The purpose of the current analysis is to look at both individual and contextual predictors of perceived risk of victimization. Specifically, the present work builds directly on the contributions of Rountree and Land (1996) and goes beyond their work in several ways. The current work includes additional census tract measures and redefines a key concept index. Drawing upon routine activity theory, social disorganization theory, and social disorder theory, the current analysis includes individual, neighborhood, and census tract level predictors of perceived risk. Data collected on neighborhood characteristics and crime rates in Seattle, Washington in 1990 are used. Using a multi-stage sampling design, 5,302 individuals were surveyed. Multinomial logistic regression is used in this analysis. General support is found for routine activity theory, social disorganization theory, and social disorder theory. Most notable, however, support is found for including census tract level measures. Suggestions for future research are discussed.

The rise of the service sector has been offered as a possible reason for rising income inequalities in highly developed countries. Here, data from 1980, 1990 and 1995 are analyzed to investigate the effects of growth in the service sector on income inequalities for 77 nations around the world. Statistical models examine the effects that the state, through redistribution efforts, has on income inequality. Results of random effects models show that 1)service sector growth has a positive relationship with income inequality, 2) that level of development has a strong positive relationship with income inequality, and 3) that redistribution efforts have had little impact on income inequality over time. Some support is given to the idea that there is an interaction effect between service sector growth and relative placement within the overall world system. This raises the question of whether service sector growth affects the income inequality of a nation differently based on where they are ranked in the hierarchy of world development.

The modern hospice movement began in the 1960s as a response to the rationalization of care for the dying. Ironically, however, hospice organizations have themselves become increasingly rationalized over time, with the advent of Medicare certification and conventional accreditation practices. Despite this, contemporary hospice practitioners must still attempt to follow the holistic philosophy which originally made hospice unique. Thus, they encounter a dilemma of trying to enact an alternative philosophy while being tied to the conventional. This dissertation is a case study of a hospice organization in the Southeastern United States ("Hometown Hospice"). I use observational and interview data to illustrate the rationalization process and discuss its consequences for hospice practitioners. I show how the attempt to follow an alternative medical philosophy while also pleasing regulatory bodies created mixed messages for front-line workers at this organization. Next, I discuss how the workers used humor to manage the unpleasant emotions that resulted from this dilemma. I then discuss how Hometown Hospice perpetuated racial and class inequalities common throughout health care, despite their interdisciplinary team approach to fulfilling the philosophy of holistic care. I conclude with a discussion of other sites where the dilemma between philosophy and expected practices occurs.

How do caseworkers do the dirty work of welfare reform? I examine this question in a case study of a county welfare office in rural North Carolina. Historically welfare has faced threats to its survival. To survive, welfare to work agencies need to appear effective to tax payers, state and federal politicians, and local communities. Caseworkers do the daily work to make this possible, but to do this work they have to convince themselves first. Caseworkers take the goals and rules given to them by federal, state, and county officials and they embrace and enforce these rules, but only sometimes. Caseworkers routinely bend the rules, but in ways that benefit the county more than the clients. This creates some ideological dilemmas for the caseworkers and to solve these tensions, caseworkers focus their attention on redefining themselves as a helper through a âtough loveâ parenting style. Caseworkers, they say, are trying to teach clients that âthe real world has rulesâ and that there are consequences for not following these rules. Doing this dirty work has negative consequences for both the caseworkers and the clients.

To perform well and persist at universities, students need to feel socially and academically integrated. Many universities have instituted learning communities to promote both types of involvement. I explore whether participants in learning communities develop a greater sense of community in the classroom and the university than non-participants. My sample consists of 273 first year students in 31 small seminar classes in a variety of disciplines. My comparison group is 73 first-year students taking introductory sociology courses. I also control for the effects of race, gender, family income, residence type and course subject. This study represents one of the many ways that sociology can contribute to the understanding of college student behavior

This research provides a new assessment of Mertonâs classic strain/anomie theory and addresses some of its empirical and theoretical problems. First of all, it compares alternative operationalizations of classic strain and reports the results of a test of the theoryâs generality using the survey data from Ukrainian adolescents. Second, the research evaluates the chances of improving classic strain theory by elaborating and possibly integrating it with other explanations of crime and delinquency, particularly those featuring such constraints on behavior as perceptions of punishment, social bonds, self-control, and morality. The findings from this study confirm that additional clarifications of the concept of classic strain may be promising. They also demonstrate the applicability of Mertonâs account to the Ukrainian context and indicate the importance of socio-cultural macro-level influences. Furthermore, the results concerning the possibility of theoretical elaboration of the classic strain/anomie theory provide limited support for mediating or moderating effects of the constraint variables on the strain-crime relationship. However, they show that some measures of classic strain as well as all crime-inhibiting factors exert significant independent effects on involvement in juvenile delinquency. Therefore, empirical evidence seems to suggest that more drastic transformations of Mertonâs theory may be required in order to turn it into a more satisfying account of misbehavior. In particular, it indicates the necessity of theoretical integration of the classic strain/anomie explanation of crime with those featuring constraints on behavior.

Current sociological research argues that children are social actors in their own right, and are capable of using race when explaining their social worlds. It is also argued that in order to examine how racial ideologies are produced and reproduced, we must look at day-to-day events as the arena where ideologies are learned and lived. In order to examine if children in the 21st century reproduce and perpetuate racist ideologies, I analyze 44 interviews with white and non-white middle school children from a small southeastern city. My results indicate that middle school children share racial stereotypes that reinforce racism. More importantly, in applying Eduardo Bonilla-Silvaâs conceptual framework of color-blind ideology, my findings suggest that although many of the respondents in this sample expressed equality rhetoric, their statements end up justifying racial inequality. The implications of color-blind ideology are discussed.

Previous research on stratification, primarily shaped by the status attainment tradition, has analyzed inequality as a function of individuals? statuses within a whole economy as opposed to relations among social groups embedded within organizations. Surprisingly, little research has been conducted on how relations among actors within organizations generate inequality. First, I critique this previous research for not analyzing relations within organizations. I then develop a model for understanding how social relations within organizations might generate income inequality. In this model, these relations are characterized by groups of actors struggling to appropriate portions of the surplus generated in organizations. These groups are organized around both material power and status-based power within the production process, both of which generate group-based conflict and struggle for the extraction of economic rents. Such rents form the basis for income inequality. Finally, I empirically assess this model using a sample of Australian organizations, and confirm that economic rents are generated out of both material power and status-based power. I conclude that relations within organizations engender a struggle over the surplus, which creates stratification. Thus, research should begin to focus on the organization as the unit of analysis, specifically on relations therein. Moreover, analyses of wage inequality should move toward understanding how actors struggle to appropriate portions of the surplus in organizations.

Using data from the 1998 General Social Survey, this thesis examines the effects of black-white contact and close interracial friendships on whites? attitudes towards blacks. Intergroup contact theory maintains that contact between people of different groups reduces prejudices and improves attitudes. The majority of previous contact studies have focused on casual black-white contact in neighborhoods and workplaces. Emerging in the current literature is a focus on more personal contact between blacks and whites, as in close friendships. I hypothesize that a positive relationship exists between whites? having a close black friend and their attitudes towards blacks. I also hypothesize a positive relationship between contact and attitudes. I use OLS regression models to test both hypotheses. The results of the analysis support the second hypothesis. The key finding is a statistically significant positive effect of neighborhood contact on whites? attitudes towards blacks. In support of intergroup contact theory, this significant finding suggests that a necessary condition for contact effects on attitudes is equal status between blacks and whites.

In recent years, bullying among middle-school youth and adolescents has become a serious problem in American schools (Nansel et al. 2001). Researchers from a variety of different disciplines attempt to identify factors associated with bullying in order to develop effective intervention programs. However, many findings in relation to race, gender, and bullying are largely inconclusive. The present study employs a social constructionist framework to understand race and gender differences in adolescent bullying. Specifically, I explore how the meanings associated with race and gender in the form of popular stereotypes influence bullying behavior. The findings reported here are from the Gender and Middle School study conducted among 535 adolescents attending middle school in the southeast. The results of the analyses show significant relationships between race, gender, and bullying. Black students (compared to white and other minority) and male students (compared to female) reported higher frequencies of bullying. Further, perceiving that others stereotype you increases the frequency of participating in bullying behavior and explains the relationship between race and bullying. Lastly, the stereotype influence is greater for black males in the study than the effect for white males. These findings have implications for education officials as well as theory on the influence of stereotypes on adolescent behavior.