Jeremy R. Porter

Cure violence: a public health model to reduce gun violence

Scholars and practitioners alike in recent years have suggested that real and lasting progress in the fight against gun violence requires changing the social norms and attitudes that perpetuate violence and the use of guns. The Cure Violence model is a public health approach to gun violence reduction that seeks to change individual and community attitudes and norms about gun violence. It considers gun violence to be analogous to a communicable disease that passes from person to person when left untreated. Cure Violence operates independently of, while hopefully not undermining, law enforcement. In this article, we describe the theoretical basis for the program, review existing program evaluations, identify several challenges facing evaluators, and offer directions for future research.

“Liquor before beer, you're in the clear”: binge drinking and other risk behaviours among fraternity/sorority members and their non-Greek peers

Objective: To examine “college drinking culture” and explore alcohol use and other variables among a sample of US college students. Methods: Bivariate crosstabulation and logistic regression analyses were used to examine associations between alcohol use, gender, Greek membership and risk behaviours among a random sample of 823 undergraduates who completed a health behaviour survey. Results: Respondents who binged were significantly more likely to be male and belong to a fraternity/sorority. Fraternity bingers were significantly more likely to engage in physical fights (p < 0.05) than non-Greek male bingers. Sorority bingers were significantly more likely to be injured (p < 0.01), drive under the influence of alcohol (DUI) (p < 0.001), be sexually victimised (p < 0.01) and engage in unwanted sex (p < 0.05) than non-Greek female bingers. Fraternity members who binged frequently (≥3 times in 2 weeks) were significantly more likely to DUI (p < 0.01) and engage in unprotected sex (p < 0.05) than were those who binged intermittently. Sorority members who binged frequently were significantly more likely to DUI (p < 0.05) than were those who binged intermittently. Conclusion: Prevention efforts likely to be effective in changing binge drinking among college students should be gender specific, consider peer drinking norms, target “windows of risk” and be tailored to the campus’ culture of drinking.

Implementing research in the social sciences with spatial data and ‘Not-So-New’ issues to watch out for

If one listens to thought leaders in the computing industry, we are being deluged with a tsunami of spatial data arising from one form of telecommunications technology after another. If one listens to the business community, ‘Big Data’ is the current buzzword, supplanting the entré of business schools into the training of ‘Business Intelligence’ (BI) stewards. In remote sensing, the concept of ‘Data Fusion’ has been active and well. Openshaw (1997), writing 15 years ago as part of a US National Academy of Sciences workshop on massive data sets, cautioned advocates of what then was described as Big Data about some of the problems facing analysts: legacy GIS software, computationally intense method requirements, and other foibles in what he called the ‘global data swamp’. Today, we have segments of the thought-space on spatial data vying for their view to be the focus; we see them emanating from different organizational spheres. One is the computing industry whose members largely focus on software models of how to harness some of these data into ‘business model’ versions of software tools. Examples of this are libraries, toolkits, and languages for others to invoke in building more something complete (read: useful to the non-programming community). Another is the business management sphere, catalyzed by start-up companies, academic researchers, and large-scale software vendors. The motivation here is the ‘new magic’ of analyzing corporate data in order to enhance profits. As Davenport and Harris (2007) advocate, many businesses cannot make their products cheaper than their competitors but, if they reach their product market in a less costly fashion, they succeed on the basis of corporate profit. A third is the traditional view of data analysis and visualization linked to John Tukey, a prominent statistician who pioneered ‘looking’ at data prior to applying complex analytical techniques to them. The organizational sphere for this lineage lies in academia, corporate R&D, and government agencies whose mission is based upon collected data. In the short run, there is little chance for these spheres to integrate in terms of their perspectives. Nor should they! The churning of ideas will undoubtedly produce a richer mix of approaches than a top-down Blue Ribbon Panel wrestling with which approach is best. That does not mean that there are not alligators in this global data swamp. As Openshaw surmised over a decade ago:

Existing Biomass Infrastructure and Theoretical Potential Biomass Production in the U.S.

Abstract Please click here to download the map associated with this article. The recent and projected status of energy production and consumption in the U.S., resulting in substantial dependencies upon foreign oil, has continued to provide pressure on domestic energy security. All told, bio-energy systems, and biomass crop production in particular, will be important elements of national security, economic vitality, and public policy. Using biomass crop estimates based upon models developed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, we identify potential biomass crop production zones within the contiguous 48 states of the United States using spatially centered analytic methods. The Midwest and the South regions of the United States are, by far, the largest regions of potential production. However, the Midwest region holds a number of advantageous positions over the South in relation to social and economic competition, which is likely to hinder the development of a bio-economy in the region. Furthermore, we include here the physical location of existing biofuel refinement plants as a measure of the currently available infrastructure. The implications of these spatially advantageous zones for energy policy for alternative biomass crop production are discussed.

Plantation Economics, Violence, and Social Well-being: The Lingering Effects of Racialized Group Oppression on Contemporary Human Development in the American South

Historic patterns of racialized oppression, discrimination, and prejudice have been linked to contemporary levels of racialized inequality. Such patterns are thought to be created and maintained through a series of institutions aimed at limiting access to resources for some while opening doors for others. It is expected that patterns of historical racialized inequality are the by-product of a historical lack of investment in the cultural capital of the local community, which later manifests itself in the form of low levels of human development, both in relational and absolute terms. In order to test this pattern in the American South, this link is tested using historical and contemporary data from the US Census Bureau, the National Institute for Literacy, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Center for Disease Control, the Historical American Lynching Project, and the Negro Participation Survey. Spatially-centered nested regression models provide support for this thesis through the identification of links to persistent patterns of underdevelopment in counties with a history of low levels of non-white education, school desegregation, racialized group mobilization, agricultural means of production, and a history of oppression through lynchings.

Diversity, Macrosociology, and Religious Belonging: Using Mixed-Level Models in Examining Spatial Variation and the Closed Community Thesis

Abstract In the past decade, a number of researchers have been interested in both the predictors and causal effects of civic involvement (Blanchard 2007; Funk 1998; Putnam 1993; Putnam 2000; Tolbert, Lyson, and Irwin 1998). Considerable attention has been paid to the effect that religious involvement has on the development of closed and tight-knit communities (Blanchard 2007; Iannaconne 1988, 1994; Porter and Brown 2008; Putnam 1993; Wuthnow 2002). The diversity of friendships gives us a good proxy for the degree of closeness created by existing in-group dynamics formed as a consequence of closed social communities. Data from the 2000 Social Capital Benchmark Survey, concerning individuals from 41 localities across the United States, was used in this analysis (Roper 2000). Furthermore, local-level variables concerning the rate of religious adherence were introduced as a way of better understanding potential multilevel effects. My findings support a number of these, showing that religious group membership significantly lowers an individuals diversity of friendships when compared to the effect of belonging to other groups.

An Examination of Inmate Physical Assaults on Jail Correctional Staff: Exploring Inmate-Level and Jail-Level Conditions in the United States

ABSTRACT The current study examines individual-level determinants of inmate-on correctional staff assaults, particularly the demographic characteristics of inmates, and the context of structural/environmental characteristics of specific jails. Findings from a series of negative binomial regression models indicate some significant relationships, with additional analyses highlighting the nonlinear nature of the relationship between racial representation and assaults. The findings give credence to both the “lone-wolf” and “gang mentality” perspectives, in that jails with an unbalanced racial composition have higher rates of inmate assaults on correctional staff when groups are both under- and over-represented as a proportion of the jail population.

Investigating Race, Class and Context through Historical Evidence: Segregation and the Ecology of Aspirations of Black College Students in the 1960s South

In an era of re-segregation among school systems in the United States, we find ourselves revisiting times of forced school segregation (pre Brown v. Board) for a better understanding of explanations and potential consequences. One consequence, depressed aspirations for occupational mobility, is examined here. Using data for Mathews and Prothros Negro Participation Survey, administered to black college students in 1961, we examine this relationship while controlling for various individual level indicators of capital, demographics, political participation, and ecologically-centered organizational and economic factors through the use of Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM). We uncover patterns of aspirations (or lack thereof) concerning social class mobility that are directly related to social class background and the cultural orientations of the environment in which the student hails. Our conclusions link such patterns to the current trajectory of re-segregation in the education system.

The Effects of Religion on Remarriage Among American Women: Evidence From the National Survey of Family Growth

Divorce has been and remains a prevalent occurrence in the United States and, although divorce rates are not increasing at the same rate they once were, it still remains an extremely common phenomenon. As of the most recent U.S. Census Bureau report on divorce and remarriage, 56% of men and 59% of women ever married have been divorced. Despite these statistics, the vast majority of Americans still value marriage as an institution. This study aims to contribute to the existing literature by examining the role religion plays in the propensity of remarriage in the United States. Using logistic regression techniques and pooled data from the National Survey of Family Growth, multifaceted effects of denominational subcultures are examined concerning the propensity of remarriage among divorced women. Additionally, the linkages among religious salience, religious attendance, and the propensity of remarriage are explored.

Addictive Behaviors and Chronic Pain in a High-Risk Population The Simple and Confounding Effects of Multiple Addictive Diseases

In this study, we use a cross-sectional design to examine the relationship between addictive behaviors and self-reported pain in a high-risk population of driving under the influence (DUI) violators. Our results suggest that individuals identified as having potentially dependent relationships with food, nicotine, drugs, alcohol, and sex have a greater likelihood of experiencing pain. However, the magnitude of the association varied significantly among the addictive domains and in relation to the severity and body location of the reported pain. Our results demonstrate simple and additive effects associated with the confounding relationships between multiple addictions and the likelihood of experiencing chronic pain. Potential explanations for these relationships range from the physiological relationship between obesity and lower body joint strain to potential psychological relationships associated with sex addiction and the experience of pain. Overall, the results highlight statistically important relationships between addiction, multiple addictions, and the experience of chronic pain.