Sociology
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Item Juvenile Delinquency and the Negro in Charles County, Maryland(1966) Seaman, Thomas W.; Lejins, Peter P.; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, MD)Are there differences between Negro and white juvenile delinquents? This was the question that constituted the basis for this exploratory study. The objectives of the project were to determine if Negro juveniles were proportionately overrepresented among juvenile delinquents and if there were differences in types of offenses committed by Negro and white delinquents. The differences found were analyzed in the light of socio-economic class differences between Negro and white delinquents. Previous research has tended to indicate that racial differences disappeared when socioeconomic class was held constant. The area selected for the project was Charles County, Maryland, because of the writer's access to court records and knowledge of the area. Delinquency rates were developed to determine if Negroes were proportionately overrepresented among delinquents and/or if lower class juveniles were overrepresented among delinquents. Delinquent offenses were divided into four types: offenses involving theft or attempted theft of property, offenses involving violence, offenses involving the destruction of property, and offenses injurious to the child himself. Delinquency rates were developed for Negro and white delinquents in each socio-economic class for each type of offense. A simple ecological investigation was conducted to determine if there were any significant patterns in the spatial distribution of the delinquents. The findings show that Negro juveniles were not significantly overrepresented among delinquents even though Negro delinquents were overrepresented among lower-lower class delinquents. White delinquents were found to be overrepresented among delinquents from the lower-middle and upper-lower classes. The analyses of types of offenses revealed that types of offenses could be identified with certain levels of the socio-economic structure regardless of race, but that differences existed between Negro and white delinquents within socio-economic classes. The ecological investigation indicated that there was no significant ecological pattern among county delinquents.Item Internal Migration to Osaka Prefecture, Japan(1956) Lewis, David Michael; Hoffsommer, Harold; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, MD)Item Interaction Patterns in the Neighborhood Tavern(1971) Bissonette, Raymond Peter; Lejins, Peter P.; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)This study was undertaken in order to develop a systematic description and analysis of the social reality of the public drinking establishment with special reference to the neighborhood workingman's tavern. The perspective adopted was a focus on the non-pathological aspects of behavior associated with the consumption of beverage alcohol. Underlying this point of departure was the recognition that most research on drinking behavior is related to alcoholism but most drinking is not. The study had two purposes: first to attempt a descriptive analysis of social interaction in the tavern setting by translating observed behavior into relatively standard sociological concepts of norm, role, ecology, and communication. Beyond the descriptive purpose of this approach was the expectation that the organization of observations into such a conceptual scheme would enhance the scientific utility of the effort by providing for assimilability and comparability of the data with other research and theory. The second purpose was to test a new theoretical focus for its adequacy as an explanatory model. The focus is on behavior in public and semi-public places - an area falling some where between group studies on the one hand and studies of collective behavior on the other. The major component of this theoretical framework is the mechanism of involvement allocation which refers to the ways in which actors regulate the duration and intensity of their involvement in interpersonal interaction. As was anticipated much of what is unique to sociability in the tavern setting was explainable in terms of involvement allocation. Principally responsible for this is the fact that a tavern, regardless of its official definition, has the dual functions of dispensary and social event. Although the tavern is a prototypic case for involvement allocation it was concluded that this explanatory model might have wide application in interpersonal and intergroup behavior. The data were collected over a three year period by means of participant observation in a wide variety of settings. The core data represent observations taken over a two year period in four selected neighborhood taverns. The synchronic observation of these case taverns were then supplemented by spot observations taken in over one hundred other establishments. The third source of data was the published findings of similar and related studies. The contrast and comparison provided by these additional data aid considerably in verifying the raw data and their interpretation - an inherent problem in this kind of approach. The findings demonstrate that the social reality of the tavern setting consists in patterned behavior amenable to systematic description and analysis. Drinking is a never-present variable but rarely an exclusive preoccupation. A more fruitful approach in understanding the role of drinking in such a setting is to focus on its social rather than physiological consequences. As a part of the definition of the tavern, drinking is always an accepted major involvement and as such affords the individual considerable flexibility in his involvement in the social activities occurring simultaneously. Throughout the study much of what is characteristic of tavern behavior is explained in terms of the involvement allocation options offered by the tavern's dual function as dispensary and social event.Item The Fair Housing Movement: An Overview and a Case Study(1965) Noe, Kaye Sizer; Cussler, Margaret T.; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)The fair housing movement is a recent development in the general civil rights movement. While subscribing to the ideology of the general movement, community fair housing groups concentrate upon making middle-income, and particularly suburban, housing available to financially qualified Negroes. Few fair housing groups are affiliated with Negro civil rights groups, and most are all-white in membership. Their methods utilize many of the concepts first developed in sociology and social psychology; their programs emphasize community relations when a Negro move-in is imminent, property listing services which bypass the practices of discrimination entrenched in the real estate industry, and subscription by community members to open covenants. They seldom try to "force" integration using test cases, attempting rather to prevent discrimination against Negroes seeking homes in their communities and to avoid violence. The major portion of the research was a case study of a fair housing group in Greenbelt, Maryland. The program of this group emphasized a "planning" approach to integration and publicly avoided the moral-ethical arguments which have been central in the general civil rights movement. Such resistance as they encountered was from individuals concerned about the possible effect of Negro occupancy on property values in the older, low-income section of the city. The leaders of the group were active in civic activities, representative of most religious faiths, tended to be college-educated, and many had a history of affiliation with other "liberal" groups. Few were active in other facets of the civil rights movement. It was concluded that the fair housing movement tends to be moderate rather than radical in its membership and strategy, and that its scope (some 600 groups in metropolitan areas across the United States) represents near-spontaneous action at the grass-roots level based on a conviction that discrimination on the basis of race is wrong.Item Riots as Disasters: An Exploratory Case Study of Selected Aspects of the Civil Disturbance in Washington, D.C., April, 1968(1973) Sedlack, Richard Guy; Janes, Robert W.; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)Following some of the more recent sociological literature which has been critical of research into riots, the topic of this thesis addresses itself to a hitherto neglected aspect of riots. It is an initial exploratory effort into the ecological dimensions of official statistics, utilizing the relevant temporal and spatial conceptualizations suggested by the sociological disaster literature. The data sources were the offense and arrest records of the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department and the fire data on the Daily Communication Log of the District of Columbia Fire Department. The offense and fire data were treated as partial indicators of the situation reported to the police with the arrest data as partial indicators of the response made by the police to the riot. The data were conceptually organized along three dimensions. First, the type of criminal violation was classified into six general categories: crimes against persons, crimes against property, traffic violations, crimes without victims, crimes related to fires, and miscellaneous crimes. For a more detailed analysis, the total crimes falling into any one of these general categories were subclassified into more detailed subcategories within each general category. Second, the spatial dimension was trichotomized into three locational specifications: the riot areas of major destruction, the corridor areas of sporadic destruction, and the non-riot areas of minimal or no riot destruction. Third, the temporal dimension was dichotomized into the total riot period of organized response and a representative normal time period, so that the latter could serve as a benchmark against which to compare the former. Two specific questions were posited: what degree of difference existed between the defined riot period and the representative normal time period in terms of crimes and spatial location as reflected by the official statistics and what kinds of differences were evident. Three specific hypotheses were evaluated: (1) the offense and fire data hypothesis which suggested that the degree of association between the offenses reported and the selected riot-normal time period varies directly with the degree of concentrated riot damage, (2) the arrest data hypothesis which suggested that the degree of association between the police's response and the selected riot-normal time period varies directly with the degree of concentrated riot damage, and (3) the comparative hypothesis which suggested that the degree of association between the police's response and the selected riot-normal time period is less than the degree of association between the offenses reported and the selected riot-normal time period . Utilizing the lambda proportionate reduction in error statistic, the data were inconclusive relative to the first hypothesis and generally failed to support the second and third hypotheses, although the magnitude of the data indicated that there were some differences. The nature of the differences indicated that the incidence of fires and burglary violations increased substantially, while larceny, false fire alarm reports, and the degree of violence in crimes against persons decreased in the reported offenses during the riot. The police response was dominated by arrests for disorderly conduct and curfew violations with burglary arrests ranking second. While there were decreases in larceny and traffic arrests, the latter were still substantially represented during the riot and no meaningful numbers of arson arrests were made. Further, it was concluded that substantial numbers of offenses reported and arrests made occurred in the non-riot areas. It was concluded that the disaster literature provided relevant conceptualizations for the analysis of the spatial and temporal dimensions of riots, that further analysis of these dimensions is warranted, and that other dimensions of the disaster approach appear to be useful when applied to riots.Item Changing Observance of Traditional Jewish Religious Practices: A Study of Generations(1956) Greenberg, Meyer; Hoffsommer, Harold C.; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)Changes in the observance of traditional religious practices among Jewish families during the course of three generations are the subject of t his paper. The religious practices studied are those related to the cycle of the year--the Sabbath and holy days--and kashruth (the dietary laws). The population is a group of 180 families, chiefly from Baltimore and Washington, D.C., with children in the freshman class at the University of Maryland in the spring of 1949. The first generation, the grandparents, are in the main immigrants to the United States from Eastern Europe during the years of mass immigration which ended shortly after World War I. The second generation are the parents, most of them American born, while the third generation consists of freshmen at the University. For the earlier generations the interaction with the American environment is analyzed in terms of acculturation and social mobility. In the third generation attention is focused on changes in religious practice from the time the student was a child and under parental control, through his last year in high school, and then into the latter part of hi s first year at college. Information on the background of students and parents and on their religious observance was obtained by means of a questionnaire. This was followed by an interview to learn the circumstances surrounding changes in the student's observance. It was found that the parents belong almost entirely to the middle class and are engaged in business or the professions. The student group, of whom two-thirds are male, does not differ appreciably from the general student body either in scholastic aptitude or in grades. Upon analysis, the combinations of religious practices observed by the individuals were found to fall into seven repeated patterns or types. This classification system was used to compare the observance of the different groups into which the sample was divided. The relatively sharpest break with tradition occurred in the immigrant generation. The second generation continued to move in the same direction. The third generation departed even further from tradition, especially when under the influence of the college environment, but the rate of change appears to have slowed down. The process of discarding ritual practices has been a selective one. Observances which are frequent and involve economic sacrifice, such as the Sabbath and holidays, have been the first to be dropped. Others such as formal daily prayer and kashruth outside the home have been abandoned because of inconvenience and because they differ widely from accepted social norms. A minimum observance level seems to have been reached in the evolution of Jewish religious life. Attending synagogue and fasting on the High Holydays and participating in a Passover Seder are still observed by the overwhelming majority of American Jews. The lighting of Sabbath candles is widespread, and kashruth in the home is kept by a substantial number, though only a very small proportion of the students observe the dietary laws. The subjects of the study were also classified according to their self-identification with one of the three branches of Judaism--Orthodox, Conservative and Reform. It was found that while the first generation were overwhelmingly Orthodox, the members of the second and third generations have been moving increasingly into the Conservative and, to a lesser degree, the Reform groups. The Orthodox Jews indicate greater average observance than the Conservative, who in turn tend to observe somewhat more than the Reform. However, the observance of all three groups falls far below the standards set by the movements officially. In the student generation, the differences between the groups are further narrowed, and there appears a marked tendency toward similarity in observance patterns. Future studies are needed to analyze the continuing development and relative strength of the Orthodox, Conservative and Reform groups. It would also be worthwhile to learn whether the students here studied at what is thought to be the lowest point of their religious observance will modify their practices when they are married and have families.Item Ethnic Identity and Intergroup Perceptions Among Post-Soviet Youth(1998) Kurbanov, Erjan; Robinson, John P.; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)This research examines theoretical concepts of ethnic identity using survey data from probability samples of about 13,000 youth from 11 countries of the former Soviet Union (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Moldova, Tajikistan, Russia, and Ukraine). The focus is on the combined impact of different micro and macro factors on ethnic attitudes and perceptions during a period of rapid social change. The dependent variable is ethnic distinctiveness, which describes a group member's distancing of themselves from other ethnic groups, an important consequence of ethnic identity. The variable was measured through evaluations of six personal characteristics of ethnic majority and minority groups in each country. The continuous nature of this variable allows detailed study of how ethnic micro factors (self-identification, parents' ethnic identity, ethnic language, level of interaction with outsiders), macro factors (ethnic conflict and level of ethnic homogeneity at the national, sub-national, and micro levels), and other social factors (parents' education, religious strength, gender, and family income) affect ethnic distinctiveness. Due to the nested nature of the data, the analysis was conducted on three levels--individual, sub-national, and national--using different techniques for each level. The results show that at the individual level, ethnic self-identification is the strongest predictor of ethnic distancing, followed by parents' ethnic identification and ethnic language; out-group interaction has only a weak effect. At the second level, the micro-level (school) ethnic homogeneity has the strongest effect, while the regional homogeneity effect is not significant. Both national-level variables (national conflict and homogeneity on the societal level) have strong effects on the dependent variable, while class variables (parents' education and family income) have no effect on ethnic distinctiveness (possibly a legacy of the egalitarian Soviet system). The original model which presumes that ethnic distancing is a product of the strength of ethnic identity, family ethnic background, and out-group interaction thus seems applicable mostly to societies (1) in which the majority and minority are significantly differentiated from each other, (2) where the minority is significantly large, and (3) where both groups are involved in a major ethno-social process. Thus, the study confirms that the individual ethnic processes of ethnic boundary formation are quite susceptible to the pervasive social dynamics of the larger society.Item Adolescent Deviance as a Function of Parents, Peers and Community Influence(1985) Slaght, Evelyn; Fleishman, John; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)Recent studies conflict as to the relative importance of parents and peers as causal agents in juvenile misbehavior. Hirschi and other proponents of social control theory see parental bonding as preventing involvement in delinquency; Sutherland, Short and others envision youth as having differential learning opportunities, and see deviant peers and other negative learning opportunities in the community as more contributory to participation in antisocial acts. Part of the discrepancy in findings relative to these two perspectives has to do with the different in the way concepts are measured, based on different areas of interest. This study attempts to contrast social-emotional measure of parental influence with measure of parental control (knowledge, supervision, communication and discipline) in an effort to demonstrate the importance of the effect of parental control on deviant behavior.Item Women in the Chinese Military(1995) Li, Xiaolin; Segal, David R.; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)This dissertation provides a sociological analysis of patterns of women's military participation in ancient China (5000 years ago-1840), during the post-Opium War period (1840-1949), and in modern times. It addresses three sociological issues: 1) under what conditions have Chinese women taken part in military operations? 2) Do Chinese women participate in direct combat? 3) Does the military institution facilitate women's social mobility to education, jobs and higher social status? The following questions are also addressed: does Chinese women's military participation go through cycles of expansion and contraction? What are the People's Liberation Army (PLA) women's evaluations of their military lives? The study scrutinized 717 Chinese military women from the secondary sources and 230 PLA women through a survey conducted in Beijing in 1992. Women participate in Chinese conventional and unconventional warfare across time. From the first female general, Fu Hao, who lived about 3200 years ago, to the 12 women generals who serve in the PLA today, women's frequent presence has been observed in both regular and irregular military formations. Chinese women participated in direct combat--50% in this study with a 12% combat casualty. Female guerri11a fighters suffered the heaviest, but no casualty of women has been recorded since 1949. Sixteen percent of these women commanded battles. Seventeen percent ranked major and above, 3.5% of them became national leaders. Most women warriors are of the Han nationality. Nearly half of the ancient and the PLA women were from official and officers' families. Cultural and ideological support for women's military participation has also been frequent. Military service is one of the social mobility channels which allow women to achieve or hope for social recognition or higher status. The scope of women's military participation goes in cycles of expansion and contraction, particularly affected by group security situation and shortage of manpower. Women's representation in regular military formations has been increased. Modem military women in mainland China and Taiwan are career makers. Most PLA women did not expect combat participation nor becoming a woman general.Item Sexual Behavior and Risk of Sexually Transmitted Diseases: Do Community Characteristics Moderate the Relationship between Individual Behaviors and STD Risk?(1999) Rogers, Susan Matthews; Kahn, Joan R.; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)This study examined individual demographic and behavioral characteristics associated with the risk of infection with two bacterial sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Chlamydia trachomatis. Unlike other studies of STDs, this study also investigated how the neighborhood composition may influence individual behaviors and STD risk. Individual-level data were derived from a probability sample of 560 adults residing in households in Baltimore, Maryland in 1997-1998. The Baltimore STD and Behavior Study (BSBS) combined use of urine-based diagnostic tests for gonorrhea (GC) and chlamydia! (CT) infection with a population-based survey of health and STD-related risk behaviors. Neighborhood-level data on the geographic and social characteristics of Baltimore's neighborhoods were obtained from 1990 Census data and the Baltimore City Department of Planning (1993). Urine assays revealed that 8.3 percent of adults ages 18-35 were currently infected with gonorrhea and/or chlamydia. A self-reported history of GC/CT infection was assessed from BSBS interview data; 26.1 percent reported previous treatment for GC/CT. As predicted by the STD literature, bivariate and logistic regression analyses suggested that self-reported infections were significantly associated with individual and behavioral characteristics. However, the lack of STD-related risk behaviors among respondents currently infected was somewhat unexpected. Compared with uninfected participants, respondents with a current infection, for example, were less likely to report multiple sex partners, new partners, paid sex, or concurrent sexual relationships. Hierarchical logistic regression models indicated only the proportion of black residents within the neighborhood was positively and significantly associated with self-reported GC/CT infection after controlling for individual- and community-level characteristics. However, multilevel analyses did not detect an association between neighborhood characteristics and current infection. Neighborhood characteristics did not seem to matter when examining differences in the distribution of current infection in Baltimore. Unlike individuals with a self-reported infection, currently infected individuals were not more likely to report high-risk sexual behaviors or STD-related symptoms. One plausible explanation is that the partners of these 'low-risk' individuals may have engaged in 'high-risk' behaviors. These data urge further exploration of the social context of gonorrhea and chlamydiaI infection in conjunction with an investigation of the interactions between individuals and their sexual partners.