Educational Opportunity and the Carceral System: Sentencing Policies and Black Men's College Enrollment

2021 ◽  
pp. 003464462110367
Author(s):  
Tolani Britton

This paper explores whether the Federal Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, which increased the disproportionate incarceration of young Black men, was also associated with changes in the likelihood of college enrollment for Black men in states with more punitive sentencing laws. I measure the association between the introduction of state sentencing laws, such as truth-in-sentencing (TIS), and college enrollment. These laws could have decreased the likelihood of Black male college enrollment by removing these men from the population in the years in which they would have attended college. To explore the impact of the passage of sentencing laws on college enrollment, I carry out a differences-in-differences analysis and an event study from 1992 to 2000. In the years after TIS passed, significant decreases occurred in the likelihood of college enrollment for Black young men when compared to the college enrollment of young White men in TIS states. However, there were no significant decreases when comparing college enrollment of young Black men in TIS states with enrollment for young Black men in non-TIS states. With respect to state sentencing schemes, voluntary guidelines, determinate sentences, presumptive recommended sentences, presumptive determinate sentences, and recommended determinate sentences were associated with a lower likelihood of college enrollment for Black men.

Author(s):  
Matthew Labriola ◽  
Daniel J. George

Black men have a higher prevalence of and mortality rate from prostate cancer compared with White men and have been shown to present with more aggressive and later-stage disease. How prostate cancer treatment affects these racial disparities is still unclear. Several studies have shown that Black men who receive treatment have a more pronounced decrease in prostate cancer–specific death; however, there remains a large disparity in all-cause mortality. This disparity may be in part related to a higher risk of death resulting from comorbidities, given the higher rates of cardiovascular disease and diabetes in Black men, both of which are complicated by the use of androgen-deprivation therapy. To further understand these disparities, it is important that we analyze the racial differences in adverse event rates and severity. Increasing the percentage of Black men in clinical trials will improve the understanding of the biologic drivers of racial disparities in prostate cancer. To evaluate the potential differences in adverse event reporting and demonstrate the feasibility of enrolling equal numbers of Black and White men in trials, we performed a prospective, multicenter study of abiraterone plus prednisone with androgen-deprivation therapy in men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, stratified by race. Racial differences in prostate-specific antigen kinetics and toxicity profile were demonstrated. Higher rates and severity of adverse events related to adrenal hormone suppression, including hypertension, hypokalemia, and hypomagnesemia, were seen in the Black cohort, not previously reported. Increased enrollment of Black men in prostate cancer clinical trials is imperative to further understand the impact of race on clinical outcomes and treatment tolerability.


1989 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 401-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis P. Rosenbaum ◽  
Arthur J. Lurigio ◽  
Paul J. Lavrakas

“Crime Stoppers” has emerged as one of the most rapidly expanding and highly visible crime control strategies in the Western world, yet research on this program is extremely limited. This article reports some of the major findings of a national evaluation funded by the National Institute of Justice. The evaluation adopted a variety of strategies and methodologies, including national surveys of media executives and Crime Stoppers program coordinators, case studies to understand program processes and effects, and a randomized experiment to examine the effects of varying reward sizes on callers' perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors. Crime Stoppers is a very popular program that features the mass media in a pivotal and uniquely cooperative role with law enforcement and the community. Despite some impressive program statistics on felony arrests, convictions, and recovery of property and drugs, the impact of these interventions on community crime levels remains unknown. Furthermore, Crime Stoppers has been criticized by journalists, civil libertarians, and members of the legal profession for offering cash rewards and anonymity to encourage more citizen participation in the criminal justice system.


2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (6_suppl) ◽  
pp. 131-131
Author(s):  
Daniel Lee ◽  
Sunita Thapa ◽  
Amy J Graves ◽  
Melinda Buntin ◽  
David F. Penson ◽  
...  

131 Background: Accountable care organizations (ACO) reflect a payment innovation aimed to orient incentives to improve quality and reduce waste. The objective of this study was to determine whether ACO enrollment affects racial disparities in cancer screening, and to characterize the impact on the appropriateness of prostate cancer screening in minority populations. Methods: We built a cohort of Medicare beneficiaries from 2007 to 2013 were comprising a cohort of 11,087,056 person-years among ACO beneficiaries and 37,187,979 person-years among non-ACO beneficiaries. A difference-in-difference-in-differences (DDD) approach was utilized to identify the effect of ACO enrollment on cancer screening in racial/ethnic minorities relative to non-Hispanic whites. We then characterized differences in screening appropriateness after ACO enrollment using age (65-74 vs. 75+) and predicted survival (top vs. bottom quartile). Results: ACO enrollment was associated with approximately a 5% reduction in prostate cancer overscreening for white beneficiaries, namely among the elderly and those with unfavorable predicted survival. Compared to white men in the lowest quartile of predicted survival, Asian and Hispanic men with similarly low survival had a 4.8% and 13.0% relative increase in prostate cancer screening associated with ACO enrollment (DDD p = 0.015, p = 0.011, respectively). Prostate cancer overscreening was common among Asian men, with 46% of elderly Asian men attributed to an ACO undergoing cancer screening compared to 28% of elderly white men. Furthermore, ACO enrollment was associated with a 2.7% increase in screening relative to whites (DDD p = 0.0005). Compared to white beneficiaries, black men had consistently lower rates of prostate cancer screening. ACO enrollment did not narrow the disparity of prostate cancer screening between healthier (DDD p = 0.75) or younger (DDD p = 0.27) black and white beneficiaries. Conclusions: This study provides evidence of ACO-mediated increases in low-value screening for prostate cancer among sick and elderly Hispanics and Asians. Furthermore, ACO enrollment did not narrow known disparities in high-value prostate cancer screening among healthier and younger black men.


Author(s):  
Luca Giommoni ◽  
Giulia Berlusconi ◽  
Alberto Aziani

AbstractThere is a relative dearth of literature on both the effects of cross-border interdictions and the impact of different types of interventions on international drug trafficking. This study identifies the main trafficking routes for cocaine and heroin, along with comparing the disruptive effects induced by targeted and non-coordinated interventions. It adopts a social network approach to identify the routes along which cocaine and heroin are trafficked, and then simulates the impact of different interdiction strategies on these two trafficking networks. The findings indicate that targeting countries based on their respective positions in the networks, as opposed to on the basis of the quantity of drugs exchanged, is more likely to disrupt drug flows. More specifically, concentrating law enforcement resources on countries with several incoming or outgoing trafficking connections, or those countries that mediate between producer, transit and consumer countries, would appear to be particularly effective in this regard. Interventions focused on specific trafficking routes are also likely to be effective if these routes have high edge betweenness centrality scores. This study contributes to extant understanding on the vulnerability of cocaine and heroin international trafficking networks, and, moreover, demonstrates that empirically-driven strategies are potentially more effective at interdicting international trafficking than non-strategic and non-coordinated interventions.


2015 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
pp. 539-559 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mattie Toma

Choking under pressure represents a phenomenon in which individuals faced with a high-pressure situation do not perform as well as would be expected were they performing under normal conditions. In this article, I identify determinants that predict a basketball player’s susceptibility to choking under pressure. Identification of these determinants adds to our understanding of players’ psychology at pivotal points in the game. My analysis draws on play-by-play data from ESPN.com that feature over 2 million free-throw attempts in women’s and men’s college and professional basketball games from the 2002-2013 seasons. Using regression analysis, I explore the impact of both gender and level of professionalism on performance in high-pressure situations. I find that in the final 30 seconds of a tight game, Women’s National Basketball Association and National Basketball Association players are 5.81 and 3.11 percentage points, respectively, less likely to make a free throw, while female and male college players are 2.25 and 2.09 percentage points, respectively, less likely to make a free throw, though statistical significance cannot be established among National Collegiate Athletic Association women. The discrepancy in choking between college and professional players is pronounced when comparing male college players who do and do not make it to the professional level; the free-throw performance of those destined to go pro falls 6 percentage points more in high-pressure situations. Finally, I find that women and men do not differ significantly in their propensity to choke.


BMC Cancer ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias E. Meunier ◽  
Pascal Blanchet ◽  
Yann Neuzillet ◽  
Thierry Lebret ◽  
Laurent Brureau

Abstract Background Prostate cancer among black men is known to have specific molecular characteristics, especially the androgen receptor or enzymes related to the androgen metabolism. These targets are keys to the action of new hormonal therapies. Nevertheless, literature has a lack of data regarding black men. We aimed to gather the available literature data on new hormonal therapies among black populations. Methods We conducted a literature review from the PubMed / MEDLINE database until October 2020. All clinical studies of new hormonal therapies and black populations, regardless of methodology, were included. Results Four studies provided data on new hormonal therapies in black populations. Three studies reported a PSA decline in black patients treated with Abiraterone, higher in black men than in white men. Overall survival also appears to be higher in black patients treated with Abiraterone only or first. Conclusion Few articles have evaluated the effectiveness and safety of use of these treatments among black populations. The first results seem to show that Abiraterone can provide a benefit in overall survival in black populations. Prospective studies are needed to answer these questions in the future.


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