Integrating law and social epidemiology.
TL;DR: In this article, social epidemiology has made a powerful case that health determined not just by individual-level factors such as our genetic make-up, access to medical services, or lifestyle choices, but also by social conditions, including the economy, law, and culture.
Abstract: Social epidemiology has made a powerful case that health determined not just by individual-level factors such as our genetic make-up, access to medical services, or lifestyle choices, but also by social conditions, including the economy, law, and culture. Indeed, at the level of populations, evidence suggests that these “structural” factors are the predominant influences on health. Legal scholars in public health, including those in the health and human rights movement, have contended that human rights, laws, and legal practices are powerfully linked to health. Social epidemiology and health-oriented legal scholarship are complementary in their focus and their research needs. Legal scholarship has identified plausible ways in which legal and human rights factors could be influencing health, but empirical evidence has been limited.
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TL;DR: Social factors are indeed critical to understanding nonuniform infectious disease patterns that emerge as a result of the dependent nature of disease transmission or the idea that an outcome in one person is dependent upon outcomes and exposures in others.
Abstract: Social epidemiology is defined as the study of the distribution of health outcomes and their social determinants (1). It builds on the classic epidemiologic triangle of host, agent, and environment to focus explicitly on the role of social determinants in infectious disease transmission and progression. These determinants are the “features of and pathways by which societal conditions affect health” (2, p. 697). Early studies of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) focused on individual characteristics and behaviors in determining HIV risk, an approach that Fee and Krieger (3) refer to as “biomedical individualism.” Biomedical individualism is the basis of risk factor epidemiology; by contrast, the social epidemiology perspective emphasizes social conditions as fundamental causes of disease (4) (table 1). Social epidemiologists examine how persons become exposed to risk or protective factors and under what social conditions individual risk factors are related to disease. Social factors are thus the focus of analysis and are not simply adjusted for as potentially confounding factors or used as proxies for unavailable individual-level data. Social factors are indeed critical to understanding nonuniform infectious disease patterns that emerge as a result of the dependent nature of disease transmission or the idea that an outcome in one person is dependent upon outcomes and exposures in others (5, 6).
399 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: It is argued that more research is needed at four levels--laws; management of law enforcement agencies; knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and practices of frontline officers; and attitudes and experiences of IDUs--and that such research can be the basis of interventions within law enforcement to enhance IDU health.
Abstract: Ecological models of the determinants of health and the consequent importance of structural interventions have been widely accepted. Operationalizing these models in research and practice has been challenging. Examining the role of criminal law enforcement in the "risk environment" of injection drug users (IDUs) provides an opportunity to apply structural thinking to the health problems associated with drug use. This paper reviews international evidence that laws and law enforcement practices influence IDU risk. It argues that more research is needed at four levels - laws; management of law enforcement agencies; knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and practices of front-line officers; and attitudes and experiences of IDUs - and that such research can be the basis of interventions within law enforcement to enhance IDU health.
234 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the role of criminal law enforcement in the "risk environment" of injection drug users (IDUs) provides an opportunity to apply structural thinking to the health problems associated with drug use.
Abstract: Ecological models of the determinants of health and the consequent importance of structural interventions have been widely accepted, but using these models in research and practice has been challenging. Examining the role of criminal law enforcement in the “risk environment” of injection drug users (IDUs) provides an opportunity to apply structural thinking to the health problems associated with drug use. This article reviews international evidence that laws and law enforcement practices influence IDU risk. It argues that more research is needed at four levels—laws; management of law enforcement agencies; knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and practices of frontline officers; and attitudes and experiences of IDUs—and that such research can be the basis of interventions within law enforcement to enhance IDU health.
223 citations
TL;DR: A logic model of public health law research and a typology of approaches to studying the effects of law on public health are offered, which hold great promise for supporting evidence-based policy making that will improve population health.
Abstract: Public health law has received considerable attention in recent years and is assuming the role of an essential field within public health. Public health law research has received less attention. This paper explores the boundaries and promise of public health law research, defined as the scientific study of the relation of law and legal practices to population health. The paper offers a logic model of public health law research and a typology of approaches for studying the effects of law on public health. Research on the content and prevalence of public health laws; processes of adopting and implementing laws; and the extent to which and mechanisms through which law affects health outcomes can be pursued using methods drawn from epidemiology, economics, sociology, and other disciplines. The maturation of public health law research as a field depends on overcoming several challenges, including the need to assure methodological rigor, adequate research funding, access to appropriate data sources, and uptake of research findings by policy makers. Public health law research is a young field, but holds great promise for supporting evidence-based policy making that will improve population health.
162 citations
TL;DR: A logic model of public health law research and a typology of approaches to studying the effects of law on public health has been proposed in this paper, with a focus on the relation of law and legal practices to population health.
Abstract: Context: Public health law has received considerable attention in recent years and has become an essential field in public health. Public health law research, however, has received less attention. Methods: Expert commentary. Findings: This article explores public health law research, defined as the scientific study of the relation of law and legal practices to population health. The article offers a logic model of public health law research and a typology of approaches to studying the effects of law on public health. Research on the content and prevalence of public health laws, processes of adopting and implementing laws, and the extent to which and mechanisms through which law affects health outcomes can use methods drawn from epidemiology, economics, sociology, and other disciplines. The maturation of public health law research as a field depends on methodological rigor, adequate research funding, access to appropriate data sources, and policymakers’ use of research findings. Conclusions: Public health law research is a young field but holds great promise for supporting evidence‐based policymaking that will improve population health.
142 citations
References
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Book•
01 Jan 1995
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors define political participation as "how much? about what?" and "who participates" and "race, ethnicity, and gender" in the context of political participation.
Abstract: * *1. Introduction * Part I: The World of Participation *2. Defining Political Participation *3. Political Participation: How Much? About What? *4. Interpreting Political Activity: A Report from Activists *5. Recruiting Political Activists * Part II: Participation and Representation *6. Thinking about Participatory Representation *7. Who Participates? Economic Circumstances and Needs *8. Who Participates? Race, Ethnicity, and Gender * Part III: The Civic Voluntarism Model *9. Explaining Participation: Introductory Considerations *10. Resources for Politics: Time and Money *11. Resources for Politics: Civic Skills *12. Resources, Engagement, and Political Activity *13. Institutions and Recruitment *14. Participation and the Politics of Issue Engagement *15. From Generation to Generation: The Roots of [incomplete]
6,356 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1990TL;DR: This paper found that people obey the law if they believe it's legitimate, not because they fear punishment, which is the conclusion of Tom Tyler's classic study, "People obey law primarily because they believe in respecting legitimate authority".
Abstract: People obey the law if they believe it's legitimate, not because they fear punishment--this is the startling conclusion of Tom Tyler's classic study. Tyler suggests that lawmakers and law enforcers would do much better to make legal systems worthy of respect than to try to instill fear of punishment. He finds that people obey law primarily because they believe in respecting legitimate authority. In his fascinating new afterword, Tyler brings his book up to date by reporting on new research into the relative importance of legal legitimacy and deterrence, and reflects on changes in his own thinking since his book was first published.
3,783 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1983
TL;DR: In this paper, Blurred Genres: The Refiguration of Social Thought, Found in Translation: On the Social History of the Moral Imagination, and From the Natives Point of View: on the Nature of Anthropological Understanding.
Abstract: * Introduction Part I * Blurred Genres: The Refiguration of Social Thought * Found in Translation: On the Social History of the Moral Imagination * From the Natives Point of View: On the Nature of Anthropological Understanding Part II * Common Sense as a Cultural System * Art as a Cultural System * Centers, Kings, and Charisma: Reflections on the Symbolics of Power * The Way We Think Now: Toward an Ethnography of Modern Thought Part III * Local Knowledge: Fact and Law in Comparative Perspective
3,602 citations
TL;DR: Aetiology confronts two distinct issues: the determinant of individual cases, and the determinants of incidence rate: if exposure to a necessary agent is homogeneous within a population, then case/control and cohort methods will fail to detect it.
Abstract: Aetiology confronts two distinct issues: the determinants of individual cases, and the determinants of incidence rate. If exposure to a necessary agent is homogeneous within a population, then case/control and cohort methods will fail to detect it: they will only identify markers of susceptibility. The corresponding strategies in control are the 'high-risk' approach, which seeks to protect susceptible individuals, and the population approach, which seeks to control the causes of incidence. The two approaches are not usually in competition, but the prior concern should always be to discover and control the causes of incidence.
3,377 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1989
TL;DR: The family model of the criminal process: reintegrative shaming as discussed by the authors is a theory of white-collar crime that is based on the theory of the family model and the social conditions conducive to reintegration.
Abstract: Preface 1. Whither criminological theory? 2. The dominant theoretical traditions: labeling, subcultural, control, opportunity and learning theories 3. Facts a theory of crime ought to fit 4. The family model of the criminal process: reintegrative shaming 5. Why and how does shaming work? 6. Social conditions conducive to reintegrative shaming 7. Summary of the theory 8. Testing the theory 9. Reintegrative shaming and white collar crime 10. Shaming and the good society References Index.
3,169 citations