OSU Journals (Oklahoma State University)
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Images of power: An analysis of the militarization of police uniforms and messages of service
Get PDFThis paper examines the symbolic order of the American policing system. By symbolic order we refer to the various codes of communication between police and community members that reinforce "boundaries" in social relations. In the paper we argue that the militaristic symbolic vessels "worn" by the police reflect the institution's perceptions of worth and value regarding the public. Furthermore, we contend that these symbolic forms identify and perpetuate power inequalities and serve as mechanisms of social control. We conclude the paper with specific recommendations on how police may openly foster and communicate messages of service to community members
Precocious transitions and substance use patterns among Mexican American gang members
Get PDFPrevious research has found that disorderly life events in early adolescence are associated with problem behaviors in late adolescence and early adulthood. The objective of the study is to determine the patterns of associations among substance use and adolescence precocious transitions in a sample (N=160) of Mexican American gang members in San Antonio, Texas. The Mexican American male gang members are a polydrug using population as measured by their lifetime and current drug use patterns. A correlation and confirmatory factor analysis was conducted between substance use and precocious transitions that revealed two distinct groups of drug users in the Mexican American gang population: "hard" drug users and "party" drug users. Furthermore, factor analysis revealed underlying precocious transitions constructs that go beyond a precocious transitions index. Findings begin to identify the importance of disorderly life events as correlates of substance use among this unique population of gang members
Voluntary serfdom: An ideological journey into dual-class labor conflicts and possible and possible workers' solutions*
No full text*Originally printed in Free Inquiry in Creative Sociology 2002 30(2).This article identifies my paradigm shift toward greater acceptance of conflictsand alienation sociologies from Marx and from Seeman. Having never been afollower of their sets of ideas, ample evidence has been found in recreationaland sociological literatures, and at work, to support the contention that they are more important that I had previously thought. The conclusion is derived from reviewing a variety of novels, poems, a travelogue, sociological findings on dualand antagonistic-class structures, data about alienation, and putting a theoretical twist to Merton's goals-means model of adaptation
Social variance as it exists between conformity and deviance: Following some advice from Ogburn*
Get PDF*Originally printed in Free Inquiry in Creative Sociology 2007 35(1).The purpose of this article is to introduce social variance as the "stuff'' thatexists between conformity and deviance in modern sociology. We often overemphasize the either-or qualities of conformity and deviance, presuming that nothing lies between them. A foot-long ruler is not intended to look at 0 or 12 on a stick, so why do we do that very thing? By borrowing generously from novels, distance measurements and art, social variance represents aberrations from conformity and from deviance as a new subject in a discipline which has been dedicated to traditional definitions, dualisms, and labeling theory
Old heads tell their stories
Get PDFBased on life history interviews with twenty veteran leaders of New York City's street gangs, a comparative analysis is made of the jacket gangs of the 1970's, the drug gangs of the 1980's and the street organizations of today. The data from these personal narratives (Reissman 1994) are supplemented by participant-and non-participant observations of current group activities and film footage of past gangÂrelated events to provide an historical account of evolving youth street subcultural practices. The article argues that agency and empowerment, largely overlooked categories of gang analyses, exposes the poverty of conventional gang theory and the delinquency-centered criteria of gang studies
