Sociology Theses and Dissertations

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2804

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    Reimagining Black Carceral Masculinities and Community Care Work: A Study of Credible Messengers in the Nation’s Capital
    (2024) Martinez, Rod; Ray, Rashawn; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The following dissertation examines a group of community workers known as credible messengers in Washington, D.C. Credible messengers have lived experience surviving carceral systems such as prisons and environments and have transformed their lives to guide, relate to, and support others who share their backgrounds. Their credibility stems directly from their intimate knowledge of the communities they serve. This dissertation project draws on qualitative interviews with male credible messengers from a more considerable multi-year evaluation of a newly implemented credible messenger program housed in a youth agency. Sociologically, the project explores Black carceral masculinities and mentoring as civic engagement. The findings reveal how men resist and challenge prevailing notions around hegemonic and carceral masculinities through their racially gendered experiences, which shape how they approach their work with youth. The study also suggests that the men engage in credible messenger work for motivations other than redemption and in service of a larger mission to Black youth and their local communities. The dissertation project also includes a conversation with a formerly incarcerated public figure from Washington, D.C., as a call to action to researchers and others to uplift the experience of impacted people and communities. The dissertation project concludes with a set of recommendations aimed at policy and practice as it relates to criminalized Black men and boys.
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    WARRIORS, GUARDIANS, WOLVES, AND SHEEP: OFFICER PERCEPTIONS OF POLICE-CIVILIAN IDENTITIES AND THE PERSISTENCE OF ORGANIZED INEQUITY
    (2024) Powelson, Connor Reed; Ray, Rashawn; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Despite nearly a decade of community engagement and police reform efforts guided by the Warrior/Guardian paradigm, there remains little evidence of police culture change and rates of racially disproportionate police misconduct remain a social problem. In this work, I bring officers into this conversation and leverage the Warrior/Guardian paradigm as a starting point for an exploration of how identity structures constitute police organizational culture and practice, its consequences, and its potential for change. The present work contributes to the public and scholarly discourse on police culture and the role of identity processes in the reproduction of organizational practices. I characterize police culture as a set of identity schemas that connect people, practices, and social resources. I chart three domains of symbolic interaction that characterize the intersection of police structure, police culture, and public culture and account for police organizational rules and practices that distribute law enforcement outcomes and pattern organized inequity.