JUST ANOTHER CRIME? Examining Disparity in Homicide Sentencing

Analyses of disparity in sentencing most frequently use general felony court samples. Because of this, little is known about the specific patterns of sentencing disparity among defendants convicted of criminal homicide. Using a sample of defendants adjudicated guilty of homicide in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, over the period 1995–2000, this research seeks to describe and explain patterns of sentencing with reference to legal and extralegal defendant and case characteristics. The findings indicate that it is primarily legally relevant variables that influence sentencing outcomes in homicide cases; however, some evidence is found for case processing effects as well as for the operation of criminal stereotypes in the generation of sentence disparities. Implications of these findings for research designs and theory development are discussed.     

Risk and Resiliency Factors Among Adolescents Who Experience Marital Transitions

Using a resiliency framework, we examined familial and extrafamilial factors associated with adolescent well‐being in intact, blended, and divorced single‐parent families. Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted using a large sample of 7th‐, 9th‐, and 11th‐grade adolescents (N= 2,011) to test the moderating effect of peer support, school attachment, and neighbor support when parental support and monitoring were low. Significant two‐ and three‐way interactions were probed. Findings indicate that divorced and blended families have some of the same forms of resiliency as intact families. For adolescents in a divorced single‐parent family, peer support moderated the effect of low parental support on internalizing symptoms. We discuss the merits of examining divorce from a resiliency perspective.     

Solidary labour: its nature and marginalisation

This paper represents an attempt to analyse the labour involved in producing and reproducing caring relationships as a form of work. The term ‘solidary’or ‘love labour’is coined to differentiate this kind of work from other forms of human service work, domestic work and/or economic labour. We suggest that solidary labour cannot be understood as a structural necessity emanating from the political and economic requirements of the wider system. Yet, the latter approach has been the modal one in both structural functionalist and Marxist analyses of caring. Caring and being cared for involve the construction of symbolic bonds regardless of the economic context in which they are embedded. The sociological understanding of these, demands that we take account of the situated meaning of solidary relations and not merely reduce them to by products of structural forces. In the latter part of the paper we use time-budget studies and other surveys to show how solidary labour is being marginalised in our society. In particular, we argue that both domestic labour and productive material labour are in open competition with solidary labour for the use of time. Research to date would suggest that solidary labour is the loser in this competition.     

Public relations and fund-raising encroachment: Losing control in the non-profit sector

Although scholars have examined marketing encroachment on public relations in the for-profit sector, little research has been done on encroachment by fund raising in the nonprofit sector. This article documents fund-raising encroachment and theorizes about external and internal factors contributing to it. It concludes that role as a technician, perception of public relations as a secondary function, organizational turbulence, and dependency on private gifts lead to the takeover of the public relations department.     

Leaders as role models: Effects of leader presenteeism on employee presenteeism and sick leave

ABSTRACT

There is a broad consensus that associations exist between leadership behaviour and employee health. However, much less is known about potential mediating processes underlying links between specific leader behaviours, for instance presenteeism (i.e. working while being ill), and indicators of employee health, such as sick leave. Integrating theories of social information processing, social learning, and the allostatic load hypothesis, we propose that employee presenteeism mediates the positive association between leader presenteeism and employee sick leave. This hypothesis was tested with a multilevel mediation model using three-wave longitudinal data from 74 leaders and their 412 team members across a time period of 22 months. As hypothesised, leader presenteeism had a positive effect on employee presenteeism which, in turn, had a positive effect on employee sick leave, controlling for baseline measures of employee presenteeism and sick leave, as well as employee general health status, shared workload and job autonomy, and demographic characteristics. Additionally, leader presenteeism had a positive indirect effect on employee sick leave through employee presenteeism. These results contribute to the occupational health psychology literature by suggesting that leader health-related behaviour can have consequences for employee health-related behaviour and employee health.     

THE DISADVANTAGE OF A GOOD REPUTATION: Disney as a Target for Social Problems Claims

Social scientists generally presume that a good reputation has advantages. Yet the Walt Disney Corporation, a firm that has long benefited from a reputation for producing wholesome popular culture, attracts more than its share of efforts to link it to various social problems. In particular, conservative moralists argue that Disney in fact produces morally questionable products, progressive critics claim that Disney's messages help preserve social inequities, and social scientists criticize Disney for fostering inauthentic and alienating entertainment. These claims are a form of blowback—negative reactions to the firm's positive reputation. While blowback makes it easier to construct social problems claims, a good reputation remains a significant resource in deflecting these criticisms.     

‘Social control of the self’ and pleading guilty in criminal court

In Donald Black's 1994 work The Social Structure of Right and Wrong, he introduces the intriguing concept of the self-application of social control. According to Black, the ‘social control of the self’ follows the same principles of the behavior of law. Conceptualizing a guilty plea as a self-application of social control, this study of 717 homicide cases processed in an urban American court represents the first empirical test of this theory. Support for Black's theoretical perspective was mixed, with only the predictions regarding the effects of social morphology on the self-application of social control finding support. Defendants who were less socially integrated than their victims were significantly more likely to plead guilty when compared to other case configurations. When relational distance between parties was low, the case was significantly less likely to be resolved with the self-application of social control in the form of a guilty plea. The importance of Black's perspective for elucidating the theoretical linkages between social structure and individual behavior is considered.