Brian Wolf

Environmental movement organizations and political strategy : Tactical conflicts over NAFTA

The authors introduce the study of material-organizational dependencies into research on political differences in the environmental movement. Presently, the study of disparities in the environmental movement focuses on the ideological differences among major environmental groups to the exclusion of some very glaring discrepancies in the material-organizational context of these groups. The authors present a conceptual model of organizational differences among several U.S. environmental movement organizations to explain variation in their political behavior in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) fight (1991-1993). The case of NAFTA offers a useful context given the volatility of environmental movement politics at the time, the range of issues forced to the surface in major groups, and the ultimate movement split that the politics over NAFTA engendered. It is evident that the split between pro-NAFTA and anti-NAFTA environmental groups stems in large part from substantial differences in both the ideological frames and material-organizational alliances formed among these groups.

Denver’s Citizen/Police Complaint Mediation Program Officer and Complainant Satisfaction

Ensuring police use their authority justly is a persistent concern. Yet, there is little agreement on the most effective mechanisms for promoting accountability. The present study seeks to contribute to a growing body of research on mediation of police disputes by assessing variation in levels of satisfaction among officers and citizens. Using data collected by the Denver Office of the Independent Monitor, the study assesses the degree to which mediation produced differential levels of satisfaction. The study finds that both police and civilian participants in the mediation program were significantly more satisfied than individuals who participated in traditional complaint processing. In addition, the study finds that mediation is likely to have even stronger effects on satisfaction for Latino complainants, and female police officers. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Deviant Heroes: Nonconformists as Agents of Justice and Social Change

Sociologists usually define deviance as a fluid construct, relative to given social circumstances, and something that is neither negative nor positive in and of itself. Despite the rejection of absolutist approaches, the vast majority of texts and studies concerning deviant behavior implicitly or explicitly present deviance as either a morally bad or morally neutral behavior. Such literatures wrongly conflate deviant behavior with villainous actions. We argue that some of the most important deviants have been at the leading forefront of positive social change and the creation of a more just, fair, and humane society. Deviant heroes are those individuals who violate unjust norms and laws, facing the repercussions of social control, while simultaneously effecting positive social change. This article considers the theoretical role of the deviant hero within classical and contemporary sociological traditions and identifies new directions for social research.

Perceived accountability and public attitudes toward local police

Abstract Recent national events have brought the issue of police-community relations into the public eye. Even though a large body of academic research exists on the predictors of public attitude toward police, very little is known about how public perceptions of police accountability influence satisfaction with the police. This study seeks to fill that gap by using ordered logistic regression and multi-year community-level survey data from one Western city (n = 3725) to examine the relationship between satisfaction with police accountability and overall attitudes toward the police. The results indicate that respondent satisfaction with police accountability was a strong, consistent predictor of satisfaction with local police, even after controlling for other important variables, such as race/ethnicity and community context. The findings suggest that public perceptions relating to the control of police officer conduct should be considered when assessing the predictors of attitudes toward the police.

Social Analysis of Security: Financial, Economic and Ecological Crime—Crime, (In)security and (Dis)trust—Public and Private Policing

(Chapter Three), racial and ethnic disparities in characters and their narrative arcs (Chapter Eight), the maddeningly narrow framings of gender and sexuality in comic books and the hegemonic masculinity that supports such practices (Chapter Seven), broad moral polemics of ‘‘good versus evil’’ (Chapters Five and Six), and assumptions that guide flawed ideas about crime’s causes and potential solutions. Chapter Five highlights how crime is often portrayed as a problem of individuals, as embodied in archetypical comic book villains who are routinely portrayed as irredeemable ‘‘bad seeds,’’ while Chapter Nine explores the policy pitfalls to be incurred if the retributive and punitive messages found in comic books and other popular culture forms are allowed to influence real-world crime discourse. Overall, Comic Book Crime skillfully blends the fun of popular culture with the sense of purpose that characterizes empirical inquiry to provide an engaging, critical, and wellwritten study that marks a welcome contribution to the media-crime literature.