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Crime on the rise?
Public perception of crime remains out of sync with reality, criminologist contends
When the FBI and Department of Justice release their annual reports on crime in the United States, Dr. Mark Warr's phone starts ringing. His voicemail fills with interview requests from reporters seeking the criminologist's expertise for stories on rising crime.
But the angle of many news stories based on FBI data--that violent crime is a growing national problem--is frustrating, the professor of sociology says, because it's inaccurate.
"Many people don't realize that while reported crime may appear to go up in a given year, that doesn't mean real crime rates are on the rise," Warr says. "Based on data from a variety of measurement tools, the overall trend is actually quite good. In fact, the homicide rate in the western world has actually been declining for more than 700 years."
Warr has studied social reaction to crime for three decades, published dozens of studies on crime, public opinion and victimization, authored a book on delinquency and served as a consultant for the National Institute of Justice and National Academy of Sciences.
Yet when dramas such as "CSI," "Criminal Minds" and "Law and Order" dominate popular television, and crime coverage often fills a quarter of newspapers, measured perspectives such as Warr's are often lost in the clamor for lurid stories about America's most wanted.
As a result, the messages about crime that people receive from the mass media are often out of sync with reality, Warr contends.
"People are bombarded with information about crime from the media, which makes them believe the world is a much more dangerous place than it really is," Warr says. "This creates a climate of fear that can negatively affect the way we live, the way we go to work, the times we shop and the precautions we take for our families and children." |
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Migration, Homeland, and Belonging in Eurasia
Edited by Cynthia J. Buckley, Blair A. Ruble and Erin Trouth Hofmann
Published by Woodrow Wilson Center Press; Copublished by Johns Hopkins University Press
Migration, a force throughout the world, has special meanings in the former Soviet lands. Soviet successor countries, each with strong ethnic associations, have pushed some racial groups out and pulled others back home. Forcible relocations of the Stalin era were reversed, and areas previously closed for security reasons were opened to newcomers. These countries represent a fascinating mix of the motivations and achievements of migration in Russia and Central Asia. Migration, Homeland, and Belonging in Eurasia examines patterns of migration and sheds new light on government interests, migrant motivations, historical precedents, and community identities. The contributors come from a variety of disciplines: political science, sociology, history, and geography. Initial chapters offer overall assessments of contemporary migration debates in the region. Subsequent chapters feature individual case studies that highlight continuity and change in migration debates in imperial and Soviet periods. Several chapters treat specific topics in Central Eurasia and the Far East, such as the movement of ethnic Kazakhs from Mongolia to Kazakhstan and the continuing attractiveness to migrants of supposedly uneconomical cities in Siberia.
Cynthia J. Buckley is associate professor of sociology at the University of Texas, Austin.
Blair A. Ruble is the director of the Kennan Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center.
Erin Trouth Hofmann is currently a graduate student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Texas, Austin. Formerly, she was a program assistant with the Kennan Institute.
Comments on the book:
"This is a highly relevant book for scholars, policy makers, and government institutions, offering a glimpse at the myriad cross-country issues that emerge regarding the problems and opportunities associated with the movement of people across borders."--Kathleen Kuehnast, United States Institute of Peace
"This is an interesting book which brings a range of new and interesting case studies into view. There are only a handful of books on this subject and arguably none have the breadth of scope that this collection offers."--Hilary Pilkington, University of Warwick
(Source: Woodrow Wilson Center Press) |
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Task force recommends gender equity plan
Gender Equity Task Force Report recommends creation of plan to eliminate faculty gender inequity
AUSTIN, Texas -- The Gender Equity Task Force, created by the provost of The University of Texas at Austin in March 2007, has recommended in its report that the university develop and enact a 5-10 year gender equity plan to "reduce or eliminate faculty gender inequity--specifically with respect to hiring, promotion, salaries and governance."
The report, presented this week to Provost Steven Leslie, found gender gaps at The University of Texas at Austin in areas of faculty representation, promotion and attrition for faculty advancing through the ranks, salary and leadership. It also noted concerns about the "climate" for women faculty on campus, departmental governance structures, a lack of clear knowledge by faculty and administrators about "family-friendly policies" on campus, and a need to improve the situation of senior women faculty members. The report said senior women at the university are more likely to feel isolated and less recognized for their professional achievements and that they receive significantly lower salaries than do their male colleagues.
"I asked the task force to conduct a deep and thorough assessment of gender equity and work environment on our campus and they delivered one of the most probing and data-driven reports I have seen in all of higher education," said Leslie, who formed the task force a few weeks after he took office as provost of the university. "There are some recommendations that we will be able to address soon and others that will take a while to work through, but we will begin immediately to tackle the recommendations."
In forming the committee, Leslie asked the 22-member group to consider what work "remains to be done in order to make The University of Texas at Austin an inviting and productive place for women faculty members in all areas." Leslie's creation of the task force was consistent with an announcement by the university's new president, William Powers Jr., that recruitment and retention of a diverse student body and faculty body would be a core area of emphasis for his presidency.
"I applaud the work of the Gender Equity Task Force," said Powers. "Its members have performed a valuable service for the university by identifying issues we must address to support the professional growth of our faculty. In order to compete for, recruit and retain the very best faculty, we must be committed to policies, programs and leadership built on fairness, equity and equal opportunity."
The co-chairs of the task force are Professors J Strother Moore, chair of the Department of Computer Science, and Gretchen Ritter, a professor of government and director of the Center for Women's and Gender Studies. The committee included faculty members from Architecture, Business, Communication, Education, Engineering, Fine Arts, Law, Liberal Arts, Natural Sciences, Pharmacy, Public Affairs and Social Work. Two deans, a vice provost, a graduate student, a staff member and a vice president also were members of the committee.
"Promoting gender equity is central to the university's mission of becoming the nation's leading public university," said Ritter. "Recruiting faculty from all sectors of the population allows us to draw on a broader pool of talent in building academic excellence. If we fail to recruit and retain women faculty in all fields, then we deny ourselves the opportunity to benefit from the talent and insights of half of the population."
"Gender discrimination is pervasive in our society, including in higher education," said Moore. "The university should be applauded for confronting such a problem head-on. As advances in fields like computer science shape our economy and our society, it is essential that women and minorities be recruited into those fields as scientific leaders."
Leslie has appointed Vice Provost Judith Langlois as administrative leader to oversee the next phase of implementing Gender Equity Task Force recommendations. He said Langlois, the Charles and Sarah Seay Regents' Professor of Developmental Psychology, is highly regarded on campus for her vision and ability to get things done.
The findings of the Gender Equity Task Force will be presented to the university's Faculty Council during a meeting in January, and will be discussed in a panel discussion with the Faculty Women's Organization in February 2009.
Key recommendations of the task force report propose that the provost develop and enact a 5-10 year gender equity plan to reduce or eliminate faculty gender inequity--specifically with respect to hiring, promotion, salaries and governance. The task force said the plan should include a time line, an annual budget, ongoing accountability mechanisms and a budget justification. The committee said specific goals should be set with the dean of each school and college in the areas discussed. It also recommended that a Gender Equity Plan for the university, which should include goals and timetables for each school and college, be finalized and announced by the fall 2009.
The recommendations included hiring initiatives such as creating a provost's opportunity fund for hiring and retention of faculty who contribute to intellectual diversity by, for instance, increasing the proportion of women in fields in which they are underrepresented. The report said progress toward gender equity in hiring by field should be benchmarked against the proportion of women faculty members at the top 20 research universities in a given field. The task force also suggested the provost's office oversee a proposed program of training schools and colleges on the best practices for recruiting and retaining a diverse faculty. The report also recommended that a dual-career assistance office be created with the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement to aid hiring efforts.
In the area of retention and promotion, the report said deans and chairs should be required to report and explain significant gender differentials in retention and promotion rates. It said gender equity should be part of the annual reviews for deans and department chairs and that the availability of supplemental resources for hiring and retention under the provost's opportunity fund should be tied to a demonstrated commitment to the promotion of gender equity by deans and chairs.
Recommendations on salary included a proposal that a "best-practice model" be established for awarding merit raises, endowed chairs and professorships in a gender equitable fashion. The report said that, on average across the university in 2007, female professors earned $9,028 less than men. Among non-tenure-track faculty, on average, female faculty members earned $4,507 less than their male counterparts, the report said.
The task force found women constitute a slightly smaller proportion of the tenured and tenure-track faculty at the university than they do at doctoral institutions nationwide. It said women constitute 19 percent of the full professors, 25 percent of the tenured faculty, and 39 percent of the university's tenure track faculty. In comparison, at doctoral institutions nationwide, women constitute 26 percent of the tenured faculty and 41 percent of the tenure-track faculty. The report said American Association of University Professors data for 2006 show the university ranked 11th out of 12 peer institutions in the percentage of women ranked as full professors.
The "climate" survey included reports of harassment and discrimination and more than 14 percent of women faculty members said they have been subjected to sexual harassment. Women faculty members also were much more likely than male faculty members to report they have experienced discrimination related to gender, race, age or family status.
Addressing the "leadership gap," the report said women are underrepresented as department chairs, who can provide discretionary resources for faculty and are influential in hiring, salary and promotion decisions. It also noted that only 9 percent of the university's endowed chairs are held by women, even though women constitute 19 percent of the full professors at the university.
The Gender Equity Task Force was convened at a moment when concerns about gender equity in higher education had risen nationally. Many of The University of Texas at Austin's peer institutions over the last decade have conducted studies similar to the one conducted by the task force, finding similar problems and issues that were addressed to result in "substantial progress in recent years in increasing the level of gender equity within their faculties," the report said.
The report said that, wherever possible, the task force endeavored to compare data from The University of Texas at Austin with information from the 11 public research universities typically treated as the university's peer group. These include: the University of California, Berkeley; the University of California, Los Angeles; the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Indiana University, Bloomington; Michigan State University; the University of Michigan; the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Ohio State University; the University of Washington, Seattle; and the University of Wisconsin at Madison. |
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With age comes a sense of peace and calm, Population Research Center study shows
Professors Ross and Mirowsky publish findings Social Science and Medicine
Aging brings a sense of peace and calm, according to a new study from the Population Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin. Starting at about age 60, participants reported more feelings of ease and contentment than their younger counterparts.
Catherine Ross and John Mirowsky, professors of sociology, have published the findings in "Age and the Balance of Emotions" in the May 19 issue of Social Science and Medicine. The research was funded in part by the National Institute on Aging.
The findings reveal aging is associated with more positive than negative emotions, and more passive than active emotions, Ross said.
Previous research on emotions associated with aging focused on negative emotions, such as depression. However, a second dimension underlying emotions is an active versus passive dimension, which is less studied, but may be important in explaining how emotions shift as people age, according to the researchers.
"The passive/positive combination reveals that contentment, calm and ease are some of the most common emotions people feel as they age," Ross said. "Emotions that are both active and negative, such as anxiety and anger, are especially unlikely among the elderly."
The study examined 1,450 responses to the 1996 U.S. General Social Survey conducted by the National Opinion Research Center, which included English-speaking people aged 18 and older. The gender distribution of the sample was 56 percent female and 44 percent male, and the racial distribution was 81 percent white, 14 percent African American and 5 percent other races.
Participants responded to statements such as "On how many days in the past seven days have you...felt that you couldn't shake the blues, felt sad, felt lonely, felt anxious and tense, felt worried, felt so restless that you couldn't sit long in a chair, felt angry at someone, felt mad at someone, felt outraged at something somebody had done, felt calm, felt at ease, felt contented, felt happy, felt overjoyed by something, felt excited about or interested in something, felt proud, felt embarrassed, felt ashamed."
The researchers then grouped the emotions in four categories: active, passive, positive and negative.
Secondary findings reveal women had more negative than positive emotions, and more passive than active emotions than men. Also, participants with higher income and education levels had significantly more positive emotions than those with lower income and education levels. |
