Showing papers in "International journal of criminology and sociology in 2016"

Virtually Standing Up or Standing By? Correlates of Enacting Social Control Online

Abstract: Research has consistently established the robustness of the bystander effect, or the tendency of individuals to not intervene on behalf of others in emergency situations. This study examines the bystander effect in an online setting, focusing on factors that lead individuals to intervene, and therefore enact informal social control, on behalf of others who are being targeted by hate material. To address this question, we use an online survey (N=647) of youth and young adults recruited from a demographically balanced sample of Americans. Results demonstrate that the enactment of social control is positively affected by the existence of strong offline and online social bonds, collective efficacy, prior victimization, self-esteem, and an aversion for the hate material in question. Additionally, the amount of time that individuals spend online affects their likelihood of intervention. These findings provide important insights into the processes that underlie informal social control and begin to bridge the gap in knowledge between social control in the physical and virtual realms.

Positive Criminology and Rethinking the Response to Adolescent Addiction: Evidence on the Role of Social Support, Religiosity, and Service to Others.

Abstract: Adolescent addiction has emerged as a major public health problem. The greatest increase in alcohol and other drug use disorders can be found among youth. Concurrently, technological advances in policing coupled with aggressive prosecuting and sentencing practices have contributed to the growth of America’s correctional system. The assertive response of policing, courts, and corrections, however, have not prevented the dramatic rise of adolescent addiction. Unfortunately, there is no national data tracking addicted youth in the criminal justice system to evaluate what works when it comes to youth with addiction. This article reviews justice system responses to adolescent offenders with addiction, and promising approaches engaging juveniles in programmatic components of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). This study highlights the role of spirituality, service to others, and social support in maintaining sobriety, reducing arrests, and lowering recidivism for adolescents court-referred to treatment. Recommendations for improving the response to adolescent offenders with addiction are offered.

Ethical Assumptions: A Criticism against Modern Pragmatism

Abstract: The advent of neoliberalism in the early 1970s marked a new age for ethical practices. Although pragmatism as an approach to ethics pre-dated neoliberalism, the neoliberal approach to political economy ushered in a new kind of pragmatism, owing little to Jeremy Bentham, even less to the American philosophical pragmatists Charles S. Peirce, William James, and John Dewey. Today’s pragmatism has permeated the penal systems of the central countries of the world capitalist system. A new ethics emerged, a neopragmatism. Acts came to be judged by their effects and not by the motives that led to the actions. This altered the doctrine of Abrahamic religions, and led to the disappearance of forgiveness as a moral good.

Macroeconomics and Drug Use: A Review of the Literature and Hypotheses for Future Research

Abstract: Despite more than a century of drug prohibition, problems of addiction and drug abuse continue to be major global public health and criminal justice concerns (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2015). It has long been obvious that many of these problems are entwined with other economic and social issues. The editors of The Economist , in reporting evidence of a decline in drug use in the UK, speculated on the impact of the concurrent economic slowdown and commented that, “few academics have studied the link between drug use and macroeconomic performance, and what work exists is inconclusive” (Drug use and abuse: The fire next time, 2011). The goal of this paper will be to examine the work that exists on this topic and to propose a set of hypotheses to be tested in future studies.

Communication and Collaboration between School and Family for Addressing Bullying

Abstract: School and family are the main socializing agents for children. Therefore, effective communication and collaboration between these contexts is essential, although sometimes there are barriers to school-family partnership, particularly when they try to play a more active role in the educational process. It is widely recognized that parent involvement in school has successful contributions to student school outcomes. Moreover, It is crucial for addressing effectively bullying, as it is a problem student behaviour in Greek society as well. In this context, the present research aims to explore teachers' views about family-school communication and collaboration regarding the extent to which they address effectively bullying. 150 primary education teachers from public schools in Rhodes participated in this research, which conducted in 2015. Results show that teachers endorse the importance of school-family collaboration for addressing bullying. In addition, they consider this collaboration important, as it has an important influence on children's attitudes to school, and their behaviour in school environment. Furthermore, they suggest that school-family collaboration may improve students' social skills, which can enhance their emotional development and reduce their social isolation from the peer group. Finally, they assert that school-family collaboration can empower children's relationship with their parents and teachers, and in the long term it can contribute in enhancing their school achievement.

Gender Differences in Substance Use Across Marital Statuses

Abstract: Previous studies have noted that the relationship status of adults is substantially linked with levels of substance use. Understandably, the marital status of adults continues well beyond its initial phases, sometimes resulting in divorce, separation, or remarriage. This study seeks to extend our understanding of the linkages between marital status and substance use among adults. Using data from the 2012 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, we examine the substance use levels among a nationally representative sample of 14,715 adults. The analyses indicate that, for both females and males, marriage is, indeed, associated with lower levels of alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use. Divorced individuals reported the highest levels of substance use. Interestingly, remarried individuals report higher levels of substance use than their counterparts in their first marriage, yet remarried men and women report lower levels of usage than do those who are currently divorced. Contextual and individual characteristics also yield several interesting patterns. In particular, distress and depression are shown to be much stronger predictors of substance use levels among divorced and remarried individuals. Divorced and remarried women, as compared to their male counterparts, are shown to be significantly more influenced by their employment status. The implications of this study are discussed, as are the potentially reciprocal nature of marital status and substance use.

An Exploratory Study on How Democratic School Management Practices Affect the Dynamics of Violence in Schools

Abstract: The goal of teachers, schools and support staff is the optimal development of learners. This goal depends on effective school management, which in turn depends on an adequate curriculum and supporting teaching and learning environments. This paper is focused through a literature review on the dynamics of violence in South African schools and the need for democratic school management. The necessity of emotional intelligence teaching in the classroom and learner-centred teaching is shown. This study also investigated the coordinated and integrated management of positive learner behaviour, whole school development and management of a culture of positive behaviour. The establishment of a safe school depends on the management's interaction with the larger social and organisational context in which they find themselves. The study concludes that there is a correlation between Emotional Intelligence teaching methods and learners' behaviour. The use of Emotional Intelligence in the classroom can be regarded as the corrective aspect of discipline, thus, preventing inappropriate behaviour of learners. Recommendations and guidelines for the use of effective adjusted and alternative teaching methods to support school management in the use of emotional skills in the school context are provided.

The school as an influencing factor of truancy

Abstract: As previous research has shown, truants have a higher risk of becoming delinquent. However, the causes of truancy are only seldom analyzed in criminological research. Since truancy is a school related behavior, it can be assumed that school factors play a major role in causing it. Using a German wide representative sample of almost 40,000 pupils of the ninth grade (mean age: 15 years; 50.3 percent male) from 1,200 schools several school factors and their relationship with truancy are tested. These factors are theoretical derived from a push-and-pull-model. Push factors are for instance teacher bullying or violent schoolmates, pull factors are responsive teachers and positive relationships with schoolmates. The results show that teacher bullying and low teacher control significantly increase truancy. Compared with individual risk factors like self-control or school achievement school factors are of lower importance. Additional analyses reveal that there are interaction effects between individual and school level variables: A high level of teacher bullying particularly increases truancy of pupils with bad grades.

The Missing Links: Towards the Effective Management and Control of Corruption in Nigeria, Africa and the Global South

Abstract: Corruption has become a full blown cancer in Nigeria, Africa and other Global South countries, consequently bringing about economic backwardness, political instability, social insecurity, infrastructural decay, unaccountability, negation of the principle of law, etc. Efforts towards curbing it have failed woefully. It is evident that there are missing links towards effective management and control of the phenomenon in these areas. Based on secondary data, and using Nigeria as sample, this paper examined these missing links towards effective management and control of the phenomenon. Since corruption is multi-faceted i.e. manifests through multiplicity of factors ranging from ethno-religious, and sectional sentiments on one hand, and on the other, reflected in the social classes of active, and non-active players of the phenomenon; as well as international factors sustaining the menace; not leaving the mechanisms for control and management of the whole process of its prevalence. Thus, an integrative theoretical approach was used to explain these missing links which have been identified as corrupt individuals in the corridors of power; defective/imbalance of political and social structure; legal justice; social justice; and international collaboration. Findings reveal: political powers in the hands of corrupt individuals; poor implementation of legal and social justice among others account for the persistence of corruption in these areas. Some of the recommendations include: having individuals with proven records of integrity vie for political elective positions; there should be no sacred cows in the fight against corruption; and, there should be a redefinition of the core values to define corruption.

A Comparative Analysis of Attitudes Toward Immigrants

Abstract: The current study examined attitudes toward immigrants in four countries including the United States, China, South Africa, and Turkey, differing from each other by their economic development levels and past immigration experiences. Although considerable attention has been paid to public attitudes toward immigrants, extant research have remained limited to economic and cultural factors as potential determinants of public attitudes, and they have failed to widen the scope of the issue. Thus, they have ignored the role of countries’ past immigration practices and effective immigration policies in shaping natives’ perceptions of immigrants. The current study has added some unique and valuable findings to the literature on attitudes toward immigrants by revealing the distinctive impacts of countries’ past immigration experiences and their immigration policies on natives’ perceptions of immigrants. By using data drawn from the 2015 Global @dvisor Survey, the current study also provided up-to-date research outcomes on the topic.

Conflicting Voices in HIV/AIDS Education of the South African Youth: School Culture Versus South African Traditional Healers Using Ancestral Worship

Abstract: The United Nations Agency of International Development (2013) states that an estimated 24.7 million people are living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, nearly 71% of the global total. The 2.9 million are young people aged 15–24 and this generation is living in South Africa. These alarming statistics reveal that various HIV/AIDS prevention strategies have met limited success. The question arises: why? The South African youth face the dilemma that they receive conflicting messages from two opposing sources, each with a strong persuasive pull of its own where HIV/AIDS education is concerned. On one hand, the voice of modern medical science proclaims that the disease is caused by a viral infection that suppresses the victim’s immune response, while on the other hand spiritual voices of African traditional healers offer explanations such as witchcraft or angry ancestors. This article is an attempt to discover whether either or neither of these voices is gaining ground amongst the youth. This article is based on a qualitative phenomenological study conducted at an urban secondary school in Pretoria, South Africa. Empirical findings resulted from the purposive sampling by means of interviews conducted with two focus groups of teachers, three focus groups of grade 12 school learners and one school principal. This was followed by thematic analysis involving the identifying, analysing and reporting patterns (themes) within data. Facts emerging from the research were that conflicting voices are stressful for young people who are subjected to societal pressure to conform and comply with unrealistic expectations. The South African social culture of ancestral worship is very powerful, yet school culture has significant countervailing influence that sheds liberating “light” where gloom of fear, uncertainty and superstition used to prevail. It is critical to note in this regard, for instance, that where HIV/AIDS remedies are concerned, there is no standardised solution for the ‘entire world’ and that a unique situation prevails in the South African social cultural environment where ancestral worship exerts a critically real influence on people’s response to the threat of HIV/AIDS.

Violence among the Youth in Turkey: An Assessment of General Strain Theory

Abstract: Most tests of criminological theories have been carried out in the western world, especially the United States. Agnew developed a General Strain Theory and claimed that it could account for deviance/crime in the developing countries. However, the support for the theory was generally mixed at best. The goal of this study is to examine the major theses of general strain theory in relation to youth violence in Nigde, a small city in central part of Turkey. The data came from a random sample of 974 students drawn from the lists of the university students at Nigde University (N= 12,514). Data were analyzed by using logistic regression analysis. The present study focused on three important research questions: Is the influence of strain on violence positive, Is the impact of strain on violence is mediated by anger, and Is the effect of strain on violence moderated by some criminal and non-criminal copings? The results indicated that few strain variables had direct positive impacts on violence. Anger had positive effect on the dependent variable. Few interactions between the strain and coping variables were observed. In short, the overall results gave a limited support for the three major arguments of general strain theory.

The Influence of Social Relationships on Conduct Problems in School Context – Does School Engagement Matter?

Abstract: There has been an increase in the prevalence of problem behavior during adolescence over the last decades. Thereby, studies have found that social bonds and relationships as well as school engagement as a form of connectedness play an important protective role. However, less is know whether school engagement is as a potential mediator in the association of social relationships with peers and teachers and conduct problems. The current study examined this interplay in a large non-clinical sample of students ( N = 1.088; M Age = 13.7 SD=0.53 at T1; N = 845; M age = 15.32, SD = .49 at T2) in secondary schools in Brandenburg, Germany. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to test the mediating effect from school engagement in the association between students’ social relationships in early adolescence and conduct problems in middle adolescence. The results show that school engagement function as full mediator in the association of both student-student relationships and teacher-student relationships at T1 and conduct problems at T2. This highlights that fostering school engagement in early adolescence might be an essential starting point for prevention and intervention strategies of conduct problems in middle adolescence.

Structuring the Potential Losses from Vandalism; Actions of Insurers Confronted with the Insecurity Resulting from Vandalism

Abstract: Social disturbances have occurred repeatedly in recent years in several countries. The number of incivilities is important from a social point of view as long as they often concern fragile populations, the poorest, and small shops and businesses. In the meantime, there are concentrated in deprived areas where it is all the most important to prevent exclusion and desertification. The risk connected with vandalism is a risk of social exclusion and economic division for the territories. The article tries to characterize the spatial concentration of crime. It questions the action of insurances in the reduction of spatial discrepancies and social injustice.

Crime Story in the Macedonian Printed Daily Newspapers

Abstract: The paper examines the media coverage of crime in the Macedonian printed newspapers and the way in which certain circumstances related to the offender, the victim and the crime are depicted. The content analysis is based on quantitative and qualitative data collected from the media articles within three-month period by using written coding instrument. The main findings indicate that there are different approaches to and prioritization of criminal offences worth publishing in daily newspapers. The latter exhibit uneven representation of violent compared to property crimes, which means that the former crimes compared to property felonies, although less frequent in occurrence, note higher representation in part of the newspapers. In addition, differences according to the place of crimes commission are noticed between media in Macedonian and Albanian. Albanian media tend to emphasize crime perpetrated in areas where majority population is of Albanian origin compared to other major municipalities in the country. In this way, one gets the impression that these areas are incomparably much more burdened with crime, which makes them less safe than other major municipalities. The findings relate only to media texts published in the printed newspapers on the research topic and to the classifications and definitions contained in criminal laws. Therefore, in-depth analysis on crime news depiction, not only in printed media, but also in electronic media in general, and at the web portals, in particular is challenging for scholars. This will bring new scientific insight into Macedonian criminological critical thoughts related to the role and meaning of the media and their discourse in construction of crime and criminality.

A Model Based Approach to School Shootings: Every Second Counts!

Abstract: The cycle of violence invading our nation’s schools has necessitated the training of law enforcement agencies. A breakdown in communications could mean an incident spirals out of control and results in catastrophic unnecessary loss of lives. Active communication can be accomplished between officers and their superiors, so that decisions are made in a manner that best pursues a rapid end to the threat posed by the perpetrator, and a rapid extraction of the injured. Authors have developed an effective nine-step response model for law enforcement agencies after examination of the real-time cases, infamous school-shooting incidents, in the United States.

Innes: Security Bonds

Abstract: Risk in society is a pertinent concept of late modernity. Most elements of our social and interpersonal lives are in some way linked to concerns about safety, security and fear of harm. As a consequence, we spend a great deal of time engaged in emotional, physical and economic processes that facilitate our safety. Whether this be through purchasing anti-theft devices, or subscribing to self-defense training courses; participating in neighbourhood-watch schemes or altering our behavior to prevent susceptibility to victimization, all demonstrate an inherent pre-occupation with risk and perceived danger. The work presented in this paper offers an in-depth socio-criminological analysis focusing on the issue of citizens insecurity, and proposes an original interpretative paradigm emerging from findings on the INNES (Intimate Neighborhood Strengthening) European Project. A presentation of the idiographic and nomothetic motivations and conditions influencing and predicting social fears and insecurities over the last two decades is discussed, with the presentation of the new interpretative model, ‘Social Cobweb Theory’. This model focuses on solidarity and on the strengthening of intimate neighborhood bonds and argues that these aforementioned concepts function as an effective approach in lowering citizens' perceptions of individual insecurities and risk.

Students’ Social and Emotional Competence Promoting Positive Social Relationships and Skills

Abstract: The current study examined causal relationships between social and emotional competence and social relationships and skills in the classroom. Participants were 2,410 third- to ninth-grade students and they responded to the scales of social and emotional competence (SEC), self-esteem, and normative behavior. The classroom teachers rated their normative behavior in the classes. The results indicated that perceived SEC has influences on children’s actual normative behavior through self-esteem and perceived normative behavior, and that self-esteem partly mediates the cause-and-effect process between perceived SEC and perceived normative behavior. The same causal structure was found among both elementary school students (third to sixth grades) and junior high school students (seventh to ninth grades), with age-related differences in some path coefficients. The findings support that SEC enhancement by social and emotional learning brings positive outcomes in students’ perception and social relationships and skills.

The Status of Criminological Theories in Turkey: A Brief Account

Abstract: The aim of this study is to evaluate the status of criminological theories in Turkey and to present some recommendations to follow in the future. Unfortunately, some sub-disciplines in social sciences in Turkey have been relatively less developed. This is especially valid for criminology or sociological studies of crime. More relavant to this paper, there have been a limited number of tests of western-originated criminological theories in Turkey. It is suggested that Turkish scholars test all the existing criminological theories in the context of Turkey and, more importantly, tend to develop criminological theories that reflect Turkish realities.