Moral Communities and Institutional Misconduct: A Reassessment of Religious Contextual Influences on Inmate Behavior

2019 ◽  
Vol 66 (8) ◽  
pp. 1137-1160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leah Drakeford

Most of the research into religious influences on inmate misconduct has been undertaken with respect to personal religious participation. However, the religious environment of prisons offers potential influences on inmate behavior by providing social control and support. Currently, the literature is mixed regarding the association between religious context and inmate behavior. This article reconciles the divergent findings regarding religious contexts, and integrates recently emergent directions in religious contextual research. Using nationally representative data of inmates in state and federal prisons, I estimate multilevel models of several different forms of misconduct. The results indicate a relationship between religious context and each form of misconduct, highlighting the role of cultural contexts on inmate behavior.

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leah Drakeford

Inmates confined to correctional institutions are exposed to stressors that induce psychological distress. One factor that may be important for inmate mental health is religion. Accordingly, scholars have examined the role of participation in religious activities on inmate mental health. Yet, the role of the religious concentration of prisons on inmate mental health remains unexamined, in spite of research showing that religious contexts impact adjustment to prison. Using data from the 2004 Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities, this paper presents a multilevel analysis of mental health and religion. The results indicated a mostly positive yet slightly inconsistent relationship between individual religious practice and mental distress. Findings regarding the religious context of prisons indicated a curvilinear relationship whereby inmates in highly religious and highly nonreligious prisons were less likely to report mental distress, while inmates in facilities more evenly mixed between religious and irreligious inmates were most likely to report distress. These findings yield insight into the operation of religion within total institutions.


Author(s):  
Walter Pohl

When the Gothic War began in Italy in 535, the country still conserved many features of classical culture and late antique administration. Much of that was lost in the political upheavals of the following decades. Building on Chris Wickham’s work, this contribution sketches an integrated perspective of these changes, attempting to relate the contingency of events to the logic of long-term change, discussing political options in relation to military and economic means, and asking in what ways the erosion of consensus may be understood in a cultural and religious context. What was the role of military entrepreneurs of more or less barbarian or Roman extraction in the distribution or destruction of resources? How did Christianity contribute to the transformation of ancient society? The old model of barbarian invasions can contribute little to understanding this complex process. It is remarkable that for two generations, all political strategies in Italy ultimately failed.


2021 ◽  
pp. 089590482110156
Author(s):  
Christopher Redding

Drawing on nationally representative data from six cohorts of beginning teachers from the Schools and Staffing Survey and the National Teacher and Principal Survey, this study applies a difference-in-differences research design to examine the relationship between changes to state-level alternative certification policies and the characteristics of new teachers. The introduction of alternate routes into teaching is associated with an increase in the fraction of new teachers of color in a state and the new teachers who graduated from selective colleges. No evidence was found of a relationship with the relative share of male teachers or teachers of in-demand subjects.


2021 ◽  
pp. 194855062199962
Author(s):  
Jennifer S. Trueblood ◽  
Abigail B. Sussman ◽  
Daniel O’Leary

Development of an effective COVID-19 vaccine is widely considered as one of the best paths to ending the current health crisis. While the ability to distribute a vaccine in the short-term remains uncertain, the availability of a vaccine alone will not be sufficient to stop disease spread. Instead, policy makers will need to overcome the additional hurdle of rapid widespread adoption. In a large-scale nationally representative survey ( N = 34,200), the current work identifies monetary risk preferences as a correlate of take-up of an anticipated COVID-19 vaccine. A complementary experiment ( N = 1,003) leverages this insight to create effective messaging encouraging vaccine take-up. Individual differences in risk preferences moderate responses to messaging that provides benchmarks for vaccine efficacy (by comparing it to the flu vaccine), while messaging that describes pro-social benefits of vaccination (specifically herd immunity) speeds vaccine take-up irrespective of risk preferences. Findings suggest that policy makers should consider risk preferences when targeting vaccine-related communications.


2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 704-720 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Achterberg ◽  
Willem de Koster ◽  
Jeroen van der Waal

Following up on suggestions that attitudes toward science are multi-dimensional, we analyze nationally representative survey data collected in the United States in 2014 ( N = 2006), and demonstrate the existence of a science confidence gap: some people place great trust in scientific methods and principles, but simultaneously distrust scientific institutions. This science confidence gap is strongly associated with level of education: it is larger among the less educated than among the more educated. We investigate explanations for these educational differences. Whereas hypotheses deduced from reflexive-modernization theory do not pass the test, those derived from theorizing on the role of anomie are corroborated. The less educated are more anomic (they have more modernity-induced cultural discontents), which not only underlies their distrust in scientific institutions, but also fuels their trust in scientific methods and principles. This explains why this science confidence gap is most pronounced among the less educated.


2015 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 301-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin M. Beaver ◽  
Joseph A. Schwartz ◽  
Eric J. Connolly ◽  
Mohammed Said Al-Ghamdi ◽  
Ahmed Nezar Kobeisy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Filippo Pavanello ◽  
Teresa Randazzo

<p>Do remittances improve how households adapt to global warming? We explore this question exploiting a nationally-representative household data from Mexico - a country that experiences a large flow of remittances. Mexican households respond to excess heat by purchasing air conditioning and remittances can be used to adopt and use cooling devices that contribute to maintaining thermal comfort at home. Our results show that recipient households have a higher probability to adopt air conditioning at home with important implication on electricity consumption. The effect is even larger for those households living in high-temperature areas showing an important role of remittances in the climate adaptation process.</p>


Author(s):  
Bita Fayaz Farkhad ◽  
Alexander Karan ◽  
Dolores Albarracín

Abstract Background Although influenza vaccination can prevent influenza-related deaths, uptake remains low, particularly in disadvantaged populations. Purpose A theoretical model of psychological pathways to vaccination accounting for the direct and moderating role of socio-structural factors was tested. The study sought to understand the joint contributions of psychological (i.e., knowledge, attitudes, and intention) and socio-structural factors (i.e., income, education, and insurance) to influenza vaccination, prospectively. Methods A nationally representative empaneled sample of over 3,000 U.S. adults answered questions about vaccination knowledge, attitudes, and intentions, as well as actual vaccination across five timepoints from September 2018 to May 2019. Socio-structural factors were examined as moderators. Results Findings revealed strong positive associations between knowledge and attitudes, attitudes and intentions, as well as intentions and subsequent vaccination. Importantly, health insurance moderated the associations between attitudes and intentions and between intentions and vaccination, such that those without insurance had weaker associations between attitudes and intentions and between intentions and vaccination. In addition, education moderated the path from knowledge to attitude and from intentions to vaccination, such that people with lower educational attainment had weaker associations between knowledge and attitudes and between intentions and vaccination. Conclusions Socio-structural factors act as barriers to the influence of knowledge on attitudes, attitudes on intentions, and intentions on behavior. Future research needs to be mindful of the specific paths disrupted by social disadvantages and examine ways to intervene to decrease those effects.


2017 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 361-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyle C. Longest ◽  
Jeremy E. Uecker

Research indicates that religiosity inhibits adolescent and young adult sexual behavior, but few studies examine how religious contexts may shape sexual behavior. When religious contexts are considered, studies rarely test multiple spheres of religious influence simultaneously. Moreover, little research examines how either individual religiosity or religious contexts shape emotional responses to sex. We analyze nationally representative, longitudinal data that allow for concurrent examination of multiple religious contexts and several measures of young adult sexual behaviors and sexual regret. The influence of religiosity on sexual behavior and regret varies within and across both the spheres and outcomes tested. Individual religious salience and close ties with parents are the most consistent deterrents to initiation of sexual intercourse and having numerous intercourse partners. Closeness to parents and participation in religious activities are associated with lower odds of sexual regret, but ties to adults in one’s religious congregation are associated with increased sexual regret.


2018 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 1121-1147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Senhu Wang ◽  
Rory Coulter

Divergent gender role attitudes among ethnic groups in Britain are thought to contribute to ethnic disparities in many socio-economic domains. Using nationally representative data (2010–2011), we investigate how ethnic minority gender role attitudes vary across generations and with neighborhood ethnic composition. The results show that while Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Indians, and Black Africans have more traditional attitudes than Black Caribbeans, the attitudes of the former groups are more traditional in the first than in the second generation. We also find that the gender role attitudes of Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, and Indians become more traditional as the local share of co-ethnic neighbors increases or the share of White British residents decreases. Importantly, these patterns are more pronounced for second-generation Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, whose gender role attitudes are more sensitive to variations in neighborhood ethnic composition than are those of the first generation. Taken together, these findings indicate that migration researchers must conceptualize and study how immigrants’ cultural values are heterogeneous, fluid, and dynamic characteristics that can vary spatially across host societies.


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