Department of Sociology

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A Neo-Marxian Critique, Formulation and Test of Juvenile Dispositions as a Function of Social Class
Carter, T.; Clelland, D. (University of California Press, 1979)
First, this research challenges the methodological adequacy of previous juvenile disposition studies, particularly their conceptualization and measure of social class. Second, a neo-Marxian theory of juvenile court dispositions is presented. This theory distinguishes between two offense patterns (traditional crimes against person and property and crimes against the moral order, status and victimless offenses) in terms of their relative impact on the social relations of production, subsequently revealing distinct disposition trends. Finally, a multivariate test of two propositions derived from this neo-Marxian theory is provided. The findings support the present neo-Marxian theory of juvenile disposition sentencing concerning the strength of greater social class discriminatory tendencies in the disposition of moral as opposed to traditional offenses.
Accounting for Occupational and Organizational Commitment: A Longitudinal Reexamination of Structural and Attitudinal Approaches
Snizek, William E.; Little, Robert E. (University of California Press, 1984)
Using longitudinal data collected from a subsample (N = 92) of subjects surveyed five years earlier by Shoemaker et al. (1977), the present study assesses the relative utility of two distinctly different approaches to the study of occupational and organizational commitment. The first is the structural investments or side-bet approach made famous by Becker (1960); the second, the attitudinal or social psychological perspective used by Ritzer and Trice (1969), among others. Based on regression analyses of data, for the two time periods studied and for changes across time, structural variables appear to be slightly better predictors of commitment than do attitudinal variables. Of particular note, however, are the changes in predictive power of each approach, relative to both occupational and organizational commitment, when comparing two distinct stages in the worker career of employees represented by the five-year span of the study.
Work Values, Job Characteristics, and Gender
Neil, C. C.; Snizek, William E. (University of California Press, 1987-07)
This study uses ordinal regression analysis to examine the impact of gender on work values, after controlling for various organizational variables. The analysis is based on a complete enumeration of women in a large Australian organization, together with "representative" and "matched" samples of male employees. When organizational variables are controlled, women are shown to place greater importance on working relations, men on salary, job status, and prestige in the community. Type of work has a significant impact on work values, as does the interaction of gender and type of work, thus supporting the argument that the array of occupations studied may be an important factor in explaining conflicting prior findings concerning the influence of gender on work values. While gender differences in some work values remain after a variety of organizational variables are considered, a model based on work experiences may still be appropriate for explaining such observed differences.
Gender Inequality and the Division of Household Labor in the United States and Sweden: A Socialist-Feminist Approach
Calasanti, Toni M.; Bailey, Carol A. (University of California Press, 1991-02)
In this paper, we offer a socialist-feminist framework for exploring the persistence of gender inequality in the division of household labor. The inconsistent results generated by the relative resources, gender-role ideology, and time-availability hypotheses speak to the need to examine the structural bases for power relations based on gender. Emphasizing the relative autonomy and interrelations of capitalism and patriarchy, socialist-feminism posits that different forms of patriarchal capitalism have varying effects on the division of household labor. (We thus examine the usefulness of this approach by exploring the relationships expressed in three traditional hypotheses about gender inequality and the performance of five household tasks in the United States and Sweden.) The results of our regression analyses indicate that previous perspectives do not adequately examine the power differential embodied in gender relations and that socialist-feminism may give us insights into why gender inequities in the home are maintained despite progressive legislation.
Household Crowding and Family Relations in Bangkok
Fuller, T. D.; Edwards, J. N.; Vorakitphokatorn, S.; Sermsri, S. (University of California Press, 1993-08)
Cities in developing countries are growing ever larger and more dense, fostering congested household environments. Using data from Bangkok, this paper examines the effect of household crowding on multiple measures of family relations, looking at the possible ''social costs.'' The data show that objective household crowding does increase marital instability and arguments, and parent-child tensions. Subjective household crowding affects not only these three aspects of family relations, but also results in more frequent disciplining of children. These effects are largely mediated by psychological stress. The paper rejects the argument that subjective crowding is an effect, rather than a cause, of marital and family relations, and shows little difference between wives' and husbands' reactions to crowding. The consequences of household crowding, generally found to be selective and modest in North America and Europe, are stronger in Bangkok, a city with crowded conditions more typical of less developed nations.
The 'Self-Animal' and Divine Digestion: Goat Sacrifice to the Goddess Kali in Bengal
Samanta, Suchitra (1994)
My paper explores the cultural meaning and central logic of the gift-offering of goats, pathabali. I elicit this meaning from the incantations in the rite of bali itself, my own observations on ritual action that follows it, as well as from myth and exegetical commentary. I propose that a specific and indigenous concept of the Hindu self, in relation to the divine, is central to understanding bali. My proposition is based on the premise that the Hindu conception of deity as Sakti is essentially different from that of Judea-Christian divinity. Where in the Western tradition God and man are perceived as two separate entities, the distinctions between sacrifier and Sakri are, as I will show, ambiguous. The meaning of sacrifice to Sakti has less to do with the personality of God than with the act itself, that which represents the relationship between divinity and sacrifier. Crucially, such an act involves the intent, the “self” of the sacrifier. Act, intent, and self are defined within a unique cultural configuration that bali, in act and exegesis, involves. Such an approach offers a different perspective from that of previous theories of sacrifice in anthropology, which drew largely from the Judea-Christian tradition (see also Das 1983; Hayley 1980; de Heusch 1985). I support my argument by presenting and discussing a theme that is dominant in the different types of discourse related to bali. This theme suggests a homology between the 'self' (jiva) of the sacrifier and the sacrificial animal (pasu), and the "consumption" of the "self-animal" by the goddess over many lifetimes until it achieves union with divinity and liberation (moksa).
Education and Women's 'Autonomy': An NGO's Efforts in a Calcutta Basti
Samanta, Suchitra (2001)
A community-based non-profit in a majority Muslim community in Kolkata, India, initiates several female education projects, Muslim girls' concepts of 'autonomy'
Dead-end days: The sacrifice of displaced workers on film
King, Neal M. (University of Illinois Press, 2004)
Drug Use in Middle School: Assessing Attitudinal and Behavioral Predictors
Hawdon, James E. (Oklahoma State University, Oklahoma Sociology Association, and Sociology Consortium of Oklahoma, 2004)
Generally speaking, theories of adolescent drug use emphasize either attitudinal variables, such as self-esteem or self-control, or behavioral variables, such as interactions with delinquent peers. This research uses variables such as self-esteem, impulsiveness, parental attachment, commitment to education, and peer drug use to predict adolescent substance usc. The analysis is conducted on a sample of 312 middle-school children from South Carolina. Results indicate that while attitudinal variables are important for predicting use, behavioral variables are superior predictors of adolescent drug use. Involvement in non-drug related crimes, associating with drug-using peers, and involvement in a recreational routine activity pattern, all behavioral variables, were the best predictors of adolescent drug use. Attachment was the best attitudinal predictor of drug use. This research implies that dynamic models are needed to adequately explain the variation in adolescent drug usc, Researchers and theorists are reminded that recreational drug use among adolescents is often a behavior that conforms to sub-group norms and not simply behavior that deviates from the dominant culture's norms.
The 'War on Terror' and Withdrawing American Charity: Some Consequences for Poor Muslim Women in Kolkata, India
Samanta, Suchitra (2004)
My paper discusses the apparent consequences of the American "war on terror" for a private American donor agency working in a largely Muslim slum area in Kolkata, and for the women who live there.
Education and Autonomy: Muslim Women as Effective Role Models in a Calcutta Basti
Samanta, Suchitra (2006)
Ageism and Feminism: From “Et Cetera” to Center
Calasanti, Toni M.; Slevin, Kathleen F.; King, Neal M. (Indiana University Press, 2006)
Although women’s studies scholars and activists do not deny the reality of ageism, they have relegated it to secondary status, neglecting to theorize age relations or place old age at the center of analysis. After explaining what we mean by age relations and their intersections with other inequalities, we discuss the ways in which old people are oppressed, and why age relations represent a political location that needs to be addressed in its own right. We then demonstrate ways in which feminist theories and activism might change if the focus shifted to old people.
Immobility and 'Unfreedom': Dowry's Violence in the Lives of Poor Indian Women
Samanta, Suchitra (2009)
The paper discusses the traditional Hindu custom of dowry in its modern manifestations, with a focus on case study in Calcutta. Dowry, once a custom of Hindu upper castes of India, has, especially since Independence (1947), become pervasive across all castes, classes and religious minorities today. In a cultural context where men are traditionally held in higher esteem than women, dowry (in cash, gold, and in kind) given by the bride's family to the groom’s, finds a pernicious niche in "modern" India. Where existing scholarship discusses the ongoing murder of young brides for dowry, there is little that comments on the violence that this custom perpetrates in terms of ill health, exhaustion, the threat of sexual violence, and mental anguish in the lives of poor women. Often single parents, these women work at menial jobs to pay for rent, and family expenses, as well as dowry for a daughter. The abuse of dowry has exacerbated the increasingly female face of poverty in India, and has added to the violence of poverty itself in women’s lives. Where nationalist and political rhetoric promotes mobility for its citizens, poor middle-aged women are effectively immobilized by having pay dowry, and "violated" economically, in health, and in hope.
Relationship Status, Health, and Health Behavior: An Examination of Cohabiters and Commuters
Fuller, T. D. (University of California Press, 2010)
A large amount of literature on relationship status, health, and health behavior indicates that marriage conveys health benefits. This literature, however, devotes relatively little attention to two theoretically interesting groups: unmarried cohabiters and married people who do not live with their spouse ("commuters"). The author hypothesizes that the health and health behaviors of these two groups will be intermediate between those of married people and unattached single individuals. Selective support is found for the hypothesis that the health behaviors of commuters are intermediate between those of married people and single people, but no support is found for the hypothesis that the health status of commuters is intermediate between that of married people and single people. Contrary to expectation, cohabiting persons tend to have poorer health status and health behavior than both their married and single counterparts. Also, while much previous research indicates that the health benefits of marriage are greater for men than women, the author finds that lacking a live-in partner (i.e., commuting or being single) appears to be more detrimental for women than men.
Gender, Bodies and Technology Conference 2010
(Virginia Tech, 2010-04)
A program for the conference, held April 22-24, 2010, at the historic Hotel Roanoke in Roanoke, Virginia. This conference showcased scholarship that explored the role of technologies, broadly defined, in constructing, reinforcing and destabilizing gendered bodies.
More Than "Getting Us Through:" A Case Study in Cultural Capital Enrichment of Underrepresented Minority Undergraduates.
Ovink, Sarah; Veazey, B. D. (2011)
Minority students continue to be underrepresented among those who seek graduate and professional degrees in the sciences. Much previous research has focused on academic preparation. Equally important, however, are the psychological-social barriers and lack of institutional support encountered by many minority students. We present a case study of a university-sponsored intervention program for minority science majors that addresses not only academics, but also socialization into the academic community, networking, and the ability to practice newfound skills and dispositions through undergraduate research. In examining this case, we suggest that concerted, formal efforts toward expanding habitus and thereby augmenting cultural and social capital may have positive effects for underrepresented minority (URM) college students' academic and career prospects. Moreover, we argue that these differences complement the gains program participants make in academic preparedness, showing that attention to academics alone may be insufficient for addressing longstanding inequities in science career attainment among URM students.
Actual Policing in Virtual Reality - A Cause of Moral Panic or a Justified Need?
Parti, Katalin (InTech Open, 2011-01-08)
This study aims to describe those aspects that qualify a form of behaviour as a crime in the virtual communities, these highly organised societies of the Internet. But the image of deviances may not be complete without entities watching over them. It is an interesting question, who could lay down and enforce virtual norms, if not the community itself. Today, organised crime, drug trafficking, money laundering, trafficking in human beings, and sexual exploitation of children are such focal issues of criminal law, whose prosecution does not stop at the boundaries of virtual communities, or the Internet. But what justification does the real world's jurisdiction have to intervene in the everyday life of independent virtual communities? If they have the right, who decides on the involvement of real authorities? What legal regulations does real-life law enforcement apply in a virtual space? Is there an appropriate response to crimes committed in the virtual world by real-life jurisdiction, and can different forms of virtual deviance be prevented with the tools of reallife crime prevention? These are the questions that I wish to answer in the followings.
Posttraumatic Stress Among Students After the Shootings at Virginia Tech
Hughes, Michael D.; Brymer, Melissa; Chiu, Wai Tat; Fairbank, John A.; Jones, Russell T.; Pynoos, Robert S.; Rothwell, Virginia; Steinberg, Alan M.; Kessler, Ronald C. (Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 2011-07-18)
On April 16, 2007, in the worst campus shooting incident in U.S. history, 49 students and faculty at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) were shot, of whom 32 were killed. A cross-sectional survey of 4,639 Virginia Tech students was carried out the following summer/fall to assess PTSD symptoms using the Trauma Screening Questionnaire (TSQ). High levels of posttraumatic stress symptoms (probable PTSD) were experienced by 15.4% of respondents 3 to 4 months following the shooting. Exposure to trauma-related stressors varied greatly, from 64.5% unable to confirm the safety of friends to 9.1% who had a close friend killed. Odds ratios for stressors predicting high levels of posttraumatic stress symptoms were highest for losses (2.6–3.6; injury/death of someone close) and inability to confirm the safety of friends (2.5). Stressor effects were unrelated to age, gender, and race/ethnicity. The exposures that explained most of the cases of high posttraumatic stress symptoms were inability to confirm the safety of friends (30.7%); death of a (not close) friend (20.3%); and death of a close friend (10.1%). The importance of high-prevalence low-impact stressors resulted in a low concentration of probable cases of PTSD, making it difficult to target a small, highly exposed segment of students for mental health treatment outreach. The high density of student social networks will likely make this low concentration of probable PTSD a common feature of future college mass trauma incidents, requiring broad-based outreach to find students needing mental health treatment interventions.
Sweet child in time: Online sexual abuse of children - A research exploration
Virág, György; Parti, Katalin (Bentham Open, 2011-12-16)
The ‘Budapest study’ conducted in 2009 focuses on the online activities and behaviour of teenagers studying in secondary schools in Budapest, Hungary. The range of risky behaviours includes chatting with strangers online, talking sex with strangers online, and having offline meeting with strangers encountered online. Offline meeting with strangers often led quickly to sexual intercourse. One of the striking outcomes of the research is that a significant proportion of teenagers who had already had a sexual relationship communicated the fact in conversations online. The research showed nevertheless, that “double moral standards”, responsible for a person’s danger-awareness during online communications, is more noticeable among Budapest pupils than among their peers from countries which joined the European Union in and before 2004. Budapest children tend to be more accepting when the stranger they meet online lies about his/her age and aims. They are seemingly less embarrassed when confronted by sexual material online or when someone initiates indecent talk with them. Young people in countries that joined the European Union in and after 2004 are supported less by adults when it comes to issues of online risks. On average, their schools have less awareness-raising, parents are less dangeraware, and they use fewer protective devices at home. This may lead to the fact that Budapest pupils do not usually turn to their parents when confronted by embarrassing online material or requests. This paper includes the core data on Budapest youngsters’ habits in using the Internet, particularly regarding the issue of facing ‘dangerous’ content. However, it is to be noted that the definition of ‘dangerous or risky online behaviour or content’ as adult society addresses it is quite different from how children think of it. When developing any educational program on digital literacy, this should be taken into consideration.
Applying differential association theory to online hate groups: a theoretical statement
Hawdon, James E. (Social and Economic Research Association of the Turku Universities, 2012)
In this paper, I will consider how social media can nurture and encourage mass murder within a framework of one of the most prominent and widely supported criminological theories: differential association. I will briefly discuss the presence of hate groups on the web, and then I will review how the core principles of differential association are met and potentially amplified through social media. I then provide an example of the interconnectedness of hate groups, and conclude with a call for future research.

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