Douglas Lee Eckberg

Estimates of early twentieth-century U.S. homicide rates: An econometric forecasting approach

Bureau of the Census death registration records, as reported in Mortality Statistics, are a primary source for early twentieth-century U.S. homicide statistics. Those data appear to show a massive rise in homicide during the first decade of the century, with a continuing increase through 1933. This increase is quite at variance with the trend away from violence in other industrialized societies. During the first one-third of the century, however, death registration was incomplete; it occurred only in an expanding “registration area” that was composed, in the earlier years, primarily of states with typically low rates of homicide. Further, in the first decade of the century homicides within the registration area often were reported as accidental deaths. As a result, apparent increases in rates of homicide in the United States between 1900 and 1933 may be illusory. I use a two-step process to address these problems. Drawing on internal evidence and commentaries in early volumes of Mortality Statistics, I use GLS regression to estimate the prevalence of undercounts. Then I create a series of GLS models that use registration area data to estimate early twentieth-century national rates. These estimates call into question the extent of homicide change early in the century.

Social influences on belief in creationism

This study uses correlation and regression analysis to examine two approaches to understanding belief in creationism and, by extension, an array of socially conservative attitudes: long‐term socialization and present community membership. Long‐term socialization gains clear support. There are independent effects of size of childhood hometown and having had a mother who played a traditional homemaker role (creationists tend to have come from smaller towns and to have had traditional mothers). There is fragmentary evidence of an independent effect of childhood denomination. However, there also is evidence of effects of present religious community membership in that there are differences between conservative Protestants and Christians from other denominations in predictors of beliefs. Among the latter, educational attainment has the strongest effect on scores on an index of creationist belief, but belief in the Bible has no effect. However, among conservative Protestants, education shows almost no effect at ...

Teaching Scholarship During The 1990s: A Study of Authorship in Teaching Sociology

While the scholarship of teaching has risen in prominence in the past few decades, little is presently known about the structure of knowledge creation and dissemination in that area of scholarship. Such basic facts as the characteristics of programs that perform and publish the research (e.g., B.A., M.A., or Ph.D.), or the identities of specific schools that are leaders in teaching scholarship remain undocumented. This article explores the topic through counts of articles and notes published in a major outlet in the scholarship of teaching, Teaching Sociology, during the decade of the 1990s. We address the following: (1) Does publication of teaching scholarship vary by the type of degree program (e.g., B.A., M.A., and Ph.D.) or by other characteristics? (2) Are some institutions centers of teaching scholarship? (3) How wide is the scope of teaching scholarship across the nations departments? Overall, we find that a variety of sociology departments have established records of teaching publishing. Yet, some departments are leaders and appear to create a climate favorable to teaching scholarship. Jonathan Marx is professor of sociology at Winthrop University where he teaches courses in research methods, education, sport, organizations, and health. His most recent publications vary from a social history of science fairs to an examination of final gift exchange among the elderly. Douglas Eckberg is professor of sociology and Chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Winthrop University. He teaches a variety of courses and is convinced that research methods is the most fundamental course for developing critical thinking in students. He will be taking a sabbatical from teaching next year to pursue his strongest research interest–historical (nineteenth-century) southern homicide.

Trends in Conflict: Uniform Crime Reports, the National Crime Victimization Surveys, and the Lethality of Violent Crime

Previous research has found reduced mortality from aggravated assaults, attributed to medical care improvements. However, aggravated assault has limitations as a longitudinal measure of injuries from violence. The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) can address this by providing estimates of serious injuries from criminal victimization. Their lethality trend is not compatible with the previous finding across 1973 through 1999, remaining stable rather than falling. After 1999, both Uniform Crime Reports (UCR)-and NCVS-based measures indicate increases in lethality. The trend differences raise serious problems of data choice for the researcher.