THE NARROWING GENDER GAP IN ARRESTS: ASSESSING COMPETING EXPLANATIONS USING SELF‐REPORT,TRAFFIC FATALITY,AND OFFICIAL DATA ON DRUNK DRIVING, 1980–2004*

We evaluate two alternative explanations for the converging gender gap in arrest—changes in women's behavior versus changes in mechanisms of social control. Using the offense of drunk driving and three methodologically diverse data sets, we explore trends in the DUI gender gap. We probe for change across various age groups and across measures tapping DUI prevalence and chronicity. Augmented Dickey‐Fuller time‐series techniques are used to assess changes in the gender gap and levels of drunk driving from 1980 to 2004. Analyses show women of all ages making arrest gains on men—a converging gender gap. In contrast, self‐report and traffic data indicate little or no systematic change in the DUI gender gap. Findings support the conclusion that mechanisms of social control have shifted to target female offending patterns disproportionately. Little support exists for the contention that increased strain and liberalized gender roles have altered the gender gap or female drunk‐driving patterns.     

NEIGHBORHOOD AND DELINQUENCY: AN ASSESSMENT OF CONTEXTUAL EFFECTS*

The sociological perspectives which helped formulate the study of delinquency and continue to underlie more specific conceptual frameworks—Social Disorganization, Subculture, and Labeling—point to the importance of contextual effects in the dynamics explaining delinquent and criminal behavior. Yet, systematic examination of such effects has been all but neglected. This paper delineates and empirically assesses neighborhood characteristics postulated to represent contextual factors affecting individual delinquency and criminality. Data were collected from a stratified random sample of adolescent males drawn from 12 New York City neighborhoods. The initial model, designed to refine hypotheses specifying community contextual effects, exhibits a highly satisfactory fit to the data. The framework underscores the importance of considering distinct community contextual effects as well as individual-level effects. Two neighborhood-level factors, the effects of which are quite distinct, are important: the community's level of organizational participation and the extent of disorder and criminal subculture. The indirect and direct effects of these factors are elaborated in relation to three measures of de1inquency—namely, self-reported, officially recorded, and severe self-reported delinquency.     

THE SUPREME COURT AND CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: A Quest for Balance between Legal and Societal Morality

The interrelationships of legal and societal morality are examined through an analysis of judicial opinions in the Supreme Court's review of the constitutionality of the death penalty. Neither community standards nor considerations of utility provided the justices with a satisfactory basis for rejecting or regulating the death penalty. Resting their decisions instead on grounds of fairness, the justices endorsed a mode of jury guidance and monitoring that potentially facilitates citizen participation in the process of "evolving standards of decency." Legal morality thus is used as the justification for a decision that affects societal morality in a manner likely to limit rather than to expand the gap between the two moralities .     

CHANGING CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF PROFESSIONAL CRIMINALS Implications for Criminology Theory

This article examines both traditional and contemporary conceptualizations of professional criminals as viewed by criminologists. Traditionally, criminologists have viewed professional criminals as being involved in full-time, nonviolent. highly skilled specialties. Contemporary conceptualizations stress professional criminals as being no specialized, less skilled, and involved in violent behavior. These conceptual changes reflect an emphasis upon observations rather than theoretical development among criminologists examining professional crime. As long as an observational emphasis persists, theories concerning professional criminals will not progress either rapidly or in an orderly fashion. Changing conceptualizations of professional criminals can be viewed as an example of insufficient theoretical development existing within the discipline.     

Peculiar Institutions: Slavery,Sectionalism, and Minority Obstruction in the Antebellum Senate

This article examines obstruction in the U.S. Senate, focusing on political conflict in the antebellum period. I consider different theories that predict when obstruction should occur and conduct individual‐level analysis of the use of and support for dilatory tactics. The analysis investigates how the costs of obstruction, the probability that obstruction succeeds, the policy preferences of the senator, and the salience of legislation relate to decisions to obstruct. I find that both sectional and partisan factors influence obstruction, with the former being especially important for legislation related to slavery. In particular, Southern senators' concerns about being in the minority led them to obstruct to protect their interests in slavery.     

Legislating Morality: Scoring the Hart‐Devlin Debate after Fifty Years

It has now been more than 50 years since H. L. A Hart and Lord Patrick Devlin first squared off in perhaps the most celebrated jurisprudential debate of the twentieth‐century (1959–1967). The central issue in that dispute—whether the state may criminalize immoral behavior as such—continues to be debated today, but in a vastly changed legal landscape. In this article I take a fresh look at the Hart‐Devlin debate in the light of five decades of social and legal changes.