Crime, Politics, and Punishment: Criminological Research for Political Sociologists

Author's manuscript made available in accordance with the publisher's policy.As a sociologist studying the intersection of crime, punishment, and politics, it is often surprising to me how many aspects of political sociology and the study of crime and punishment overlap, and yet, there is often limited cross-fertilization of the two fields. For the sake of brevity in this discussion, I refer to those who study crime, deviance, law, criminal justice, and punishment as criminologists. My goal is to provide an extremely brief “primer” on criminology for political sociologists, in the hopes that a short reading of some issues and research in criminology may stimulate additional theorizing and research, as has so often happened when I have read political sociological work. To do this, I begin with a brief discussion of overlaps in political sociological and criminological perspectives. Following this, I highlight some examples of criminological research which incorporates politics, and would likely interest political sociologists, Then, I highlight a hot button issue in criminology – sex offenses – and suggest some ways that political sociologists could examine recent legislation on sex offenders and conclude with brief discussions of a few additional areas of overlap for the two disciplines

The Conditional Effects of Race and Politics on Social Control: Black Violent Crime Arrests in Large Cities, 1970 to 1990

Author's manuscript made available in accordance with the publisher's policy.Numerous studies of the determinants of formal social control of Blacks focus on racial threat arguments, which contain implicit or explicit political elements. Using insights from research on politics and social control more generally, this article argues that the relationship between variation in the racial composition of a city and social control of minorities will be conditional on characteristics of the local political system. Hypotheses are tested using pooled cross-sectional time-series data on 100 large U.S. cities in 1970, 1980, and 1990. Contrary to expectations, Black violent crime arrest rates are curvilinearly negatively associated with larger percentages of Black residents. As predicted, the relationship between the percentage of Black residents and Black violent crime arrest rates is conditional on city political system characteristics (elected mayors, district council elections, and partisan ballots), the race of the mayor, and the percentage of city council members who are Black

Local Politics and Violent Crime in U.S. Cites

Author's manuscript made available in accordance with the publisher's policy.Recent research has begun to examine the effects of politics on crime. However, few studies have considered how local political variation is likely to affect crime. Using insights from urban politics research, this paper develops and tests hypotheses regarding direct and conditional effects of local politics on violent crime in 958 cities in 1991. Results from negative binomial regression analyses show that violent crime rates vary by local political structures and the race of the mayor. In addition, the effects of structural factors such as poverty, unemployment, and female-headed households on violent crime depend on local form of government and the number of unreformed local governmental structures. Implications for systemic social disorganization and institutional anomie theories are discussed

Investigating Whether Contacting Absent Students Increases Course Success

Studies suggest that student attendance in college classes increases course success. Yet, surprisingly few studies have examined strategies to increase student attendance. The goal of the current study is to consider whether contacting consistently absent students increases success in an undergraduate research methods course. Results of this classroom action study suggest that students view contacts positively and a majority stated that they were more likely to attend class following the contact. In regression analyses, however, net of other factors such as prior grade point average, contacts did not predict final grade percentage and D/F rate comparisons to a prior semester without contacts showed modest but not statistically significant improvements. Implications are discussed

Land Use And Violent Crime

Author's manuscript made available in accordance with the publisher's policy.Although research has shown specific land uses to be related to crime, systematic investigation of land uses and violent crime has been less common. This study systematically examines links between land uses and violent crime and assesses whether such links are conditioned by socioeconomic disadvantage. We employ geocoded Uniform Crime Report (UCR) data from the Indianapolis police department and information on 30 categories of land use and demographic information from the 2000 U.S. Census. We use land use variables to predict violent crime counts in 1,000 × 1,000-feet grid cells using negative binomial regression models. Results indicate that, net of other variables, specific land uses predict variation in counts for individual violent crimes and aggregate rates. Some nonresidential land uses are associated with higher violent crime counts, whereas others are associated with lower counts. Specific land uses also condition the effects of socioeconomic disadvantage on violent crime. The implications for routine activity/opportunity and social disorganization/collective efficacy theories of crime are discussed

Further Tests of the Influence of Black Mayors on Murders of Police: A Response to Jacobs

Author's manuscript made available in accordance with the publisher's policy.In response to our reanalysis and extension of Jacobs and Carmichael (2002) in which we found no evidence of a Black mayor effect, Jacobs (this issue) critiques our article on theoretical and methodological grounds. Theoretically, Jacobs argues that we did not provide sufficient justification for the inclusion of the percentage of the city council that was Black. Methodological criticisms include failure to include a nonlinear specification of percent divorced, improper temporal ordering, and the inclusion of only a single regional dummy variable. In our rejoinder we clarify the theoretical importance of the percentage of the city council that was Black and we address each of Jacobs’ methodological concerns. In additional analyses, we again find that the effect of the Black mayor variable is not robust to model specification or data employed, which was the point of our original article

Reassessing Political Explanations for Murders of Police

Author's manuscript made available in accordance with the publisher's policy.The article discusses how Jacobs and Carmichael, drawing on the racial threat thesis, argue that the overrepresentation of Blacks among felons who murder police is in part explained by Blacks' conscious or unconscious responses to political subordination by the State. In testing this argument, Jacobs and Carmichael find that their key theoretical variable—the presence of a Black mayor—is inversely related to police homicides and injurious assaults across many model specifications. This article describes a limited reanalysis of Jacobs and Carmichael's homicide data and additional analyses with a larger sample of cities. The findings suggest that the significance of the Black mayor variable may have been an artifact of model specification. Instead, there is evidence that Black city council representation may be associated with reduced homicides of police by Blacks. Further research is needed, however, because of the limited explanatory power of the key factors highlighted in past research

Registered Sex Offenders and Reported Sex Offenses

Author's manuscript made available in accordance with the publisher's policy.Geographic restrictions on registered sex offenders (RSOs) have become commonplace. Such policies generally assume that sex offenses are likely to be higher near RSOs. Yet, few ecological studies have examined this question empirically. The current study examines whether incidences of reported sex offenses are higher in proximity to the addresses of RSOs. Specifically, we examine whether there is a relationship between the number of reported sex offenses and the number of RSOs living in square grid cells (and in 1,000, 1,500, and 2,500 ft radii of the cell centroid) in Indianapolis. Count models indicate that the number of RSOs in an area is not a robust predictor of reported sex offenses, net of controls

Exploring the Conditional Effects of Bus Stops on Crime

Author's manuscript made available in accordance with the publisher's policy.Public transportation is a major element of social life in most cities, and the most common mode of public transportation is busing. This study examines whether bus stops are a robust predictor of crime, net of other factors, and whether the effect of bus stops on crime is conditioned by socioeconomic and land use factors. We use geocoded Indianapolis crime and bus stop data for 2010 to predict crime counts in 500-feet × 500-feet square grid cells, using negative binomial models. Net of other factors, bus stops are associated with variation in counts of Uniform Crime Reports reported rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and larceny in a cell. In addition, the effect of bus stops on crime was conditioned by land use characteristics. In particular, the effect of bus stops on crime was greater in commercial and industrial areas, but dampened in areas with high-density residential housing