This is the story of organized crime’s penetration of the islands and the corruption of its high officials during the time The Bahamas become politically independent of Great Britain. It describes secret U.S. Internal Revenue Service operations aimed at American criminals involved in Bahamian-based tax scams and similar crimes. Block paints a devastating picture of a symbiotic relationship among off-shore tax havens in The Bahamas, sophisticated American criminals, and complacent public officials in the United States. During the 1960s and 1970s, the I.R.S. launched major investigations into American organized crime and the subterranean economy of The Bahamas. Block’s access to the private papers of many of the key players in these affairs has given him a unique perspective. He has uncovered details of crime, corruption, and bureaucratic infighting within and among the U.S. Treasury and Justice Departments that have been largely unrecognized by previous researchers. Block shows how important links in the international traffic in cocaine were forged in the Bahamas, in full view of American officials. Masters of Paradise raises major questions about American law enforcement officials’ commitment to fighting complex international crime during the 1960s and the 1970s. While there have been other studies of tax havens, money laundering, and offshore investigations, Block’s access to information and his grasp of its meaning is unique. Professionals interested in the history and sociology of organized crime and the underground economy will find this book eye-opening. General readers interested in organized crime and political corruption will find it absorbing. 

Masters of Paradise: Organized Crime and the Internal Revenue Service in the Bahamas

Politics & Social Sciences

Block, Alan A.

Social Sciences

Transaction Pub

Crosscutting Social Circles describes a theory of groups' relations to each other, and tests the theory in the 125 largest metropolitan areas In the United States. The focus is on the Influence social structure exerts on intergroup relations. Blau and Schwartz show how role relations are influenced by how people are distributed among social positions. Examples are a community's racial composition, division of labor, ethnic heterogeneity, income Inequality, or the extent to which educational differences are related to income differences. Blau and Schwartz test their theory by considering its impact on such structural conditions as intermarriage, an important form of intergroup relations.The authors derive the main principles of previously formulated theories of intergroup relations and present them in simpler and clearer form. They empirically test the power of the theory by analyzing its ability to predict how social structure affects intermarriage in the largest American cities, where three-fifths of the American population live. They selected cities because population distribution of a small neighborhood might be affected by casual associations among neighbors; it is much more sociologically interesting if population distribution also affects mate selection in a city of millions.Unlike most theories that emphasize the implications of such cultural orientations as shared values and common norms, this volume focuses on the significance of various forms of inequality and heterogeneity. As one of the few books that supplies a large-scale empirical test of implications of a theory, Crosscutting Social Circles serves as a model. The new introduction by Peter Blau reviews the origins and impact of the book. It will be of immense value to sociologists, psychologists, and group relations specialists.

Crosscutting Social Circles

Blau, Peter M.

Schwartz, Joseph E.

Protestantism and Capitalism: The Mechanisms of Influence (Sociology & Economics Series)

Arguably, the most important single work in classical sociology is Max Weber's thesis on how Protestantism makes its impact on capitalism. Cohen's argument is that Protestantism affects capitalism in several different ways. Each is linked as a separate mechanism of influence, and may therefore be assessed separately. Weber himself stated or suggested several possible mechanisms of influence. Protestantism gave the spirit of capitalism its duty to profit and thus helped to legitimate capitalism. Its religious asceticism also produced personalities well-suited for work discipline. Finally, the new turn in Christian doctrine contributed to the quest to prove one's salvation, because God's favor could be shown through business success. Cohen's argument is that some of these processes worked as Weber indicated and others did not. This makes a blanket assessment of his famous thesis inappropriate. The Weber thesis has been difficult to prove or disprove because the refutation of some suggested mechanisms still leaves others viable. Only a comprehensive testing of all of Weber's sub-hypotheses can provide a proper assessment of his work. By simultaneously examining these sub-texts, the author pulls together Weber's arguments and points of criticism. The book juxtaposes historical evidence pro and con. Cohen revisits, reexamines, and tests the classic Weberian thesis that the beliefs and presuppositions of the English Puritans, rather than the forces of economic determinism, ushered in the era of modern capitalism. He divides Weber's single argument into two main mechanisms of influence: one behavioral, confined to which Puritan tenets in particular affected a believer's economic activity; the other, a more prevalent and far-reaching cultural mechanism, which became part of the mainstream. By taking advantage of present day information, including recently discovered diaries of two seventeenth-century Puritan merchants, Cohen's text sums up many years of argument in the journal literature. The book will find a place in a wide range of courses, from sociology of religion, sociological theory, social economics, political science, to European history. Jere Cohen, a sociologist at the University of Maryland in Baltimore County, is the author of numerous journal articles, many of them also dealing with Max Weber and his Protestant Ethic thesis.

Jere Cohen

History

While crime, law, and punishment are subjects that have everyday meanings not very far from their academic representations, "social control" is one of those terms that appear in the sociological discourse without any corresponding everyday usage. This concept has a rather mixed lineage. "After September 11" has become a slogan that conveys all things to all people but carries some very specific implications on interrogation and civil liberties for the future of punishment and social control. The editors hold that the already pliable boundaries between ordinary and political crime will become more unstable; national and global considerations will come closer together; domestic crime control policies will be more influenced by interests of national security; measures to prevent and control international terrorism will cast their reach wider (to financial structures and ideological support); the movements of immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers will be curtailed and criminalized; taken-for-granted human rights and civil liberties will be restricted. In the midst of these dramatic social changes, hardly anyone will notice the academic field of "punishment and social control" being drawn closer to political matters. Criminology is neither a "pure" academic discipline nor a profession that offers an applied body of knowledge to solve the crime problem. Its historical lineage has left an insistent tension between the drive to understand and the drive to be relevant. While the scope and orientation of this new second edition remain the same, in recognition of the continued growth and diversity of interest in punishment and social control, new chapters have been added and several original chapters have been updated and revised.

Punishment and Social Control: Essays in Honor of Sheldon L. Messinger (Social Problems & Social Issues)

A rich source of ideas about sociological research methods to assist the researcher in determining what method will provide the most reliable and useful knowledge, how to choose between different methodologies, and what constitutes the most fruitful relationship between sociological theories and research methods.

Sociological Research Methods

dust jacket present- chipping, tears, wear marks to edges. Worn spots and indents on front and back of dust jacket. Book-well worn binding, limited chipping or tears to edges, limited markings or creasing.

Meyer Weisgal...So Far: An Autobiography

Biographies & Memoirs

Weisgal, Meyer

Historical

Housing: A Bibliography, 1960-1972.

Paulus, Virginia

Sociology

Public policy. A very good hardcover copy. Tight binding. Good dust jacket in removable mylar with tape repairs to inner spine head and slight wear to edges. Clean, unmarked pages. NOT ex-library. contains index. 311 pg. Shipped Weight: Under 1 kilogram. Category: Sociology; ISBN: 0444412794. ISBN/EAN: 9780444412799. Inventory No: 020304.

Social Indicators and Public Policy Interactive Processes of Design and Application

De Neufville, J. I.

The contributors to this volume cover the locational impact of local policies, trends in urban planning, problems associated with interstate metropolitan areas, and studies of the role of various groups in the policy process. Originally published in 1975 by D.C. Heath and Company. Co-published with the Policy Studies Organization.

Urban Problems and Public Policy

Methodologies for Analyzing Public Policies

Frank Scioli

Politics & Government

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