ADOLESCENT MARIJUANA AND ALCOHOL USE

Most tests of differential association theory focus on the basic relationships rather than the causal process specified by the theory. This study provides a more thorough test of Sutherland's differential association hypothesis by deriving and testing a causal model of alcohol and marijuana use among adolescents. The findings provide strong support for the causal process specified by differential association theory. However, two unexpected findings suggest that the theory may have to be modified to account for the differential impact of peer pressure, independent of internalized definitions, on individual behavior and for the differential impact of specific primary groups on the formation of individual definitions.     

FEMALE DELINQUENCY AND BROKEN HOMES A Re-Assessment

Most studies examining the relationship between broken homes and delinquency conclude that females react more adversely to a break in the home than do males. In a study of 1,103 adjudicated delinquents, it was found that when type of offense is controlled, the higher proportion of broken homes among female delinquents represents their greater involvement in “morals” offenses. Black males arrested for person and property offenses actually come from broken homes more often than do black females. In general, there appears to be no unique relationship between broken homes and female delinquency except for family-related offenses.     

“A CROSS-BURNING IS NOT JUST AN ARSON”: POLICE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF HATE CRIMES IN BALTIMORE COUNTY*

Growing public concern over racial and ethnic conflict and a perceived increase in hate crimes during the 1980s have led to legislation expanding the scope of the law and the severity of punishment for such offenses and to police-initiated efforts to focus attention on hate crimes. Although a number of critiques have examined the legislative approach, little attention has been devoted to the police response. This article examines the rationale for a police initiative in addressing hate crimes; the characteristics of incidents labeled as such in one jurisdiction, Baltimore County, Maryland; and some of the problems in defining, identifying, and verifying bias motivation. Because about 40% of the offenses initially considered by the Baltimore County Police Department to be motivated by racial, religious, or ethnic (RRE) prejudice subsequently are not verified as RRE motivated, a closer examination of all such cases permits insight into the social construction of “bias motivation” and related issues raised by a police hate-crime program. These include determining what forms of bias are eligible for special responses; identifying bias motivation; weighing the victim's perception of the event; determining the line between criminal and non-criminal incidents; and adopting consistent standards for verifying ambiguous events.     

UNEMPLOYMENT,IMPRISONMENT, AND SOCIAL STRUCTURES OF ACCUMULATION: HISTORICAL CONTINGENCY IN THE RUSCHE-KIRCHHEIMER HYPOTHESIS*

This study explores the relationship between punishment and social structure by combining the work of Rusche and Kirchheimer with current theorizing regarding social structures of accumulation (SSAs). Specifically, we theorize that the unemployment-imprisonment (U-I) relationship is historically contingent. In particular, we argue that qualitative changes in the configuration of labor markets, state strategies for managing surplus populations, and international relations across SSAs and stages within them result in changes in the magnitude and direction of the U-I relationship. In other words, changes in the qualitative relations among capital, labor, and the state are reflected in quantitative changes in the relationship between rates of unemployment and imprisonment. We hypothesize that three stages of the Fordist SSA (exploration, 1933–1947; consolidation, 1948–1966; decay, 1967–1979) will manifest varying levels of a positive and significant U-I relationship, while the first stage of the new globalized, cyber-technology SSA (1980–1992) will be characterized by a negative U-I relationship due to the co-emergence of a (semi)permanent underclass and an intensification of punitiveness. We test this model using a structurally periodized analysis to determine if the relationship between rates of unemployment and new court admissions to prison (net of rates of violent crime) differs across the four periods studied. Our analysis of the U-I relationship within each SSA phase, and time-varying parameter tests of the periodization of twentieth-century capitalist development, indicate that the U-I relationship is indeed historically contingent and warrants further structurally periodized analysis.