Hughes analyzes the occurrence and resolution of dispute-related incidents involving black and white youth street gangs in Chicago. Quantitative analysis involves assessing situational variables suggested by the literature as relevant to the occurrence of violence. When possible, interaction sequences also are examined. Qualitative analysis emphasizes themes related to the conditions under which disputes are likely to emerge and either escalate into violence or be "squashed." The result is a conceptual scheme that is useful for understanding how factors and processes operating at the micro-social level contribute to the occurrence of disputes and impact the decision to engage in violence or to back down.

Violent and Non-Violent Disputes Involving Gang Youth (Criminal Justice)

Politics & Social Sciences

Lorine A. Hughes

Social Sciences

LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC

Noble's thesis is that African-American inmates transport "black rage" into the prison subculture, which significantly affects prison violence rates. He finds previous studies superficial and raises the bar for future examinations by proposing a sensitive and taboo theory to explain the strong racial patterns observed in prison victimization. Noble's work supports the importation theory of the inmate subculture proposed by Irwin and Cressey. He builds on their theory by advocating for the inclusion of race and other cultural factors concerning the inmate and staff populations into predicative models. He concludes that prisons with greater racial disparities between the inmate and staff populations experience higher staff assault rates.

Black Rage in the American Prison System (Criminal Justice: Recent Scholarship)

Rosevelt L. Noble

Lee examines gendered processes of becoming small business owners among Korean immigrants in the New York City metropolitan area. Immigration necessitated Korean wives to work outside the home, but this economic transition did not change gender relations. Married couples run small businesses together, but husbands exercise rights as owners and wives are primarily viewed as sources of labor. The immigrants hold onto traditional gender values and patriarchal family relations. Paradoxically, immigrants’ deep-seated gender norms have been catalysts for the dominance of women as nail salon owners. Korean immigrant men were unwilling to acquire on-the job training in what they considered as a feminine work.

Gendered Processes: Korean Immigrant Small Business Ownership (The New Americans)

Eunju Lee

Hinduja examines the social, psychological, criminological, and behavioral aspects of Internet crime. Guided by the most prominent general theories of criminal behavior, he explores music piracy - an all too-common form of cybercrime - by attempting to answer a number of questions. Does stress and strain play a role? What about low self-control? Is music piracy learned within intimate social groups? Do rationalizations and justifications contribute to participation? Is the behavior strengthened or weakened through rewards and punishments? Hinduja then proposes a model which integrates both "social" and "technical" factors to inform and guide strategies to combat music piracy, and potentially other variants of high-tech crime.

Music Piracy and Crime Theory (Criminal Justice: Recent Scholarship)

Computers & Technology

Sameer Hinduja

Computer Science

Ménard examines the effects of individual and contextual factors on victims' decision to contact the police. She investigated social norms regarding the reporting of criminal events and examined the combined effects of individual and county factors on sexual assault victims' decision to contact the police. At the individual level, the odds of the victim contacting the police were greater when the assault was severe or was committed by a stranger. However, even severe assaults by known offenders were unlikely to be reported. At the county level, indicators traditionally associated with crime reduced the odds of victims contacting the police. In addition, increased gender equality and victim services decreased the odds of rural as compared to urban victims reporting to the police.

Reporting Sexual Assault: A Social Ecology Perspective (Criminal Justice: Recent Scholarship)

Kim S. Ménard

Thompson analyzes the process through which criminal responsibility is constructed and reproduced on the basis of race and gender. While feminist literature points to constructions of female offenders as “mad” and male offenders as “bad,” overall the results of this research do not support this perspective. Instead, major findings include strong and consistent evidence that African American defendants are less likely to receive psychiatric evaluations to determine mental status at the time of the offense. This implies that criminal justice officials have racial perceptions about the causes of crime; consequently, African American defendants may be portrayed as “normal” criminals who are held to a different level of responsibility than non-African Americans.

Race, Gender, and Mental Illness in the Criminal Justice System (Criminal Justice: Recent Scholarship)

Melissa Thompson

Religion in Criminal Justice (Criminal Justice: Recent Scholarship)

Miller demonstrates how religion affects every aspect of the judicial system by focusing on religious appeals by attorneys in closing arguments of death penalty sentencing trials. She explores whether these appeals lead jurors to make legally impermissible decisions, as some courts have feared. Can religious appeals lead jurors to rely on the Bible instead of state law? Her results show that the more participants relied on Biblical authority, the more they relied on their instincts and the less they relied on evidence and judge’s instructions. Gender, devotionalism, belief in a literal Biblical interpretation, and an individual’s cognitive processing style also affected verdicts.

Miller, Monica K.

Ethiopians form the third largest post-1960 African immigrant in the U.S. Over the years, their migratory patterns have changed in response to changes in Ethiopian and American diplomatic relationships. The Ethiopian immigrants also vary among themselves depending on whether they were granted asylum, are refugees, or benefit from the Diversity Visa (DV) lottery winners. Getahun studies the context of the immigrants arrival, their patterns of settlement, and their adjustment in the U.S. Differences between immigrants may be explained by ethnic or regional origin, class, politics, and religion. The resultant communities support social and religious institutions and Ethiopians are succeeding in establishing community organizations and religious institutions and seek to influence U.S foreign policy towards Ethiopia.

The History of Ethiopian Immigrants and Refugees in America, 1900-2000 (New Americans)

History

Solomon Addis Getahun

Africa

Stowell examines the impact of immigration on violent crime. Crimiological theory, and particularly social disorganization theory, has held that immigration is inextricably linked to crime. Stowell tests whether patterns of neighborhood-level violence are partially attributable to the population characteristics of an area, and, in particular, to its nativity composition. His analyses offer both support for and challenges to social disorganization theory. Consistent with theoretical expectations, immigration is found to be indirectly associated with levels of violence. Little support, however, is found for the notion that immigrants are a largely homogeneous population, or that immigration is positively associated with property crime. The results call for a refinement of the disorganization theory, one that is sensitive to the differences among the foreign-born population and one that does not assume a negative impact of immigration on neighborhood social structure and violence.

Immigration and Crime: The Effects of Immigration on Criminal Behavior (New Americans)

Jacob I. Stowell

Jarrell examines print news media coverage of federal penalties assessed against the petroleum refining industry. While there are many federal petroleum refining industry violations, only a limited number receive media attention. This lack of media coverage suggests that this crime is considered less important despite the harm to the environment and human health produced by petroleum refining industry violations. Lack of attention by the news media may lead to public misunderstanding and ignorance of the causes and consequences of environmental crime. Jarrell suggests that criminologists become more involved in public discourse via the mainstream mass media. In addition, criminologists should endeavor to assist local communities in activist efforts.

Environmental Crime and the Media: News Coverage of Petroleum Refining Industry Violations (Criminal Justice)

Melissa L. Jarrell

Environmental & Natural Resources Law

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