Author
Kevin McCaffree
Other affiliations: Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis, Indiana University – Purdue University Fort Wayne, University of California, Riverside
Bio: Kevin McCaffree is an academic researcher from University of North Texas. The author has contributed to research in topics: Sociological theory & Religiosity. The author has an hindex of 5, co-authored 34 publications receiving 122 citations. Previous affiliations of Kevin McCaffree include Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis & Indiana University – Purdue University Fort Wayne.
Topics: Sociological theory, Religiosity, Morality, Secularization, Politics
Papers
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TL;DR: It is suggested that the reduction of the density of retail alcohol outlets in a city may be an effective tool for violent crime reduction among teenagers and young adults.
Abstract: The aggregate relationship between homicide and alcohol availability is well established across a number of national and sub-national settings in North America, Europe and some parts of Asia. However, results linking youth homicide and alcohol availability at the retail level are largely absent from the literature, especially at the city level and across longer time periods. In a multivariate, pooled time series and cross-section study, youth homicide offending rates for two age groups, 13-17 and 18-24, were analysed for the 91 largest cities in the USA between 1984 and 2006. Data for social and economic characteristics, drug use, street gang activity and gun availability were also used as time series measures. Data on the availability of alcohol for each city were gathered from the US Census of Economic Activity, which is conducted every 5 years. These data were used to construct an annual time series for the density of retail alcohol outlets in each city. Results indicated that net of other variables, several of which had significant impacts on youth homicide, the density of alcohol outlets had a significant positive effect on youth homicide for those aged 13-17 and 18-24. Such positive effects have been found for adults in national and neighbourhood level studies, but this is the first study to report such evidence for teenagers and young adults. An important policy implication of these findings is that the reduction of the density of retail alcohol outlets in a city may be an effective tool for violent crime reduction among such youth.[Parker RN, Williams KR, McCaffree KJ, Acensio EK, Browne A, Strom KJ, Barrick K. Alcohol availability and youth homicide in the 91 largest US cities, 1984-2006. Drug Alcohol Rev 2011;30:505-514]. Language: en
42 citations
29 May 2019
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe how people can claim to be moral individuals while simultaneously engaging in immoral behavior and argue that these and other strategies are cognitive devices to manage identity non-verification and negative feelings that ensue.
Abstract: We describe how people can claim to be moral individuals while simultaneously engaging in immoral behavior. We take as our starting point moral disengagement strategies in which people selectively disengage from their harmful behavior. People may equate their harmful actions with worthy goals; soften bad actions to make them sound better; ignore or deny bad consequences; or blame others for bad outcomes. We argue that these and other strategies are cognitive devices to manage identity non-verification (“I am a good person, but I am doing a bad thing”) and the negative feelings that ensue. We discuss how different strategies are used depending upon the identities that are activated, and how these strategies evolve from a deliberate process that becomes habitual over time. We also discuss how these strategies might be tempered so that individuals become aware of the bad consequences of their behavior and take steps to alleviate them.
18 citations
TL;DR: Findings suggest that if the city of San Bernardino were to make the voluntary ban on single serve container sales mandatory, violence in the surrounding areas would decline, all other things being equal.
Abstract: Introduction and Aims. This paper examines the role that sales of single serve alcoholic beverages plays in violent crime in surrounding areas. Increasingly a target of regulatory measures, this is the first study to systematically assess the impact of single serve containers on neighbourhood violence. Design and Methods. The relative proportion of shelf space in each liquor establishment in San Bernardino, CA devoted to single serve alcohol containers was surveyed. Assuming that this is a rough indicator of the amount of sales derived from single serve containers, we use this indicator as a measure of the impact of specific retail practice on violence around the outlet. Results. Results show that the average proportion of shelf space devoted to single serve containers in the unit of analysis, the US Census Bureau block group, was positively related to violent crime, net of overall retail availability of alcohol and relevant social and economic indicators often used to predict violent crime rates in such units. Discussion and Conclusions. These findings suggest that if the city were to make the voluntary ban on single serve container sales mandatory, violence in the surrounding areas would decline, all other things being equal. This study provides a much more grounded and specific justification for enacting such policy changes and once again shows the utility of alcohol policy for the reduction of crime and violence.[Parker RN, McCaffree KJ, Skiles D. The impact of retail practices on violence: The case of single serve alcohol beverage containers. Drug Alcohol Rev 2011;30:496-504]. Language: en
15 citations
16 Oct 2019
TL;DR: This paper investigated the structural differences between the social networks of god-believers and atheists and found that strongly-identified atheists are more likely to join secular social clubs as well as benefit from better mental and physical health compared to less affirmatively-identified individuals.
Abstract: Despite accumulating evidence of the importance of social capital in predicting health outcomes, no work has yet systematically investigated the structural differences between the social networks of god-believers and atheists. This is an especially important gap in the religion/secularism research because religiosity appears to be declining throughout the Western world (Zuckerman, Galen & Pasquale, 2016). Despite stereotypes of atheists as atomized, psychologically unhealthy and anti-social (e.g., Bainbridge, 2005), a growing body of evidence suggests that strongly-identified atheists are more likely to join secular social clubs as well as benefit from better mental and physical health compared to less affirmatively-identified secular individuals. As a step toward developing this line of research, the present article operationalizes social network structure within the study of secularism, discusses the available research with a focus on atheism in particular, and integrates this research into a schematic theoretical model of atheist self-identity, network structure and health.
12 citations
TL;DR: Research by Putnam and Campbell (2010), among others, seems to indicate that church-based religious social networks are larger and more conducive to happiness, volunteering, and charitable donating.
Abstract: Research by Putnam and Campbell (2010), among others, seems to indicate that church-based religious social networks are larger and more conducive to happiness, volunteering, and charitable donating...
7 citations
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TL;DR: In their new Introduction, the authors relate the argument of their book both to the current realities of American society and to the growing debate about the country's future as mentioned in this paper, which is a new immediacy.
Abstract: Meanwhile, the authors' antidote to the American sicknessa quest for democratic community that draws on our diverse civic and religious traditionshas contributed to a vigorous scholarly and popular debate. Attention has been focused on forms of social organization, be it civil society, democratic communitarianism, or associative democracy, that can humanize the market and the administrative state. In their new Introduction the authors relate the argument of their book both to the current realities of American society and to the growing debate about the country's future. With this new edition one of the most influential books of recent times takes on a new immediacy.\
2,940 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1991
TL;DR: The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge as discussed by the authors argues that human reality and knowledge of it is a social construct, emerging from the individual or group's interaction with larger social structures (institutions).
Abstract: Peter Berger (1929) is an American sociologist best known for his collaboration with Thomas Luckman in writing The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. That book argues that human reality, and knowledge of it, is a social construct, emerging from the individual or group’s interaction with larger social structures (institutions). Social structures, once widely adopted, lose their history as social constructions (objectivation), and come over time, by the people who live within them, to be deemed natural realities independent of human construction (reification). Berger predicted, in his later book, The Sacred Canopy, near-term all-encompassing secularization of religion, which prediction has proved false, especially in the third world (as Berger himself has acknowledged in his later work, Desecularization).
1,951 citations
01 Jan 2005
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate the evidence for a spiritual revolution in the UK and USA and find that the claim is not supported by evidence from the British Church and the Church of England.
Abstract: List of Plates.Preface.Introduction.1. Distinguishing Religion and Spirituality: Findings from Kendal.2. Testing the Spiritual Revolution Claim in Kendal.3. Evidence for a Spiritual Revolution: Britain and USA.4. Bringing the Sacred to Life: Explaining Secularization and Sacralization.5. Looking to the Future.Appendices.References.Index.
714 citations