Department of Sociology
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Browsing Department of Sociology by Content Type "Article - Refereed"
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- Accounting for Occupational and Organizational Commitment: A Longitudinal Reexamination of Structural and Attitudinal ApproachesSnizek, 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.
- Ageism and Feminism: From “Et Cetera” to CenterCalasanti, 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 statementHawdon, 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 HungaryParti, 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 literatureDi 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 trustGardezi, 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.
- Banishment in Public Housing: Testing an Evolution of Broken WindowsTorres, 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.
- Beyond Obstacles: Toward Justice for Victims of Sexual Violence in Hungary. A Literature ReviewParti, 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.
- Building Interdisciplinary Partnerships for Community-Engaged Environmental Health Research in Appalachian VirginiaSatterwhite, 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”.
- Changes in Online Illegal Drug Buying during COVID-19: Assessing Effects due to a Changing Market or Changes in Strain using a Longitudinal Sample DesignHawdon, 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.
- College Match and Undermatch: Assessing Student Preferences, College Proximity, and Inequality in Post-College OutcomesOvink, 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.
- Combating Racialized and Gendered Ignorance: Theorizing a Transactional Pedagogy of FriendshipOlson, Philip; Gillman, Laura J. (Johns Hopkins Univ Press, 2013)The article explores the problem of epistemological ignorance. Drawing on the literature of feminist epistemology, in particular the epistemologies of ignorance, it theorizes white ignorance and male ignorance and how it is possible to gain consciousness about one's ignorance, as well as how to be responsible for what one does not know. The article explores ignorance as unconscious habits that inform our mental schemas, our social interactions, and our physicality. It identifies and analyzes these habits of ignorance, drawing on our experiences as team teachers (one a philosophy professor, and the other a professor of women's studies and literary studies) who co-taught an interdisciplinary doctoral seminar in feminist epistemology. It describes and illustrates the pedagogical and scholarly processes that led us to view epistemology as a practice of inquiry that combats ignorance by demanding an inclusive partnership across traditional and counterhegemonic approaches to knowledge. The article claims that a transactional pedagogy of friendship makes possible the disruption and rehabituation of epistemic habits of ignorance, moving inquirers in the direction of more inclusive, reliable, and responsible knowledge.
- Considering COVID-19 through the Lens of Hazard and Disaster ResearchRitchie, Liesel A.; Gill, Duane A. (MDPI, 2021-06-30)Decades of social science research have taught us much about how individuals, groups, and communities respond to disasters. The findings of this research have helped inform emergency management practices, including disaster preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, most of us—researchers or not—have attempted or are attempting to make sense of what is going on around us. In this article, we assert that we need not examine the pandemic in a vacuum; rather, we can draw upon scholarly and practical sources to inform our thinking about this 21st century catastrophe. The pandemic has provided an “unfortunate opportunity” to revisit what we know about disaster phenomena, including catastrophes, and to reconsider the findings of research from over the years. Drawing upon academic research, media sources, and our own observations, we focus on the U.S. and employ disaster characteristics framework of (1) etiology or origins; (2) physical damage characteristics; (3) disaster phases or cycles; (4) vulnerability; (5) community impacts; and (6) individual impacts to examine perspectives about the ways in which the ongoing pandemic is both similar and dissimilar to conceptualizations about the social dimensions of hazards and disasters. We find that the COVID-19 pandemic is not merely a disaster; rather, it is a catastrophe.
- Contemporary Spatial Publicness: Its New Characteristics and Democratic PossibilitiesHan, Soyoung; Kim, Joong Won; Kwon, Yoonku (MDPI, 2019-08-29)In this study, we explore the recognition of publicness as understood by everyday users of public space. By analyzing news articles in South Korea selected from 1 January 2010, to 31 December 2018, this study examines a discourse which is largely missing in the existing studies—the subjective experience and framing of contemporary spatial publicness by its end-users. After analyzing the contents from a total of 583 articles in the KINDS database, we develop a general typology of how contemporary spatial publicness is represented in South Korea. Although the scope and background of questions surrounding South Korea’s recognition of contemporary spatial publicness are different from that of Western countries, a similar debate has emerged about what publicness means in the context of the architecture and urban space around the globe. By developing different thematic dimensions in the representations of contemporary spatial publicness, we further discuss the implications for future research to examine the pragmatic sensibilities of individuals and utility of semi-public/private space.
- Crack-Powder Cocaine Disparity and Commodity FetishismAgozino, Onwubiko (2021-11-01)This is a case study of discriminatory drug policy in the US from a political economy perspective. Convictions and sentencing for drugs offenses are far higher for African Americans than white Americans even though white people use more drugs than African Americans. Two kinds of cocaine usage are bifurcated in penal policy – cocaine powder, more expensive and used more by whites and the affluent, and crack cocaine, cheaper and hence used more by the poor and by African American users (though two-thirds of those who use crack are white). The theory of commodity fetishism in the legal form will be applied to offer an original insight into this problem and the innovative abolitionist solution consistent with the theory.
- Cyberattacks and public opinion - The effect of uncertainty in guiding preferencesJardine, Eric; Porter, Nathaniel D.; Shandler, Ryan (Sage, 2024-01-30)When it comes to cybersecurity incidents – public opinion matters. But how do voters form opinions in the aftermath of cyberattacks that are shrouded in ambiguity? How do people account for the uncertainty inherent in cyberspace to forge preferences following attacks? This article seeks to answer these questions by introducing an uncertainty threshold mechanism predicting the level of attributional certainty required for the public to support economic, diplomatic or military responses following cyberattacks. Using a discrete-choice experimental design with 2025 US respondents, we find lower attributional certainty is associated with less support for retaliation, yet this mechanism is contingent on the suspected identity of the attacker and partisan identity. Diplomatic allies possess a reservoir of good will that amplifies the effect of uncertainty, while rivals are less often given the benefit of the doubt. We demonstrate that uncertainty encourages the use of cognitive schemas to overcome ambiguity, and that people fall back upon pre-existing and politically guided views about the suspected country behind an attack. If the ambiguity surrounding cyberattacks has typically been discussed as an operational and strategic concern, this article shifts the focus of attention to the human level and positions the mass public as a forgotten yet important party during cyber conflict.
- Cybercrime victimization among Virginia businesses: frequency, vulnerabilities, and consequences of cybervictimizationHawdon, James E.; Parti, Katalin; Dearden, Thomas E.; Vandecar-Burdin, Tancy; Albanese, Jay; Gainey, Randy (Taylor & Francis, 2023-09-04)The Commonwealth of Virginia, USA, is one of the most vulnerable states to cyberattacks and breaches. Analyzing data from 428 online surveys collected from Virginia businesses from multiple vendors and several unique resources, this study provides an in-depth view of the nature and extent of cybercrime victimization in Virginia, highlighting specific vulnerabilities, how the victimization occurred, the consequences of victimization, and if and to whom these breaches were reported. In addition, we describe the extent to which businesses perceive their vulnerabilities, the extent in which companies engage in behaviors that can potentially make them vulnerable, the policies and practices they have in place to reduce vulnerability, and their experiences with victimization. The results provide a quality baseline for understanding cybercrimes against businesses in Virginia.
- Cybercrime, Differential Association, and Self-Control: Knowledge Transmission Through Online Social LearningDearden, Thomas E.; Parti, Katalin (Springer, 2021-11-10)In an increasingly digital world, our social interactions are increasingly moving online. Differential association and social learning theories suggest that we learn both moral definitions and the how-to of crime from those we associate with. In this paper we examine whether online or offline social learning leads to more selfdisclosed forms of cyber-offending. Using a national online sample of 1,109 participants, we find both online and offline social learning are important correlates to cyber-offending. In addition, we predict that lower self-control will interact with social learning to further increase the likelihood of cyber-offending. Overall, we find that both social learning and self-control, individually and as an interaction, have a large effect-size in predicting cyber-offending.
- Cybercrime: Victimization, Perpetration, and TechniquesHawdon, James E. (Springer, 2021-11-10)The creation of the World Wide Web revolutionized communication. At the turn of the 21st century, roughly 413 million people used the internet (Roser, Ritchie and Ortiz-Ospina 2015). A mere 21 years later, nearly 4.7 billion people, or about 60% of the world’s population, actively use the internet (We Are Social, & DataReportal, & Hootsuite, 2021). The pace of innovation in information technology, from the introduction of email in the 1960s to the rise of multiple social media platforms in the early 2000s to the rise of the Internet of Things (Iot) and 5g, has been astonishing. It is now almost inconceivable to imagine life without access to the internet. Yet the IT revolution, like all technological revolutions, has been a dual-edge sword. Indeed, the internet’s many benefits and drawbacks have been discussed in numerous forums, and these discussions will undoubtedly continue as long as we remain dependent on this technology. This special edition of the American Journal of Criminal Justice contributes to those discussions by considering one of the drawbacks: cybercime...
- Dead-end days: The sacrifice of displaced workers on filmKing, Neal M. (University of Illinois Press, 2004)