King, R. D., & Kutateladze, B. L. (2023). “A higher bar: Institutional impediments to hate crime prosecution.” Law & Society Review, 57(4), 489-507.
SUMMARY
This research illustrates the inadequacy of existing legal frameworks to address hate crimes despite hate crimes being widely illegal. Their research focuses on three primary institutional impediments: the evil phenomenon of evidentiary inflation; the crime is made more complicated than the statute requires; the gap between the police depts and the prosecutors’ offices, the results on the cases are discrepancies and misalignments; cultural disconnection between police and victims, makes the investigation and prosecution less responsive. The study also uses a qualitative methodology, in which it extensively analyzes prosecutors’ case files and carries out personal interviews with police and prosecutors operating in a particular jurisdiction. By means of this research, authors add to legal endogeneity theory, which brings to the fore the fact that the way these laws are enforced can be held responsible.
EVALUATION
The article points out the factual issues that make the prosecution of hate crimes complex to comprehend. Still, this article should be reading material for the audience as it gives a clear scope of the topic. As an essential resource in sociological-legal studies, it not only provides data but also a number of theoretical findings that help us better understand the complexities of social structure and the role of law within this structure. The study’s results are of great significance to policy planning, which should take into account not only legal but also organizational and cultural elements while bringing about hate crime prosecution reforms. As a result, strengthening the relationship between police and prosecutors, dealing with the implicit bias in law enforcement, and enhancing general community awareness of different cultures could unconsciously up the crime-fighting expenditures.
However, although the authors, in their use of case files and interviews, unveil relevant qualified information, there is a need to expand this research with quantitative research in which the lived experience of the prosecution of hate crimes, as a whole, would be assessed more deeply. Granted, there are specific areas for improvement in the undertaking of King and Kutateladze, yet these flaws, however evident, do not undermine their overall work, and they provide a basis for additional research and policy building to tackle this pressing issue.
Foster, B. B., & Thomas, J. M. (2022). “Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, Onward!”. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, 8(1), 1-5.
SUMMARY
The article by Foster and Thomas (2022) emphasizes the reflection of the journal’s state and the forecast of what the future would be like regarding the sociology of race and ethnicity. The authors provide an overview of the journal and its significance within the field of sociology and outline its influence beyond the domain in which it operates, highlighting the role that the journal played in formulating research on racism, race, ethnicity, and related issues that had not been evoked previously within the mainstream of sociology. They formulate plans about the future of the journal with the idea of broadening its scope on the sociology of area and process under the conditions of race and ethnicity. They model situating place as a critical factor in social dynamics and recognize that race, ethnicity, and racism are fluid.
EVALUATION
The objective of this piece is to give a substantial overview of the existing factors and future development of racial and ethnic sociology. It is a review article, which implies it is a secondary source revealing the development of the discipline and the essence of the journal as an academic tool for research on races and ethnicities. The implications of the article for political actions are essential since it aims to have a broader and more intricate perspective of race as well as ethnicity, which will possibly be used in policies that strive to level up racial and ethnic discrimination. Although this article is not a research report but rather an editorial that requires more facts and research, it expresses a vision and makes an action plan for the field. This can be perceived as a drawback for those who try to find empirical evidence or mission-specific details of race and ethnicity. Furthermore, the article explains how it is critical for research to be outside the confines of the United States but could also elaborate on how to incorporate other parts of the world’s work.
Werth, S. R. (2024). “Social disharmony and racial injustice: WEB Du Bois’s theories on crime.” Social Problems, 71(1), 18-35.
SUMMARY
In the article, the author agrees that Du Bois’s works stressing the influence of racial and economic exclusion on crime within Black communities provide a pivotal kind of outlook regarding the mechanism through which systemic racism affects the social environment and promotes criminal behavior. Unlike the Chicago schools that separated the role of social control from neighborhoods, Du Bois tied neighborhood crime to a broader class of processes related to racial discrimination such that the crime in the black community cannot be well understood without thinking about structural barriers of racial stratification and economic injustice. Werth points out that Du Bois’s theory is not the only thing that would consist of the overall effect of racial() discrimination and poverty on society and on individual behavior.
EVALUATION
This is an immensely vital source of literature for researchers, sociologists, or even criminal justice system practitioners who wish to explore these intricate issues. It was a secondary source that shed light on the multifaceted and current treatment of Du Bois’s criminology and racial inequality as well as criminal justice reform. The consequences of Werth’s analysis for policies are immense, indicating that crime prevention and justice policies that are effective must cotton on the issues that lead to social conflicts and racial injustice, such as housing discrimination, unemployment dissidents, and education gap, as opposed to solely community-based interventions.
Nevertheless, even though Werth’s article touches on the excellent quality and applicability of Du Bois’s conceptions about criminal matters, it provides food for thought on the way actual criminal justice policies and practices have been implemented throughout our time. Furthermore, the essay may need a more comprehensive type of the scientific approaches used in the study of Du Bois railings. Although these do not precisely qualify as a significant critique of her works, they still lead to an understanding of how structural factors contribute to crime and propose DuBois’ Theory as an excellent framework that could be applied to the body of criminology and urban Sociology.
Bugden, D. (2024). “Environmental inequality in the American mind: The problem of color-blind environmental racism.” Social Problems, 71(1), 106-127.
SUMMARY
In the present article, the researcher focuses on Americans’ conception of injustice in the environment and the determinants of their attitudes. Bringing data from a national survey of 1000 respondents, Bugden discovers that most Americans are poor in their understanding of environmental inequality and frequently deem such inequalities as fair. Regression analyses indicate that the development of these ideas owes both credit and blame to what Bugden refers to as “color-blind environmental racism,” an appearance of the color-blind racial ideology in which color-blind racist ideology conceals and justifies environmental racism, thus reducing the support for a policy solution. The study details widespread color-blind environmental racism in the U.S. and the problems that come with it for the environmental justice movement.
EVALUATION
This article touches on the complicated notion of race ideology and perspectives of environmental inequality, thus providing a thorough critical assessment of how color blindness is perpetuating environmental racism. It is an essential source that uses the survey data from the source and adopts regression analyses to analyze the defining features of public opinion on environmental justice. The results expose color-blind environmental racism as an influential cultural barrier to achieving environmental justice. Thus, the squeezed advocacy groups and policymakers, in their efforts to garner widespread support for rewarding policies that address environmental inequalities, are exposed now.
This study provides relevant information about community opinions. However, it does not examine deeply why these socio-spatial structures are contributing to environmental racism, such as historical segregation patterns, discriminatory land use policy, and unequal resource distribution. Although these limits need to be considered, Bugden’s article is a convincing example of why we need to face the color-blind version of racism to meet fairness in environmental policy-making through justice agendas.
Evans, M., & Chapman, A. (2024). “Residential Immobility and Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Housing Quality.” Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, 10(1), 31-50.
SUMMARY
The authors look into the many issues of low rental quality that may exist across racially and ethnically divided neighborhoods and the role of residential mobility in them. The study examines if low income goes hand in hand with racial differences in terms of residential mobility, which creates disparities in housing quality. This research, using SIPP survey data, finds that the Black and Hispanic families are more in-mobility. Additionally, we find that within the stationary residence, Black and Hispanic households are more likely to reside in lower-quality housing than their white counterparts. Nevertheless, the Blackhouse owners who are making residential moves are not different from the White households as far as the housing quality is concerned, and this illustrates the importance of residential harnessing in the entire process of housing inequalities.
EVALUATION
This write-up gives important information about a factor that influences the quality of the housing of low-income families, and it shows how low-income people of Black and Hispanic origin remain less mobile and, as a result, have worse housing conditions. The study is, therefore, a bridge between the current literature about how the housing disparities are maintained by residential immobility that is most prevalent among the deprived communities. Aligning this research with other economic and social issues, the report provides the platform for closing the gap between housing policy and social justice advocacy. On the other hand, the study basically deals with the individual-level factors that increase the housing quality gaps. Still, it does not go into broader and systematic issues like housing segregation and also urban planning. However, that can be investigated by conducting studies that would take into account the processes of race, class, and place in relation to housing outcomes and by also exploring the policies that can be efficient in solving the issues of residential immobility and housing inequality.
In this third part, the articles examine in-depth the complexity of the racial inequality cornerstones in different areas of social life. In her analysis of W.E.B. Du Bois’s conceptions of criminal activity, Werth underscores the structural reasons for the racial disorder by forthrightly stating that fighting structural oppression and income inequality are some of the measures to address the issue. Bugden’s background of color-blind racial environmentalism reflects that the racial ideology is part and parcel of the pervasive environmental inequalities that, in most cases, are manifested, making it imperative to take cognizance of the public beliefs and the underlying policy implications. In sum, the study of Evans & Chapman that focuses on residential immobility and housing quality disparities uncovers how mobility is a source of racial and ethnic inequalities in housing, thus pointing towards structural barriers as an essential driver of housing class differences. Such articles are beneficial and remind us that there have got to be many economic, political, and many other social problems to have a just society.
Bugden, D. (2024). “Environmental inequality in the American mind: The problem of color-blind environmental racism.” Social Problems, 71(1), 106-127.
Evans, M., & Chapman, A. (2024). “Residential Immobility and Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Housing Quality.” Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, 10(1), 31-50.
Foster, B. B., & Thomas, J. M. (2022). “Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, Onward!”. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, 8(1), 1-5.
King, R. D., & Kutateladze, B. L. (2023). “A higher bar: Institutional impediments to hate crime prosecution.” Law & Society Review, 57(4), 489-507.
Werth, S. R. (2024). “Social disharmony and racial injustice: WEB Du Bois’s theories on crime.” Social Problems, 71(1), 18-35.