D. Randall Smith

Effects of Structural Position on Allocation and Evaluation Decisions for Scientists and Engineers in Industrial R&D

This paper examines the influence of the structural positions of different demographic groups in the science and engineering labor force on their access to the allocation of favorable work experiences and their effect on decisions about the evaluation of their performance. Our hypotheses challenge assumptions in the management literature that each group will necessarily express ingroup bias and outgroup derogation. Instead, we call attention to the status hierarchy that develops from status construction processes, the prototypicality that emerges from social categorization processes, and a framework of stereotype content that is based on an analysis of structural positions among groups in the society. Using hierarchical linear modeling with survey data from scientists and engineers in research and development in 24 major corporations, we find that U.S.-born white males, who constitute the normative ingroup, receive advantages in both allocation and evaluation decisions from all evaluators, not just from other white men. We also find that normative outgroups (non-male, non-whites, and/or non-U.S. born) receive ambivalent or indifferent more than discriminatory or biased treatment, depending on their structural position in relation to U.S.-born white men, and that these effects are independent of who is doing the rating.

Favoritism, Bias, and Error in Performance Ratings of Scientists and Engineers: The Effects of Power, Status, and Numbers

In this paper we argue that the sociostructural position of groups must be taken into consideration along with motivational and cognitive processes to explain evaluations received and made by women, Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians. With this framework, we analyze performance ratings for a sample of 2,445 scientists and engineers from 24 U.S. companies and find that (a) there is more evidence of in-group favoritism than of out-group derogation; (b) high status, dominant, and majority group members enjoy favoritism expressed as a global prototype of them as competent; and (c) subordinate, minority group members “overshoot” in opposite ways toward other groups depending on their status and the status level of the target group. We find these effects even after controlling for self-reported productivity and for various errors inherent in the evaluation process.

The home advantage revisited: winning and crowd support in an era of national publics.

Home teams win over 50% of sporting contests. The sociological appeal of this is the assumption that home advantages are partly the result of the support fans provide, with the collective inspiring teams to performances above normal achievements. Recent changes in professional sports suggest that home support may not be as strong as once expected as structural conditions producing the home advantage have shifted. Distancing of players from fans via free agency and rapid salary escalation, coupled with marketing designed to create national publics, can produce declines in the home advantage. Levels of home advantage have decreased over 20 years, and now, an increase in crowd size reduces the home teams chances of winning. Teams can still garner support from home crowds, but professional sports are less likely to be representations for local communities; the social bases of the home advantage have been eroded by economic forces and league marketing.

Patterns of delinquent careers: An assessment of three perspectives☆

The literature on careers of juvenile delinquents has been divided as to whether or not career specialization occurs. It has recently been proposed that the careers of delinquents may be viewed as arising from a Markov process with the observed arrest histories the result of a series of stochastic events. This approach has considerable appeal for it provides a wealth of information about criminal behavior, including predictions concerning the length and diversification of a delinquent career, the long-run distribution of various types of crimes, the extent of specialization in delinquency, and offense switching over the course of a delinquent career. In the present paper, the career patterns for a sample of highly delinquent, incarcerated juveniles are investigated. Although some support is found for specialization in delinquent careers, especially among robbery offenders, the findings generally support situational theories of crime.

Governmental Constraints and Labor Market Mobility. Turnover among College Athletic Personnel.

The recent interest in the effects of labor markets upon mobility has tended to overlook the impact of governmental equity constraints. One market with such constraints is that for college coaches, a market subject to both Title IX and EEO regulations. In this article data from over 15,000 coaching and administrative positions are analyzed. The results suggest that as with findings from other studies, a bifurcation of this market may be occurring. Consistent with the intent of Title IX, the number of positions coaching and administering womens athletics has increased. However, contrary to the intent of EEO regulations, the probability of filling a vacant position is not equal across the sexes. These ambiguous developments in the market may reflect ambiguities in governmental equity constraints, as well as supply factors and general trends in the sexual composition of occupations.

Trends in victimization in schools and elsewhere, 1974–1981

Trends in the rate of victimizations of juveniles in three settings-schools, homes, and streets/parks-are examined monthly during the period 1974–1981. The relationship between in-school victimization rates and those occurring outside of school are analyzed with multivariate ARMA models informed by previous research on school victimization (Gottfredson and Gottfredson, 1985) and an importation perspective on the source of crime and victimization in institutions such as schools. Results indicate that the overall in-school victimization rate remained relatively stable during this period but that victimization rates of juveniles in other settings had significant effects on in-school victimizations. This suggests that underlying causes of victimization in general are important determinants of victimization in schools. These results are limited, however, as we examine these sources of victimization only indirectly via relationships among the different victimization rates in dynamic models and by the aggregate nature of the monthly data from the National Crime Survey.

The consequences of error: Recidivism prediction and civil-libertarian ratios

Abstract The utility of recidivistic prediction is limited by the false positive problem: predictions of failure (recidivism) that do not occur. False negatives (predicted successes but observed failures) are also worrisome, and together both types of error can be formally evaluated by what Blumstein, Farrington, and Moitra call the civil-libertarian ratio: the ratio of the subjective cost of a false positive to a false negative. Choice of a recidivistic criterion and selection of a proportion of offenders for criminal justice intervention have implications for the evaluation of the disutility or subjective cost associated with various civil-libertarian ratios. Logistic regression models of four recidivistic criteria are evaluated to demonstrate how base rate (observed failure rate) and selection ratio (proportion selected to fail) affect the disutility associated with a range of civil-libertarian ratios. Use of civil-libertarian ratios by criminal justice policy makers is demonstrated. Predictive utility is relatively difficult to achieve for rare recidivistic events if the decisions involve severe deprivation of liberty (incarceration decisions). Predictive utility is easier to achieve for more common forms of recidivism or in decision contexts where there is less concern for false positives, such as for “intermediate sanctions.”

The Multidimensionality of Crime: A Comparison of Techniques for Scaling Delinquent Careers

The construction of typologies of criminal behavior can benefit from the use of multidimensional analytic methods. Yet while some studies have applied such techniques to crime data (e.g., Shortet al, 1963; Nutch and Bloombaum, 1968; Chaiken and Chaiken, 1982), few have examined the assumptions of these methods as they apply to arrest histories. We argue that arrest histories represent a special form of data that are not ideally suited to standard multidimensional analyses. An examination of the different theoretical assumptions of factor analysis, multidimensional scaling, and variance centroid scaling (a form of correspondence analysis) reveals marked difierences in what is being uncovered by the analysis. In general, these claims are supported by an application of each technique to the arrest histories of 767 chronic juvenile delinquents.

College Sports’ Corporate Arena

Sociologist D. Randall Smith argues that a segment of big-time college sports has embraced the corporate model and this has led to a steady increase in the revenue gap between the “haves” and “have nots.”

It Pays to Bend the Rules The Consequences of NCAA Athletic Sanctions

Scandals in big-time college sports receive considerable attention in the media, scrutiny that can potentially damage the reputation of host institutions. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) monitors any rule-breaking behaviors of members and sanctions the most egregious offenders. I use panel data for colleges and universities fielding Division I football or basketball teams to seek effects of those sanctions that could produce general deterrence. The literature on organizational and white-collar crime is used to identify control variables for models of deterrent effects. Most penalties for major violations do not affect the outcomes investigated. Recently instituted sanctions for poor academic performance are slightly more effective, resulting in a small change in the football winning percentage especially when scholarships are taken away. Overall, the results suggest that colleges and universities suffer little economic or reputational damage when their athletic programs are penalized for violating Association rules.