Sociology Commons^™

Highlights Of The Youth Internet Safety Survey., David Finkelhor, Kimberly J. Mitchell, Janis Wolak

Crimes Against Children Research Center

This fact sheet reports on the findings of the Youth Internet Safety Survey, which collected information about incidents of possible online victimization of youth.

Outport Adaptations: Social Indicators Through Newfoundland's Cod Crisis, Lawrence C. Hamilton, Melissa J. Butler

Sociology

The 1992 moratorium on fishing for Northern Cod marked a symbolic end to the way of life that had sustained Newfoundland's out ports for hundreds of years. It also marked the completion of an ecological regime shift, from an ocean ecosystem dominated by cod and other predatory ground fish, to one in which such fish are comparatively scarce, and lower-trophic-level invertebrates more common. We examine patterns of change seen in large-scale social indicators, which reflect the smaller-scale adaptations of individuals and communities during this ecological shift. Trends in population, migration, age, unemployment and dependency suggest declining conditions in rural Newfoundland …

The Development Of Fisheries In Greenland, With Focus On Paamiut/Frederikshåb And Sisimiut/Holsteinsborg, Rasmus Ole Rasmussen, Lawrence C. Hamilton

Sociology

Situated along a mountainous coastline between cold seas and continental ice, Greenland’s human populations face severe environmental constraints. Both individual and cultural survival have always depended upon flexible use of the available resources and, when these fail, relocation. The 20th century saw great transitions, notably from Danish colonial to Greenlandic Home Rule government; an almost fivefold increase in population (from 12,000 to 56,000); and from a seal-hunting subsistence economy to commercial fisheries in a new global marketplace. But throughout these transitions, the economy remained tied to renewable resources, and therefore could not transcend the underlying environmental constraints. Greenland’s 20th century …

The Decline In Child Sexual Abuse Cases., Lisa M. Jones, David Finkelhor

Crimes Against Children Research Center

Of all crimes against children, sexual abuse has arguably captured the greatest share of attention from child advocates, professionals, policymakers, and the general public. During the 1980’s, increasing numbers of victims were identified each year (American Association for the Protection of Children, 1988) and concerns about this crime intensified. However, a dramatic shift in child sexual abuse trends has occurred. Data from child protective services (CPS) agencies across the country indicate that the increases of the 1980’s were followed by an extensive period of marked declines in the 1990’s. Unfortunately, little effort has been expended to uncover the reasons why …

Juvenile Victims Of Property Crimes., David Finkelhor, Richard Ormrod

Crimes Against Children Research Center

Property crime is the most frequent kind of criminal victimization and one with important economic and psychological consequences, although it has not received the same public attention as violent crime in recent years. Property crime victimization rates are much higher for juveniles than for adults, but very little attention has been paid to property crimes against juveniles or the particular features that characterize these crimes. This Bulletin tries to fill this gap by examining the characteristics of property crimes against juveniles. It uses crime information from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) for 1996–97 and the National Incident-Based Reporting System …

Social Change, Ecology And Climate In 20th-Century Greenland, Lawrence C. Hamilton, Per Lyster, Oddmund Otterstad

Sociology

Two great transitions, from seal hunting to cod fishing, then from cod fishing to shrimp, affected population centers of southwest Greenland during the20th century. These economic transitions reflected large-scale shifts in the underlying marine ecosystems, driven by interactions between climate and human resource use. The combination of climatic variation and fishing pressure, for example, proved fatal to west Greenland's cod fishery. We examine the history of these transitions, using data down to the level of individual municipalities. At this level,the uneven social consequences of environmental change show clearly: some places gained, while others lost. Developments in 20th-century Greenland resemble patterns …

Kidnaping Of Juveniles: Patterns From Nibrs., David Finkelhor, Richard Ormrod

Crimes Against Children Research Center

The kidnaping of children has generated a great deal of public concern, not to mention confusion and controversy. These crimes, from the kidnaping of the Lindbergh baby to the abduction and murder of Adam Walsh, have been some of the most notorious and highly publicized news stories of recent history, occupying a central place in the fears and anxieties of parents. Yet, an ongoing debate has raged over how frequently such crimes occur, which children are most at risk, and who the primary offenders are.

Characteristics Of Crimes Against Juveniles, David Finkelhor, Richard Ormrod

Crimes Against Children Research Center

Until recently, it has been difficult to obtain a national statistical picture of juvenile crime victimization. The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) system, which has served as the Nation’s primary source of information about crime since 1929, has never collected information or reported crimes by age of victim, with the exception of homicides. The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), the victim self-report survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census on behalf of the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics for the past 20 years, has collected data only on crimes occurring to persons 12 …

Effect Of Auto Plant Openings On Net Migration In The Auto Corridor, 1980-1997, Kenneth M. Johnson, Thomas H. Klier

Sociology

In linking demographic trends of the last two decades to the geographic dispersion of the auto industry, this article finds that the addition of a large plant significantly influences the migration experience of the host county as well as counties adjacent to it.

Apprenticeship And Conservation Incentives, Robin Alden, Jennifer F. Brewer

Geography

Apprentice programs offer a method to encourage responsible individual behavior by laying the foundation for successful collective property rights. Apprenticeship has three purposes: to restrict the rate of entry, to affect the quality of the participant, and to create the conditions for collective action for sustainability. Apprenticeship could be an important fishery management tool, particularly in decentralized, adaptive management regimes that require ongoing, multi-party negotiation for success. It is not vocational training; instead it serves a public purpose: to create the conditions for stewardship and participation in management. This perception of collective property right mimics customary practice in some successful …

Online Victimization: A Report On The Nation’S Youth., David Finkelhor, Kimberly J. Mitchell, Janis Wolak

Crimes Against Children Research Center

The Internet is an exciting new territory for many young people. Nearly 24 million youth ages 10 through 17 were online regularly in 1999, and millions more are expected to join them shortly. They go there to Iearn, play, meet people, and explore the world. But stories from law-enforcement officials, parents, and young people themselves suggest that not every online adventure is a happy one. The Internet has a seamier side that young people seem to he encountering with great frequency.

This national survey confirms many of the stories. Large numbers of young people are encountering sexual solicitations they did …

Reporting Crimes Against Juveniles., David Finkelhor, Richard Ormrod

Crimes Against Children Research Center

The American justice system is in the midst of an effort to evaluate and reform its handling of the criminal victimization of children and youth. Juveniles are unusually vulnerable to crime victimization (Hashima and Finkelhor, 1999), but concerns have been raised about the effectiveness and sensitivity of the justice system’s response to these crimes. The findings presented in this Bulletin indicate that a majority of victimizations of juveniles ages 12 to 17 are not being reported to police or other authorities. Even serious victimizations involving weapons and injury are significantly less likely to be reported when they happen to juveniles …

The Rural Rebound, Kenneth M. Johnson

Sociology

No abstract provided.

Ecological And Population Changes In Fishing Communities Of The North Atlantic Arc, Lawrence C. Hamilton, Richard L. Haedrich

Sociology

In the decades since World War II, large-scale ecological changes have affected fishing communities across the northern Atlantic. Substantial declines hit their historically important resources, most notably the Atlantic cod. Such declines were often accompanied by increases in other, previously less exploited, species. Interactions between fishing pressure and environmental variation have driven ecological change. Ecological changes in turn reshaped the fisheries, contributing to altered demographic profiles of fisheries-dependent communities. Many places lost population, especially through out-migration of young adults. Broad social forces also contributed to these trends, but the timing and geographical details of population changes often correspond to specific …

Demographic Change And Fisheries Dependence In The Northern Atlantic, Lawrence C. Hamilton, Oddmund Otterstad

Sociology

Northern Atlantic fisheries have experienced a series of environmental shifts in recent decades, involving collapse or large fluctuations of the dominant fish assemblages. Over roughly the same period, many fisheries-dependent human communities have lost population, while their countries as a whole were growing. Population loss tends to increase with the degree of fisheries dependence, among communities and sub-national regions of Newfoundland, Iceland and Norway. A close look at Norway, where municipality-level data are most extensive, suggests that population declines reflect not only outmigration, but also changes in fishing-community birth rates. Multiple regression using 1990 and 1980 census data for 454 …

Ethnic Identity And Aspirations Among Rural Alaska Youth, Carole L. Seyfrit, Lawrence C. Hamilton, Cynthia M. Duncan, Jody Grimes

Sociology

The villages of rural Alaska comprise one of the most exceptional, yet least visible, sociocultural environments in the United States They are geographically remote, and set off from the mainstream also by their unique Eskimo, Indian or Aleut cultures. At the same time many economic, legal and cultural connections pull these villages toward the dominant U.S. society, impelling continual and rapid social change. Our research focuses on adolescents growing up in this culturally complex and changing environment. We employ survey data from adolescents in 19 rural schools to explore relationships between ethnic identity and students' expectations about moving away or …

Environment And Sex Ratios Among Alaska Natives: An Historical Perspective, Lawrence C. Hamilton, Carole L. Seyfrit, Christina Bellinger

Sociology

Human-environment interactions can affect the sex ratios of resource-dependent societies in a variety of ways. Historical and contemporary data on Alaska Native populations illustrate such effects. Some eighteenth and early nineteenth century observers noted an excess of females, which they attributed to high mortality among hunters. Population counts in the later nineteenth century and well into the twentieth found instead an excess of men in many communities. Female infanticide was credited as the explanation: since family survival depended upon hunting success, males were more valued. Although infanticide explanations for the excess of males have been widely believed, available demographic data …

Rural Illinois In The 1990s: On The Rebound?, Kenneth M. Johnson, Norman Walzer

Sociology

Rural areas of Illinois experienced a widespread population rebound between 1990 and 1995.2 These recent population gains in Illinois are consistent with a broader rural population growth revival nationwide. Rural Illinois gain nearly 24,000 residents between 1990 and 1995, according to recently released estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau.3 The population grew in 47 of the 74 nonmetropolitan counties in Illinois during the period. Migration to rural areas accounted for most of this population gain. Most urban areas in Illinois also gained population during the first half of the 1990s. The recent population gains in rural Illinois are modest, but …

Recent Nonmetropolitan Demographic Trends In The Midwest, Kenneth M. Johnson

Sociology

This research1 examines demographic trends in nonmetropolitan areas of the United States and the Midwest2 since the 1990 census using the federal-state series of county population estimates. Review of such timely information is important because nonmetropolitan demographic trends have been extremely fluid during the past 30 years (Long and DeAre, 1988). Historically, nonmetropolitan demographic change, both in the Midwest and the US,
has been dominated by an excess of births over deaths sufficient to offset the net ...

Unspeakable Suspicions: Challenging The Racist Consensual Encounter, Peter Schoenburg, Risa Evans

Law Faculty Scholarship

[Excerpt] "In recent years, law enforcement officials have honed a new technique for fighting the "War on Drugs:" the suspicionless police sweep of stations and vehicles involved in interstate mass transportation. Single officers or groups of officers approach unfortunate individuals in busses, trains, stations and airline terminals. A targeted traveller is requested to show identification and tickets, explain the purpose of his or her travels, and finally, at times, to consent to a luggage search. As long as "a reasonable person would understand that he or she could refuse to cooperate," the encounter between the law-enforcement official and the traveller …

Town-Village Contrasts In Alaskan Youth Aspirations, Lawrence C. Hamilton, Carole L. Seyfrit

Sociology

ABSTRACT. Recent surveys of high school students in Alaska’s Northwest Arctic and Bristol Bay regions reflect the social changes taking place in rural Native communities. Significant differences exist between the aspirations of young people in small villages and those in the larger towns that constitute regional hubs (Kotzebue and Dillingham). Town students, who attend more complete and varied high schools, express greater confidence in their educations and more interest in attending college. Jobs at Red Dog Mine, recently opened in the Northwest Arctic, appeal particularly to young males with strong ties to village life. This labor pool presents special challenges …

Female Flight? Gender Balance And Outmigration By Native Alaskan Villagers, Lawrence C. Hamilton, Carole L. Seyfrit

Sociology

Surveys in Alaska's predominantly Native, Bristol Bay and Northwest Arctic regions examined attitudes toward education and migration among high school students, as well as outcomes among high school graduates. These surveys encompassed 430 high school students and 144 recent high school graduates in 15 predominantly Native villages. About 63 percent of students said they expected to leave their present region, with girls more likely than boys to expect permanent outmigration. Girls were also significantly more ambitious than boys with regard to higher education. Among the graduates surveyed, women were more likely than men to have attended university, to have a …

Who Will Leave? Oil, Migration, And Scottish Island Youth, Carole L. Seyfrit, Lawrence C. Hamilton

Sociology

Rural communities facing the prospect of rapid energy development consider trade‐offs between economic benefits and “way of life”; as disruption. One of ten‐cited but unproved benefit of development is increased retention of local youth, who otherwise tend to migrate away. Using survey data from high school students of Scotland's Shetland and Orkney Islands (affected by North Sea oil development), we explore relations between intentions to migrate and individual background, aspirations, and attitudes. Attitudes toward oil development do not predict migration intentions. Instead, migration intentions are predicted by essentially the same variables identified in other studies, in areas where energy development …

Explanations Of Pedophilia: Review Of Empirical Research, Sharon Araji, David Finkelhor

Sociology

This article reviews empirical research to discover what support exists for theories that attempt to explain why adults become sexually interested in and involved with immature children. These theories are first organized into four basic categories: emotional congruence-why the adult congruence - why an emotional need to relate to a child; sexual arousl-why the adult could become sexually aroused by a child; blockage - why alternative sources of sexual and emotional gratification are not available; or disinhibition - why the adult is not deterred from such an interest by normal prohibitions. The review shows that the best experimental research has …