The Determinants of Racial Disparities in Perceived Job Insecurity: A Test of Three Perspectives

Why do African Americans report higher levels of perceived job insecurity than whites? We analyze data from the 1996 and 1998 General Social Survey to test alternative predictions from the compositional, inclusive‐discrimination, and dispositional perspectives concerning the sources of the racial gap in perceived insecurity. Results from ordered probit regressions provide most support for the inclusive‐discrimination perspective, which maintains that employment practices associated with “modern racial prejudice” induce perceived insecurity on a widespread and generalized basis among African Americans. Accordingly, compared to whites, African Americans experience perceived insecurity net of human capital credentials and job/labor market characteristics. Additional analyses provide one qualification to these findings: dynamics associated with the inclusive‐discrimination perspective are more pronounced in the private sector than the public sector.     

School context and American Indian substance use

The present study extends prior research exploring the role of school contextual factors in predicting individual adolescent substance use by examining how a school’s racial composition is associated with American Indian adolescent tobacco and marijuana use. Using a subsample of 523 American Indian students from the restricted use Add Health data, we consider both individual and school contextual factors across 99 schools. Our results suggest that a school’s racial composition is associated with individual tobacco and marijuana use among American Indian youth, but in different ways depending upon the substance. Our findings illustrate the importance of extending research on the correlates of substance use for racial and ethnic minorities beyond studies examining African-Americans and/or Hispanics.     

PUBLIC SCHOOL SEGREGATION AND JUVENILE VIOLENT CRIME ARRESTS IN METROPOLITAN AREAS

Previous research has established an association between residential segregation and violent crime in urban America. Our study examines whether school‐based segregation is predictive of arrests of juveniles for violent crimes in U.S. metro areas. Using Census, Uniform Crime Report, and Common Core data for 204 metro areas, a measure of school‐based racial segregation, Theil's entropy index, is decomposed into two components: between‐ and within‐district segregation. Findings reveal evidence of a significant interaction term: Within‐district segregation is inversely associated with arrests for juvenile violence, but only in metropolitan areas with higher than average levels of between‐district segregation.     

Implementing sociology in secondary schools

Using data from the National Educational Longitudinal Survey, I explore whether there are gender and race differences in the effects of participation in a variety of sports on achievement in four domains. While results suggest that selection accounts for some of the sports effects and perhaps gender differences found in prior research, the achievement benefits of playing other team sports (not softball or basketball) and individual sports appear to be greater and more consistent for white female participants than for others particularly in the three achievement domains (Mathematics, Science, and History) where females trail males in average test scores.     

Religious affiliation and beliefs about racial inequality: White college students’ attitudes about Black-White and Native American-White inequality

Is religious affiliation associated with attitudes about racial inequality? While prior research has explored the relationship between religion and attitudes about Black-White inequality, studies exploring attitudes towards Native Americans are rare. Our study is the first to explore the association between religion and attitudes about Native American-White inequality. We find that religious subcultural differences do exist as Catholics, Protestants, and those with no religious affiliation tend to use different explanations for racial inequality, although the relationship between religious affiliation and attitudes is similar regardless of whether African Americans or Native Americans are the target. We also find that across religious groups there is a greater tendency to use person-centered or individual explanations for Native American-White inequality and structural explanations for Black-White inequality. We argue that consistent findings for the association of religious affiliation and attitudes for different racial groups provide support for the presence of religion specific cultural toolkits.     

SPECIAL EDUCATION OR RACIAL SEGREGATION: Understanding Variation in the Representation of Black Students in Educable Mentally Handicapped Programs

The disproportionate representation of black students in special education programs has been well documented, yet explanations for the overrepresentation are rare. Using a unique sample of U.S. public school districts (N = 981), this article examines the effects of local racial and political-economic structures, school district characteristics, and school desegregation politics on the representation of black students in educable mentally handicapped (EMH) programs. The findings demonstrate that a minority presence in the school district and economic resources and black political resources in the community as well as various dimensions of school desegregation politics are associated with the representation of black students in EMH programs. This research provides further evidence that racial differences in educational placement are related to structures of opportunity in school districts and the communities they serve and that the placement process should be the focus of continued study.     

STRESS EXPOSURE, RACE, AND YOUNG ADULT MALE CRIME

A recent revision of strain theory, Robert Agnew's (1992) general strain theory (GST), has stimulated research testing its principles, central of which is the notion that exposure to stressors is positively associated with criminal behavior. The present research extends prior scholarship in three important ways: (1) assessing the role that race and ethnicity play in understanding the stress-crime relationship, (2) testing GST principles on an underexamined group of crime prone individuals (i.e., young adults), and (3) examining the stress-crime association with a substantially more comprehensive set of measures of stressors than prior evaluations. Central to our findings is the result that racial differences in criminal involvement are largely reducible to exposure differences, with blacks typically exposed to significantly more stressful events over their lifetimes than members of other racial/ethnic groups.     

The changing structure of school segregation: Measurement and evidence of multiracial metropolitan-area school segregation, 1989–1995

In this paper we examine aggregate patterns and trends in segregation among white (non-Hispanic), black, Hispanic, and Asian public school students in 217 metropolitan areas during the period 1989-1995. We first describe a set of methodological tools that enable us both to measure the mutual segregation among multiple racial groups and to partition total metropolitan-area school segregation into geographic and racial components. Then we use these tools to examine patterns and trends in metropolitan-area school segregation. We find that the average levels of multiracial school segregation have been unchanged from 1989 to 1995, but that this stability masks important shifts in the geographic and racial components making up average levels of total metropolitan school segregation. In particular, segregation between non-Hispanic white students and all other students has increased, on average, while segregation among black, Hispanic, and Asian student groups has declined. In addition, the contribution to average levels of total metropolitan segregation due to between-district segregation has grown, whereas the relative contribution of within-district segregation has declined.     

Quantitative models for optimal rest period scheduling

Mathematical and simulation models studying work-rest schedules in a production process are developed to arrive at an optimal rest policy to maximize work output per unit time. A CSMP simulation study is used to test the sensitivity of the results for different specific cases.