in New Jersey conducted by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs of Princeton University. His Ph.D. Dissertation, "Educational Maladjustment as a Predisposing Factor in Criminal Careers: A Comparative Study of Ethnic Groups," Harvard, 1950, contains a more extensive discussion of some of the points raised in this article.EDITOR.

Some Variables in Role Conflict Analysis

Abstract: heavens of achievement look quite different to many contemporaries than they did to their predecessors. There is more "escape" from the competitive world into pleasure, the arts, hobbies, sports. People read "escapist" travel stories or mystery and crime yarns instead of the Horatio Alger type of novel. They try to build up psychic defenses against their feeling of inadequacy and develop an apathy toward the "outside." The individual feels that he has "a certain freedom to fail in the eyes of others without being convinced by them of his own inadequacy."33 The tremendous growth of counseling services testifies to people's need for adjustment to the new situation. The substance of the counsel so often is to develop internal goals of happiness and peace of mind, to adapt to the world as it is without protest and criticism. It is not sheer happenstance that in 1937 Dale Carnegie wrote How to Win Friends and Influence People (how to get on among people and achieve), and in 1948 wrote How to Stop Worrying and Start Living (how to adjust to one's fate and social state). To return to our main thesis, there seems to be a growing complacency regarding status and role. People seem to be increasingly interested in avoiding the strains of competition in our complex "mass") society; they hesitate to "chance" the climb with the attendant possibility of rebuff or retreat. They seem to be less and less sure of themselves as potentially successful movers upward, and are adjusting or accommodating their mental states to the "life-chances" of a given level with its status, if it is not intolerable. Many seem to be interested only in such self-improvement as is necessary to "hang on" or move within their bracket, and are willing to abide by the esteem of conformity as a compensation for the lack of higher prestige and other social emoluments. In general, there is evidence that the American Dream is becoming less real for many people. Some trends and tendencies are in process of reversal, at least temporarily. In the main, we seem to be "settling" as a people. The strata are becoming more rigid; the holes in the sieves are becoming smaller. Status is crystallizing. There is both a tendency toward restriction of access to the means of personal and family advancement, and an apparent reduction in the vertical mobility drive and psyche and ethos. Needless to say, in this rigidifying and "closing" of our class structure, and in this reduction of vertical mobility, we may be depriving our society of many potential contributions that might emanate from the lower ranks. The situation limits the use of intrinsic merit; much merit remains undiscovered. 33 Ibid., p. 129.

Systematic Social Observation of Public Spaces: A New Look at Disorder in Urban Neighborhoods

Abstract: This article assesses the sources and consequences of public disorder. Based on the videotaping and systematic rating of more than 23,000 street segments in Chicago, highly reliable scales of social and physical disorder for 196 neighborhoods are constructed. Census data, police records, and an independent survey of more than 3,500 residents are then integrated to test a theory of collective efficacy and structural constraints. Defined as cohesion among residents combined with shared expectations for the social control of public space, collective efficacy explains lower rates of crime and observed disorder after controlling neighborhood structural characteristics. Collective efficacy is also linked to lower rates of violent crime after accounting for disorder and the reciprocal effects of violence. Contrary to the "broken windows" theory, however, the relationship between public disorder and crime is spurious except perhaps for robbery.

Routine Activities and Individual Deviant Behavior

Abstract: We extend the routine activity perspective's situational analysis of crime to individual offending and to a broad range of deviant behaviors. In this view, unstructured socializing with peers in the absence of authority figures presents opportunities for deviance: In the presence of peers, deviant acts will be easier and more rewarding; the absence of authority figures reduces the potential for social control responses to deviance; and the lack of structure leaves time available for deviant behavior. To determine whether individuals who spend more time in unstructured socializing activities engage in deviant behaviors more frequently, we analyzed within-individual changes in routine activities and deviance across five waves of data for a national sample of more than 1,700 18- to 26-year-olds. Participation in these routine activities was strongly associated with criminal behavior, heavy alcohol use, use of marijuana and other illicit drugs, and dangerous driving. Furthermore, routine activities accounted for a substantial portion of the association between these deviant behaviors and age, sex, and socioeconomic status.

The social development model: An integrated approach to delinquency prevention.

Abstract: This paper describes a comprehensive developmental approach to preventing youth crime based on the social development model, an integration of social control theory and social learning theory. The model asserts that the most important units of socialization, family, schools, peers, and community, influence behavior sequentially. Positive socialization is achieved when youths have the opportunity within each unit to be involved in conforming activities, when they develop skills necessary to be successfully involved, and when those with whom they interact consistently reward desired behaviors. These conditions should increase attachment to others, commitment to conforming behavior, and belief in the conventional order. These social bonds to conventional society inhibit association with delinquent pers and, in turn, prevent delinquent behavior. The paper describes prevention approaches consistent with the model. Rigorous evaluation of the delinquency prevention effects of these interventions is needed.