Public Beliefs in the Causes of Wealth and Poverty and Legitimization of Inequalities in Russia and Estonia

The article analyzes the attributions of the causes of poverty and wealth in Russia and Estonia in 1991 and 1996 and their determinants. Among the latter are the perceived actual justice of the society, the perceived size of the middle class, and the personal position in the system of inequalities. Despite the economic hardships and a rise in inequalities in both countries, individualistic explanations of wealth and poverty have increased over the 5 years between the surveys. At the same time respondents in both countries demonstrated a growing awareness of the importance of starting positions and connections to achieve wealth. The perceived middle class has a significant effect on attributions of poverty but not on wealth. Russians in Estonia have a particular bias against wealth, whereas non-Russians in Russia are more likely to justify wealth on the basis of individual merit. Explanations of poverty and wealth in Estonia are more rooted in the factors of socialization (age, education, and gender), whereas in Russia they are more rooted in the changes in the family financial circumstances between 1991 and 1996. There was a general increase in support for government intervention in distribution in both countries.     

Is it complex environments or complex systems that undermines police reform in developing countries?

This article is a reflection upon the challenges facing police reform in developing countries. In doing so it explores the usefulness of complexity theory both to understand the evidence of relative failure and to reconsider the explanations offered for that failure in terms of unique individual factors or the complex nature of the environment. The article suggests that the nature of police organisations as complex social systems may be a principal reason for failure. The article outlines some of the key features of complex systems and illustrates these from actual police reform. The article then turns to whether complexity theory can be of any practical use in police reform programmes. It concludes that greater success may be forthcoming if the insights of complexity theory are taken on board by reformers.     

社会认同复杂性与认同管理策略探析

社会认同论作为群体间行为的解释理论是群体关系研究中最有影响的理论.由于群体地位的差异,当某一群体在认知、情感上产生对所属群体身份不承认或疏离和自卑时便产生了社会认同威胁.为应对威胁和困境,社会认同管理策略旨在通过不同的策略手段以期获得积极的社会认同,提高个体和群体自尊.社会认同复杂性与管理策略的研究有助于加强我国转型期各群体之间的和谐共生,消减个体认同的困境,促进社会不同群体之间的融入与和谐.     

Intergenerational Social Mobility and Popular Explanations of Poverty: A Comparative Perspective

This article explores the consequences of intergenerational social mobility on perceptions of popular explanations of poverty. It is hypothesised that those who experience improvements in socio-economic status through social mobility are more likely to blame poverty on individual characteristics such as laziness and lack of willpower and are less likely to attribute failure to injustice in society, and on the macro-level, the effect of social mobility on perceptions of popular explanations of poverty is moderated by contextual environment. The described hypotheses are tested by using multinomial and multilevel logistic regressions and two complementary datasets—European Values Studies and the Life in Transition Survey. The derived findings suggest that social mobility is indeed associated with perceptions of individual blame and social blame of why some people are in need. However, these effects are manifested primarily among subjectively mobile individuals and are also conditioned by the legacy of socialism and the level of economic development of countries where individuals reside.     

社会表征理论及其发展

社会表征理论是由法国社会心理学家莫斯科维奇（S．Moscovici）首先提出来的，它是对共享实在的一种解释，目前已经成为欧美社会心理学界的共识性趋势。它对群体行为和群体认知做出了新的阐明，并成为群体关系研究中最有影响的理论，同社会认同理论、话语分析理论并列成为欧洲社会心理学的三个经典流派。它对产生于群体的认知和行为作出解释，强调群体的中心性、群体影响和沟通个体的意识，同时强调社会心理现象和过程只能通过将其放在历史的、文化的和宏观的社会环境中才能进行最好的理解和研究。新近的研究也为社会表征理论提供了一定的证据和有利支持。该理论是欧洲社会心理学本土化的重要成果，对社会心理学具有重要的贡献，尤其是将对于我国的社会心理学的理论和实证研究具有一定的推动作用，因而需要进一步的研究和完善。     

COMMUNITY STRUCTURE AND ADOLESCENT DELINQUENCY IN ICELAND: A CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS*

The current study examines the contextual effects of community structural characteristics on adolescent delinquency in Iceland, focusing on how specific individual‐level mechanisms work to mediate the contextual effects. Using multilevel data on 68 school communities and 6,458 adolescents, we find a contextual effect of community social instability (residential mobility, family disruption) on delinquency. Moreover, the findings indicate that specific individual‐level social control mechanisms (Coleman, 1988) explain a part of this effect, namely, embeddedness in community‐based social ties linking parents and adolescents and normlessness. Also, the findings indicate that the individual‐level effect of unsupervised peer activity on delinquency is contingent on embeddedness in social ties as well as on community social instability. The findings have bearing on the cross‐societal generalizability of social disorganization theory.     

奥肯“漏桶实验”对社会保障制度的启示

社会保障制度的作用在于实现财富的二次再分配,是现代社会保障制度安排重要的理论支撑.20世纪70年代以来,西方福利国家在发展过程中出现了一系列新的趋势、特点和问题：奥肯在1974年提出了著名的“漏桶实验”理论,围绕经济效率和公平正义的讨论持续多年；罗尔斯等人提出了社会分配正义理论,使社会保障的价值诉求趋向社会公平正义.目前,我国正处于社会转型期,奥肯“漏桶实验”理论可以为我国社会保障制度的理论和实践带来一些启示.     

Explaining the race/ethnicity–violence relationship: Neighborhood context and social psychological processes

Blacks and Latinos have higher levels of offending than Whites for violent crimes. Researchers have examined a range of explanations that primarily focus on race and have only begun to consider how macro contexts influence individual levels of violence. This study contributes to this literature by including both race and ethnicity, and by examining the role of social psychological processes in mediating the impact of neighborhood contexts on violence. Using the Add Health data, I demonstrate the importance of the neighborhood context, socioeconomic status, and social psychological processes in explaining the relationship between race, ethnicity and violence. Having witnessed and been victimized by violence is by far the most important social psychological process in explaining this relationship.     

Social Justice Beliefs Regarding Old-Age Provisions in Germany: A Latent Profile Analysis

Examining personal beliefs about social justice in the way a society provides financial security in old age may reveal potential conflicts about the distribution of wealth. Individuals differ with regard to how they believe old-age provisions should be distributed (e.g., based on principles of merit or self-reliance), and individuals often endorse more than one belief at the same time. Using latent profile analysis and data from the 2014 German Ageing Survey we identify five separate profiles of social justice beliefs among older adults (40–85 years) in Germany. Belief profiles were based on the extent to which people simultaneously endorse and/or reject meritocratic, redistributive, self-reliant, and fatalistic ideas regarding old-age provisions. Almost 20% of the sample demonstrated a belief system in line with the German meritocratic system. Roughly three-fifth did not show strong preferences for a specific social justice principle. However, we identified two belief profiles representing 22.4% of the sample which may reflect dissent from the current system. Sociodemographic characteristics, political identification, and indicators of social disadvantage (e.g., lower income, fears of decline in social status, and feelings of social exclusion) were differentially associated with the five belief profiles. Overall, the results showed that in particular people of lower socioeconomic status were critical with respect to the principles of the German pension system raising questions regarding the demand of political interventions.     

我国目前贫富差距问题略论

中国在社会现代化进程中已经出现了贫富差距问题,且呈扩大趋势。目前,贫富差距表现出扩大化、阶层化、群体化、两极化、政治化的特点。贫富差距的扩大对经济发展、社会秩序、社会稳定构成了极大危害,必须引起高度重视。贫富差距扩大不是改革的结果,而是改革不到位的结果。坚定不移地深化改革,推进社会现代化进程,是解决贫富差距问题的根本途径。     

Fear of Gang Crime: A Look at Three Theoretical Models

Gang crime and resulting public fear became a major policy focus during the 1990s, yet few studies specifically focus on fear of gang crime. Guided by social disorganization theory, we test three theoretical models about the individual thought processes leading to fear of gang crime. Using structural equation models, we find that each of these three theories—diversity, disorder, and community concern—is an important predictor of gang-related fear. In addition, we find that the indirect relationships between demographic characteristics, theoretical variables, and fear depend upon which model is tested.     

社会法起源新论——生存的社会维护和社会立法进程视角

人类生存的维护形式,经历了原始社会集体维护,到特殊关系（家族、身份、家庭）内部维护和个体维护,最终在工业化和城市化面前完全崩溃。在完全的私有制和极端的贪欲下,生存所依赖的相关资源配置发生严重的不平衡,权力、财富、报酬分配过多地向社会强者聚集,社会弱者生存资源单一且微薄,生存与发展问题十分严重。当国家和社会把维护人类生存与发展的义务背负起来,形成生存的社会维护,并使再次分配成为生存的基本资源一部分时,社会立法回应了这一新状况,西方国家的社会法就是在此中产生并得以发展。     

A LONGITUDINAL TEST OF SOCIAL DISORGANIZATION THEORY: FEEDBACK EFFECTS AMONG COHESION,SOCIAL CONTROL,AND DISORDER*

Social disorganization theory holds that neighborhoods with greater residential stability, higher socioeconomic status, and more ethnic homogeneity experience less disorder because these neighborhoods have higher social cohesion and exercise more social control. Recent extensions of the theory argue that disorder in turn affects these structural characteristics and mechanisms. Using a data set on 74 neighborhoods in the city of Utrecht in the Netherlands spanning 10 years, we tested the extended theory, which to date only a few studies have been able to do because of the unavailability of neighborhood‐level longitudinal data. We also improve on previous studies by distinguishing between the potential for social control (feelings of responsibility) and the actual social control behavior. Cross‐sectional analyses replicate earlier findings, but the results of longitudinal cross‐lagged models suggest that disorder has large consequences for subsequent levels of social control and residential instability, thus leading to more disorder. This is in contrast to most previous studies, which assume disorder to be more a consequence than a cause. This study underlines the importance of longitudinal data, allowing for simultaneously testing the causes and consequences of disorder, as well as the importance of breaking down social control into the two dimensions of the potential for social control and the actual social control behavior.     

福利国家的回顾与展望——政治光谱学的研究路径

长期以来，作为西方现代资本主义社会发展的一个历史现象，福利国家以及与此相关的社会福利和社会保障政策一直被视为发达工业化民主国家的一个本质特征。近些年来，这些制度和相关政策也引起其它国家，特别是发展中国家的重视。尤其是福利国家在应时市场经济失灵、干预经济过程、消除贫富分化以及稳定社会秩序方面表现出来的独特作用，时于转型之中的中国社会和政治来说，具有许多可借鉴的东西。     

Balancing Power: Committee System Autonomy and Legislative Organization

The most recent explanations for the existence of committee systems in legislative chambers have posited that committees are the agents of one of three very different principal actors: (1) individual members (distributive theory), (2) the full chamber (informational theory), or (3) the major political party (partisan theory). In addition to defining and operationalizing the concept of institutional committee system autonomy, I put forth and test several hypotheses linking these three explanations to committee system autonomy. In the end, the results show empirical support for the informational theory over the distributive and partisan theories.     

RACIALLY HOMOPHILOUS SOCIAL TIES AND INFORMAL SOCIAL CONTROL

Social disorganization theory argues that racial/ethnic heterogeneity is a key neighborhood characteristic leading to social disorganization and, consequently, higher levels of crime. Heterogeneity's effect is argued to be a result of its fragmentation of social ties along racial/ethnic lines, which creates racially homophilous social networks with few ties bridging racial/ethnic groups. Most studies of social ties in social disorganization models, however, have examined their quantity and left unaddressed the extent to which ties are within or across different racial groups. This study goes beyond previous studies by examining the effects of both racially homophilous and interracial friendship networks on informal social control. Using multilevel models and data from 66 neighborhoods with approximately 2,300 respondents, we found that heterogeneity actually increased the average percentage of residents with interracial friendship networks, but the percentage of residents with interracial networks decreased the likelihood of informal social control. In contrast, the percentage of residents with White racially homophilous networks increased the likelihood of informal social control. Examining the microcontext of individuals’ networks, however, we found residents with interracial ties reported higher likelihoods of informal social control and that this effect was enhanced in neighborhoods with higher percentages of non‐White racially homophilous networks.     

IS DIFFERENTIAL ASSOCIATION/SOCIAL LEARNING CULTURAL DEVIANCE THEORY?*

Sutherland's differential association theory has long been criticized as a “cultural deviance” theory, and the critics have continued to apply this same designation to the theory's social-learning reformulation by Akers. According to this critique, differential association/social learning theory rests on the assumption that socialization is completely successful and that cultural variability is unlimited, cannot explain individual differences in deviance within the same group and applies only to group differences, has no way of explaining violation of norms to which the individual subscribes, and proposes culture as the single cause of crime. This article examines the basis and validity of this cultural deviance label. I conclude that the usual attribution of cultural deviance assumptions and explanations to differential association/ social learning theory is based on misinterpretations. Then, I offer a clarification of how cultural elements are incorporated into the theory.     

近代机械-原子论与美国财产法理念——个人与社会:不是独白而是对话

在近代科学革命和文化思想模式变革的大背景下,考察近代美国财产法理念的衍生及其特质:近代美国财产法理念是建立在17世纪科学革命对古代和中世纪有机论的批判中产生的机械—原子论主导思想模式基础上的,因而强调个人利益的支配地位。但在美国,意识形态从来都不是一元化的,财产法理念中的个人因素总是与社会因素连在一起的。个人利益与社会利益不是绝对排斥、一方独白,而是妥协共存、双方对话。     

A Radical Economic Model of Crime with an Empirical Test in Non-city Zip Codes

This article addresses three main issues. First, the structural explanation of crime rates across zip codes within a US county outside of that county’s major city’s limits. Second, this article addresses whether the traditional social disorganization argument which links measures of disorganized neighborhoods and in particularly deficiencies in informal social control to race, income inequality and poverty provides an adequate explanation of variations in non-city zip code crime rates. Third, this article also examines a radical critique of the kind of structural model posed by social disorganization, and tests an alternative radical economic model of crime at the zip code level. The empirical evidence illustrates the weakness of social disorganization explanations of crime at the zip code level. In contrast to those results, the empirical results for the proposed radical economic model of crime support its use for explaining crime across county zip codes. This type of empirical evidence demonstrates that radical models of crime have utility in explaining how economic structures influence the distribution of crime independently of variable identified in orthodox criminology.     

The Context of Minority Group Threat: Race, Institutions, and Complying with Hate Crime Law

A wealth of research suggests a direct association between minority group size and government social control, such as arrest or imprisonment rates. Prior work in this vein, however, gives scant attention to (1) types of law that explicitly address intergroup conflict and (2) regional variation in the salience of minority group threat. At the same time, research on organizational responses to law indicates that institutional linkages to legal environments dictate policy innovation and compliance, yet the relevance of such linkages for law enforcement agencies is less clear. The present research investigates these themes by focusing on law enforcement responses to hate crime in the United States. Data from a sample of large municipal and county policing agencies and their degree of compliance with the federal Hate Crimes Statistics Act are analyzed. Main effects models show that compliance with federal hate crime law is less likely in places with larger black populations, an intriguing finding in light of extant work suggesting that both formal social control and race-based hate crime offending are typically more prevalent where more blacks reside. This effect of black population size on compliance with hate crime law, however, is contingent on region. A positive correlation in the Northeast contrasts with an inverse association in the South. The findings also suggest that organizational facets of law enforcement agencies, notably their engagement in community policing, are associated with compliance. The results elaborate and qualify group threat explanations of government social control and contribute to a burgeoning literature on the utility of organizational theory in the realm of law enforcement.