Racial Disparities in Early Criminal Justice Involvement

Criminologists have long reported the existence of racial disparity in the criminal justice system, but the important question is why. While some argue that observed differences are a consequence of more criminal behavior among minorities, the weight of the evidence indicates that this is but a partial explanation. In this paper, we study data from a sample of juveniles to examine how racial differences in early police contact, and important social environments—family, school, and neighborhoods—affect later contact and arrests, controlling for self-reported delinquency. We find that early (in middle school) contact with police is an important predictor of later (high school) arrests. Also we found that, in addition to being male and living in a low-income family, children who have parents who have a history of arrest, who have experienced school disciplinary actions, who have delinquent peers, and who are in networks with deviant adults are more likely to have problems with law enforcement. These factors help to explain racial differences in police contacts and arrests.     

The Mental Health Advantage of Immigrant‐Background Youth: The Role of Family Factors

Children of immigrant background, despite problems with acculturation, poverty, and discrimination, have better mental health than children of native parents. We asked whether this is a result of immigrant families' characteristics such as family structure and relations. Using a new comparative study on the integration of immigrant‐background youth conducted in England, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden (N = 18,716), particularly strong associations with mental health (internalizing and externalizing problems) were found for family structure, family cohesion, and parental warmth. Overall, half of the advantage in internalizing and externalizing problems among immigrant‐background youth could be accounted for by our measures of family structure and family relations, with family cohesion being particularly important.     

Does Viewing Pornography Diminish Religiosity Over Time? Evidence From Two-Wave Panel Data

Research consistently shows a negative association between religiosity and viewing pornography. While scholars typically assume that greater religiosity leads to less frequent pornography use, none have empirically examined whether the reverse could be true: that greater pornography use may lead to lower levels of religiosity over time. I tested for this possibility using two waves of the nationally representative Portraits of American Life Study (PALS). Persons who viewed pornography at all at Wave 1 reported more religious doubt, lower religious salience, and lower prayer frequency at Wave 2 compared to those who never viewed porn. Considering the effect of porn-viewing frequency, viewing porn more often at Wave 1 corresponded to increases in religious doubt and declining religious salience at Wave 2. However, the effect of earlier pornography use on later religious service attendance and prayer was curvilinear: Religious service attendance and prayer decline to a point and then increase at higher levels of pornography viewing. Testing for interactions revealed that all effects appear to hold regardless of gender. Findings suggest that viewing pornography may lead to declines in some dimensions of religiosity but at more extreme levels may actually stimulate, or at least be conducive to, greater religiosity along other dimensions.     

Familial Patterning and Prevalence of Male Androphilia in Samoa

Previous research established that male androphilia (i.e., sexual arousal and attraction to adult males) clusters in families. Some studies find that male androphilia clusters in both the paternal and maternal lines, while others find that it clusters only in the latter. Most of the research investigating the familial nature of male androphilia has taken place in Western cultural contexts that are problematic for such research because they are characterized by low fertility. To address this, our previous work has examined familial patterning of male androphilia in Samoa, a high-fertility population in which androphilic males are readily identified due to their public status as fa’afafine (a third gender category). Building on this work, the present study replicated the familial nature of male androphilia in Samoa using a sample size that was ~122% larger than the one we previously employed (N = 382, M ±SD age: 29.72 years ±10.16). Samoan fa’afafine had significantly more fa’afafine relatives in their maternal and paternal lines compared to Samoan gynephilic males (p < .001). The prevalence of male androphilia was equivalent across both the paternal and maternal lines (all p > .15). The revised prevalence estimate of male androphilia in Samoa falls between 0.61% and 3.51%.     

Municipal Law Enforcement Policy on Illegal Immigration Stops: Do Social Factors Determine How Aggressively Local Police Respond to Unauthorized Immigrants?

The devolution of immigration law has increased local police involvement in the enforcement of federal immigration law. But only some departments have responded by implementing policies that restrict their officers' involvement in order to protect residents from overzealous policing. We test theories of economic and ethnic threat to explore the structural characteristics of cities that explain this variation. Multiple regression results show that the most unequal cities that have large Hispanic populations are less likely to have a policy. Hispanic white segregation and high unemployment also reduce the likelihood of policy implementation. We discuss theoretical and policy implications.     

Generating Dynamic Democratic Discussions: An Analysis of Teaching With U.S. Presidential Debates

Researchers have found that when young people participate in discussions of controversial political issues, they often become more politically engaged and informed (Hess, 2009 Hess, Diana E. (2009). Controversy in the classroom: The democratic power of discussion. New York, NY: Routledge.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). Nonetheless, some educators avoid fostering such discussions because they can become heated and distract from academic learning (Hess, 2002 Hess, Diana E. (2002). Discussing controversial public issues in secondary social studies classrooms: Learning from skilled teachers. Theory &; Research in Social Education, 30(1), 10–41.[Taylor &; Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]). Presidential elections, including the highly publicized debates, provide substantial material for discussions of major national and international issues, but no published research has examined how educators can leverage these events to generate productive civic learning experiences. In this article, we analyze data collected in seven high school classrooms during the 2012 presidential election to examine the challenges and opportunities associated with generating substantive, dynamic discussions of presidential debates. Our findings indicate that students enjoyed learning about candidates' different perspectives and that certain strategies were especially helpful for fostering substantive discussions: (a) scaffolding students' preparation for discussion; (b) providing opportunities for students to address open-ended questions; (c) redirecting students' engagement in competitive, interpersonal dynamics to learning about public issues; and (d) countering students' partisan tendencies. We discuss implications for practice and research and present a conceptual framework for generating dynamic, substantive democratic discussions.     

Complexity: Some Remarks about a Classical Aesthetic Concept

The connection between autonomous art and complexity has been extensively and deeply studied in literary theories in the 20th century. The rise of aesthetic autonomy implies the complexity of literary work as the concept of a sealed container arises from the relationship between the parts that make it up. In this model, the interpretation subject works to directly face literary texts. Instead of pursuing the author’s intention, it aims to reproduce the richness and subtlety of the aesthetic state, and consider the richness and subtlety revealed in the maximum amount of text details in literary works, even if procedurally deviating from the way of mainstream understanding. There is increasing skepticism about the consequences of the autonomous aesthetics, which has been coerced by the development of contemporary capitalism, and it is necessary to develop new forms of aesthetics to reflect the changing social situation.     

Allais for the poor: Relations to ability,information processing,and risk attitudes

This paper complements evidence on the Allais paradox from advanced countries and educated people by a novel investigation in a poor rural area. The share of Allais-type behavior is indeed high and related to indicators of “lacking ability,” such as poor education, unemployment, and little financial sophistication. Based on prospective reference theory, we extend these characteristics by biased processing of probabilistic information. Finally, we reveal that Allais-type behavior is linked to risk-related characteristics, such as risk tolerance and optimism. This indicates a potential problem as exactly the more dynamic among the poor tend to make inconsistent decisions under uncertainty.