Showing papers in "Social Problems in 1997"
TL;DR: A new variant of chain-referral sampling, respondent-driven sampling, is introduced that employs a dual system of structured incentives to overcome some of the deficiencies of such samples and discusses how respondent- driven sampling can improve both network sampling and ethnographic investigation.
Abstract: A population is “hidden” when no sampling frame exists and public acknowledgment of membership in the population is potentially threatening. Accessing such populations is difficult because standard probability sampling methods produce low response rates and responses that lack candor. Existing procedures for sampling these populations, including snowball and other chain-referral samples, the key-informant approach, and targeted sampling, introduce well-documented biases into their samples. This paper introduces a new variant of chain-referral sampling, respondent-driven sampling, that employs a dual system of structured incentives to overcome some of the deficiencies of such samples. A theoretic analysis, drawing on both Markov-chain theory and the theory of biased networks, shows that this procedure can reduce the biases generally associated with chain-referral methods. The analysis includes a proof showing that even though sampling begins with an arbitrarily chosen set of initial subjects, as do most chain-referral samples, the composition of the ultimate sample is wholly independent of those initial subjects. The analysis also includes a theoretic specification of the conditions under which the procedure yields unbiased samples. Empirical results, based on surveys of 277 active drug injectors in Connecticut, support these conclusions. Finally, the conclusion discusses how respondent- driven sampling can improve both network sampling and ethnographic 44 investigation.
3,950 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the role of local social ties both as a mediator between structural conditions and crime rates and as conditional upon neighborhood characteristics using data on 100 Seattle census tracts was investigated.
Abstract: Recent theoretical and empirical developments within social disorganization theory rely heavily on a systemic model of community attachment. It has been argued that poverty, heterogeneity, and mobility undermine neighborhood networks and social ties, contributing to a breakdown in informal social control that, in turn, allows for increasing crime rates. Tests of the systemic nature of informal social control within a community crime model have been rare, however, and the empirical results mixed. In addition some recent research raises the question whether social ties have consistent meaning in terms of social control across neighborhoods. We test the role of local social ties both as a mediator between structural conditions and crime rates and as conditional upon neighborhood characteristics using data on 100 Seattle census tracts. We find that local social ties decrease the assault rate significantly, but have little mediating effects between community structure and crime rates. The effect of social ties on burglary, however, is contrary to social disorganization hypotheses. More importantly, we find that local social ties have differing effects in different types of neighborhoods. Specifically, social ties significantly and negatively affect assault rates in predominantly white neighborhoods, while they have no significant effect in predominantly minority or racially mixed neighborhoods. These latter findings have particular significance for the development and refinement of community and crime models.
392 citations
TL;DR: The authors found that the frequency of watching television news and listening to news on the radio is significantly related to the fear of crime, regardless of victim experience, income or perceived safety, while reading newspapers and newsmagazines and recall of detail concerning specific highly publicized violent crimes are unrelated to FEAR.
Abstract: Communication studies increasingly recognize the audience's critical role in receiving and interpreting media messages. Research into audience attributes that distinguish “media effects,” on the fear of crime (FEAR) has been limited—particularly as it relates to the reception of news. This study is based on a survey of 2,092 adults in Tallahassee, Florida at the height of a media driven “panic” about violent crime. Controlling for age, gender, race, victim experience and other perceptions of crime, the frequency of watching television news and listening to news on the radio is significantly related to FEAR. Reading newspapers and newsmagazines and recall of detail concerning specific highly publicized violent crimes are unrelated to FEAR. When audiences are disaggregated by gender, race, and a series of third attributes, television news consumption is significantly related to FEAR only for white females between the ages of thirty and fifty-four. This finding holds regardless of victim experience, income or perceived safety. Several explanations derived from previous research are applied to this finding. Both “resonance” and “substitution” have possible explanatory relevance, but the “affinity” of audience members with victims most often seen on television news may best account for the concentration of “media effects” among white women.
350 citations
TL;DR: A survey of all police departments serving cities of 50,000 people or more provides the first comprehensive national data on U.S. police paramilitary units (PPUs).
Abstract: This paper examines overlooked developments in contemporary policing: the growth in the number of, and a significant shift in the character of. United States police paramilitary units (PPUs). A survey of all police departments serving cities of 50,000 people or more provides the first comprehensive national data on PPUs. Findings document a rise in the number of PPUs, an escalation in their level of activity, a normalization of these units into mainstream policing, and a direct link between PPUs and the U.S. military. These findings reflect the aggressive turn many law enforcement agencies are assuming behind the rhetoric of community and problem-oriented policing reforms.
350 citations
TL;DR: The authors assessed public response to an earthquake prediction for the San Francisco Bay Area on a sample of households from eight Bay Area counties and found that an earthquake culture exists in the study population.
Abstract: We assessed public response to an earthquake prediction for the San Francisco Bay Area on a sample of households from eight Bay Area counties. Descriptive findings suggested that an earthquake culture exists in the study population. We tested criticisms of interactionist theory — its failure to take motives for behavior and social position into account — using multiple regression analysis. We conclude that motives and social position matter little in determining social action, and that more work is needed to determine how variations in new information create ambiguity, which differentially fosters searching, the formation of alternative definitions, and subsequent action.
257 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore how externally-imposed power constraints are expressed in everyday practices constituting differential HIV infection rates within distinct population groups in San Francisco, demonstrating the need for contextualized understandings of how power relations structure individual behavior in the transmission of HIV.
Abstract: Participant observation fieldwork among street-level heroin injectors in San Francisco demonstrates the need for contextualized understandings of how power relations structure individual behavior in the transmission of HIV. Problematizing macro/micro dichotomies, we explore how externally-imposed power constraints are expressed in everyday practices constituting differential HIV infection rates within distinct population groups. The pragmatics of income-generating strategies and the symbolic hierarchies of respect and identity shape risky behavior. The political economy and symbolic representations of race, class, gender, sexuality, and geography organize chronic social suffering and distort research data. Traditional paradigms of applied public health elide power relations and overemphasize individual behavior. Ignoring the centrality of power prevents a full understanding of the who, why, how, and where of HIV infection.
166 citations
TL;DR: The Social Problems in the Public Eye (SPINE) conference as discussed by the authors has been a major intellectual venue for significant papers on social problems construction, although by no means the only one.
Abstract: Sociologists have long debated whether social problems reside in the conditions of society, the social constructions of analysts, or some combination of both. While social scientists engage in such debates, the public develops its own views of social problems. Public conceptions don't necessarily directly emerge from the conditions surrounding a problem, but may result from a variety of cultural, political, and social factors. The theme for this year's annual meeting, "Social Problems in the Public Eye," directs us to examine the depiction of social problems in words, pictures, images and metaphors available for public consumption. The emergence of social constructionism over the past three decades has transformed the sociological analysis of social problems. Rooted in the work of Blumer (1971), Becker (1963), Mauss (1975), Spector and Kitsuse (1977), Gusfield (1981), Schneider (1985), Best (1995), and others, constructionism has become a central framework for studying social problems. Our society's journal, Social Problems, is a major intellectual venue for significant papers on social problems construction, although by no means the only one. We can take professional pride in the impressive amount of empirical work this perspective has engendered (e.g., Best, 1995; Holstein and Miller 1993; Ibarra, Kitsuse and Schneider, forthcoming); the understanding of the constitution of social problems has been permanently altered by this perspective. A constructionist orientation urges us to take public conceptions of social problems seriously, at least as fodder for the ascent, decline and characterization of particular problems. Social problems in the public eye are not constant. In the context of specific social activities, problems may emerge, transmute, descend, disappear, or reappear, independent of any change in actual conditions. Public conceptions of social problems have histories and shift over time and place. My own interest in this area has been less on what becomes a social problem than on how problems are framed and with what consequences. The work Joseph Schneider and I did on the medicalization of deviance (Conrad and Schneider 1992; see also Conrad 1992) focused on how a variety of forms of rule-breaking, handled as sinful or criminal in another time, were defined as illness in our own age. We examined sociological histories of the medicalization, and occasional demedicalization, of these phenomena and outlined some significant consequences of medicalization. Our focus was more on the professional rather than the public eye, although we occasionally, rather by accident, stumbled onto public conceptions as well.
161 citations
TL;DR: The authors found that when one's job success depends on being able to handle people well, both women and men tend to experience higher levels of inauthenticity and fewer positive feelings about their work, while spending more time at work interacting with others and having greater control over that work tends to have the opposite effect on well-being.
Abstract: American workers face an economy that has shifted from the industrial production of goods to the postindustrial production of services. For many, job success depends on one's ability to produce speech, action, and emotion that symbolize a willingness to “do for” the customer or client. Such expectations comprise the affective requirements of today's service-sector jobs. Using a sample of employees within the health and banking industries, we examine the effects of affective requirements, interactive work, and other occupational conditions on women's and men's job-related emotional well-being. We find that when one's job success depends on being able to handle people well, both women and men tend to experience higher levels of inauthenticity and fewer positive feelings about their work. However, spending more time at work interacting with others and having greater control over that work tends to have the opposite effect on well-being. We also find that job involvement operates quite differently for women and men in ways that are sensitive to service-sector work conditions.
160 citations
TL;DR: This paper examined the impact of institutional activists and social movement organizations on the comprehensiveness of two U.S. state policies: affirmative action, pursued by the civil rights movement; and comparable worth, advocated by the women's movement.
Abstract: We challenge the assumption within resource mobilization theory that polity members and social movement activists are distinct entities by offering the concept of “institutional activists .” Institutional activists are social movement participants who occupy formal statuses within the government and who pursue social movement goals through conventional bureaucratic channels. Using regression analyses we examine the impact of institutional activists and social movement organizations (SMOs) on the comprehensiveness of two U.S. state policies: affirmative action, pursued by the civil rights movement; and comparable worth, pursued by the women's movement. We find that SMOs were decisive in adoption of affirmative action, but not comparable worth policies. In contrast, institutional activists were important for the passage of comparable worth but not affirmative action policies. These findings suggest that resource mobilization theory would better capture the impact of social movements on policy outcomes by recognizing activists who work as insiders on outsider issues.
150 citations
TL;DR: The authors used data from the 1985 wave of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) to assess predictions from the particularistic mobility thesis concerning how African-American and white males reach different hierarchical levels of job authority.
Abstract: This study uses data from the 1985 wave of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) to assess predictions from the particularistic mobility thesis concerning how African-American and white males reach different hierarchical levels of job authority. Relative to whites, African Americans move into different hierarchical levels of the authority structure by a narrow and circumscribed route. For African Americans, the acquisition of significant human capital credentials and experience at a similar level in the occupational structure in next-to- last job with the same employer are prerequisites to being promoted into present positions of job authority. However, findings from separate analyses by employment sector suggest there is substantially greater similarity in the determinants of job authority in the public than the private sector. I discuss the implications of these findings for explaining racial differences in paths to positions of job authority.
104 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that the ability to achieve top jobs is shaped by a link between opportunity structure and human capital, and that the structure of black managerial achievement erodes black skills over time because of role constraints.
Abstract: More than 30 years of social and political pressure to diversify corporate personnel and management teams has resulted in more black managers but neglible gain for African American men in powerful decision-making jobs in corporate America. Against this backdrop, this paper asks if constraints on blacks' corporate progress are manufactured in the work process. Using in-depth career interviews with 76 black executives, I argue that the ability to achieve top jobs is shaped by a link between opportunity structure and human capital. The structure of black managerial achievement erodes black skills over time because of role constraints.
TL;DR: In this paper, the assistance 50 recently arrived Salvadorans in San Francisco obtained from their families was analyzed and two distinct profiles emerged: one where immigrant newcomers received sustained assistance from their kinfolk, and the other where such support faltered upon their arrival.
Abstract: Based on ethnographic fieldwork and intensive interviews, this article analyses the assistance 50 recently arrived Salvadorans in San Francisco obtained from their families. Two distinct profiles emerged: one where immigrant newcomers received sustained assistance from their kinfolk, and the other where such support faltered upon their arrival. Focusing on the experiences of the latter group, I argue that kinfolk can provide benefits only when material and physical conditions in the receiving context permit. Unfavorable factors, such as government immigration policies, local labor market opportunities, and the organization of the reception in the community, created conditions for weakened kinship networks. This study warns that immigrant kinship networks are not reproduced automatically in the new environment. These social relations are contingent upon the physical and material conditions within which they unfold.
TL;DR: This paper examined the relevance of individual deficit and the institutional resource frameworks in understanding homeless-domicile transitions of female family heads, single women and single men in Alameda County, California.
Abstract: Using data from a longitudinal study in Alameda County, California, this paper examines the relevance of the individual deficit and the institutional resource frameworks in understanding homeless-domicile transitions of female family heads, single women and single men. The study employs two analytic strategies. First, by pooling data from the three groups, we examine the extent to which variables derived from the two frameworks account for cross-group differences in homeless-domicile transitions. Second, by conducting separate analyses for the three subgroups, we explore whether the effects of individual deficit and institutional resource factors vary according to homeless individuals' gender and family status. Our pooled sample analysis provides more support for the institutional resource than for the individual deficit framework. Our findings from within-subsample analyses, however, suggest that both individual deficit and institutional resource variables are linked to homeless-domicile transitions of the three groups. The absence of consistent effects of individual deficit and institutional resource variables for exits from and returns to homeless spells, as well as across the three groups, points to the possible interactions between the two frameworks in affecting homeless-domicile transitions.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors draw upon the notion of social problems work to provide for the practical dynamics whereby members animate the categorical objects that they presume to populate their worlds, such that one may find members interacting with these objects much as they do with one another in the ongoing production of local affairs.
Abstract: In diverse ways, constructionist studies demonstrate the profound relevance of social processes to the emergence and assessment of mental disorders in various organizational settings. However, there remains a curious silence in the constructionist literature regarding how mental disorders, once assembled as meaningful objects of discourse and practice, might come to exercise their own causal influences upon members' experiences and activities. In this paper, I draw upon the notion of social problems work to provide for the practical dynamics whereby members, in effect, animate the categorical objects that they presume to populate their worlds. More than enacting identifiable objects of social problems discourse, social problems work at times actually realizes these objects as causally influential non-human agents, such that one may find members interacting with these objects much as they do with one another in the ongoing production of local affairs. While the analysis presented in this paper concerns the social construction of mental disorders as causally influential non-human agents, it is intended as a case study of the more general phenomenon.
TL;DR: This paper examined race differences in types of resistance in fraternity little sister programs on college campuses in the Southeast and found that black little sisters used collective forms of resistance, which had greater success than white little sisters' individual forms of resistances.
Abstract: Fraternity little sister programs on college campuses both produce and resist gender inequality. This study draws on data from 40 in-depth interviews and participant observation on college campuses in the Southeast to examine race differences in types of resistance. Black little sisters used collective forms of resistance, which had greater success than white little sisters' individual forms of resistance. Structural and ideological differences in little sister organizations account for these different responses, which we trace to different cultural prescriptions for women's reliance on men and different knowledge about individual and collective resistance.
TL;DR: This paper examined the effect of race on men's income and found that there is an income gap between black and white men even after controlling for education, experience, hours worked, occupation, authority, region, and city size.
Abstract: Using data from the 1972-1994 General Social Surveys, I examine racial differences in the effect of job authority on men's income. The research addresses three questions: (I) Does a racial gap in income between black and white men persist net of background factors? (2) Are there black-white differences in the amount of income returns to job authority?; and (3) does the black-white gap in income returns to job authority change over time? There is an income gap between black and white men even after controlling for education, experience, hours worked, occupation, authority, region, and city size. There is no difference in the income returns to job authority among men at the lowest levels of authority. However, among men at the highest level of authority, there is a substantial net difference favoring whites over blacks. Finally, there is little evidence that this income gap declined between 1972 and 1994. I discuss the implications for the importance of race as a factor affecting individual life chances.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors test four perspectives on social relations and quality of life, all of which hold that dimensions of networks shape life satisfaction by affecting self-esteem, but these perspectives disagree about which particular dimension is consequential: relationships with insiders vs. outsiders, the extent of supportive relationships, or the number of negative ties.
Abstract: Although many studies describe the social networks of people with chronic mental illness, we know little about the effects of these networks on well-being. This research tests four perspectives on social relations and quality of life, all of which hold that dimensions of networks shape life satisfaction by affecting self-esteem. However, these perspectives disagree about which particular dimension is consequential: relationships with Insiders vs. Outsiders, the extent of supportive relationships, or the number of negative ties. We test these perspectives using longitudinal data on 137 individuals with chronic mental illness. Results show that the proportion of Insiders or Outsiders makes little difference for quality of life. However, increases in the number of supportive relationships improves life quality. Moreover, negative interactions have a strong detrimental effect on life satisfaction. Further analyses show that supportive and negative relationships affect life quality, respectively, by increasing or decreasing individuals' self-esteem.
TL;DR: The authors examine conditions that led to the public attention given to the 1921 trial of comedian Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle for manslaughter, and how this event played out through claimsmakers' activities.
Abstract: Although social constructionism is the dominant perspective for examining the growth of social problems, this orientation systematically neglects the conditions that produce the recognition of social problems. The approach examines the effects of claims without attending to conditions that lead to these claims — conditions grounded in the interaction between culture and agency: looking forward from the claim, not back. In contrast, I argue from a position of “cautious naturalism” that sociologists should analyze conditions that generate public attention, seeing structure as providing constraints on interpretations. If these conditions are not “objective,” neither are they “mere” rhetorical constructions. To this end I draw upon Smelser's “value-added” model, incorporating it within a constructionist model and applying it to the depiction of scandals. Specifically, I examine conditions that led to the public attention given to the 1921 trial of comedian Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle for manslaughter, and how this event played out through claimsmakers' activities.
TL;DR: The authors examines how claimsmakers selectively construct instances of alleged problems as "landmark narratives" with particular attention to the rhetorical practices of mass print media, and how currency reporting violations at the Bank of Boston became synonymous with money laundering.
Abstract: The paper examines how claimsmakers selectively construct instances of alleged problems as “landmark narratives,” with particular attention to the rhetorical practices of mass print media. The analysis shows how currency reporting violations at the Bank of Boston became synonymous with “money laundering,” and how official claimsmakers exploited the case to produce a wave of similar violations, thereby creating a warrant for new policies.
TL;DR: The authors argue that the Bulls riot of 1992 was political as well as celebratory, responding in part to massive welfare cuts in Illinois and to the televised drama of the Los Angeles riots of 1992, and that despite the political undertones, the extensive nature of the riot and a history of organized boycotts against Korean stores, there was no targeting of merchants based on race or ethnicity.
Abstract: In the aftermath of the Bulls riot of 1992, which started as a celebration of a basketball victory but turned into a night of looting and rioting in Chicago's black ghettos, local and national newspapers asked: was it just a celebration? Was it an expression of pent-up anger and frustration? Had Korean and Arab merchants been targeted? The sociological literature on riots contains a great deal of analysis of city level data, but few micro level studies that analyze who are the victims and perpetrators of the violence and destruction associated with riots. I argue in this paper that the Bulls riot of 1992 was political as well as celebratory, responding in part to massive welfare cuts in Illinois and to the televised drama of the Los Angeles riot of 1992. A store by store analysis of ghetto merchants reveals that despite the political undertones, the extensive nature of the riot, and a history of organized boycotts against Korean stores, there was no targeting of merchants based on race or ethnicity. Some implications for the political and racial nature of riots are discussed.
TL;DR: This paper examined the phenomenon of identity-based movements in Costa Rica and Nicaragua and found that significant differences in the content and forms of collective identities embraced by these movements, and argued that three factors account for the differences: economic structure/model of development, state-civil society relations, and broader field of social movements.
Abstract: Through case studies of lesbian movements in Costa Rica and Nicaragua, this paper examines the phenomenon of identity-based movements, finding that it embraces significant differences in the content and forms of collective identities. New social movement theory calls attention to the role of identity in contemporary movements, but overlooks variation in the nature of identities. Resource mobilization and political process theories, on the other hand, offer tools for explaining differences, but have not generally been applied to cross-national comparisons of movements around identity. Drawing on interviews with lesbian activists in Costa Rica and Nicaragua, on participant observation, and on archival research, I argue that three factors account for the differences in the way movements in distinctive national contexts construct collective identities: 1) economic structure/model of development; 2) state-civil society relations; and 3) the broader field of social movements.
TL;DR: This paper argued that the creation of social problems involving the environment is inevitably grounded in cultural choices, and that nature is a cultural construction, rather than an unproblematic reality, suggesting that nature often has been treated as a contested concept.
Abstract: Although nature often has been treated as an unproblematic reality, I argue for treating it as a contested concept, suggesting that “nature” is a cultural construction. Drawing on interactionist and ecological theory, I claim that the creation of social problems involving the environment is inevitably grounded in cultural choices. Through a set of ideological structures (a protectionist vision, an organic vision, and a humanistic vision), social actors develop templates for understanding the proper relationship between humans and nature. Based on an ethnography of mushroom collecting, I contend that these models lead us to experience nature through cultural eyes – wishing to be away from civilization, to be at one with nature, and to engage in the pragmatic use of nature for personal ends. Conflicting stances toward nature account for debate over the moral acceptability of the commercial collection of mushrooms and the “problem” of overpick. Templates of human-environmental interaction, leading to models for experiencing the wild, provide the basis for understanding the conditions under which environmental change is defined as a social problem.
TL;DR: Guided by gendered organization theory and organizational frame analysis, this article explored officials' accounts of sexual assault and rape processing work. But the results did not support cultural beliefs that women are better than men at work with rape victims.
Abstract: Guided by gendered organization theory and organizational frame analysis, this study explores officials' accounts offender and rape processing work. The data are from qualitative interviews with 47 Florida officials who process rape victims in law enforcement, hospital emergency room, prosecution, and rape crisis contexts. Results indicate that gender “at the level of the group” is a fluid cultural resource that officials use in contradictory ways (Thome 1993). Five gender frames account for why women, men or neither are superior in processing work. Overall, results support gendered organization theory, showing that (a) gender and work are fused in ways that mutually reproduce each other, (b) gender is part of official policy and practice in some organizations, (c) most processing work is performed within a gendered division of labor, and (d) processors mobilize gender informally even when policy or protocol say it is irrelevant. The results challenge cultural beliefs that women are better than men at work with rape victims. Comparative research is needed to document the prevalence of gender accounts, arrangements, and policies across organizations, jobs, and genders, and to assess them relative to victim and organizational outcomes.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors proposed that an offender's prior record and lower education level directly affect the mean time to a probation revocation and suggested that social disadvantage may condition the effects of other offender characteristics, incident offense characteristics, and treatment intervention on failure time.
Abstract: Most studies find that offender's age, gender, ethnicity, prior arrest record, severity of the current offense and level of supervision significantly influence time to probation failure. There is little evidence to show that treatment interventions significantly affect either the likelihood of failure or the time to failure. We propose that an offender's prior record and lower education level — indicators of social disadvantage — directly affect the mean time to a probation revocation. Further, we suggest that social disadvantage may condition the effects of other offender characteristics, incident offense characteristics, and treatment intervention on failure time. Using a proportional hazards model of probation revocation, we find that intervention increases the risk of failure, as well as partial support for our hypothesis of the conditioning effect of offender's social disadvantage.
TL;DR: This paper examined how the moralities of charity and its clients are produced through the texts of the New York Times “Neediest Cases” charity appeals from 1912 through 1992, and argued that this multiplicity of moralities gives the idea of charity its political and rhetorical power.
Abstract: In this last decade of the twentieth century, taxpayers and politicians seem united in their disdain for the system of “public welfare” in the United States. At the same time, the idea of “private charity” is held in high regard; some observers argue that public welfare should be dismantled and replaced with private charity. A simple question leads this paper: How are the moralities of “private charity” discursively formed? Here I examine how the moralities of charity and its clients are produced through the texts of the New York Times “Neediest Cases” charity appeals from 1912 through 1992. I read these campaigns as producing multiple moralities: Charity is formed as a sacred morality of religion, an all but sacred morality of democratic community, an economic morality of individualistic capitalism, and a human morality of compassion. I argue that this multiplicity of moralities gives the idea of charity its political and rhetorical power.
So the education in giving goes on from generation to generation. It is not merely the gift that counts or the help that is given the neediest; it is the acquainting of the families year after year, as children grow into youth and youth into manhood and womanhood, with the conditions about them and the cultivation of the habit of giving.
(New York Times 1937g)
TL;DR: This article examined the distinction between ethnic economy effects and industry effects in the New York SMSA and found that the industries in which ethnic economies are embedded offer all incumbents significantly different outcomes than do non-ethnic economy industries.
Abstract: This paper uses census data to examine the distinction between ethnic economy effects and industry effects in the New York SMSA. Focusing only on employees, I compare the attainments of “insiders,” that is, of ethnics within their ethnic economy industries, with the attainment of “outsiders” in the same industries. I find little difference. I then examine whether the industries in which ethnic economies are embedded offer all incumbents significantly different outcomes than do non-ethnic economy industries. In slightly over half the industries associated with an ethnic economy, earnings were significantly higher than average; no effect on occupational status was uncovered. These results suggest that industrial location is more consequential than being an “insider.”
TL;DR: The case study as mentioned in this paper examines the Kansas legislative experience with death penalty politics and discusses the legislation's symbolic nature for both supporters and opponents of capital punishment and how passage of a very restricted death bill was consistent with the cultural tradition of normative ambivalence in Kansas.
Abstract: After the U.S. Supreme Court's 1972 decision in Furman v. Georgia banning the use of capital punishment as then practiced, American states immediately began rewriting their death penalty laws. While most states rushed to enact new death penalty legislation, Kansas was not successful in these attempts until recently. Although a restricted death penalty bill became law in 1994, concerted efforts directed toward reinstatement occurred in 18 of 22 legislative sessions with consideration of 48 bills. This case study examines the Kansas legislative experience with death penalty politics. We describe an ambivalent history and tradition toward capital punishment, document the triggering events that affected the eventual passage after 22 years of debate, and discuss the legislation's symbolic nature for both supporters and opponents of capital punishment and how passage of a very restricted death bill was consistent with the cultural tradition of normative ambivalence in Kansas.
TL;DR: This paper used residual change regression analysis to identify independent contributions to change in state use of imprisonment by change in violent street crime and in the proportionate size of both the young male population and the labor surplus.
Abstract: Conventional wisdom holds that variation in state use of criminal punishment is produced principally by variation in the rate of street crime. Neo-Marxist variants of conflict theory predict that use of punishment by capitalist states also varies with economic conditions generally and with the size of the labor surplus in particular. Many investigators have found support for this relationship, but recurring design and analytic shortcomings of their studies limit confidence in it. We test for the labor surplus/punishment relationship using a theoretically more appropriate sample and methodology. Residual-change regression analysis is applied to crime, demographic, economic, and prison-commitment data for a sample of 269 United States urban counties for the period 1980 to 1990. It identifies independent contributions to change in state use of imprisonment by change in violent street crime and in the proportionate size of both the young male population and the labor surplus. The findings, therefore, lend further support to and strengthen confidence in neo-Marxist theories of official punishment.
TL;DR: The historical contexts of the phrase "social problems" reveal that the phrase expanded upon the singular "social problem" of early nineteenth-century Europe: the equitable distribution of wealth as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: An analysis of the historical contexts of the phrase “social problems” reveals that the phrase expanded upon the singular “social problem” of early nineteenth-century Europe: the equitable distribution of wealth As continental, English, and North American reformers and social scientists laid claim to the problematics of social change, they also split the thorny “social problem” into many “problems,” each of which could be adopted — and perhaps solved — by a different interest group or academic specialty By the end of the century, American sociology had embraced all “social problems” and the singular “social problem” had become, instead of the problem of equity or social justice, the problem of doing sociology itself