Showing papers in "American Sociological Review in 2004"
TL;DR: This paper study penal inequality by estimating lifetime risks of imprisonment for black and white men at different levels of education and find that the risks of incarceration are highly stratified by education, with 30 percent of those without college education and nearly 60 percent of high school dropouts going to prison by 1999.
Abstract: Although growth in the U.S. prison population over the past twenty-five years has been widely discussed, few studies examine changes in inequality in imprisonment. We study penal inequality by estimating lifetime risks of imprisonment for black and white men at different levels of education. Combining administrative, survey, and census data, we estimate that among men born between 1965 and 1969, 3 percent of whites and 20 percent of blacks had served time in prison by their early thirties. The risks of incarceration are highly stratified by education. Among black men born during this period, 30 percent of those without college education and nearly 60 percent of high school dropouts went to prison by 1999. The novel pervasiveness of imprisonment indicates the emergence of incarceration as a new stage in the life course of young low-skill black men.
1,275 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors test three competing models for sociological collaboration networks and find that a structurally cohesive core that has been growing steadily since the early 1960s characterizes the discipline's coauthorship network.
Abstract: Has sociology become more socially integrated over the last 30 years? Recent work in the sociology of knowledge demonstrates a direct linkage between social interaction patterns and the structure of ideas, suggesting that scientific collaboration networks affect scientific practice. I test three competing models for sociological collaboration networks and find that a structurally cohesive core that has been growing steadily since the early 1960s characterizes the discipline's coauthorship network. The results show that participation in the sociology collaboration network depends on research specialty and that quantitative work is more likely to be coauthored than non-quantitative work. However, structural embeddedness within the network core given collaboration is largely unrelated to specialty area. This pattern is consistent with a loosely overlapping specialty structure that has potentially integrative implications for theoretical development in sociology.
853 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present an experimental evaluation of a model that describes the constraining effect of cultural beliefs about gender on the emerging career-relevant aspirations of men and women.
Abstract: This study presents an experimental evaluation of a model that describes the constraining effect of cultural beliefs about gender on the emerging career-relevant aspirations of men and women. The m...
781 citations
TL;DR: For instance, this article argued that schooling plays an important role in reproducing and even exacerbating existing disparities in cognitive skills, and showed that schooling affects inequality in cognitive skill in cognitive ability.
Abstract: How does schooling affect inequality in cognitive skills? Reproductionist theorists have argued that schooling plays an important role in reproducing and even exacerbating existing disparities. But...
759 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that macro-level factors are equally important in the division of housework, while most previous studies focus on individuals' and couples' characteristics on the divide of household chores.
Abstract: While most previous studies focus on the effects of individuals' and couples' characteristics on the division of housework, this study argues that macro-level factors are equally important in the d...
639 citations
TL;DR: The authors used the theories of Weber and Bourdieu to advance an alternative view of departmental prestige, which is an effect a department's position within networks of association and social exchange, that is, it is a form of social capital.
Abstract: The prestige of academic departments is commonly understood as rooted in the scholarly productivity of their faculty and graduates. I use the theories of Weber and Bourdieu to advance an alternative view of departmental prestige, which I show is an effect a department's position within networks of association and social exchange—that is, it is a form of social capital. The social network created by the exchange of PhDs among departments is the most important network of this kind. Using data on the exchange of PhDs among sociology departments, I apply network analysis to investigate this alternative conception of departmental prestige and to demonstrate its superiority over the conventional view. Within sociology, centrality within interdepartmental hiring networks explains 84 percent of the variance in departmental prestige. Similar findings are reported for history and political science. This alternative understanding of academic prestige helps clarify anomalies—e.g., the variance in prestige unconnected...
486 citations
TL;DR: For example, this article found that childhood emotional and behavioral problems diminish the probability of graduation from high school and attending college and that their effects are primarily attributable to the persistence of those problems over time, to continuities in social environments, or to the cumulative effects of early academic failures.
Abstract: Do childhood emotional and behavioral problems diminish the probability of graduating from high school and attending college? If so, are their effects primarily attributable to the persistence of those problems over time, to continuities in social environments, or to the cumulative effects of early academic failures? We provide answers to these questions using data from the Children of the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth data set (1986-2000). Internalizing and externalizing problems at ages 6-8 significantly and strongly diminish the probability of receiving a high school degree. Among youth who receive a high school degree, externalizing problems also diminish the probability of subsequent college enrollment. In the case of high school degree receipt, the educational disadvantages associated with child emotional and behavioral problems result from the association of those problems with academic failures in middle and high school. In contrast, the association of childhood behavior problems with col...
434 citations
TL;DR: This paper examined differences in labor market participation and unemployment between immigrant groups in different countries and found that the economic status of immigrants may be affected by the country from which they come (origin effect), the country to which they migrate (destination effect), and the specific relations between origins and destinations (community effect).
Abstract: This article examines differences in labor market participation and unemployment between immigrant groups in different countries. The authors argue that two macro designs must be combined to provide a more comprehensive perspective on the economic integration of immigrant groups. Instead of reliance on observations of multiple-origin groups in a single destination or a single-origin group in multiple destinations, multiple origins in multiple destinations are compared, suggesting that the economic status of immigrants may be affected by the country from which they come (“origin effect”), the country to which they migrate (“destination effect”), and the specific relations between origins and destinations (“community effect”). From the human capital theory, compositional hypotheses are derived, which predict that these macro effects can be attributed to the selection of human capital. From discrimination theories, contextual hypotheses are deduced, which maintain that macro effects can be ascribed to in-gro...
412 citations
TL;DR: This article found that whites are more involved in practical support (help with transportation, household work, and child care), whereas black men and white men are very much alike, whereas there are many significant differences between black women and white women.
Abstract: This article addresses two central debates in the scholarship on black families: the disorganization versus superorganization debate and the culture versus structure debate. Focusing on kin support as a measure of family integration and using the National Survey of Families and Households (1992-1994), this article challenges the assumptions about black and white families in both debates. It shows that blacks and whites have different patterns of kin support involvement. Whereas blacks are more involved in practical support (help with transportation, household work, and child care), whites report greater involvement in financial and emotional kin support. This article also shows that gender is crucial for understanding racial differences. Black men and white men are very much alike, whereas there are many significant differences between black women and white women. Furthermore, in understanding kin support, diversity within racial groups appears to matter more than race itself. Social structure explains mo...
384 citations
TL;DR: This paper argued that stock market reactions are also influenced by the prevailing institutional logic and the degree of institutionalization of the practice of repurchase plans, and suggested that the market's reaction to particular corporate practices such as stock repurchase plan are not, as financial economists contend, simply a function of the inherent efficiency of such practices.
Abstract: This study advances a social constructionist view of financial market behavior. The paper suggests that the market's reaction to particular corporate practices, such as stock repurchase plans, are not, as financial economists contend, simply a function of the inherent efficiency of such practices. Rather, stock market reactions are also influenced by the prevailing institutional logic and the degree of institutionalization of the practice. The theory first predicts that the emergence of the agency perspective on corporate governance in the mid-1980s represented a powerful new institutional logic that would lead the market to reverse its prior aggregate reaction to stock repurchase plans in the United States. The paper then considers the potential for institutional decoupling of repurchase plans and develops competing hypotheses about how the market value of these policies might have changed as more firms formally adopted, but did not implement, the plans over time. In contrast to a financial economic pers...
377 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine a form of state social provision that has been neglected by current sociological theory: publicly funded supportive services, and describe a model by which CBOs generate greater contract revenues by adding electoral politics to their more traditional roles of providing services and building communities.
Abstract: This paper examines a form of state social provision that has been neglected by current sociological theory: publicly funded supportive services. Federal policies of privatization and devolution, embraced since the Reagan years, have made private, nonprofit organizations the primary deliverers of these services. Public supportive services are distributed via competitive state- and local-level allocative processes that send government contracts to specific nonprofit community-based organizations (CBOs), which in turn serve specific neighborhoods and individuals. I describe a model by which CBOs generate greater contract revenues by adding electoral politics to their more traditional roles of providing services and building communities. This model produces a new kind of CBO: the machine politics CBO. By reciprocally distributing services to residents and binding residents to the organization, machine politics CBOs create reliable voting constituencies for local elected officials. These officials trade these...
TL;DR: The authors found that women and minorities face lower odds than white men of achieving higher levels of workplace power, but the reasons for this disadvantage vary among respective groups and thus will likely require different remedies.
Abstract: Survey data support hypotheses regarding differential access to workplace power among women and minorities relative to white men. Specific findings indicate that, relative to white men, all groups encounter increasing inequality at higher levels of power, but only black women seem to experience this form of inequality as a result of direct discrimination. Further analysis indicates that network assistance is more a response to this form of discrimination than an indirect cause. Finally, analysis shows that most groups attain power through homosocial reproduction, but what differs is the opportunity to engage in such reproduction, wherein white men excel. These findings imply that while women and minorities face lower odds than white men of achieving higher levels of workplace power, the reasons for this disadvantage vary among respective groups and thus will likely require different remedies.
TL;DR: In this article, the role of social movements, public opinion, and political climate on the state-level ratification of the ERA was investigated, and the effect of social movement organizations on ratification was amplified in the presence of elite allies.
Abstract: Data on the state-level ERA ratification process are used here to address leading theoretical debates about the role of social movements, public opinion, and political climate on policy outcomes, the goal being to test the claim that these factors depend on each other. Social movement organizations, public opinion, and political party support all influenced the ratification process. But the effects are modified when the interactive nature of public opinion and electoral competition, and political party support and movement organizational strength, are tested. In particular, the effect of social movement organizations on ratification was amplified in the presence of elite allies, and legislators responded most to favorable public opinion under conditions of low electoral competition. These findings are used to suggest a more integrated theory of policy outcomes that considers interactive and contingent effects of movements, public opinion, and political climate.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the rise of the CFO position among American firms during the period 1963-2000, building on event-history models of CFO adoptions among a sample of some 400 large corporations.
Abstract: This article examines the rise of the chief financial officer (CFO) position among American firms during the period 1963-2000. Building on event-history models of CFO adoptions among a sample of some 400 large corporations, this analysis documents two stages in the diffusion of the CFO model that occurred prior to its ultimate embodiment of the shareholder-value ideal. The CFO function originated as part of the conglomerate ideal to handle the funding of diversifying acquisitions. In response to an ambiguous regulatory change in accounting rules in 1979, which threatened to reduce reported earnings further at a time when corporate earnings already were under great strain, corporate leaders and finance professionals reconstructed the CFO as a solution. The CFO's popularity quickly surged as a result, and the role kept expanding in the following years to focus on managing shareholders and stock prices.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors propose that a firm's embedded relationships influence prices by prompting private-information flows and informal governance arrangements that add unique value to goods and services, and they test their arguments with a separate longitudinal dataset on the pricing of legal services by law firms that represent corporate America.
Abstract: The determination of prices is a key function of markets, yet sociologists are just beginning to study it. Most theorists view prices as a consequence of economic processes. By contrast, we consider how social structure shapes prices. Building on embeddedness arguments and original fieldwork at large law firms, we propose that a firm's embedded relationships influence prices by prompting private-information flows and informal governance arrangements that add unique value to goods and services. We test our arguments with a separate longitudinal dataset on the pricing of legal services by law firms that represent corporate America. We find that embeddedness can significantly increase and decrease prices net of standard variables and in markets for both complex and routine legal services. Moreover, results show that three forms of embeddedness—embedded ties, board memberships, and status—affect prices in different directions and have different magnitudes of effects that depend on the complexity of the legal service.
TL;DR: This article examined the effect of government funding on nonprofit organizations' political activity and found that the relationship between government funding and nonprofit political activity is either positive or null, and that government funding does not suppress or suppress non-partisan political activity.
Abstract: Autonomy from the state has been considered a core feature of American civil society, and understanding the consequences of perceived threats to that autonomy has been a central theme in social and political theory. We engage this theme by examining a specific question: What is the effect of government funding on nonprofit organizations' political activity? Extant theory and research identify some mechanisms by which government funding might reduce nonprofit political activity and other mechanisms by which government funding might enhance such activity. We investigate this relationship with two data sets: a national sample of religious congregations and a longitudinal sample of nonprofit organizations in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Results across these data sets are consistent and compelling: The relationship between government funding and nonprofit political activity is either positive or null; government funding does not suppress nonprofit political activity.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors test the generality of MacKinnon's theory of the sexual harassment of adult women and find that men pursuing more egalitarian gender relationships are more likely to identify such behaviors as sexual harassment.
Abstract: Drawing on recent insights from the study of legal consciousness and gender relations, the authors test the generality of Catharine MacKinnon's theory of the sexual harassment of adult women. Survey and interview data from the Youth Development Study and the General Social Survey are analyzed to identify a behavioral syndrome of sexual harassment for males and females during adolescence and young adulthood and to compare the syndrome against subjective reports of sexual harassment. A clear harassment syndrome is found for all age and sex groups and MacKinnon's predictions about the influence of workplace power and gender relations are generally supported. Financially vulnerable men as well as women are most likely to experience harassing behaviors, and men pursuing more egalitarian gender relationships are most likely to identify such behaviors as sexual harassment. Nevertheless, adult women remain the most frequent targets of classic sexual harassment markers, such as unwanted touching and invasion of pe...
TL;DR: This article analyzed the main criteria used to evaluate scholarship in the humanities and the social sciences: originality, which is defined as using a new approach, theory, method, or data; studying a new topic; doing research in an understudied area; or producing new findings.
Abstract: Drawing on interviews with peer-review panelists from five multidisciplinary fellowship competitions, this paper analyzes one of the main criteria used to evaluate scholarship in the humanities and the social sciences: originality. Whereas the literature in the sociology of science focuses on the natural sciences and defines originality as the production of new findings and new theories, we show that in the context of fellowship competitions, peer reviewers in the social sciences and humanities define originality much more broadly: as using a new approach, theory, method, or data; studying a new topic; doing research in an understudied area; or producing new findings. Whereas the literature has not considered disciplinary variation in the definition of originality, we identified significant differences. Humanists and historians clearly privilege originality in approach, and humanists also emphasize originality in the data used. Social scientists most often mention originality in method, but they also appr...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated the relationship between social capital and homicide rates in 40 U.S. geographic areas and found that two dimensions of social capital, social trust and social activism, do exhibit significant associations with homicide rates, net of other influences.
Abstract: Robert Putnam comprehensively analyzes the multidimensional nature of social capital and makes a persuasive argument for its relevance to various community social problems, including violent crime. However, systematic empirical evaluations of the links between the multiple dimensions of social capital and violence are limited by the lack of adequate measures. Using data from the Social Capital Benchmark Survey, the authors model the relationships between several dimensions of social capital and homicide rates for 40 U.S. geographic areas. Their findings show that many forms of social capital highlighted in the literature as having beneficial consequences for communities are not related to homicide rates. Two dimensions of social capital, social trust and social activism, do exhibit significant associations with homicide rates, net of other influences. However, in the latter case, the relationship is positive, and in both cases, simultaneous equation models suggest that these dimensions of social capital are consequences as well as causes of homicide. The results underscore the importance of examining the different dimensions of social capital and assessing their reciprocal relationships with homicide and other social outcomes. Language: en
TL;DR: In this article, the authors suggest that organizational attributes and interpersonal relations in the workplace, in concert with union presence and collective action history, may be simultaneously but also conditionally meaningful for workers and their potential resistance strategies.
Abstract: The study of worker resistance has tended to focus either on organizational attributes that may alter actors' capacity to respond or on influential shop-floor social relations. This divide, partially driven by analytical and methodological preference, is also a function of different theoretical traditions. In this article, we suggest that organizational attributes and interpersonal relations in the workplace, in concert with union presence and collective action history, may be simultaneously but also conditionally meaningful for workers and their potential resistance strategies. Findings, derived from analyses of unique data on 82 workplace ethnographies and that merge Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) techniques and more conventional quantitative methods, largely support these expectations. Most notably, the impact of workplace organization and even union presence on worker resistance varies depending on social relations on the shop floor. Where there is union presence and significant interpersonal ...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the efficiency of the price-setting process in the stock market is contingent on the coherence of a stock's position in the industry-based classificatory structure that guides valuation.
Abstract: This paper argues that the efficiency of the price-setting process in the stock market is contingent on the coherence of a stock's position in the industry-based classificatory structure that guides valuation. While this structure helps investors interpret ambiguous economic news, it is imperfect because stocks vary in the extent to which they are coherently classified, as revealed by the stocks' position in the network of coverage by securities analysts. The main hypotheses are that incoherent stocks are traded more often because such stocks are more likely to be subject to differences in the interpretive models used to understand material information; and that both volume and volatility are higher for incoherent stocks because convergence on a common interpretation relies more heavily on self-recursive market dynamics. These hypotheses are validated via analyses of market activity in the aftermath of first-quarter earnings announcements for U.S.- based firms from 1995 to 2001. The results help reorient ...
TL;DR: This article examined the experiences of Native Americans in environmental justice and injustice, and found that surprisingly few studies have examined Native Americans' experiences of environmental injustice and environmental justice, and they criticized and built on environmental and poli...
Abstract: When examining environmental justice and injustice, surprisingly few studies have examined the experiences of Native Americans. In filling this gap, we criticize and build on environmental and poli...
TL;DR: The authors examined the reasons why white, Mexican American, and other Hispanic parents are approximately 25 times more likely than African American parents to marry within the 30 months after a non-marital birth.
Abstract: This article uses new data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study to examine the reasons why white, Mexican American, and other Hispanic parents are approximately 25 times more likely than African American parents to marry within the 30 months after a nonmarital birth Combining Fragile Families microdata with 2000 US Census data shows that marriage market conditions exert a large influence on marriage decisions, even among couples that already have formed a romantic relationship and had a child together The findings also show that an undersupply of employed African American men can explain a large portion of the racial and ethnic differences in marriage after a nonmarital birth The current findings support the theory that marriage markets are influential not only during the search for romantic partners but also in determining whether romantic relationships, once formed, will lead to marriage
TL;DR: This article showed that the business cycle-imprisonment relationship is not causal but is instead an artifact of antecedent differences between neoliberal and corporatist societies, and that the expected associations between business cycles and imprisonment rates disappear in models that include measures of politics and institutional structure.
Abstract: Research showing an association between business cycles and imprisonment is suspect on both theoretical and empirical grounds. Most research on this topic uses an impoverished notion of business cycles and pays no attention to differences in the institutional contexts of economic policymaking. This article reexamines this issue using data from 15 affluent capitalist democracies observed over 30 years, from 1960 to 1990. Pooled regression techniques are used to test hypotheses regarding the effects of business cycles, political power, and the structure of labor market institutions. Results from simple models show the expected associations between business cycles and imprisonment rates, but these associations disappear in models that include measures of politics and institutional structure. This suggests that the business cycle-imprisonment relationship is not causal but is instead an artifact of antecedent differences between neoliberal and corporatist societies.
TL;DR: The authors examined selection effects in newspaper reports about civil disorders in the late 1960s and found that fewer than half of all disorders are covered in these two newspapers combined, and that those reported are selected on the basis of event intensity, distance, event density, city population size, type of actor, and day of the week.
Abstract: This study examined selection effects in newspaper reports about civil disorders in the late 1960s. A comprehensive set of events recorded in newspapers across the United States was compared with the subsets of these events recorded in two national newspapers often used to construct collective event data bases-the New York Times and the Washington Post. The results demonstrate that fewer than half of all disorders are covered in these two newspapers combined, and that those reported are selected on the basis of event intensity, distance, event density, city population size, type of actor, and day of the week. To demonstrate the effects of these selection patterns on substantive analysis of civil disorder, the authors replicated earlier studies using all reported events, and then repeated the analyses using only the events reported in the Times and the Post. This procedure showed some substantial differences in results. The implications of these findings for event analyses and for substantive understanding...
TL;DR: In this paper, the applicability of the contact hypothesis to in-group/out-group relations that fail to meet the optimal conditions specified in the contact literature was evaluated using data from a national survey of public attitudes toward homeless people.
Abstract: Using data from a national survey of public attitudes toward homeless people, this paper evaluates the applicability of the contact hypothesis to in-group/out-group relations that fail to meet the optimal conditions specified in the contact literature. Past efforts are extended by (1) moving beyond face-to-face encounters to consider multiple types of ingroup exposure to a highly stigmatized out-group, (2) examining a variety of attitudinal outcomes, and (3) incorporating community context as a possible antecedent of such outcomes. Even after taking selection and social desirability processes into account, all types of exposure are found to affect public attitudes in the predicted (favorable) direction. Moreover, the size of the local homeless population—our primary measure of context-shapes opportunities for most forms of exposure and thus influences attitudes indirectly. These findings suggest that the scope of the contact hypothesis needs to be widened rather than narrowed.
TL;DR: In Japan, unlike most Western countries, it has not experienced several components of the second demographic transition, including cohabitation, widespread use of childcare centers, unmarried childbearing, etc..
Abstract: Japan, unlike most Western countries, has not experienced several components of the second demographic transition, including cohabitation, widespread use of childcare centers, unmarried childbearin...
TL;DR: This article analyzed intergenerational occupational mobility in late Soviet and post-Soviet Russia using data from six surveys and found that social origin did affect occupational opportunity during Russia's Soviet period But the transition from state socialism to a market economy tightened the link between origins and destinations.
Abstract: This study analyzes intergenerational occupational mobility in late Soviet and post-Soviet Russia using data from six surveys Belying claims that class differences did not matter in the Soviet Union, the authors find that social origin did affect occupational opportunity during Russia's Soviet period But the transition from state socialism to a market economy tightened the link between origins and destinations Men and women were equally constrained by their social origin, even though they faced significantly different opportunity structures in both periods As the economic transformation took hold, fewer Russians experienced upward mobility and more were downwardly mobile Political and economic transition, not the demographic replacement of retiring cohorts by younger ones, strengthened the association between origins and destinations Career mobility during the 1990s took the form of a regression toward origins, as workers who had the most upward mobility during the Soviet era lost the most in the tr
TL;DR: This paper examined the relationship between women's patterns of union formation and their experience of physical and sexual abuse and found that women who have been physically or sexually abused are substantially less likely to be married or to be in stable, long-term cohabiting relationships.
Abstract: Using ethnographic and survey data on low-income families residing in Boston, Chicago, and San Antonio, we examine the relationship between women's patterns of union formation and their experience of physical and sexual abuse. Both sets of data suggest that women who have been physically or sexually abused are substantially less likely to be married or to be in stable, long-term cohabiting relationships. The data also suggest that the timing and different forms of abuse may have distinctive associations with union formation. Women who have experienced abuse beginning in childhood, particularly sexual abuse, are less likely to be in sustained marriages or stable cohabiting relationships and instead are more likely to experience transitory unions: multiple short-term, mostly cohabiting unions with brief intervals between them. Women who have not been abused in childhood but experience adult physical abuse, however, are less likely to be in either a marriage or a cohabiting union, long-term or transitory; an...
TL;DR: Using the spontaneous memories of a national sample of Americans in 1985, Schuman and Scott as mentioned in this paper largely confirmed Mannheim's theory of generational identity by demonstrating that respondents' agnosticness correlated with their generational identity.
Abstract: Using the spontaneous memories of a national sample of Americans in 1985, Schuman and Scott (1989) largely confirmed Mannheim's theory of generational identity by demonstrating that respondents' ag...