Avelardo Valdez

Psychopathy among Mexican American Gang Members: A Comparative Study

High-risk Mexican American males were assessed for levels of psychopathy. The Hare Psychopathy Checklist–Screening Version was compared in a random sample of gang members with a matched community sample of violent non-gang members and samples of forensic and psychiatric patients and undergraduate students. Analysis involved t-test, chi- square, and Cronbach’s alpha statistics. More than half of the gang sample were categorized as low, 44% as moderate, and only 4% as high on psychopathy. The gang members had higher scores on the total, affective, and behavioral scores than the non–gang members. High scores on adolescent antisocial behavior, poor behavioral controls, and lack of remorse were found in both samples. Gang members scored twice as high as non-gang members on lack of empathy. Both samples were lower on psychopathy than the forensics and higher than psychiatric patients and undergraduates. The results provide grounds for early intervention efforts for this high-risk population.

A comparison of alcohol, drugs, and aggressive crime among Mexican-American, black, and white male arrestees in Texas.

Few comparative studies exist examining the relationship between substance abuse and aggressive behavior under different social conditions. We studied the relationship between aggressive crime and substance abuse among Mexican-American, black and white male arrestees in Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio, Texas using existing 1992 Drug Use Forecasting (DUF) data. The aim of the analysis was to predict the outcome of aggressive crime from drug and alcohol-related and ethnic group variables within the total male sample (n = 2,364). Results indicated that ethnicity was significantly related to aggressive crime. Mexican-American arrestees were more likely to be arrested for aggressive crimes than either blacks or whites. Drug and alcohol use effects were found across all ethnic groups. In general, the subgroup which drank frequently and tested positive for drug use was less likely to be charged with aggressive crimes than the other subgroups. The psychopharmacological influence of alcohol as a disinhibitor and drugs as a inhibitor provides one explantation of the results. Specific ethnic subcultural and ecological influences also affect the outcome. Our study strongly indicates the heterogeneous character of the drug using population in relation to aggression. The variability between subculturally defined subgroups requires detained ethnographic field studies in the future to describe the contexts of substance use and aggressive behavior.

Illegal drug use, alcohol and aggressive crime among Mexican-American and white male arrestees in San Antonio

This research explores the relationship between use of certain drugs and aggressive crimes among Mexican-American and White male arrestees in San Antonio, Texas, for 1992. This is based on a Drug Use Forecasting (DUF) sample of 534 male arrestees administered a drug urine analysis test and questionnaire by the Department of Justice and the city of San Antonio. Using a four-way asymmetrical analysis, logit-models were tested to examine the relationships between the response variable, the types of crimes charged (nonaggressive versus aggressive) and a set of exploratory variables, ethnicity (White versus Hispanic), drug test results (positive versus negative), and alcohol use (infrequent versus frequent). The logit-analysis allows the specification of a subset of relevant models to be tested for their adequacy of fit. Findings indicate a complex but interpretable pattern between drug use, alcohol use patterns, and aggressive crimes. A surprising finding was that more aggressive crimes were committed by all men testing negative for drugs. Mexican-Americans with frequent alcohol use and testing positive for drugs were twice as likely to commit an aggressive crime (a crime associated with violence) than Whites in the same subgroup. The implication of these findings for prevention strategies aimed at alcohol and other drug users involved in violent behavior is discussed.

Teaching Mexican American Experiences through Film: Private Issues and Public Problems.

This article focuses on the use of feature films as a pedagogical tool in sociology classes. Sociological and cinematic representations are used to contribute to an understanding of the Mexican American experience. An interpretive procedure, or hermeneutics, is used as a methodology that provides an encounter between the students experience, film, and social science texts. As well, the Millsian relation between personal problems and social issues are developed within the context of the material. The cinematic construction of reality is analyzed as the effect of the constraints of the Hollywood production system, and the operation of ideology, including representations of ethnicity and gender

GENDER IN THE CULTURE OF MEXICAN AMERICAN CONJUNTO MUSIC

This article examines the role of gender in the culture of conjunto music, a Mexican American musical genre. It describes how gender is articulated with factors of ethnicity and class in the context of the conjunto setting and performance. The authors examine the structure of gender relations, socialization, and resistance, and they attempt to identify the effects within patriarchy on the forms of adaptation and power available to women in conjunto settings. Conjunto is an arena in which conventional gender identity and gender inequality are reproduced, reinforced, and contested.

The Legal Importation of Prescription Drugs into the United States from Mexico: A Study of Customs Declaration Forms

The nature and magnitude of the problem of the diversion of prescription drugs from legal to illegal markets have been identified as a high priority by the federal government. This study was based on a random sample (2,005) of declaration forms of persons declaring Mexican prescription drugs at the US Customs office in Laredo, Texas. Of the 75 different types of drugs, the most frequently declared drugs were Valium (71%), Rohypnol (46%), and Tafil (25%), drugs highly associated with nonmedicinal use among United States teenagers and young adults. These data reinforce a documented need for more transnational cooperative efforts between the United States and Mexico.

Culture and rationalization: The impact of a national foundation initiative on a community‐based cultural arts center∗

This article discusses the impact of a major national foundation initiative on a Mexican American community-based cultural arts center located in a large Southwestern city in the United States. Its focus concerns problems posed by rationalization for activities that are instrumentally oriented versus those oriented toward issues of value and identity (Weber, 1947). Weber makes us sensitive to this distinction between formal and substantive rationality. For Weber, formal rationality is expressed by bureaucracy, science, and technology. It orients action to formal rules, and privileges calculability and control. Substantive rationality, on the other hand, is oriented to the ends of human action, and is concerned with human values and needs. The problem with formal rationalization for Weber is that it increasingly becomes a form of domination in everyday life. Bureaucracy and technology cannot give meaning to the world, and instead drive out considerations of ultimate ends and values of action. Rather than establishing values, bureaucracy merely administers them. From this point of view, cultural organizations, e.g., community groups and churches, would be expected not only increasingly to

Book Review: Anglos and Mexicans in the Making of Texas, 1836–1986Anglos and Mexicans in the Making of Texas, 1836–1986. By MontejanoDavid. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press, 1987.

David Montejands major theme in Anglos and Mexicans in the Making of Texas, 1836-1986 is that Mexican-Anglo relations in Texashave been variously defined by the states evolving economic order. Montejano maintains that the dynamatic nature of the Texaseconomy during these 150 years effected sequential periods of repression, discrimination and segregation, and integration for Texas Mexicans. Informed by sociological theory and an intrepretive historical perspective, Montejano, in the tradition of scholars like RodolfoAcuna (Occupied America) and Ricardo Romo (East Los Angeles), provides a particularly vivid historical interpretation of Southwestern history. Among the rich and varied resource material used in this research, too numerous to mention here, is Paul Taylors 1927-1930 classic interview collections. The socio-history of Texasis divided into four periods; incorporation (1839-1900), reconstruction (1900-1920), segregation (1920-1940), and integration (1940-1986). Montejano traces the transition of the Texas economy from Mexican haciendalranching to Anglo capitalist-based agriculture and its negative impact on the annexed Mexican populations. This approach departs significantly from that of many historians and sociologists who treat Mexicans as another immigrant group on the assimilation train. The beginning section on incorporation (1836-1900) describes how property and wealth were assumed by Anglos after Texas Independence and annexation. In spite of a brief peace structure between Mexican elites and Anglo settlers, characterized by intermarriage and adoption of Mexican customs, the latter consolidated their economic and political power by the end of the century. Anglo merchants, lawyers, and ranchers and farmers became the new elite displacing the Mexican upper class. Montejano details how this was accomplished with the influx of capital, displacement of Mexicans from the land, railroad construction, and the inclosure of cattle range. As well, incorporation imposed wage labor contracts as the dominant work arrangement. In the next chapters on reconstruction (1900/1920), the author describes the gross transformation of the Texaseconomy from ranching to agriculture, and how this assumed a