PERIODICAL PRESTIGE IN CRIMINOLOGY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE: A Comment

This study examines the problems involved in measuring prestige of periodicah in criminology and criminal justice via subjective evaluations. An alternative measure of journal eminence based on citation frequency is developed. The differences in journal rankings derived from these contrasting methods are assessed.     

ALIENATION IN PRISON

This article focuses on alienation among prison guards by examining the nature of the work relations between guards and fellow guards, inmates, and prison administrators. Data for the project were derived from both questionnaire and interview sources. The independent effects of the three forms of work relations on five types of alienation were assessed through an examination of standardized regression coefficients estimated from a fully recursive model of the variable relationships. We found that negative evaluations of work relations resulted in increased levels of alienation experienced by guards.     

The Northern Ireland Peace Process in an Age of Austerity

The steady drip of dissident Republican attacks forms the backdrop to this special issue of Political Quarterly. Moreover, this comes at a time of economic austerity, when Northern Ireland faces unprecedented cuts to its public sector‐dominated economy. The economic crisis in the South adds an additional layer of uncertainty to the picture. In the past, economic deprivation has been associated with conflict in Northern Ireland and elsewhere. Might the peace dividend and constitutional settlement which have underpinned the Northern Ireland ‘miracle’ since 1994 be under threat? Or is there now sufficient momentum in both of Northern Ireland's main ethnic communities that such an outcome can be safely averted? This paper summarises the thinking of our symposium and special issue on this topic, updating our picture of the Northern Ireland peace process.     

Collage of Comment

Is Internet freedom an absolute, universal value like freedom of speech? If there are limits, how and by whom can they be established? Is crying fire or scaling firewalls anymore acceptable in cyberspace than in physical space? What is the impact on the discourse between nations, cultures and individuals? In this section, we gather a collage of comments from various key players from Google to Wikileaks to the US State Department along with comments by one of the most cogent analysts of the Net and the president of Turkey.     

REASSESSING THE BREADTH OF THE PROTECTIVE BENEFIT OF IMMIGRANT NEIGHBORHOODS: A MULTILEVEL ANALYSIS OF VIOLENCE RISK BY RACE,ETHNICITY, AND LABOR MARKET STRATIFICATION*

Researchers in the United States have increasingly recognized that immigration reduces crime, but it remains unresolved whether this applies to people of different racial–ethnic and economic backgrounds. By using the 2008–2012 area‐identified National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), we evaluate the effect of neighborhood immigrant concentration on individual violence risk across race/ethnicity and labor market stratification factors in areas with different histories of immigration. The results of our analysis reveal three key patterns. First, we find a consistent protective role of immigrant concentration that is not weakened by low education, low income, unemployment, or labor market competition. Therefore, even economically disadvantaged people enjoy the crime‐reduction benefit of immigration. Second, we find support for threshold models that predict a nonlinear, stronger protective role of immigrant concentration on violence at higher levels of immigrant concentration. The protective function of immigration also is higher in areas of longer histories of immigration. Third, compared with Blacks and Whites, Latinos receive a greater violence‐reduction benefit of immigrant concentration possibly because they live in closer proximity with immigrants and share common sociocultural features. Nevertheless, immigrant concentration yields a diminishing return in reducing Latino victimization as immigrants approach a near‐majority of neighborhood residents. The implications of these results are discussed.     

Trust,Civic Engagement,and the Internet

Does the Internet promote or impede social connections and trust? Using surveys from the Pew Center for the Internet and American Life, I show that Internet users are not social isolates. They tend to have slightly wider social circles than nonusers, but their Internet communications are largely with people they know. Consequently, it is hardly surprising that Internet users are no more trusting of strangers (but not less trusting either) than nonusers. However, trusting people are more likely to believe that they have little to fear from the Internet. They are more open to shopping on the Internet and are less likely to believe that their privacy will be violated on the Web; they are also less likely to use a false identity on the Web. The social connections that people make on the Internet do not promote trust--indeed, there is some evidence that chat rooms may bring together mistrusting people.