Marian J. Borg

The Southern Subculture of Punitiveness? Regional Variation in Support for Capital Punishment

This study explores the relevance of the “southern subculture of violence” thesis in a context not previously examined: attitudes toward capital punishment for convicted murderers. If southerners are more aggressive in their interpersonal relationships, then to what degree do cultural factors affect their punishment decisions? Analysis of data from the 1990 General Social Survey indicates little overall variation in levels of support for the death penalty between southerners and nonsoutherners. However, separate analyses of southerners and nonsoutherners indicate that region conditions the effects of racial prejudice, religious fundamentalism, and political conservatism on support for capital punishment. The results suggest the importance of recognizing not only the contextual nature of “southern violence” but also the variability of southern identity as well.

Mobilizing law in urban areas: The social structure of homicide clearance rates

This research explores the utility of Blacks theory of law for explaining differences in homicide clearance rates across large cities in the United States. Using insights from the social disorganization literature, we develop and evaluate hypotheses regarding homicide clearance rates and aggregate measures of stratification, morphology, culture, organization, and alternative social control. Our findings support the argument that the rate of clearing homicide cases varies according to the social characteristics of the location where they occur. In particular, clearance rates were highest in cities marked by greater racial disparities in education, income, employment, and residence; greater residential stability; higher levels of educational attainment; higher expenditures for educational programs; and lower rates of homicide. We discuss the implications of our analysis for both the social disorganization literature and Blacks theory, and we suggest directions for further inquiry into the relationship between structural conditions in urban areas and homicide clearance rates. Nationally, the police fail to clear approximately 80% of all index crimes and one of every three cases of lethal violence (FBI 1997:205-06). Index crimes refer to the eight crime categories listed in the Uniform Crime Reports, the FBIs annual compilation of crime statistics. These eight are homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson. It is interesting to note that FBI data provide evidence of substantial differences in police clearance activity across geographic locations. For example, 1996 clearance rates for homicide cases were highest (approximately 79%) in small cities and rural counties, and lowest (about 66%) in the nations largest cities and suburban counties (FBI 1997:22). Despite these variations, sociological research examining how the likelihood of clearing criminal cases is influenced by the social and economic characteristics of the location where they occur is sparse (Tittle & Rowe 1974; Brown 1978). In this research we address that void by examining factors that contribute to the clearance of homicide cases in the context of urban areas. Several studies have analyzed clearance rates from an econometric framework (see, e.g., Phillips & Votey 1972; Sjoquist 1973; Pogue 1975; Theiler 1977; Wilson & Boland 1978; Cloninger & Sartorius 1979; Cook 1979) and have modeled changes in clearance rates over time (Greenberg & Kessler 1982).1 The majority of these analyses use clearance rates, or alternatively, arrest rates, within explanatory models focused on evaluating deterrence arguments. In particular, studies have examined the link between clearance or arrest rates and crime rates. Results regarding this relationship are mixed. Although some studies demonstrate a crime-prevention effect of arrests on crime rates (Phillips & Votey 1972; Sjoquist 1973; Wilson & Boland 1978; Cloninger & Sartorius 1979), others fail to find consistent evidence that higher clearance rates result in significantly lower crime rates (Greenberg & Kessler 1982; the authors also provide a thorough critique of other empirical studies in this regard). The relative scarcity of empirical analyses investigating the link between community conditions and the likelihood of clearing crime is especially noteworthy in light of sociological scholarship emphasizing the significance of structural conditions on crime rates. For instance, social disorganization theory posits that areas plagued by multiple layers of disadvantage suffer high crime rates due to a lack of social, economic, and institutional resources to effectively prevent and fight crime, either informally through family, church, and neighborhood efforts, or formally, through police activity (Shaw & McKay 1942; Kornhauser 1978; Messner 1982; Bursik 1988; Sampson & Groves 1989; Messner & Sampson 1991). …

Drug testing in organizations: Applying Horwitz's theory of the effectiveness of social control

Applying Horwitzs theory of the effectiveness of social control to the case of workplace drug testing, this study seeks to evaluate the conditions associated with the use of compliance strategies to manage deviance. Using a 1991 data set consisting of the first nationally representative sample of U.S. work organizations, the analysis addresses whether the likelihood of drug testing increases as an organizations workforce becomes larger, less stable, and more heterogeneous in terms of race and gender and receives fewer and fewer better employee benefits? Results offer substantial support for Horwitzs central theoretical argument that social factors significantly shape strategies of social control and particularly for the hypotheses that size, instability, and diversity influence the likelihood of drug testing in the workplace. I discuss some of the social and economic implications of the use of drug testing as a strategy of social control, particularly as contemporary workplaces become larger, less stable, and more racially and gender diverse.

Expressing Conflict, Neutralizing Blame, and Making Concessions in Small-Claims Mediation

This research examines the link between the way small-claims mediation participants express their conflicts and their willingness to engage in concession-making. Observations of seventy-seven mediation participants suggest that a significant factor in this relationship is the way participants manage the issue of blame. The research identifies three categories of mediants: individuals named in a civil suit who represent themselves; agents, usually lawyers, who represent the interests of other parties in a civil suit; and business owners or managers who represent the interests of their establishments. The study depicts some of the differences in the way these participants describe their conflicts. In particular, the research suggests that the manner in which mediation participants handle the issue of blame, by either justifying, excusing, or denying it, constrains their willingness to engage in concession-making, a fundamental aspect of the mediation process. I discuss implications for future research and for developing strategies that might improve the effectiveness of mediation for some participants.

Capital Punishment: On botched executions

Introduction On 21 February 1930, convicted murderer Eva Dugan, 52, was hanged from the gallows of the Arizona State Prison in Florence, Arizona. Witnesses were repulsed when Dugan sprang through the trap door on the gallows with such force that her head snapped off and rolled into a corner of the room. Public outcry over the botched execution was so loud that within four years the Arizona legislature abolished hanging and replaced it with a more ‘humane’ way of killing: the gas chamber. Six decades later, the public and policy makers admitted that death by asphyxiation had its own problems. In April 1992, the Arizona gas chamber was mothballed after a horrifying spectacle during the gassing of death row inmate Donald Eugene Harding. Witnesses were sickened by the execution, calling it ‘violent’ and ‘ugly’, and reported that Harding was in great pain before his death mercifully came. Consequently, Hardings was the last mandated asphyxiation in Arizona. In November 1992, Arizona voters passed a ballot initiative that gave prisoners then on its death row a choice between gas and lethal injection and authorised lethal injection as the only means of execution for those sentenced to death thereafter. One might think that in the United States, where technology exists to send astronauts to the moon with perfection, we should be able to shoot people to the hereafter with similar precision.

The structure of social monitoring in the process of social control

This article examines the concept of social monitoring, defined as the process of collecting, storing, and exchanging conflict information. The social control literature recognizes that information provides the basis for responding to grievances, yet few discussions focus on the process by which this information is generated. This article provides conceptual clarification of social monitoring by suggesting a framework for quantifying the process and proposing several factors associated with its variation. I discuss five dimensions to capture quantitative and qualitative differences in social monitoring: (a) the standardization of the process, (b) the partisanship of the monitor, (c) the centralization of information, (d) the locus of control over information generated, and (e) the quantity of information produced. I then suggest several features of social relationships that seem to be associated with variation in monitoring processes. By synthesizing existing literature, I propose that the quality and qua...