Race group differences in prison victimization experiences

Purpose

To assess differences in victimization risk between African American and white, non-Latino inmates, and to estimate race group differences in the correlates of victimization.

Methods

Random samples totaling 2,403 African Americans and 3,150 whites were drawn from all state prisons in Ohio and Kentucky and all private prisons in Ohio (n = 46). Race-specific bi-level models of physical assaults and property thefts were estimated. Differences between race-specific models in the magnitude of regression coefficients for the same predictors and outcomes were compared.

Results

The odds of victimization by physical assault and by theft were significantly higher among whites compared to African Americans. Race group differences in the magnitude of several inmate level effects (e.g., age, sex, education, family status, officer “legitimacy”, custody score, visitation) were also significant, yet facility effects were similar for both groups.

Conclusions

Assessing differences in the victimization experiences of African American and white inmates is important for developing effective crime prevention strategies in prison. We examined the most comprehensive models of inmate victimization (including inmate socio-demographics, activities during confinement, perceptions of officers, facility characteristics, and officer perceptions of rule enforcement) for one of the largest samples of prisons to date.     

Dialogic reverberations: police, domestic abuse, and the discontinuance of cases

This study investigated the social construction of domestic abuse by police officers, specifically in the context of arguments presented to the prosecutor for a decision on whether to proceed with or discontinue the case. Nineteen police files were examined with a particular focus on the MG3, the "Report to Crown Prosecutors for Charging Decision." Access to such sensitive material is usually denied to researchers; therefore, this study offers unusual insights into the treatment of victims and perpetrators of interpersonal violence by the police. Discourse analysis revealed three dominant speech genres: impartiality, credibility, and the "real" victim. These genres separately and in interaction served to construct domestic abuse cases in ways that did not support the victim's account. The "dialogic reverberations" of these findings are discussed and the implications of the work for research and practice are considered.     

From Territorial Claim to War: Timing,Causation, and the Steps-to-War

The steps-to-war thesis has become one of the dominant frameworks for explaining war in the discipline. Substantial testing has supported the empirical claims of the argument, but key theoretical questions remain. These primarily have to do with the question of endogeneity. While the steps-to-war thesis argues that each step increases the probability of war, others have argued that you might find the same empirical relationships in cases where war was anticipated, or that rivalry is the underlying causal factor for both the different variables and war itself. This study addresses these critical challenges by examining the historic timing of the steps to war in territorial claims from 1919–1995 to determine whether their sequencing supports the causal argument of the steps-to-war thesis or the various challenges to it. The results indicate that there are clear categorical differences in territorial claims that result in war, and discusses the relevant theoretical implications.     

A Bi-level Framework for Understanding Prisoner Victimization

Objectives

To present and test an opportunity perspective on prison inmate victimization.

Methods

Stratified random samples of inmates (n ₁ = 5,640) were selected from Ohio and Kentucky prisons (n ₂ = 46). Bi-level models of the prevalence of assaults and thefts were estimated. Predictors included indicators of inmate routines/guardianship, target antagonism, and target vulnerability at the individual level, and several indicators of guardianship at the facility level.

Results

Assaults were more common among inmates with certain routines and characteristics that might have increased their odds of being victimized (e.g., less time spent in recreation; committed violence themselves during incarceration), and higher levels of assaults characterized environments with lower levels of guardianship (e.g., architectural designs with more “blind spots”, larger populations, and less rigorous rule enforcement as perceived by correctional officers). Similar findings emerged for thefts in addition to stronger individual level effects in prisons with weaker guardianship (e.g., ethnic group differences in the risk of theft were greater in facilities with larger populations and less rigorous rule enforcement).

Conclusions

The study produced evidence favoring a bi-level opportunity perspective of inmate victimization, with some unique differences in the relevance of particular concepts between prison and non-prison contexts.     

Catalyst or Cause? Legislation and the Demise of Machine Politics in Britain and the United States

In the nineteenth century, British and American parties competed by hiring electoral agents to bribe and treat voters. British parties abruptly abandoned this practice in the 1880s. The conventional explanation is that legislation put an end to agent‐mediated distribution. But this explanation leaves many questions unanswered. Why did the parties use agents for decades, even though they imposed great expense on candidates and were viewed as untrustworthy? And why, after decades of half‐hearted reforms, did the House of Commons pass effective antibribery reforms only in 1883? In our formal model, parties hire agents to solve information problems, but agent‐mediated distribution can be collectively suboptimal. Legislation can serve as a credibility device for shifting to less costly strategies.     

Professor Waldron Goes to Washington

In Torture, Terror and Trade-Offs: Philosophy for the White House Jeremy Waldron asks how moral philosophy can illuminate real life political problems. He argues that moral philosophers should remind politicians of the importance of adhering to moral principle, and he also argues that some moral principles are absolute and exceptionless. Thus, he is very critical of those philosophers who, post 9/11, were willing to condone the use of torture. In this article I discuss and criticize Waldron’s absolutism. In particular, I claim that the arguments he offers in support of it are either dependent on religious conviction or support only rule utilitarianism, not absolutism. Additionally, I argue that the character of politics is such that it is both undesirable and morally irresponsible for politicians to adopt the absolutist approach favoured by Waldron. We have reason to be glad that Professor Waldron does not go to Washington.     

Growing Up in Times of War: Unaccompanied Refugee Minors’ Assumptions About the World and Themselves

Abstract

The idea that assumptions about the world and the self can be damaged through traumatic experiences has proven to be useful in understanding posttraumatic reactions. This study investigated the World Assumptions of middle-eastern unaccompanied refugee minors (URMs) to contribute to a culturally sensitive theoretical perspective. Semistructured interviews were conducted and analyzed using inductive category development. All assumed aspects of World Assumptions—benevolence, meaningfulness, and self-worth—were found in the participants’ statements. Regarding meaningfulness, we detected a new subcategory, the principle of a metaphysical plan, which has implications for the mechanism by which religiosity protects World Assumptions in war-torn regions.     

Disaster,Displacement, and Casework: Uncertainty and Assistance after Hurricane Katrina

Casework in the United States in social welfare programs has been limited in what caseworkers can do, as what they do has been tightly structured by rules. Recently, scholars have argued that episodic assistance in disaster brings sympathy in public policy more than restriction. The sympathy after disaster brings new money, and individual assistance is in turn the subject of casework. This article relies upon interviews, observations, and government documents to assess how casework served displaced people after Hurricane Katrina. The article finds that caseworkers after Katrina were caught in a program that would end at some uncertain time, and with new and unclear rules that changed frequently, making the sympathy difficult to enact for many of the poorest people. Casework after disaster is episodic and convened by nonprofits and, after Katrina, paid for by a large grant and then written into statute. Assistance for displaced people is likely to continue, given the expectation of more disasters and rising sea levels. The question of how it is like or unlike other forms of assistance and what sympathy in policy means in helping displaced people is therefore likely to continue to matter.