Economic Insecurity,Blame, and Punitive Attitudes

This study examines the relationship between punitive attitudes toward criminals, two measures of economic insecurity and a measure of blame for stagnating incomes that targets welfare, affirmative action, and immigration. In effect, we are testing whether punitiveness toward criminals is part of a general constellation of resentment toward what Gans (1995 Gans, H. J. 1995. The war against the poor, New York: Basic Books.  [Google Scholar]) has termed the “undeserving poor” and that Garland (2001 Garland, D. 2001. The culture of control, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) has described as the “politics of reaction.” Survey data involving 1,476 adults are assessed using OLS regression. Results indicate that blame of welfare, affirmative action, and immigration is the strongest predictor of punitiveness. Economic insecurity has variable input to punitive attitudes that depends on the measure used and the sex and race of respondents. Some evidence of an “angry White male” phenomenon is also provided by the results.     

Gang Membership,Drug Selling,and Violence in Neighborhood Context

A prominent perspective in the gang literature suggests that gang member involvement in drug selling does not necessarily increase violent behavior. In addition it is unclear from previous research whether neighborhood disadvantage strengthens that relationship. We address these issues by testing hypotheses regarding the confluence of neighborhood disadvantage, gang membership, drug selling, and violent behavior. A three‐level hierarchical model is estimated from the first five waves of the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, matched with block‐group characteristics from the 2000 U.S. Census. Results indicate that (1) gang members who sell drugs are significantly more violent than gang members that don’t sell drugs and drug sellers that don’t belong to gangs; (2) drug sellers that don’t belong to gangs and gang members who don’t sell drugs engage in comparable levels of violence; and (3) an increase in neighborhood disadvantaged intensifies the effect of gang membership on violence, especially among gang members that sell drugs.     

Strain,Crime, and Contingencies

Hypotheses from General Strain theory are addressed using data from a random sample of adults in Raleigh, NC. Analyses examine three issues: (1) whether strain predicts self‐projected criminal behavior; controlling for past self‐reported crime; (2) whether negative emotions mediate the relationship between strain and projected crime; and (3) whether social support and criminal peers serve as contingencies or mediators for strain in predicting criminality. Results are generally consistent with previous studies focusing on youth. Three of four measures of strain are found to predict the crime measures. However, that relationship is not mediated by negative emotion and the measures of social support and criminal peers do not act as contingencies or mediators. The results suggest that strain may not operate through negative emotions and that theoretical refinement is needed to identify which potential contingencies are likely to be operating under various circumstances.     

Local Social Ties and Willingness to Intervene: Textured Views Among Violent Urban Youth of Neighborhood Social Control Dynamics and Situations

Social control in urban neighborhoods has been studied for over a century in America, yet our understanding of the dynamic nature of social relations for exerting informal social control remains limited. The present study uses detailed reports from those most likely to be the target of local control efforts—violent youth in extremely disadvantaged urban locations—to re‐examine two features of this work: variations across different hypothetical scenarios widely used in this research, and connections between local ties and intervention type and likelihood in actual events. In‐depth qualitative interviews from 159 violent males aged 16–24 from two distressed New York City neighborhoods identify ways in which responses to commonly used scenarios of informal social control are age‐ and space‐graded. Reports on the transactional nature of social control in violent events show how local ties may undermine, rather than support, social control processes. It would appear that we need to consider more carefully general suggestions about local ties encouraging more informal social control, move to a more textured, multithreaded view of these connections, and incorporate age‐ and space‐graded dynamics into future studies of social control.     

Reentry and the Ties that Bind: An Examination of Social Ties,Employment, and Recidivism

Scholars consistently find that reentering offenders who obtain steady work and maintain social ties to family are less likely to recidivate. Some theorize that familial ties may operate through employment to influence recidivism and that such ties may also serve a moderating role. The current study employs an integrated conceptual framework in order to test hypotheses about the link between familial ties, post‐release employment, and recidivism. The findings suggest that family ties have implications for both recidivism and job attainment. In fact, the results suggest that good quality social ties may be particularly important for men with histories of frequent unemployment. The implications of these findings are discussed with regard to theory and future research on prisoner reentry and recidivism.     

新生代农民工犯罪生存空间之考察——以社会不公平竞争为视角

2010年2月1日,中央一号文件首次明确提出"新生代农民工"的概念,旨在当今现实条件下努力促进新生代农民工的市民化。改革开放至今,农民工已步入第二代,即"新生代农民工",他们在促进城市经济发展过程中发挥了重要作用,但新生代农民工犯罪问题也成了社会的顽疾。本文在研究这一群体特点、犯罪情况的基础上,从社会根源、社会原因以及个人因素等方面进行综合分析,在社会不公平竞争视角下对新生代农民工犯罪生存空间进行探索,研究不公平竞争与其犯罪的关联,以期发展三元协调促进的防控理论,并寻求消除不公平竞争机制,铲除新生代农民工犯罪土壤的对策。     

虚拟社会及其监督管理探析

虚拟社会是现实社会在网络中的反映。虚拟社会有别于现实社会的自身的运行特点给其管理带来了极大的挑战。对于虚拟社会的管理,可以将参与主体抽象为两类:组织和个人;可以采取有针对性措施分别加以监督、管理、引导,由此构建健康、文明、和谐的网络空间。     

社会管理创新与公共服务体系建设研究

目前,我国正处于＂黄金发展期＂与＂矛盾凸显期＂,如果不能很好地解决发展过程中积累的各类社会矛盾和问题,势必会严重阻碍经济社会的协调发展,因此,我们要加强和创新社会管理,加快政府对社会的管理由统治型行政向服务型行政转变。本文阐明并厘清了社会管理和公共服务的内涵及其二者的关系,分析了我国社会管理和公共服务的现状及存在的问题,并在此基础上提出了社会管理与创新公共服务体系建设的对策。     

转型时期党领导下的边疆地区社会管理方式创新研究——以广西河池基层党组织建设为例

本文在对我国边疆地区社会管理所面临的无限增长的基层公共服务需求,不断增加的流动人口和特殊群体数量,动态变化的社会管理新形势、新情况,人民群众深刻变化的思想观念和相对欠缺的少数领导干部的能力和素质等问题进行分析的基础上,对广西河池依托基层党组织建设探索出的转型时期边疆地区党领导下的社会管理方式创新进行了深层次的解读,旨在为边疆地区新时期社会管理创新工作提供理论和实践上的参考。     

试论社会管理创新中的企业社会责任

企业是社会管理的主体,在社会管理创新实践中能否有效发挥企业的基层基础作用直接关系到社会管理创新的成效,而企业履行社会责任是其充分发挥作用的关键。本文阐释了企业社会责任的内涵和国内外对企业社会责任认识的现状,分析了我国企业社会责任缺失的主要方面及成因,以此为基础,对我国企业在社会管理创新实践中如何履行社会责任提出相应的建议。