On the Assimilation of Racial Stereotypes among Black Canadian Young Offenders*

Les auteurs de 1'article se penchent sur l'assimilation et la répétition des stéréotypes raciaux chez les Noirs canadiens en analysant des interviews semi‐dirigées réalisées auprès de huit Noirs ou répondants de race mixte déclarés jeunes contrevenants. Dans leur enquête, ils tentent surtout de déterminer si cette assimilation peut être observée dans le discours des interviewés et jusqu'à quel point. Ils examinent de plus si le concept de soi des répondants entraîne Incorporation d'un profil de « criminel » a leur identité de Noir. Utilisant la construction sociale, les théories postcoloniales et de la transmission culturelle pour étayer cette analyse, les interviews sont examinées pour déterminer si les opinions stéréotypées sur les Noirs sont constitutives de la vision qu'ils ont d'euxmêmes et jusqu'à quel point. Les conclusions de l'étude semblent indiquer que les personnes ayant participéà cette étude‐ci non seulement reconnaissent de tels stéréotypes, mais également les adoptent et les font leurs. This paper investigates the assimilation and iteration of racial stereotypes among Black Canadians by inspecting open‐ended interviews with eight Black or mixed‐race respondents who are adjudicated young offenders. The focus of this investigation is on whether, and to what extent, this assimilation can be observed in interviewees' discourse and, moreover, whether the speakers' self‐concepts entail their incorporation of “criminal” as an aspect of Black identity. Using social construction, post‐colonial and cultural transmission theories to inform this analysis, interviews are inspected to determine whether and to what extent stereotypical views of Black persons are constitutive of the subjects' views of themselves. Findings suggest not only that the persons under study here recognize such stereotypes, but also that they adopt and embrace them.     

Social Status and the Application of Sanctions to Hypothetical Criminal Offenders

Abstract

Responses to hypothetical episodes of criminal acts from 523 adult respondents were used to test the proposition that persons react to criminal offenders and victims partially on the basis of class identification. Specifically, we hypothesized that persons would tend to recommend greater degrees of punishment to offenders who occupied class positions different from themselves and to offenders whose victims were similar to themselves. The data did not support the hypotheses.     

Young Adult Predictors and Midlife Outcomes of Male Fine Art Careers

The fine artist is often characterized as atypical and as one who persists with an unconventional lifestyle and career pattern because of the satisfaction derived from creating. To persevere with such an unconventional pattern over an extended period requires an unusual person. Can such a person be identified before he or she experiences this career pattern? The current study followed a group of male fine and applied artists over an 18-year period and identified the young adult and midlife variables that differentiated the two groups. Results indicate that men in stereotypical fine art careers (labeled fluid careers) are more talented, inner-focused, and less materialistic as young adults than their peers. By midlife, such fine artists also have significantly lower socioeconomic status than those in stable applied art careers, yet are equally satisfied with their lives. The results suggest that men who experience a fluid, fine-art career are intrinsically oriented.     

Race Differences in Criminal Sentencing*

Race differences in criminal court sentencing outcomes have been of long-standing interest to sociologists. The findings about this topic are conflicting. Among the several explanations offered for the contradictory findings are that studies used old data, emphasized capital offenses, and lacked proper controls and statistical procedures. We present an analysis which corrects some of the problems of earlier studies. Race differences in sentencing outcomes are substantial in these data. We also present some evidence suggesting that when race differences occur, they may originate in the early stages of the sentencing process.     

Gender and Achievement: The Early Careers of College Graduates

Abstract

NORC longitudinal data on a national sample of 1961 college graduates are analyzed to determine gender main and interaction effects in a model of educational, occupational and income achievement among employed graduates. The results indicate that (1) there is a direct female disadvantage in educational and income achievement but gender comparability in occupational prestige; (2) in general, grades are no more important than gender of student as a determinant of achievement; and (3) for men more than women; high freshman prestige expectations result in high undergraduate grades; high grades translate into high senior prestige expectations; and graduate school enrollment results in degree attainment.     

Trauma,World Assumptions,and Coping Resources among Youthful Offenders: Social Work,Mental Health,and Criminal Justice Implications

The purpose of this study was to contribute to the extant literature by examining the relationship of traumatic and stressful life experiences among youthful offenders aged 18–24 years old. The sample included 38 youthful offenders incarcerated in the New Jersey Department of Corrections in 2008. During in-person interviews, youthful offenders completed a survey that gathered information on cumulative trauma, world assumptions, and coping resources using the Stressful Life Experiences Screening Inventory-Long Form, World Assumption Scale, and Coping Resources Inventory. A series of OLS regression analyses revealed partial support for the study hypotheses that cumulative trauma is significantly and negatively associated to youthful offenders’ basic world assumptions about the world having meaning. Opposite of what was expected, it was found that cumulative trauma was significantly and positively associated with spiritual coping resources among youthful offenders. These findings have important implications for developing and improving interdisciplinary and multi-level trauma assessment and intervention strategies with youthful offenders.     

Radical/Critical Social Work with Young Offenders: Challenges and Possibilities

In the UK, particularly in England, youth crime is perceived as a serious social problem, which is always near the top of the political agenda. Since the early 1990s, ‘populist punitiveness’ (Bottoms, 1995), amounting to varying degrees of punishment and control, has been key for addressing the problem. This culminated in New Labour's flagship Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and thereafter increasing concern with anti-social behaviour. The Conservative-led coalition is continuing in this vein. It is a ‘get tough’ approach in which the role of social work has been sidelined. In this article, I argue that such an approach is counterproductive as evidenced by the riots of August 2011 in London and other major cities. Rather than notions of punishment and control being to the fore, attention should be paid to the social and economic conditions that shape young people's lives and behaviour. For social workers, this involves relationship building with young offenders and their families and this is where a radical/critical work practice comes in. It is an emancipatory practice, which resists the neoliberal present and has some vision of a more socially just and equal future world.     

Life Cycle Changes and Criminal Propensity*

The relationship between age and self-reported propensity toward criminal behavior is investigated among a large survey sample, and an attempt is made to explain the observed variations. Results indicate a clear negative relationship between age and criminal propensity which is in part attributed to generational differences and partly to life cycle changes. Efforts to account for the association show this relationship to be exceptionally stable and resistant to explanation. Nevertheless analysis suggests complex interactions among several variables as the appropriate explanation.     

Socio-Economic Heterogeneity in New England Metropolitan Residential Areas*

Au sein de certaines agglomérations urbaines de la Nouvelle-Angleterre, l'auteur compare les caractéristiques socioeconomiques de la population de la ville par rapport à celle de la banlleue. Chaque ensemble urbain choisi est défini selon les critères établish pour le recensement des agglomérations importantes, dites metropolitan , et les unités de recensement sont perçues comme formant des communautés pour fins de résidence ou de voisinage. Les statistiques officielles publicées constituent les données soumises ä l'analyse. Des comparaisons entre les populations des villes et de leurs banlieues aux Etats-Unis ont amené les autéurs de recherches antérieures à souligner le caractère différent des populations de la périphérie et du centre, distinction selon laquelle les habitants des banlieues seraient de classe moyenne et ceux de la ville seraient de classe ouvrière. L'image créëe vient, en partie, de la prépondérance des recherches faltes dans les agglomérations les plus considérables. La prësente étude, qui porte sur de petites et de moyennes agglomérations, montre des ressemblances aussi bien que des différences entre la population vivant en ville et celle vivant en banlieue.     

The Relationship of Problem Gambling to Criminal Behavior in a Sample of Canadian Male Federal Offenders

This article examines the prevalence of moderate and severe problem gambling in a sample of 254 incarcerated Canadian male federal offenders (completion rate of 39.0%). The prevalence of disordered gambling was measured using the PGSI, DSM-IV-TR, and SOGS that yielded estimates of 9.4%, 6.3%, and 13.0%, respectively. Severe problem gamblers were significantly more likely to have committed income producing offences, but were neither more nor less likely than other offenders to have committed violent offences. The majority of severe problem gamblers (65.2%) and a fifth of the moderate problem gamblers (20.0%) reported that their criminal activity was a result of their gambling (e.g., to pay off debts). Based on these findings there appears to be a need to offer problem gambling treatment services to offenders in order to help them break the cycle of gambling, debt and crime.     

Physical Abuse in Early Childhood and Transition to First Sexual Intercourse among Youth in Cape Town,South Africa

This study examined the relationship of physical abuse in early childhood and timing of first sexual intercourse among young South Africans aged 14 to 22 in Cape Town. Using the Cape Area Panel Survey and applying log-normal models, time ratios were estimated to show how rapidly or slowly youth experience first sexual intercourse. Results indicated that boys who experienced physical abuse in early childhood had faster timing to first sex. Boys and girls with violent school environments had faster timing to first sex. Race moderated the effects of physical abuse. Compared to Blacks, Coloreds who experienced higher levels of physical abuse in early childhood had faster timing to first sex. Youth with greater knowledge about HIV/AIDS and those with greater risk perception of contracting HIV/AIDS delayed first sex. On the basis of these findings, policy makers are encouraged to consider the early childhood experiences of youth when designing policies toward HIV/AIDS prevention in South Africa.     

Status Transition of Blacks and Whites in American Suburbs*

Ecological models of black and white suburban socioeconomic status persistence/change are explicated and evaluated utilizing data for 505 American suburbs for which status data were available. It was found that black and white status characteristics persist but the determinants of status change differed somewhat for each group. White status change was related to suburban age and region, while black status change was related to suburban percent black and age.     

Perspectives of Young People in Care About their School-to-Work Transition

Abstract

Achieving in education and employment has long-term effects on quality of life. With below-average levels of educational attainment, many young people in care are ill-equipped for the transition from school to further education and work. This paper presents findings from a qualitative study that explored the school to work transition experiences of young people currently or previously in care, and their ideas about future employment. A range of personal and contextual factors that influence study and work goals were identified. Young people spoke about the importance of personal confidence and determination, supportive relationships, someone to believe in them and encourage them, opportunities to pursue their goals, avenues to gain information about how to get desired jobs, positive school experiences, and the need for stability in their lives. The study suggests widening the agenda for case planning, transition from care and after-care support, to include career planning and vocational assistance.     

Character Contests and Violent Criminal Conduct: A Critique*

Goffman's theory of violent criminal behavior, which is based upon the complementary notions of “character contest” and “stake in conventional institutions,” is relatively unique in that it makes problematic both the violent criminal act and actor. However, the explanation Goffman's work provides is inadequate for three major reasons. First, mutual consent among the conflicting parties to use violence to settle their dispute rarely occurs in violent criminal acts. Secondly, the meanings with which most violent criminal acts are imbued are different from that of a character contest. Finally, violent people cannot be distinguished from non-violent ones merely on the basis of whether or not they have a stake in conformity. Thus, a more accurate and adequate theory of violent criminal behavior which takes into account both the nature of the violent criminal act and actor is needed. The outlines of such a theory are briefly described.     

The Fertility Transition and Family Urban Income Distribution in Colombia*

This paper examines the effect of social and demographic changes on family income distribution in the largest Colombian cities between 1967 and 1968 and 1984 and 1985, two periods representing the conditions before and after Colombia's sharp fertility decline. The results indicate that urban family income distribution worsened between the two periods, when income shares from the middle-income groups declined while those received by the richest 10 percent increased and the shares received by the poorest 50 percent were unchanged. A decomposition of the Theil index revealed that the deterioration in urban family income inequality could be traced to groups whose representation in the population increased, namely: households with more educated heads, with working wives, with smaller families, and with fewer children.     

Socioeconomic Status and Early Adolescent Self-Esteem*

This study is a replication of a recent assessment of the relationship between social class and self-esteem, and the variables that intervene on this relationship. The purpose is to replicate the methods used to explore further this relationship by attempting to replicate the findings reported by Demo and Savin-Williams (1983) in another population. Only one of the four hypotheses tested received support thereby indirectly supporting the null relationship theory of no relationship between socioeconomic status and self-esteem. Implications of the findings also are addressed.     

Culture and Co‐residence: An Exploration of Variation in Home‐Returning among Canadian Young Adults*

Cet article s'inscrit dans la lignée des études sur les dimensions culturelles de la cohabitation entre générations en examinant de près le comportement des jeunes adultes canadiens qui retournent vivre chez leurs parents. Nous explorons les rapports mutuels entre la famille et la diversité culturelle, entre le capital financier et le capital social, et entre le rythme et les mécanismes de transitions précoces qui se manifestent au cours d'une vie. Les modéles de hasards proportionnels sont appliqués à un sous‐échantillon de 2 549 jeunes adultes, àgés de 19 á 34 ans, en tenant compte des données de l'Enquete sociale générale, cycle 10, de 1995. L'une des principales conclusions tirées ici indique que les jeunes qui sont de langue maternelle anglaise sont beaucoup plus susceptibles de retourner chez leurs parents après un premier départ que ceux dont la langue maternelle est le français ou une autre langue. Les autres variables qui entrent en jeu sont le niveau d'education du père, le nombre de frères et de soeurs, le sexe, l'âge au moment du depart de la maison et la raison de ce départ. L'article aborde aussi les questions des responsabilités et des rôles des parents autour de la cinquantaine, et de la socialisation au sein de la famille au cours de la vie. This article offers a focussed examination of variation in home‐returning behaviour among Canadian young adults. Framed within the life course perspective, we explore the interrelationships among family and cultural diversity, financial and social capital, and the timing and pathways of early transitions. Proportional hazards analyses are performed on a subsample of 2,549 young adults aged 19–34, using data from the 1995 General Social Survey, Cycle 10. A major finding is that those whose mother tongue is English are significantly more likely to return to the parental home than those with French or “other” mother tongues. Other variables include: father's education, number of siblings, gender, age at home‐leaving, and initial reason for home‐leaving. Implications for midlife parental roles and responsibilities, and for family socialization are discussed.