Racial Residential Segregation and Social Control: A Panel Study of the Variation in Police Strength Across U.S Cities, 1980–2010

Despite a great deal of theoretical and empirical attention given to racial residential segregation and its influence on a number of social problems in the United States, few scholars have examined the role that this persistent form of racial inequality plays in shaping the magnitude of formal social control efforts. Our study examines this relationship by assessing the potential influence that the isolation of minorities may have on efforts to control crime in urban centers across the United States. Using a pooled time-series regression technique well suited for the analysis of aggregate, longitudinal data, we assess the potential influence of racial segregation on the size of municipal police departments in 170 U.S. cities between 1980 and 2010. After accounting for minority group size, economic threat, crime, and disorganization, we find that racial residential segregation has a significant non-linear effect on police force size. Cities with the most racially integrated populations have the smallest police presence but at very high levels of segregation, police strength levels off. This finding is consistent with expectations derived from the contact hypothesis. Under such conditions, majority group members appear to be less inclined to demand greater crime control measures such as increased police protection. Period interactions with residential segregation also suggest that this relationship has grown stronger in each decade since 1980. Overall, our study provides strong support for threat theories and the contact hypothesis but offers necessary refinements.     

Perceptions of Injustice in the Chinese Countryside

Concepts associated with theories of relative deprivation and distributive injustice are used to examine beliefs about overprivilege and underprivilege in the Chinese countryside. The data consist of interviews conducted with a probability sample of villagers residing in four counties. Open-ended questions were used to ascertain the magnitude and nature of felt injustices. Local officials are widely seen as unfairly advantaged and common people as widely disadvantaged, results that depart from those observed in western studies. The presence of personal problems and contextual features influence beliefs about local injustice. Even after controlling for other powerful predictors, perceptions of injustice continue to have a positive impact on local political activity. These results are interpreted in terms of the spheres and standards of justice and the relationship between distributive and procedural justice.     

Leading learning and change from the middle: Reconceptualising strategy's purpose,content, and measures

When implementing a transformational global vision and mission, three problems typically confront international NGOs: aligning different levels of planning and strategy; balancing global analysis and priorities against local realities; and identifying measures that both indicate progress and promote and encourage innovation. This article reports on the efforts of CARE International's Latin America Regional Management Unit to address these problems by introducing 'reversals' to common strategic planning principles and processes. It shows middle managers in NGOs how they can lead 'from the middle', and considers 'the region' to be the nexus enabling an organisation to change and learn across multiple hierarchical levels.     

Book review

Book Review: Andrei Markovits and Philip Gorski, The German Left: Red, Green and Beyond (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993).