Kriss A. Drass

The Roots of Prison Violence: A Test of the Deprivation, Management, and “Not-So-Total” Institution Models

Studies of prison violence typically focus either on individual-level aggression or large-scale collective acts. Most past work consists of case studies, limiting the generalizations from the results. The present study used data from 371 state prisons and measures of both individual and collective violence and attempted to identify the structural, managerial, and environmental determinants of prison disorder. Findings suggest that poor prison management is a predictor of rates of assault toward inmates and staff. However, the likelihood of prison riots is largely independent of structural, managerial, and environmental factors. The article also discusses the implications for public policy.

The effect of changes in intraracial income inequality and educational attainment on changes in arrest rates for African Americans and Whites, 1957 to 1990

Rapid increases in crime in the United States in the 1960s and early 1970s have been puzzling in that they seem to coincide with economic growth and increased educational opportunity for disadvantaged groups, especially African Americans. We argue that these increases in crime may be more understandable in their historical context: Much of the economic expansion during the postwar period and the unprecedented gains in educational attainment for African Americans were accompanied by growing intraracial income inequality. Our annual time-series analysis of African American and White robbery, burglary, and homicide arrest rates from 1957 to 1990 confirms that intraracial income inequality is a consistent predictor of changes in arrest rates for both African Americans and Whites. An interaction analysis of dummy variables indicates that the relationship between education and crime for African Americans and Whites is contingent on levels of intraracial income inequality. For African Americans, increasing educational attainment is associated with rising arrest rates, but only during periods of growing income inequality; for Whites, increasing educational attainment is associated with reduced crime rates, but only during periods of declining inequality. (Abstract Adapted from Source: American Sociological Review, 1996. Copyright

Changes in the Core of the World-System and the Production of Utopian Literature in Great Britain and the United States, 1883-1975

This paper explores changes in the number of utopian novels published in Great Britain and the United States between 1883 and 1975 from a world-system perspective. A time-series analysis indicates that the publication of utopian literature was affected by changes in the world economy and by changes in the organization of the core of the world-system. On the basis of these findings, we argue that the world-system perspective represents a promising approach for the study of cross-national cultural change.

Social, Cultural, and Temporal Dynamics of the AIDS Case Congregation: Early Years of the Epidemic

Studies of legal decisionmaking have focused traditionally on how social influences, particularly the relative social standing of competing parties, affect case outcomes. More recently, sociolegal scholars have directed their attention to the significance of cultural categories in shaping case-based decisionmaking. The authors here examine how both social and cultural factors shape judicial decisions and their meanings for a congregation of court cases precipitated by the AIDS epidemic in the United States. Their logistic regression analysis of the opinions of 181 AIDS-related cases decided in the early years of the epidemic (1983-89) finds that two social factors, the relative social standing of parties and the types of claims brought to the court, and two cultural factors, the courts use of negative AIDS metaphors and references to individual rights, are significantly related to case outcome. Finally, in line with M. Galanters notion that case congregations have histories that involve development and change over time, their temporal analysis reveals the emergence of two case congregations and suggests how each serves to bolster the legitimacy of the judiciary amidst social crisis