PRISONIZATION AS AN INHIBITOR OF EFFECTIVE RESOCIALIZATION

This study focuses on data collected from 267 incarcerated, male delinquents The intent of this report is to identify and discuss the possible impact of prisonization on the inmate—an impact that in fact may impede the resocialization goals of the formal organization. Prisonization is conceptualized as the degree of assimilation into the inmate contraculture, and the particular type of social role assumed by the inmate. The proposed consequences of this socialization process are conceptualired as opposition to the institution, the degree of priority placed on interpersonal contact with other inmates while incarcerated, and opposition to the legal system. The findings of this study suggest that prisonization is related to self-attitudes that are not conducive to effective reconciliation.     

Moral Principles and Legal Validity

Two recent high‐quality articles, including one in this journal, have challenged the Inclusivist and Incorporationist varieties of legal positivism. David Lefkowitz and Michael Giudice, writing from perspectives heavily influenced by the work of Joseph Raz, have endeavored—in sophisticated and interestingly distinct ways—to vindicate Raz's contention that moral principles are never among the law‐validating criteria in any legal system nor among the laws that are applied as binding bases for adjudicative and administrative decisions in such a system. The present article responds to their defenses of Raz's Exclusive Legal Positivism.     

The Politics of Patronage in the United Kingdom: Shrinking Reach and Diluted Permeation

Delegation is a central concept in the study of governance and public policy. The modern state could not function without delegation because it provides a structural and esoteric capacity beyond the cognitive and physical limits of politicians. This article focuses on the role of ministers in making appointments to quasi-autonomous agencies, boards, and commissions in the United Kingdom. Research undertaken within the Cabinet Office reveals a pattern of shrinking reach and diluted permeation in relation to ministerial appointment powers. This finding is significant because the existing body of research in this field is generally associated with exposing clientelistic relationships between political parties and quangos, and patronage is frequently regarded as a resource through which political parties can "politicize" or "colonize" the state. This article therefore contributes a case study that exhibits countervailing tendencies and a quite different pattern of statecraft that raises broader questions about the evolution of state projects.     

The Split Personality of Prudence in the Unfolding Political Economy of New Labour

This article focuses on the economic ideas which underpin New Labour's two very different appeals to the notion of prudence. The first treats prudence as a macroeconomic phenomenon, drawing upon the work of the ‘time consistency’ theorists of the 1970s. It dominated the Party's economic policy‐making until the end of the first term in Government, emphasising the need for extreme vigilance on matters of public spending. The second treats prudence as a microeconomic phenomenon, drawing upon the eighteenth‐century work of Adam Smith. It has become dominant since the start of the second term, emphasising the need to encourage the savings habit more widely within society. The shift in priority from the macroeconomic to the microeconomic understanding comes on the back of New Labour's own growing imprudence in time consistency terms. The Government has incentivised private savings at the same time as it has become increasingly reluctant to be a saver itself.     

As Good as Policy Gets

In June 2014, the think tank IPPR published a report, The Condition of Britain, widely seen as important source material for Labour as the party geared up for the 2015 General Election. This is an echo of another report—that of the Commission on Social Justice, published in 1994—which also made an important contribution to the thinking of Labour in opposition. A comparison between the two documents provides insights into the evolution of mainstream progressive thought over the past twenty years.     

INTEGRATING RACE,PLACE AND MOTIVE IN SOCIAL DISORGANIZATION THEORY: LESSONS FROM A COMPARISON OF BLACK AND LATINO HOMICIDE TYPES IN TWO IMMIGRANT DESTINATION CITIES*

In this paper, we examine and compare the impact of social disorganization, including recent immigration, and other predictors on community counts of black and Latino motive‐specific homicides in Miami and San Diego. Homicides for 1985 to 1995 are disaggregated into escalation, intimate, robbery and drug‐related motives. Negative binomial regression models with corrections for spatial autocorrelation demonstrate that there are similarities and differences in effects of social disorganization and other predictors by motive‐specific outcomes, as well as for outcomes across ethnic groups within cities and within ethnic groups across cities. Recent immigration is negatively or not associated with most outcomes. Overall, the study shows the importance of disaggregating homicide data by race/ethnicity and motive and demonstrates that predictions based on existing theories are qualified on local conditions.     

A Tale of Two Milibands: From Environmental Citizenship to the Politics of the Common Good

Two different proposals for a political basis for a low carbon transformation in Britain have been put forward in recent years by the Miliband brothers. In 2006, David Miliband argued for a new ‘environmental contract’ between state and citizens, in the spirit of the post‐war social contract. Last year Ed Miliband proposed a ‘politics of the common good’. The historical sociology of citizenship suggests that the environmental contract approach will not work, mainly because of the pure public bad nature of the climate nature and the politics that flow from this. The ‘common good’ approach is more promising, but to make any headway, will have to tackle the strengthening of materialism and populism over the last generation.     

YOUTH EMPLOYMENT AND DELINQUENCY: RECONSIDERING A PROBLEMATIC RELATIONSHIP*

Employment is often thought to discourage participation in crime, but self-report data from juveniles consistently disclose a positive correlation between employment and delinquency. This analysis tests three possible explanations for that correlation. The first is that differences in levels of delinquency between workers and nonworkers exist prior to employment. The second holds that working increases independence from parents, thereby reducing the controlling effect of parental influence. The third explanation, drawing on Sutherland's theory of differential association, is that employment increases delinquent behavior by exposing adolescents to a wider network of peers, including delinquent peers. Analysis of data from waves 1, 2, and 3 of the National Youth Survey reveals a positive association between employment and some forms of delinquency, especially alcohol and drug use. Selection bias explains much, but not all, of the association. Although no support is found for the parental influence explanation, the remaining employment effect is explained by exposure to delinquent peers.