Department of Sociology

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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.
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.
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.
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.
Architecture of aggression in cyberspace: Testing cyber aggression in young adults in Hungary
Parti, Katalin; Kiss, Tibor; Koplányi, Gergely (Bridgewater State University, 2018-08-15)
In order to test whether and how violence is exacerbated in online social networking sites, we utilized the BryantSmith Aggression Scale (Bryant & Smith, 2001), and included examples in the questionnaire offering solutions for 7 different hypothetical cases occurring online (Kiss, 2017). The questionnaire was sent to social work and law school students in Hungary. Prevalence and levels of aggression and its manifestation as violence online proved to be not more severe than in offline social relations. Law students were more aware than students of social work that online hostile acts are discrediting. Students of social work were significantly more prone to break into physical fights than were law students and higher level of aggression was observed in their online behavior as well. Those who spend more time online tend to be more active online and bear a significantly higher level of aggression compared to those who are less active online. To conclude, higher education has a significant role in establishing control. This is especially crucial with law students who might have to work closely with the police and local residents aiming to establish peaceful communication, problem solving, and cooperative solutions in grassroots community policing programs.
Are dementia services and support organisations meeting the needs of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) caregivers of LGBT people living with dementia? A scoping review of the literature
Di Lorito, Claudio; Bosco, Alessandro; Peel, Elizabeth; Hinchliff, Sharron; Dening, Tom; Calasanti, Toni; de Vries, Brian; Cutler, Neil; Fredriksen-Goldsen, Karen, I; Harwood, Rowan H. (Routledge, 2022)
Objectives More than 60% of people with dementia live at home, where assistance is usually provided by informal caregivers. Research on the experiences of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) caregivers is limited. This scoping review of the literature synthesizes international evidence on support provision for the population of LGBT caregivers. Methods Eight electronic databases and Google Scholar were searched using terms including 'Dementia', 'LGBT' and 'Caregiver' for all types of articles, including empirical studies, grey literature and sources from charity/third sector/lobbying organisations. Article selection was performed by two raters. Data were analysed through deductive thematic analysis, and three themes were established a priori: Distinct experiences of LGBT caregivers; current barriers to support; strategies to overcome the current challenges. Results Twenty articles were included. Distinct experiences of LGBT caregivers included a loss of LGBT identity, the impact of historical events, families of choice, and disclosing LGBT identities. Current barriers to support included poor representation of LGBT caregivers in support services, negative attitudes of staff and reluctance of caregivers to seek support. Strategies to overcome the current challenges included staff awareness training and kite-marking inclusion. Conclusion Limited cultural competency of staff and a subsequent reluctance to seek help have an impact on use of support services among LGBT caregivers. Implications for practice include the development of cost-effective, feasible, and acceptable inclusiveness training for services. Implications for policy include implementation in organisations of top-down agendas supporting staff to understand sexuality and non-heteronormative relationships in older age.
Artificial intelligence in farming: Challenges and opportunities for building trust
Gardezi, Maaz; Joshi, Bhavna; Rizzo, Donna M.; Ryan, Mark; Prutzer, Edward; Brugler, Skye; Dadkhah, Ali (Wiley, 2023-05)
Artificial intelligence (AI) represents technologies with human-like cognitive abilities to learn, perform, and make decisions. AI in precision agriculture (PA) enables farmers and farm managers to deploy highly targeted and precise farming practices based on site-specific agroclimatic field measurements. The foundational and applied development of AI has matured considerably over the last 30 years. The time is now right to engage seriously with the ethics and responsible practice of AI for the well-being of farmers and farm managers. In this paper, we identify and discuss both challenges and opportunities for improving farmers' trust in those providing AI solutions for PA. We highlight that farmers' trust can be moderated by how the benefits and risks of AI are perceived, shared, and distributed. We propose four recommendations for improving farmers' trust. First, AI developers should improve model transparency and explainability. Second, clear responsibility and accountability should be assigned to AI decisions. Third, concerns about the fairness of AI need to be overcome to improve human-machine partnerships in agriculture. Finally, regulation and voluntary compliance of data ownership, privacy, and security are needed, if AI systems are to become accepted and used by farmers.
The Auto/biographical Narrative and Ethical Issues: Reflections on Three Projects
Samanta, Suchitra (2021-04-21)
This talk was part of a series organized by the program for Scholarly Integrity and Research Compliance (SIRC) at Virginia Tech
B. R. Ambedkar as Visonary Educator
Nagrale, Harshali; Zare, Bonnie; Wakade, Ashirwad (Palgrave MacMillan, 2023-01)
“We are because he was.” This common phrase referring to Bhimrao Ambedkar among social justice advocates illustrates Ambedkar’s powerful leadership. An outspoken critic of rigid Brahminical structures that excluded large groups of citizens from participating in many public spaces, Ambedkar championed education for all people, including those who were historically outcast or disenfranchised. One of the most influential drafters of India’s Constitution, Ambedkar enshrined therein the principles of freedom and nondiscrimination. The Constitution laid the groundwork for reservations, India’s sole affirmative action policy. It provided for a future system that through amendments would eventually reserve seats in legislatures, government jobs, and education for scheduled castes (SCs) (formerly called untouchables) and scheduled tribes (STs) (indigenous formerly nomadic groups). Ambedkar established inclusive educational initiatives, including learn while you earn options, and overseas education scholarships for historically marginalized groups, who could not dream of accessing these opportunities prior to this time. He fought tirelessly to raise the status of women and free them from encumbrances standing in their way so that they could have all the rights and opportunities of male citizens. More than pointing people in a direction, he helped people see they could think beyond accepting miserable conditions and instead plan a way of life rooted in dignity.
Banishment in Public Housing: Testing an Evolution of Broken Windows
Torres, Jose; Aokarian, Jacob; Hawdon, James E. (2016-11-09)
Banishment policies grant police the authority to formally ban individuals from entering public housing and arrest them for trespassing if they violate the ban. Despite its widespread use and the social consequences resulting from it, an empirical evaluation of the effectiveness of banishment has not been performed. Understanding banishment enforcement is an evolution of broken windows policing, this study explores how effective bans are at reducing crime in public housing. We analyze crime data, spanning the years 2001–2012, from six public housing communities and 13 surrounding communities in one southeastern U.S. city. Using Arellano-Bond dynamic panel models, we investigate whether or not issuing bans predicts reductions in property and violent crimes as well as increases in drug and trespass arrests in public housing. We find that this brand of broken windows policing does reduce crime, albeit relatively small reductions and only for property crime, while resulting in an increase in trespass arrests. Given our findings that these policies have only a modest impact on property crime, yet produce relatively larger increases in arrests for minor offenses in communities of color, and ultimately have no significant impact on violent crime, it will be important for police, communities, and policy makers to discuss whether the returns are worth the potential costs.
Ben Fletcher : The Life and Times of a Black Wobbly, Revised and Expanded 2nd Edition [Book review]
Stilley, Jeff (York University Libraries, 2021-08-22)
Best Practices: Mentoring from a Distance
Ovink, Sarah (2020)
If your mentor-mentee relationship is thriving, congratulations, and keep up the good work! If you’re feeling, however, like you and your mentee aren’t connecting as well as you were in the beginning, or that your rapport has stalled, don’t worry—you are not alone! Even in the best of times, it’s common for mentors and mentees to hit roadblocks. In pandemic times, the challenges for forging strong connections are greater than usual. The silver lining is that most of us have strengthened our skills for staying socially connected while physically distant. This brief handout contains four quick tips for assessing your mentor-mentee relationship and/or jump-starting a stalled exchange. The references at the end contain a few links for more in-depth reading.
Beyond Obstacles: Toward Justice for Victims of Sexual Violence in Hungary. A Literature Review
Parti, Katalin; Robinson, Robin A.; Kohlmann, David; Viragh, Eniko; Varga-Sabjan, Dora (SAGE, 2021-06-30)
Alarmed by research that reveals Hungary as having one of the lowest reporting rates in cases of sexual violence in Europe, this article provides an overview of the research that explains why, historically, sexual violence has been and continues to be underreported all over the globe, from law enforcement and criminal justice perspective. Furthermore, we describe the unique circumstances that might influence Hungarian victims of sexual violence to make formal reports. Among other possible factors, we discuss rape myth acceptance, victim blaming, feminist activism, institutional betrayal, and media representations of rape. In an effort to provide insight into Hungarian gender politics, this article raises salient theoretical works on gender ideology and gender policy in contemporary Hungary. This article concludes with a discussion on what implications such research in Hungary may have on a global understanding of sexual violence reporting.
Breaks in the Air: The Birth of Rap Radio in New York City [Book review]
Harrison, Anthony Kwame (University of California Press, 2024-03)
A book review of: John Klaess. Breaks in the Air: The Birth of Rap Radio in New York City. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2022. 232 pages.
Building Interdisciplinary Partnerships for Community-Engaged Environmental Health Research in Appalachian Virginia
Satterwhite, Emily M.; Bell, Shannon E.; Marr, Linsey C.; Thompson, Christopher K.; Prussin, Aaron J. II; Buttling, Lauren G.; Pan, Jin; Gohlke, Julia M. (MDPI, 2020-03-05)
This article describes a collaboration among a group of university faculty, undergraduate students, local governments, local residents, and U.S. Army staff to address long-standing concerns about the environmental health effects of an Army ammunition plant. The authors describe community-responsive scientific pilot studies that examined potential environmental contamination and a related undergraduate research course that documented residents’ concerns, contextualized those concerns, and developed recommendations. We make a case for the value of resource-intensive university–community partnerships that promote the production of knowledge through collaborations across disciplinary paradigms (natural/physical sciences, social sciences, health sciences, and humanities) in response to questions raised by local residents. Our experience also suggests that enacting this type of research through a university class may help promote researchers’ adoption of “epistemological pluralism”, and thereby facilitate the movement of a study from being “multidisciplinary” to “transdisciplinary”.
Building Partnerships to Address Social and Technological Challenges to Enhance Farm Profitability and Improve Water Quality Through Better Grassland Management
Stafford, Carl; Clark, Robert; Ritchie, Liesel A.; Pent, Gabriel; Fike, John H.; Benner, John; Swanson, Carrie; Baker, Scott; Mize, Timothy; Temu, Vitalis; Payne, Kathryn; Gill, Duane A.; Mullins, D.; McGuire, R.; Teutsch, Chris; Thomason, Wade E.; Grev, Amanda; Blevins, Phil; Clarke, C.; Poore, Matt; Booher, Matt; Stanley, Tom; Halich, Greg; Bovay, John; Love, Kenner; Byington, amy A.; Baldwin, Elizabeth; Haugen, Inga (2023-05-15)
With 2.1 million acres of pastureland and 1.25 million acres of hay land in Virginia, the rural Virginia landscape is predominately grassland. These lands form the base of the $3.96 billion-dollar livestock and dairy industry in Virginia. Managing these livestock in a profitable manner for farmers and beneficial to the environment is important. A cultural tradition with roots in colonial times has been to run animals in large fields year-round throughout Virginia. Livestock often graze from spring until fall (about 220 days), and farmers feed hay the remainder of the year. Spikes in the cost of fuel, fertilizer, and equipment are making traditional grazing/haying systems less profitable. The Virginia Cooperative Extension Farm Enterprise budgets show that that the cost of hay accounts for over 50% of the cost of sustaining livestock annually. University of Kentucky shows that most cow-calf producers maximize their profitability by shifting from grazing 220 days to grazing 275 to 300 days. Extension agents working with livestock producers found that they could improve their profitability by at least $75 per cow by extending their grazing season. The same phenomenon applies to other types of grazing livestock. If ten percent of the livestock producers in the state adopted better grazing management to extend their grazing season by 60 days, profitability is expected to for Virginia grazing livestock producers by over $5 million per year. Practices such as rotational grazing and stream exclusion are directly tied to National and State goals to improve water quality in the Chesapeake Bay. Virginia’s Phase III WIP (Chesapeake Bay Watershed Improvement Plan) seeks the exclusion of livestock from all perennial streams and achieving good rotational grazing practices on 347,000 acres of pasture. A number of agencies and private sector groups have been providing cost share and technical guidance to incentivize livestock stream exclusion and the installation of pasture management infrastructure. Installation is only part of the challenge. Farmers also need to be taught how to how to manage the system in a profitable manner and have been slow to adopt good pasture management practices. Preliminary data show that 87% of Virginia’s cow-calf producers manage their grasslands using traditional methods. Only six percent have extended their grazing season beyond 265 days.
“‘Change That Wouldn’t Fill a Homeless Man’s Cup Up’: Filipino-American Political Hip Hop and Community Organizing in the Age of Obama.”
Harrison, Anthony Kwame (2015-11-01)
"SOMETIMES RAPPIN' AIN'T ENOUGH" In the opening verse to its 2011 song "Sunshine; Power Struggle lead vocalist Nomi enounces that "political rap is like a trap sometimes." As an African-diasporic orature form, forged within the collusive cauldrons where the trials of postindustrial disenfranchisement mix with the resiliencies of subaltern innovation, hip hop lyricism is inherently ambiguous and political. The trap that Nomi (possibly) refers to is set along the well-worn path between artistic intention and public reception. Whereas questions of multiple interpretations dominate music of any sort, and art more generally, the brilliance of the "Sunshine" lyric lies in its spotlighting how such concerns are amplified within a hip hop form that is characterized as deliberately and pointedly political...
Changes in Online Illegal Drug Buying during COVID-19: Assessing Effects due to a Changing Market or Changes in Strain using a Longitudinal Sample Design
Hawdon, James E.; Parti, Katalin; Dearden, Thomas E. (Springer Nature, 2022-11-11)
This research uses longitudinal data to investigate if illegal online drug purchases changed over time during the COVID-19 pandemic, and if these changes were primarily driven by users adjusting to market conditions or by a heightened level of pandemic-induced strain that could drive a greater demand for drugs. Data were collected across four waves between fall 2019 and fall 2021 using an online survey. Data showed an increase in reported online drug purchases across the waves, but the online drug purchases remained consistent for the first year of the pandemic, but increased by approximately 44% between the fall 2020 and fall 2021 when over 13 percent of the sample admitted to buying illegal drugs online. Strain was also related to buying illegal drugs online as those respondents who made illegal online purchased had an average of 5.2 strain events in the past 12 months compared to only 2.4 events among those who did not report purchasing illegal drugs online. However, the influence of strain on online purchases remained consistent across time. These results suggest that the increase in online drug purchases was primarily driven by users adapting to changing market conditions rather than the cumulative strains associated with the pandemic producing a greater effect on purchases. Policy implications are also discussed.
CIVIIC: Cybercrime in Virginia: Impacts on Industry and Citizens Final Report
Gainey, Randy; Vandecar-Burdin, Tancy; Albanese, Jay; Dearden, Thomas E.; Hawdon, James E.; Parti, Katalin (CoVA CCI, 2023-01-01)
College Match and Undermatch: Assessing Student Preferences, College Proximity, and Inequality in Post-College Outcomes
Ovink, Sarah; Kalogrides, D.; Nanney, Megan Paige; Delaney, Patrick Prescott (2018-08)
Recently, multiple studies have focused on the phenomenon of “undermatching”—when students attend a college for which they are overqualified, as measured by test scores and grades. The extant literature suggests that students who undermatch fail to maximize their potential. However, gaps remain in our knowledge about how student preferences—such as a desire to attend college close to home—influence differential rates of undermatching. Moreover, previous research has not directly tested whether and to what extent students who undermatch experience more negative post-college outcomes than otherwise similar students who attend “match” colleges. Using ELS:2002, we find that student preferences for low-cost, nearby colleges, particularly among low-income students, are associated with higher rates of undermatching even among students who are qualified to attend a “very selective” institution. However, this relationship is weakened when students live within 50 miles of a match college, demonstrating that proximity matters. Our results show that attending a selective postsecondary institution does influence post-college employment and earnings, with less positive results for students who undermatch as compared with peers who do not. Our findings demonstrate the importance of non-academic factors in shaping college decisions and post-college outcomes, particularly for low-income students.

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