Racial Diversity and Change in Metropolitan Neighborhoods

This study investigates the changing racial diversity and structure of metropolitan neighborhoods. We consider three alternative perspectives about localized racial change: that neighborhoods are bifurcating along a white/nonwhite color line, fragmenting into homogeneous enclaves, or integrating white, black, Latino, and Asian residents into diverse residential environments. To assess hypotheses drawn from these perspectives, we develop a hybrid methodology (incorporating the entropy index and majority-rule criteria) that offers advantages over previous typological efforts. Our analysis of 1990-2000 census tract data for the 100 largest US metropolitan areas finds that most neighborhoods are becoming more diverse and that members of all groups have experienced increasing exposure to neighborhood diversity. However, white populations tend to diminish rapidly in the presence of multiple minority groups and there has been concomitant white growth in low-diversity neighborhoods. Latino population dynamics have emerged as a primary force driving neighborhood change in a multi-group context.     

Role of the Black Grandmother in the Racial Socialization of their Biracial Grandchildren

The current study was conducted with seven Black grandmothers who have a biracial (Black and White) grandchild or grandchildren examining their role in the racial socialization process of their grandchild or grandchildren. Racial socialization is defined as how these grandchildren of biracial parentage came to understand their blackness. The following criteria had to be met; born before 1975 as this would ensure the grandmothers experienced the 70s. Black pride movement and they need to have contact with the identified grandchild. Qualitative methods with a phenomenological lens were used. The results revealed the perspective and methods they exercised in racially socializing their biracial grandchildren fell into eight themes. The themes that emerged were community influence, spirituality, social adjustment, feelings toward “the other,” social perception, cultural indoctrination, grandma’s burden, and the road ahead. Although each grandmother had a different journey and the “why” behind viewpoints varied, their conclusion regarding the proper racial socialization of their biracial grandchildren was to socialize them, as Black was unanimous.     

The geographic scale of Metropolitan racial segregation

This article addresses an aspect of racial residential segregation that has been largely ignored in prior work: the issue of geographic scale. In some metropolitan areas, racial groups are segregated over large regions, with predominately white regions, predominately black regions, and so on, whereas in other areas, the separation of racial groups occurs over much shorter distances. Here we develop an approach—featuring the segregation profile and the corresponding macro/micro segregation ratio—that offers a scale-sensitive alternative to standard methodological practice for describing segregation. Using this approach, we measure and describe the geographic scale of racial segregation in the 40 largest U.S. metropolitan areas in 2000. We find considerable heterogeneity in the geographic scale of segregation patterns across both metropolitan areas and racial groups, a heterogeneity that is not evident using conventional “aspatial” segregation measures. Moreover, because the geographic scale of segregation is only modestly correlated with the level of segregation in our sample, we argue that geographic scale represents a distinct dimension of residential segregation. We conclude with a brief discussion of the implications of our findings for investigating the patterns, causes, and consequences of residential segregation at different geographic scales.     

‘Poor prison flowers’: convict mothers and their children in Ireland, 1853–1900

Pregnant women and mothers were among the thousands of individuals who were sentenced to at least three years’ penal servitude and admitted to the nineteenth-century Irish female convict prison. While some babies were born behind bars, others were permitted to accompany their convicted mothers into the prison after the penal practice of transportation had ceased. Other dependent children were separated from their convicted mothers for years, cared for by family members or friends, or accommodated in Ireland’s growing web of institutions. Using individual case studies, this article focuses on convict mothers and their young offspring. It draws attention to the increasing restrictions on the admission of infants that were imposed as the nineteenth century progressed, the problems that children of various ages in the penal system seemed to pose for officials, and the difficulties faced by incarcerated mothers who wished to maintain communication with their offspring. This article argues that while there were benefits to parenting within the confines of the prison, sentences of penal servitude had a significant impact on the lives of dependent offspring by dislocating families, separating siblings, or initiating institutional or other care that broke familial bonds permanently. In so doing, the article reveals attitudes towards motherhood as well as female criminality and institutionalization generally during this period and sheds light on an aspect of convict life unique to the women’s prison.     

Reclaiming Futures: Using communication to drive community and systems change

Reclaiming Futures is a national juvenile justice reform initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. During its 11 years of demonstration and expansion phases, Reclaiming Futures has used a variety of communications strategies, tools, and techniques to achieve its objectives. This paper describes the literature relevant to contemporary use of communications tools to achieve social change, and presents a brief history of how communications contributed to the development of Reclaiming Futures and how communications strategies were implemented at key points. A focus on communication principles and tools in practical terms is highlighted, including strategies for empowering project leaders to be effective messengers and for conducting outreach to community members, professional stakeholders, and elected officials, as well as examples of creative projects developed to advance program goals. Use of techniques such as branding, messaging, and integration of social media are also presented. Implications for other system change efforts are explored.     

The Relation Between Peer Victimization and Adolescents' Well‐Being: The Moderating Role of Ethnicity Within Context

This study examined the moderating effects of individual ethnicity and school ethnic composition on the relation between peer victimization and adolescents' well‐being. Participants were 4,593 sixth grade students attending 36 schools categorized as ethnically diverse or predominantly African American, European American, or Latino American. Multilevel models revealed relations between participants' ethnicity and their reported frequency of overt but not relational victimization. Findings did not support the hypothesis that adolescents in the minority group in their school would be more frequently victimized than adolescents in the majority group. Furthermore, contrary to hypothesis, the relation between the reported frequency of victimization and well‐being did not vary as a function of the interaction between adolescents' ethnicity and their schools' ethnic composition.