The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science recent issues

The End of Television?

Katz, E. — 2009-08-20

Sharing and Showing: Television as Monstration

Dayan, D. — 2009-08-20

This article presents a comparison between two models of publicness (one based on a type of television firmly anchored in the center, another depending on media that blur all distinctions between centers and peripheries) and asks what sort of sharedness do these two models allow? The article also explores the notion of "monstration." Through what sorts of displays do contending media call on public attention? Can one speak of "acts of showing" the way one speaks of speech acts? What is the impact of such acts on a sociology of collective attention? Third, the article examines the coexistence between television of the center and new digital media. Is their relation agonistic or, paradoxically, cooperative? The present situation may echo many earlier cases in which old media learned to coexist with new media by starting unexpected dialogues and practicing a division of labor. Today’s situation might be a (reluctant) partnership in a multitiered public sphere.

We Liked to Watch: Television as Progenitor of the Surveillance Society

Meyrowitz, J. — 2009-08-20

The rise of mass television allowed hundreds of millions of people to closely watch other people and places on a regular basis, anonymously and from afar. Television watching altered the balance of what different types of people knew about each other and relative to each other, blurred the dividing line between public and private behaviors, and weakened the link between physical location and access to social experience. In these ways, television contributed to the reshuffling of previously taken-for-granted reciprocal social roles, including those related to age, gender, and authority. In cultivating its viewers into the normalcy of the acts of watching and of being watched, television experience also stimulated the widespread use of more recent interactive visual media, including the displays of self on social networking sites. Moreover, familiarity with television as a watching machine has fostered the otherwise surprising level of tolerance for increasingly pervasive government, corporate, and populace surveillance.

What Is U.S. Television Now?

Lotz, A. D. — 2009-08-20

This article explores the institutional adjustments that have altered the operation of the U.S. television industry over the past twenty years. The author first chronicles those industrial norms that characterized television during its "network era" (1952 to mid-1980s) and upon which most ideas about the role of television in society are based. She then explores the ways in which adjustments in technologies, industrial formations, governmental policies, practices of looking, and textual formations have redefined the norms of television in the United States since the mid-1980s. Analysis of the shifts in the institutional and cultural functions of television reveals the articulations between the dominant industrial practices and the forms, texts, and cultural role of the medium. Such a conception of shifts of the medium allows us to understand recent changes as an evolution of this central cultural medium rather than its demise.

Contextualizing the Broadcast Era: Nation, Commerce, and Constraint

Uricchio, W. — 2009-08-20

Programming scarcity that characterized the broadcast era, or what this article refers to as constraint , served very different goals. Often intertwined, these goals ranged from the formation of an ideologically coherent national public, to the protection of economic self-interest, to the explicit promotion of products and messages. They were deployed rather differently in the commercial American and state/public European spaces of television. The article explores a number of assumptions regarding the institution and medium of television that have persisted from the broadcast era into our own and that might well, given the very different structures of contemporary television, be repositioned. It outlines the contours of that repositioning, sketching the implications for some of our theoretical and methodological defaults.

Of Time and Television

Robinson, J. P., Martin, S. — 2009-08-20

Analysis of early time-diary studies suggests that television has had more impact on daily time than any other household technology in the past century. In the United States, viewing time has steadily increased from roughly ten weekly hours in the 1960s to sixteen hours today, encompassing almost half of all "free time" reported in the diaries. A prominent recent TV casualty has been time spent reading the newspaper, providing further support for the functional equivalence argument. This article shows that, so far at least, viewing time seems little affected by the Internet and other recent new technologies. Studies of the public’s satisfaction with various activities suggest that viewers find TV to be more enjoyable in the doing rather than in general, even though it may not be particularly challenging or demanding of concentration. Viewing time is also shown to be significantly related to long-term personal unhappiness.

The Face of Television

Frosh, P. — 2009-08-20

This article proposes some physiognomic speculations regarding three visual characteristics of television in its pre-digital-broadcasting form: (1) the importance of the head shot as a staple technique for representing the human figure and, hence, the primacy of the human face as a televisual image; (2) the mirrorlike reflective surface of the cathode-ray tube television screen, which makes the viewer’s reflected image appear to emanate from the depths of the television set; and (3) the box-like design of television sets that turns them into miniature containers of the pictures they show. It argues that these three characteristics amounted to an integrated communicative structure that made television a key mechanism for the social construction of humanity in the second half of the twentieth century, a mechanism whose future is uncertain in the age of new digital platforms.

The Performance on Television of Sincerely Felt Emotion

Ellis, J. — 2009-08-20

The self-presentation of ordinary people on TV took some time to develop. An early game show from British ITV demonstrates the many pitfalls encountered in developing even the most basic of self-presentational codes. So the presentation of sincerely felt emotions did not develop as a style until the late 1980s with the changes in daytime talk and the growth of reality TV. The cult of sincerity, however, has had profound cultural effects, reaching into the political sphere.

Cultural and Moral Authority: The Presumption of Television

Morrison, D. E. — 2009-08-20

This article shows how British television has lost cultural authority due to social shifts in British society whereby no single moral voice can expect to find an audience. The author argues that there is no longer a moral language by which to address moral issues nor any common agreement about the rightful constitution of the cultural and moral universe. The central point is that technological development leading to increase in television channel proliferation did not fragment the audience, as is often assumed, but that it was the fragmentation of the audience that allowed the uptake of the varied and various channels.

Television, Public Participation, and Public Service: From Value Consensus to the Politics of Identity

Lunt, P. — 2009-08-20

The proliferation of popular television genres in which the public are key participants (talk shows, reality TV, and makeover and lifestyle television) on the surface may seem less to do with engagement and more to do with entertainment and voyeurism. However, this article explores an alternative to the idea that popular television based on personal experience is a marker of the end of television in general and the weakening of the public service tradition in particular. Two programs, Oprah! and Little Angels, are shown to address the agendas of reflexive modernity and governmentality and potentially to contribute to a normative social order based on the project of the self. The fact that both traditional public service providers and commercial channels are engaging with these social issues suggests that new ways of legitimizing television in the public interest are emerging, with implications for the character of public service television.

Gender and Family in Television's Golden Age and Beyond

Press, A. — 2009-08-20

Images of women, work, and family on television have changed enormously since the heyday of the network era. Early television confined women to the home and family setting. The increase in working women in the 1960s and 1970s was reflected in television’s images of women working and living nontraditional family lives. These images gave way, in the postnetwork era, to a form of postfeminist television in the 1990s when television undercut the ideals of liberal feminism with a series of ambiguous images challenging its gains. Women’s roles in the workplace, increasingly shown, were undercut by a sense of nostalgic yearning for the love and family life that they were seen to have displaced. Current television presents a third-wave-influenced feminism that picks up where postfeminism left off, introducing important representations more varied in race, sexuality, and the choices women are seen to make between work and family.

Half a Century of Television in the Lives of Our Children

Livingstone, S. — 2009-08-20

The quintessential image of the television audience is of the family viewing at home—sitting together comfortably in front of the lively set. Accompanying this happy image is its negative—a child viewing alone while real life goes on elsewhere. This article reviews evidence over five decades regarding the changing place of television in children’s lives. It argues that, notwithstanding postwar trends that have significantly changed adolescence, the family home, and wider consumer society, there was time for the 1950s family experiment to spawn the 1960s and 1970s family television experiment, thereby shaping normative expectations—academic, policy, and popular—regarding television audiences for years to come. At the turn of the twenty-first century, we must recognize that it was the underlying long-term trend of individualization, and its associated trends of consumerism, globalization, and democratization, that, historically and now, more profoundly frame the place of television in the family.

Political Communication --Old and New Media Relationships

Gurevitch, M., Coleman, S., Blumler, J. G. — 2009-08-20

This article reflects upon the ways television changed the political landscape and considers how far new media, such as the Internet, are displacing television or reconfiguring the political communications ecology. The analysis explores opportunities and challenges facing media producers, politicians, and citizens. The authors conclude by suggesting that the television-politics relationship that emerged in the 1960s still prevails to some extent in the digital era but faces new pressures that weaken the primacy of the broadcast-centered model of political communication. The authors identify five new features of political communication that present formidable challenges for media policy makers. They suggest that these are best addressed through an imaginative, democratic approach to nurturing the emancipatory potential of the new media ecology by carving out within it a trusted online space where the dispersed energies, self-articulations, and aspirations of citizens can be rehearsed, in public, within a process of ongoing feedback to the various levels and centers of governance.

Television News and the Nation: The End?

Blondheim, M., Liebes, T. — 2009-08-20

The golden age of television news gave a large majority of otherwise diverse Americans a unified, seamless, and clear-cut image of their nation, its central players, and its agenda. Carefully scheduled, edited, sequenced, and branded, heard and seen simultaneously across America, it provided a pretense of order to the chaos that is news. The permanence and stability of the nation, as expressed in a complex way by TV news, provided Americans with an all-important sense of existential security experienced on an unarticulated emotional level. Today, a disjointed news environment is crushing the nature of network news as a transitional object. Television news no longer reassures viewers by connecting them to a surmountable world out there but carries them on a loop from themselves to themselves.

End of Television and Foreign Policy

Price, M. E. — 2009-08-20

The transformation of television has altered the capacity of the state to control the agenda for making war, convening peace, and otherwise exercising its foreign policy options. In the age of the state gatekeeper, there was at least the illusion (and often the reality) that the government could substantially control the flow of images within its borders. With transformations in television systems, national systems of broadcast regulation have declined, replaced by transnational flows of information where local gatekeepers are not so salient. The rise of satellites with regional footprints and the spread of the Internet give governments the ability to reach over the heads of the state and speak directly to populations. Both receiving and sending states will have foreign policies about the meaning of the right to receive and impart information and the extent to which satellite signals can be regulated or channeled.

Television and the Transformation of Sport

Whannel, G. — 2009-08-20

Sport played a significant part in the growth of television, especially during its emergence as a dominant global medium between 1960 and 1980. In turn, television, together with commercial sponsorship, transformed sport, bringing it significant new income and prompting changes in rules, presentation, and cultural form. Increasingly, from the 1970s, it was not the regular weekly sport that commanded the largest audiences but, rather, the occasional major events, such as the Olympic Games and football’s World Cup. In the past two decades, deregulation and digitalization have expanded the number of channels, but this fragmentation, combined with the growth of the Internet, has meant that the era in which shared domestic leisure was dominated by viewing of the major channels is closing. Yet, sport provides an exception, an instance when around the world millions share a live and unpredictable viewing experience.

The Dialectic of Time and Television

Scannell, P. — 2009-08-20

The article reviews the key question of the effects of television as proposed by Elihu Katz in his introduction and the various responses to it in the contributions to this volume. It argues that the question is a proper concern of sociology, engaged as it is with the politics of the present and immediate, short-term effects. The question of long-term effects, however, is beyond the scope of a social science methodology concerned with the impact of the new. Long-term effects only show up with the passing of time and are the concern of historical studies. As television begins to have a history, it begins to be possible to examine its historical record to try to tease out its long-term impact on the world—so far!

Fathering across Diversity and Adversity: International Perspectives and Policy Interventions

Edwards, R., Doucet, A., Furstenberg, F. F. — 2009-06-08

Exploring the Absent/Present Dilemma: Black Fathers, Family Relationships, and Social Capital in Britain

Reynolds, T. — 2009-06-08

Stereotypes show nonresident black fathers as absentee parents. In this article, the author presents a critique of the various ways the literature constructs nonresident black fathers as absent from parenting and family relationships. Drawing on the empirical data collected from two qualitative studies conducted in Britain, this article illustrates that contrary to popular belief, nonresident black fathers are active participants in their children's lives. Social capital is an important conceptual tool in highlighting the networks and resources available to these fathers in their parenting practices. These men's fathering experiences are also informed by cultural and historical factors and intersecting identities of race, ethnicity, class, and gender. The article concludes by making explicit the different ways in which family policy can develop more inclusive strategies to support nonresident black fathers in their paternal role.

Fathering in the Shadows: Indigenous Fathers and Canada's Colonial Legacies

Ball, J. — 2009-06-08

A study of Canadian Indigenous fathers' involvement conceptualized a temporal horizon within which to situate challenges and opportunities for caring for children following decades of colonial interventions that have diminished men's roles. Through five community-university partnerships, conversational interviews were held with eighty First Nations and Métis fathers in British Columbia, Canada. Using a grounded theory approach, a conceptual model was constructed identifying six key ecological and psychological factors that combine to account for Indigenous men's experiences of fatherhood: personal wellness, learning fathering, socioeconomic inclusion, social support, legislative and policy support, and cultural continuity. Indigenous fathers' accounts bring into focus systemic barriers to positive fathers' involvement, including socioeconomic exclusion due to failures of the educational system, ongoing colonization through Canada's Indian Act, and mother-centrism in parenting programs and child welfare practices. Policy and program reforms are suggested to increase Indigenous fathers' positive and sustained engagement with their children.

Understandings and Experiences of Involved Fathering in the United Kingdom: Exploring Classed Dimensions

Gillies, V. — 2009-06-08

In the United Kingdom, current family policy seeks to prioritize fathering as a social issue. The author critically examines the assumptions and expectations that underpin this approach, comparing and contrasting it with data from qualitative interviews with fathers. It highlights the class-specific nature of fathers' everyday values and experiences, pointing to the way policy-sanctioned models of fatherhood are grounded in middle-class perspectives. The author also argues that the policy discourse of the "involved father" promotes a particular role for fathers as educational facilitators, overlooking the more mundane aspects of care most often associated with motherhood.

Fathers' Perceptions of Children's Influence: Implications for Involvement

Daly, K. J., Ashbourne, L., Brown, J. L. — 2009-06-08

In this article, the authors report on a qualitative analysis of how a diverse sample of fathers perceives the influence of their own children on their identity and development. The data were collected within a large partnership-based, multiyear, multisite research project carried out in Canada as a community-university collaboration. Specifically, the data were collected from interviews with 215 fathers across seven cluster sites in Canada. Fathers perceived that children influenced their orientation toward self and other, values and expectations, time, and relationship with their parenting partner. The analysis of how fathers learn from their children resulted in a focus on learning on the spot and contending with uncertainty. The article concludes with a discussion of policy implications on how to support the well-being of fathers through the learning that they have with their children.

Dad and Baby in the First Year: Gendered Responsibilities and Embodiment

Doucet, A. — 2009-06-08

This article addresses the question of why there are persistent gender differences in the responsibility for children. It argues that understanding continuing gender divisions of domestic responsibility, particularly in the first year of parenting, requires attending to issues of identity; commitment; embodiment; deeply rooted socialization or habitus; and normative community assumptions around gender, breadwinning, and caring. Rooted in three qualitative research studies conducted over the past eight years with more than two hundred Canadian fathers and forty mothers, the author argues for renewed thinking around issues of gender equality and gender differences and how these play out in domestic and community spaces in that first year of parenting. Bridging together time, space, and embodiment, the author also maintains that short-term potential differences in domestic responsibilities in parenting should not necessarily lead to long-term chronic inequities between women and men.

Why Do Poor Men Have Children? Fertility Intentions among Low-Income Unmarried U.S. Fathers

Augustine, J. M., Nelson, T., Edin, K. — 2009-06-08

Over the past several decades, nonmarital childbearing rates have risen sharply, especially among socioeconomically disadvantaged groups. Recent research suggests that disadvantaged Americans may defer or delay marriage in part because of perceived economic barriers. Yet, childbearing is also costly. Few studies have examined low-income parents' motivations for having children in a context of socioeconomic disadvantage. This study deploys qualitative data drawn from repeated, in-depth interviews with a heterogeneous sample of low-income, noncustodial fathers (N = 171) in which men describe in rich detail the circumstances surrounding the conceptions of each of their children and characterize their fertility intentions. The authors find that "planned" and "unplanned" pregnancies are at either end of a continuum of intentionality and that the vast majority of pregnancies are in intermediate categories along that continuum.

Men's Relations with Kids: Exploring and Promoting the Mosaic of Youth Work and Fathering

Marsiglio, W. — 2009-06-08

Using qualitative in-depth interviews with a sample of adult male youth workers (n = 55), including a subset of twenty-nine fathers, the author explores how men's fathering and youth experiences can be viewed as part of a larger, integrated social mosaic. Informed selectively by social constructionist, symbolic interactionist, life course, and generativity themes, the analysis expands the fatherhood literature by connecting it to men's volunteering and work with kids in public settings. While extending his framework of fathering trajectories (self-as-father, father-child, and coparental) to examine similar processes defining men's youth work, the author explores key points of intersection between youth work and fathering: youth work as inspiration and training for fathering, reciprocal influences between youth work and fathering, and men's contributions to social capital for kids in public settings. The author also sketches several ideas to foster conceptual and practical ties between youth work and fathering to benefit youth.

The Perceptions and Experiences of Russian Immigrant and Sudanese Refugee Men as Fathers in an Urban Center in Canada

Este, D. C., Tachble, A. A. — 2009-06-08

In their effort to adapt to life in Canada, immigrant and refugee fathers encounter several stressors, including underemployment and role changes within their families. Through a qualitative study involving in-depth interviews with fourteen Russian immigrant and twenty Sudanese refugee men in Canada, the authors examine the perceptions and experiences of these men as fathers in a large urban center in western Canada. The authors present insights on the meaning of fatherhood, the values that guide their behaviors as fathers, their interactions with and aspirations for their children, decision-making processes within the family related to children, and the challenges these men have faced as fathers in Canadian society.

Family Man in the Other America: New Opportunities, Motivations, and Supports for Paternal Caregiving

Waller, M. R. — 2009-06-08

This analysis draws on longitudinal, qualitative interviews with disadvantaged mothers and fathers who participated in the Fragile Families Study (a U.S. birth cohort study) to examine how issues related to men's employment, social support, skills, and motivation facilitated their care of young children in different relationship contexts. Interviews with parents indicate that while some motivated and skilled men actively chose to become caregivers with the support of mothers, others developed new motivations, skills, and parenting supports in response to situations in which they were out of work or the mother was experiencing challenges. These findings suggest that disadvantaged men who assume caregiving responsibilities take different paths to involvement in the early years after their child's birth. Policies that overlook paternal caregivers may not only miss the opportunity to support relationships that benefit at-risk children but also unintentionally undermine this involvement.

Gendered or Gender-Neutral Care Politics for Fathers?

Brandth, B., Kvande, E. — 2009-06-08

This article analyzes how two different policy measures affect gender equality in child care. In the 1990s, Norway introduced two care policies reflecting different ideas about gender and family life. The fathers' quota policy supports the dual-earner family model while the cash-for-care scheme is based on a family model, providing cash benefits irrespective of the parent's work activities. The father's quota is a gendered policy because six weeks of the parental leave period is reserved for the father. Cash-for-care is gender neutral, in which working parents can choose which of them is to stay at home. The analysis is based on interview data from two studies, one on parental leave and one on cash-for-care. We find that the special quota for fathers has had a positive effect on the participation of fathers in child care. The cash-for-care system does not, however, challenge the existing gender structure in child care.

Fathers, Parental Leave Policies, and Infant Quality of Life: International Perspectives and Policy Impact

O'Brien, M. — 2009-06-08

Infant care is no longer purely a private family matter. As more mothers return to paid employment in their child's first year, governments develop provisions to support working parents with very young children. Statutory parental leave and flexible working provisions for fathers are expanding rapidly, particularly in Europe. The author compares fathers' patterns of leave-taking across twenty-four countries from 2003 to 2007 to present new types of father-care-sensitive leave models. Findings show that fathers' use of statutory leave is greatest when high income replacement (50 percent or more of earnings) is combined with extended duration (more than fourteen days). Father-targeted schemes heighten usage. Although studies are limited, parental leave has the potential to boost fathers' emotional investment in and connection with infants. Differential access to statuary leave raises the possibility of a new polarization for infants: being born into either a parental-leave-rich or -poor household and, indeed, country.

Competing Scenarios for European Fathers: Applying Sen's Capabilities and Agency Framework to Work--Family Balance

Hobson, B., Fahlen, S. — 2009-06-08

European policy and discourse create crosscurrents for fathers: the promotion of work-family balance (WFB) and more involved fathering versus work-focused competitiveness and productivity goals in globalized economies. Using Amartya Sen's capabilities and agency paradigm, the authors provide a theoretical framework for analyzing agency inequalities in WFB: the disjuncture between norms/values and practices and between policies and fathers' capabilities to exercise them. The authors apply the capability framework to comparative European data considering working times and desired working times, flexibility and autonomy in employment, as well as perceptions of economic security and job security. The authors find differences in fathers' capabilities and agency for WFB across countries representing different welfare regime configurations, most strikingly between old and new EU member states. The majority of the European fathers wanted to reduce working hours substantially despite possible reductions in pay, underscoring the value of the capabilities framework for understanding potential freedoms for achieving WFB.

Father-Friendly Policies and Time-Use Data in a Cross-National Context: Potential and Prospects for Future Research

Sullivan, O., Coltrane, S., Mcannally, L., Altintas, E. — 2009-06-08

In this article, the authors explore how data on the use of time might be used to investigate the multilevel connections between family-related policies and fathers' child care time in a cross-national context. The authors present a case study analysis of "fathering strategies" in which empirical findings from time-use data are compared with detailed policy information from Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. These analyses show that time-use data can not only shed light on the effects of specific policies in different national contexts but also point to the need to consider the complexity of multiple policies and their adoption in specific national contexts across time. The authors describe the development of a cross-national, cross-time database that combines time-use data with relevant social and family policy information, with the aim of providing a multilevel research tool to those interested in exploring further the relationships between policy and family work.

Introduction

Krivo, L. J., Peterson, R. D. — 2009-04-15

The Impact of Neighborhood Context on Intragroup and Intergroup Robbery: The San Antonio Experience

Cancino, J. M., Martinez, R., Stowell, J. I. — 2009-04-15

Guided by social disorganization theory, this article examines the influence of neighborhood characteristics on intragroup and intergroup robbery, net of spatial proximity in a predominantly native-born Latino/Mexican-origin city—San Antonio, Texas. From census tract and official police robbery data, the findings indicate that intragroup robbery is more common than intergroup robbery. Multivariate results show that variation in black intragroup robbery lies primarily in highly disadvantaged neighborhoods; whereas variation in Latino intergroup robbery is found in neighborhoods with more disadvantage, racial/ethnic heterogeneity, recent immigrants, and blacks. Residential instability persistently influences all robbery types. Disaggregating robberies by race and ethnicity reveals the importance of examining Latinos as offenders and victims. The case of San Antonio serves as a harbinger of conditions that may exist in the growing number of majority-Latino cities—and suggests the need to investigate crime experiences that move beyond studying racial dichotomies of violence.

Youth Violence-- Crime or Self-Help? Marginalized Urban Males' Perspectives on the Limited Efficacy of the Criminal Justice System to Stop Youth Violence

Wilkinson, D. L., Beaty, C. C., Lurry, R. M. — 2009-04-15

In 1983, sociologist Donald Black proposed the theory of "Crime as Social Control," in which he argued that for the socially disadvantaged, crime is commonly moralistic and can be characterized as self-help in the pursuit of justice when legal protection fails. This article uses Black's theory as a framework to assess the role of violence among African American male youth in disadvantaged urban communities in New York City. Using in-depth interview data for 416 young violent male offenders, the authors analyze youths' perspectives on their personal safety; access to legal, governmental, and communal protection from violence; the effectiveness of the criminal justice system and police in addressing crime and violence in their neighborhoods; and the need to rely on self- and group/gang-protection as a means of social control. The implications for self-help theory are discussed.

Latino Youths' Experiences with and Perceptions of Involuntary Police Encounters

Solis, C., Portillos, E. L., Brunson, R. K. — 2009-04-15

Research has consistently shown that African American youth report less favorable evaluations of the police than their white counterparts. The literature on police-citizen relations in Latino/a communities is scant and narrowly focused on Mexicana/os and Chicana/os in southern and midwestern U.S. cities. Therefore, we know little about the experiences of Latino/a populations in other parts of the country. This article uses a Latina/o critical theory (LatCrit) perspective to examine thirty Afro-Caribbean youths' experiences with and perceptions of New York City police. Study findings highlight respondents' views that aggressive policing tactics are intended to restrict and criminalize Latino/a youths' use of public space. The authors conclude with recommendations for improving police—community relations with this population.

The Environmental Context of Racial Profiling

Warren, P. Y., Farrell, A. — 2009-04-15

Racial profiling describes the practice of targeting or stopping an individual based primarily on his or her race rather than any individualized suspicion. Such profiling came under considerable public scrutiny beginning in the 1990s when the media drew substantial attention to racial profiling in traffic stops. This study examines whether the heightened public scrutiny generated by the media as well as legislative and organizational changes that ensued changed police officers' patterns of searches among black and white drivers. Using traffic stop data from Rhode Island between 2001 and 2005, the results demonstrate that racial disparities in searches are significantly reduced when news media coverage is putting more pronounced pressure on police organizations and police departments to make changes in leadership. These findings suggest that public scrutiny through the media and administrative commitment to fairness may be important first steps in reducing biased behavior in traffic stop enforcement.

The Effects of Race/Ethnicity and National Origin on Length of Sentence in the United States Virgin Islands

Iles, G. — 2009-04-15

Although researchers have acknowledged the importance of environmental and contextual factors in the judicial decision-making process, there is a lack of attention to sentencing decisions and outcomes in territorial courts of the United States. Drawing on the focal concerns perspective, this study analyzes the sentences of 583 federal defendants sentenced in the District Court of the United States Virgin Islands between 1997 and 2004. The findings reveal that net of legally relevant factors, Hispanics receive harsher sentences than blacks, and legal aliens receive prison sentences that are significantly longer than those received by U.S. citizens. However, the influence of legal alien status is driven by the harsher sentences imposed on defendants who are citizens of the Dominican Republic. The meaning and implications of the influence of citizenship status and race/ethnicity in a context where race/ethnicity are not overriding statuses, as they are on the U.S. mainland, are discussed.

Race and the Response of State Legislatures to Unauthorized Immigrants

Chavez, J. M., Provine, D. M. — 2009-04-15

Increasingly, state legislatures are enacting laws to regulate immigrant populations. What accounts for these responses to foreign-born residents? To explain legislative activity at the state level, the authors examine a variety of factors, including the size and growth of foreign-born and Hispanic local populations, economic well-being, crime rates, and conservative or liberal political ideology in state government and among the citizenry. The authors find that economic indicators, crime rates, and demographic changes have little explanatory value for legislation aimed at restrictions on immigrant populations. Rather, conservative citizen ideology appears to drive immigrant-related restrictionist state legislation. Meanwhile, proimmigrant laws are associated with larger Hispanic concentrations, growing foreign-born populations, and more liberal citizen and governmental orientations. These findings suggest that ideological framing is the most consistently important factor determining legislative responses to newcomers. These findings are in line with the relatively scarce empirical literature on legislative tendencies associated with vulnerable populations.

Segregated Spatial Locations, Race-Ethnic Composition, and Neighborhood Violent Crime

Peterson, R. D., Krivo, L. J. — 2009-04-15

How can we understand the dramatic linkages among race, ethnicity, place, and violence in the United States? One contention is that differences in violence across communities of varying race-ethnic compositions are rooted in highly differentiated social and economic circumstances of the segregated neighborhoods inhabited by whites, African Americans, Latinos, and other groups. Here, the authors draw upon and expand this perspective by exploring how inequality in the character of internal and nearby neighborhood conditions leads to patterned racial and ethnic differences in violence across areas. Using data from the National Neighborhood Crime Study to examine the racial-spatial dynamic of violence for neighborhoods in thirty-six U.S. cities, the authors demonstrate that along with the social and economic conditions that exist within neighborhoods, proximity to more disadvantaged and especially racially privileged (heavily white) areas is particularly critical in accounting for the large and visible differences in violence found across neighborhoods of different colors.

Race, Ethnicity, Class, and Noncompliance with Juvenile Court Supervision

Smith, H., Rodriguez, N., Zatz, M. S. — 2009-04-15

Determination of whether a youth is compliant with the conditions of probation and, if not, how to ensure future compliance is an important intermediate stage in juvenile court decision making. Yet, little is known about the conditions under which noncompliance is or is not documented in the youth's file, what happens to noncompliant youth, and whether documentation of noncompliance is influenced by race and class. Probation officers necessarily make recommendations based on incomplete knowledge, the very circumstances under which research has demonstrated that racial biases are most likely to surface. The authors analyze juvenile court data to examine whether and how documentation of noncompliance is affected by race, ethnicity, and class. Logistic regression demonstrates that black youth and youth from poorer neighborhoods are especially likely to have noncompliance documented. Content analysis of court social files clarifies further how race, class, family structure, and family circumstances affect officials' assessments of youth.

Race Effects of Representation among Federal Court Workers: Does Black Workforce Representation Reduce Sentencing Disparities?

Farrell, A., Ward, G., Rousseau, D. — 2009-04-15

Increasing racial group representation among justice professionals is considered a potential remedy to inequality in the administration of justice, including racial disparities in sentencing. Research shows mixed effects of decision maker race on sentencing. Most studies focus exclusively on the significance of individual judges' status characteristics, however, failing to consider racial group representation among other court actors. The authors consider whether such representation within and across multiple categories of court workers—judges, prosecutors, defense lawyers, and probation officers—relates to federal sentencing out comes. Findings reveal that the effect of defendant race on imprisonment decisions differs across judicial districts and is influenced by variable levels of black workforce representation. Specifically, districts with greater black representation among prosecutors are distinguished by more racially equitable odds of incar ceration. Conversely, increased black representation among probation officers is associated with greater disparity between the sentences of blacks and whites.

"Cultures of Inequality": Ethnicity, Immigration, Social Welfare, and Imprisonment

Crutchfield, R. D., Pettinicchio, D. — 2009-04-15

The authors discuss the shift from classic culture of poverty arguments to more contemporary uses of cultural variables in explaining criminal justice practices in Western industrialized countries. The authors use "cultures of inequality" to refer to the increasing taste or tolerance for inequality in the general population across nations. They also elaborate a potential link between perceived threat of others and growing tastes for inequality, thereby extending the classic threat hypothesis. Using country-level data and data from the World Values Survey, the authors find that countries with higher than average tastes for inequality also have higher income inequality, more population heterogeneity, and higher percentages of others in prison. However, people in these countries do not necessarily have more hostile attitudes toward others . The United States shares several characteristics with other Western countries but appears to be driving the difference in the mean taste for inequality between countries with low and high imprisonment of others .

The Consequences of the Criminal Justice Pipeline on Black and Latino Masculinity

Rios, V. M. — 2009-04-15

Analyses of the criminal justice system have revealed the racialized nature of crime and punishment in the United States. We know little, however, about how race, crime, and punishment are also experienced as gendered phenomena by marginalized adolescent males. Drawing from ethnographic observations and in-depth interviews, the author proposes that important insights about crime, race, and gender are gained by analyzing the experiences of adolescent males as they navigate through the criminal justice pipeline. Thus, the author examines how policing, incarceration, and probation offer masculinity-making resources that young men use to develop a sense of manhood. This study shows that one of the consequences of enhanced policing, surveillance, and punitive treatment of youth of color is the development of a specific set of gendered practices. One outcome of pervasive criminal justice contact for young black and Latino men is the production of a hypermasculinity that obstructs desistance and social mobility.

Perceptions of Criminal Injustice, Symbolic Racism, and Racial Politics

Matsueda, R. L., Drakulich, K. — 2009-04-15

This article examines the relationships between perceptions of criminal injustice, symbolic racism, and political outcomes. Building on a group conflict theory of social control and a group position theory of contemporary racism, the authors hypothesize that perceptions of criminal injustice against blacks undermines the legitimacy of social institutions, such as free markets and the legal system, and encourages support for progressive programs, such as affirmative action, to ameliorate the effects of racial discrimination. The authors further hypothesize that perceptions of criminal injustice undermine support for these progressive programs by fostering symbolic racist attitudes. Using data from the American National Election Studies, the authors find preliminary evidence for this perspective. Perceived police racial bias is negatively associated with symbolic racism, which, in turn, is negatively associated with affirmative action, equal opportunity policy, and government action to ensure equal opportunity and positively associated with support for the death penalty and crime spending.

The Mass Incarceration of Parents in America: Issues of Race/ Ethnicity, Collateral Damage to Children, and Prisoner Reentry

Foster, H., Hagan, J. — 2009-04-15

The authors discuss social selection, stigmatization, and socialization/strain theoretical explanations for the intergenerational influences of parental incarceration on their children. Results with national survey data reveal that net of selection factors, paternal imprisonment decreases the educational attainment of children in emerging adulthood. While this pattern is found across race/ethnicity, the results in combination with disproportionate minority confinement suggest that parental incarceration is a mechanism of social exclusion of these groups. With data on Texas prisoners, the authors further find that about two-thirds of Hispanic fathers and about half of African American and Anglo fathers expect to live with their children and families when they return to their communities. This last finding suggests a broad foundation across racial/ethnic groups for the investment of resources in supporting the rehabilitation and reunification of these prospective families, for the welfare of the children, their parents, and the communities in which they live.

Sequencing Disadvantage: Barriers to Employment Facing Young Black and White Men with Criminal Records

Pager, D., Western, B., Sugie, N. — 2009-04-15

In this article, the authors report the results of a large-scale field experiment conducted in New York City investigating the effects of race and a prison record on employment. Teams of black and white men were matched and sent to apply for low-wage jobs throughout the city, presenting equivalent resumés and differing only in their race and criminal background. The authors find a significant negative effect of a criminal record on employment outcomes that appears substantially larger for African Americans. The sequence of interactions preceding hiring decisions suggests that black applicants are less often invited to interview, thereby providing fewer opportunities to establish rapport with the employer. Furthermore, employers' general reluctance to discuss the criminal record of an applicant appears especially harmful for black ex-offenders. Overall, these results point to the importance of rapport-building for finding work, something that the stigmatizing characteristics of minority and criminal status make more difficult to achieve.

Structuring and Re-Creating Inequality: Health Testing Policies, Race, and the Criminal Justice System

Sykes, B. L., Piquero, A. R. — 2009-04-15

Research shows that prison inmates have a higher risk of contracting HIV than the general population, which prompts measures aimed at diagnosis, quarantine, and treatment. Research has also linked released inmates to an increase in the HIV incidence rate of communities. The authors explore the disjuncture between institutional policies and potential community outcomes by evaluating health assessments of inmates before and during prison admission. The authors argue that the penal institution is an active agent in structuring and re-creating health inequalities within prisons, thereby exacerbating existing community health inequities when inmates are released. Using data from the 2002 Survey of Inmates in Local Jails and the 2004 Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Prisons, the authors find significant racial, educational, and marital inequalities in health testing and test results. These inequalities vary across types of institutional testing policies and inmate cohorts, with later admission cohorts being less likely to receive HIV tests and future release cohorts having a higher likelihood of being HIV-positive.

Quick Read Synopsis

2009-04-15

The Globalization of Class Actions: An Overview

Hensler, D. R. — 2009-02-20

In less than a decade, the number of countries that permit representative litigation by private actors has multiplied dramatically. A minority of these procedures share all the features of the American class action for money damages. But there is a trend toward permitting private individuals and organizations to come forward on behalf of absent parties to obtain injunctive or declaratory relief or monetary compensation in some or all circumstances. Whether these procedures will spread to other countries or within countries to a wide variety of substantive legal matters and whether in particular private actors will be allowed to claim money damages in many or all instances is uncertain. Currently, the key obstacles to effective implementation of class action procedures are traditional legal funding rules that do not easily accommodate the realities of representative litigation.

Group and Aggregate Litigation in the United States

Pace, N. M. — 2009-02-20

While a class action such as one brought under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 23 is certainly the most well-known mechanism for aggregating large numbers of similar claims, other approaches include mass joinder of parties, mass consolidation of separate cases, or "multidistrict litigation" transfer of federal cases from across the country into a single action for pretrial processing; corporate reorganizations under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code; large-scale inventories of clients controlled by a single attorney; government-initiated enforcement actions; and "private attorneys general" litigation brought on behalf of the general public.

Canada

Kalajdzic, J., Bogart, W.A., Matthews, I. — 2009-02-20

Most of the provinces and the Federal Court have adopted class action procedures influenced by the U.S. model, with certification and opt out, but differing rules on costs apply. A significant number of cases are brought, most of which settle. There are unresolved transborder issues.

Argentina

Mairal, H. A. — 2009-02-20

Argentina does not have a general class action statute, but a 1994 constitutional reform allowed actions that defend collective interests and other third generation rights (e.g., the right to a healthy environment), granting standing to associations and to the Ombudsman. The Supreme Court restricted these actions to the protection of truly collective interests, thus rejecting them when they were brought to defend multiple homogeneous interests (e.g., small damages for many consumers). A recent amendment of the Consumer Protection Law allows the Ombudsman, as well as associations, to sue for damages caused to consumers and grants erga omnes effect to the judgment. Similar rules are included in federal and provincial laws that protect the environment.

Brazil

Pellegrini Grinover, A. — 2009-02-20

Brazil has led development of collective rights in Ibero-American states and has developed from consumer origins a general procedure on "public civil actions" largely brought by the attorney general. These have a two-stage process, involving a declaration on general liability followed by individuals bringing personal compensation claims.

Chile

Gubbins, M., Lopez, C. — 2009-02-20

Since 2004, class actions have been permitted for consumer claims. Claims may be brought by the National Consumer Service, which may intervene in any claim brought by groups of individuals and associations. The rule is opt in.

European Union Legislation

Hodges, C. — 2009-02-20

European Community legislation requires EU Member States to implement representative procedures for enforcement of consumer protection, intellectual property, and late payment laws, but not yet for compensation claims. The possible introduction of damages claims for competition law infringements and electronic privacy, and examination of collective redress in the consumer protection field, is being considered.

Collective Redress in Austria

Kodek, G. E. — 2009-02-20

The Austrian Code of Civil Procedure does not contain special rules for collective redress, so traditional tools of multiparty practice such as joinder, consolidation, or, in certain cases, assignment or the appointment of a curator, had to be adapted for mass cases. In response to an increase in mass litigation, a draft of a group procedure was prepared by the Austrian Ministry of Justice in 2007, which provided for a new group proceeding for cases involving three or more claimants and a large number (probably more than fifty) claims and similar questions of law and fact. Any questions not resolved in the group proceeding have to be determined in individual lawsuits.

Belgium

Storme, M. E., Terryn, E. — 2009-02-20

Belgium illustrates the traditional European civil law tradition of emphasis on principles of civil litigation based on individual rights and standing. That tradition, requiring legislative rather than judicial authorization, has blocked general reform of collective representation and led to gradual recognition of individual and rather complex exceptions, overlaid by EU measures. No innovative reforms have yet crystallized.

England and Wales

Hodges, C. — 2009-02-20

England and Wales have rules on managing multiple similar claims (the Group Litigation Order) and particular representative procedures for consumer protection cases and for competition cases. The competition procedure permits representative damages claims and reforms may introduce damages more widely. But the most interesting feature is the development of oversight of collective compensation by public regulatory authorities and alternative dispute resolution or voluntary mechanisms.

France

Magnier, V. — 2009-02-20

France has long-established procedures for approved consumer organizations bringing actions to defend general consumer or investor interests, involving injunctive relief, but debate on the introduction of collective damages actions has yet to resolve into reform. Traditional principles oppose an opt-out approach.

Germany

Baetge, D. — 2009-02-20

Although strong traditional principles have stifled reform of multiple procedures beyond joinder and consolidation, injunction claims by associations and commercial organizations have for some decades been more active in Germany than many European states. Since 2000, innovative experiments have been under way with a special model case procedure for investor claims and assignment of claims in antitrust. Both these approaches are likely to prove inadequate, but debates on reform remain cautious.

Italy

Silvestri, E. — 2009-02-20

Italy has specific, sectoral representative procedures familiar in other European states, especially on consumer protection. Lengthy debate resulted in a general law being passed in 2007, which was postponed by a new government in 2008.

The Netherlands

Tzankova, I., Lunsingh Scheurleer, D. — 2009-02-20

In comparison to the collective redress mechanisms available in other EU countries, the Netherlands has innovative legislation under which settlements of mass damage claims may be certified by a court and so become binding on all members of the group, unless they opt out.

Portugal

Sousa Antunes, H. — 2009-02-20

The science of Law cannot ignore the phenomenon of the influence in Europe of the language, practice and teaching of American law, within an Americanization of Law which takes place alongside the Americanization of European culture. With regard to representative group litigation, Portuguese law has implemented a general set of rules in this area (Law 83/95). The law in force covers popular action to prevention, to the prosecution of offenses and to claims for damages. Popular action includes, amongst other interests protected by the law, public health, the environment, quality of life, consumers' rights, cultural heritage and the public domain. Standing is granted to any citizen who enjoys civil and political rights, and to associations and foundations, regardless of whether they have a direct interest in the claim or not, with the res judicata binding all members of the class who have not exercised their right to opt out.

Spain

Gutierrez de Cabiedes, P. — 2009-02-20

Compensation is widely claimed within public criminal prosecutions, not within civil proceedings. In addition to procedures on defending general consumer interests, Spain introduced a notable reform in 2000, providing for damages claims to be brought collectively in consumer cases, particularly by consumer associations.

Switzerland

Baumgartner, S. P. — 2009-02-20

Switzerland has the traditional Austro-German representative association procedures. Debate on adoption of other models, given the opportunity of the introduction of a first federal Code of Civil Procedure, reveals considerable cautious conservatism toward reform.

Poland

Tulibacka, M. — 2009-02-20

Poland is grappling with the need to create an efficient market economy and democratic civil society. The socialist legacy includes mistrust of judicial control and strong reliance on public prosecutors, and some social organizations, in representative litigation. A new draft Act on group litigation adopts a careful but informed approach to modern problems, based on opt in, with strong judicial management and a number of antiabuse mechanisms.

Class Actions in Denmark

Werlauff, E. — 2009-02-20

The standard European consumer representative injunction actions have been extended from 2008 by a general class action procedure. This is normally an opt-in mechanism, but under certain conditions, and only for actions brought by a designated public authority such as the consumer ombudsman, it can be brought on an opt-out basis.

Finland

Viitanen, K. — 2009-02-20

Finland has the Nordic traditional mixture of public and private mechanisms for collective redress, especially in consumer affairs, including a Public Consumer Dispute Board and Consumer Ombudsman. The latter's powers have been considerably extended from 2008 with the (exclusive) ability under the Group Action Act to bring opt-in collective actions for damages.

Norway

Bernt, C. — 2009-02-20

Representative litigation by associations, has a long history. A general class action was introduced as part of comprehensive review of civil procedure in the Dispute Act of 2005, in force from 2008, again giving standing to class members and relevant public and private associations. This is an opt-in procedure but the court may order an opt-out approach. Costs considerations may restrict activity to interest organizations and public bodies

Sweden

Lindblom, P. H. — 2009-02-20

Various forms of representative group litigation have existed for decades in the special Labor and Market Courts, initiated by private organizations such as trade unions and the Consumer Ombudsman. A "true" class action, brought in a general court by a member of a group, or by an organization, or an administrative agency (e.g. the Consumer Ombudsman)—allowing claims both for injunctive relief and individual damages for group members—was introduced in Sweden by the Group Proceedings Act, which entered into force on January 1, 2003. This is an opt-in procedure.

Israel

Magen, A., Segal, P. — 2009-02-20

Israel's civil litigation system, derived primarily from that of England and Wales, gradually evolved a series of American-influenced provisions into sector-specific Israeli law (from 1988 to 2005). The 2006 general Class Action Law introduced a comprehensive class action legal framework, containing detailed provisions on, inter alia, permissible causes of action, certification, representation, case management, settlements, funding, costs, and fees.

South Africa

Plasket, C. — 2009-02-20

The Constitution of South Africa provides simply for claimants to represent anyone who cannot act, or a group, or the public interest. In the absence of more detailed procedural rules on how these rights are to operate, the courts have had to grapple with issues on standing within a difficult socioeconomic and political background.

China

Palmer, M., Chao Xi, — 2009-02-20

China has three important types of opt-in representative procedures, depending on whether the number of claimants is fixed or not. In addition, a special procedure covers securities fraud claims. Mediation is emphasized in all types.

Japan

Sugawara, I. — 2009-02-20

In addition to the traditional concepts of joinder and authorized representation, Japan permits only injunction claims by consumer organizations against unfair business practice and contract terms, with strong restrictions on approval of such organizations.

Malaysia: Principles and Procedural Obstacles

Yeow Choy Choong, , Balan, S. — 2009-02-20

The Malaysian procedural system is based on the English rules that applied prior to the 1999 reforms and the introduction of the Group Litigation Order in the latter. The representative procedure that applies is similarly restrictive and limited as it then was in England and Wales.

Group Litigation in Singapore

Pinsler, J. — 2009-02-20

The only form of group litigation recognized by the Singapore Rules of Court at present is the representative action. The adequacy of the procedure, and the possible introduction of a wider group/class action mechanism, is being considered. The litigation in Tan Chin Seng & Others v. Raffles Town Club Pte Ltd [2002] SGHC 278 (High Court) and Tan Chin Seng and Others v. Raffles Town Club Pte Ltd (No 2) [2003] 3 SLR 307 (Court of Appeal) provides a useful example of representative proceedings and will be considered.

Taiwan

Shen, K.-L., Yang, A. Y.-P. — 2009-02-20

Taiwan, a civil law system, has several distinctive group procedures, reformed in the 2003 Code of Civil Procedure, which emphasized judicial economy. The representative party procedure, the "joining-into representative party" procedure and the "quasi-association's suit" procedure, are all based on the assignment of rights by parties. The "association's suit for injunction relief" procedure applies a statutory assignment.

Indonesia

Achmad Santosa, M. — 2009-02-20

Since 1997, class actions filing procedures have appeared in environmental, consumer protection, and forestry laws with increasing use. Pending clarification of detailed procedural aspects in expected legislation, the Supreme Court has issued an interim Regulation.

Australia

Morabito, V. — 2009-02-20

Opt-out class actions exist in the Federal Court and in Victoria, but not other states, supported by liberal funding and cost regimes.

What Are People Trying to Do in Resolving Mass Issues, How Is It Going, and Where Are We Headed?

Hodges, C. — 2009-02-20

This concluding article seeks to take an overview of some intriguing issues that emerge from the national reports. At first sight, class actions exist to provide a solution to mass issues raised in courts. What are litigants, their lawyers, and the courts trying to do here? How successful have they been? Might there be other ways of solving mass issues, and what are those alternatives? Is the position static or dynamic? If the latter, where are things heading? What will happen next?

Quick Read Synopsis

2009-02-20