Recently Published Books

Fall 2004, Volume 26, Number 2

Imprisoning America: The Social Effects of Mass Incarceration
Edited by Mary Pattillo, David Weiman, and Bruce Western
Russell Sage Foundation Press, 2004, 277 pages

Over the last 30 years, the U.S. prison population increased from around 300,000 to more than two million, with more than half a million prisoners returning to their home communities each year. Based on a conference held at IPR, Imprisoning America draws from an interdisciplinary group of leading researchers in economics, criminal justice, psychology, sociology, and social work to look beyond a narrow crime focus and examine the connections between incarceration and family formation, labor markets, political participation, and community well-being. The book vividly illustrates that the experience of incarceration itself—and not just the criminal involvement of inmates—negatively affects diverse aspects of social membership. It highlights the pressing need for new policies to support ex-prisoners and the families and communities to which they return.

The book was edited by Mary Pattillo, associate professor of sociology and African American studies and IPR faculty fellow; David Weiman, Alena Wels Hirschorn 1958 Professor of Economics, Barnard College; and Bruce Western, professor of sociology, Princeton University. Other IPR faculty and researchers wrote chapters on the effects of incarceration on father-child relationships (Kathryn Edin, Timothy Nelson, and Rechelle Paranal) and on the political ramifications of disenfranchising inmates and former felons (IPR’s Jeff Manza and Christopher Uggen of the University of Minnesota).

Fairness and Effectiveness in Policing: The Evidence
Edited by Wesley G. Skogan and Kathleen Frydl,
Committee to Review Research on Police Policy and
Practices, National Research Council
The National Academies Press, 2004, 413 pages

Co-edited by Wesley G. Skogan, professor of political science, IPR faculty fellow, and chair of the NRC police policy committee, Fairness and Effectiveness in Policing explores police work in the new century. It replaces myths with research findings and provides recommendations for updated policy and practices to guide it. The book provides answers to the most basic question: What do police do? It reviews how police work is organized, explores the expanding responsibilities of police, examines the increasing diversity among police employees, and discusses the complex interactions between officers and citizens. It also addresses such topics as community policing, use of force and racial profiling, and evaluates the success of common police techniques, such as focusing on crime “hot spots.” It goes on to look at the issue of legitimacy— how the public gets information about police work, how different groups view police, and how police can gain community trust.

Standards Deviation: How Schools Misunderstand Education Policy
By James P. Spillane
Harvard University Press, 2004, 224 pages

What happens to federal and state policies as they move from legislative chambers to individual districts, schools, and, ultimately, classrooms? Although policy implementation is generally seen as an administrative problem, James P. Spillane reminds us that it is also a psychological problem. He is an IPR faculty fellow and professor of human development and social policy.

After intensively studying several school districts’ responses to new statewide science and math teaching policies in the early 1990s, Spillane argues that administrators and teachers are inclined to assimilate new policies into current practices. As new programs are communicated through administrative levels, however, the understanding of them becomes increasingly distorted, no matter how sincerely the new ideas are endorsed. Such patterns of well-intentioned misunderstanding highlight the need for systematic training and continuing support for the local administrators and teachers who are entrusted with carrying out large-scale educational change, classroom by classroom.

The Psychology of Gender, Second Edition
Edited by Alice H. Eagly, Anne E. Beall, and Robert J. Sternberg
Guilford Publications, 2004, 360 pages

In an extensively revised and expanded second edition, this text presents important advances in the psychological study of gender differences and similarities across the lifespan. New contributors, additional topics, and many completely new chapters provide a broad overview of current knowledge and bring the field thoroughly up to date. Diverse theoretical approaches and research traditions are represented, including biological, socialcognitive, psychoanalytic, and self psychological perspectives. Covered are such topics as the organization and activational effects of sex hormones; evolutionary influences on sex-role behaviors; processes of gender development and socialization; gender inequality and stereotypes; crosscultural issues; and more.

Alice H. Eagly is professor of psychology and an IPR faculty fellow.

The Social Psychology of Group Identity and Social Conflict: Theory, Application, and Practice
Edited by Alice H. Eagly, Reuben M. Baron, and V. Lee Hamilton
APA Books, 2004, 344 pages

The Social Psychology of Group Identity and Social Conflict examines the far-reaching influence of Herbert C. Kelman, a psychologist who is both a scientist and a peacemaker. Kelman is renowned for his contributions to the study of social influence in social psychology as well as to international conflict resolution and the peace research movement. He developed the interactive problemsolving method, which helped lay the groundwork for the 1993 Oslo agreement between Israel and the PLO. His work has profoundly affected the ways in which social psychologists think about the links between personal and national identity, between intragroup and intergroup processes and between individual behavior and the functioning of social systems. In this edited volume, distinguished scholars explore the areas that have defined Kelman’s career: social research ethics, conformity and obedience, national identity and nationalism, and ethnic conflict resolution.

Alice H. Eagly is professor of psychology and an IPR faculty fellow.

From Warfare to Welfare: Defense Intellectuals and Urban Problems in Cold War America
By Jennifer S. Light
Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003, 288 pages

Jennifer Light, assistant professor of communication studies and sociology and an IPR faculty associate, argues that the technologies and values of the Cold War fundamentally shaped the history of postwar urban America. From Warfare to Welfare documents how American intellectuals, city leaders, and the federal government chose to attack problems in the nation’s cities by borrowing techniques and technologies first designed for military engagement with foreign enemies. “Light demonstrates how careful attention to the connection between Cold War planning and urban planning forces us to rethink the recent history of the American city,” wrote Stuart W. Leslie, professor of history of science, technology, and medicine at Johns Hopkins University. “This is really a study of how defense intellectuals managed to convince a couple of generations of planners and politicians that they had something valuable to learn from RAND, JPL [Jet Propulsion Laboratory], and NASA.”

Children’s Health, the Nation’s Wealth: Assessing and Improving Child Health
Edited by Greg J. Duncan and Ruth E. K. Stein
Committee on the Evaluation of Children’s Health
National Research Council: The National Academies Press, forthcoming 2004, 210 pages

In earlier eras, disease and death in children were due largely to infections. Significant gains have been made in lowering rates of infant mortality and morbidity from infectious diseases and accidental causes, improved health care access, and reduction in the effects of environmental contaminants such as lead. Despite these accomplishments, however, there are growing numbers of U.S. children suffering from serious chronic diseases, injuries, mental health disorders, and attention deficit disorder. Moreover, many of these conditions are not equally distributed across the population, and communities vary considerably in the ways they address their collective commitment to children and their health.

This book provides a detailed examination of the information about children’s health to help policymakers and program providers at federal, state, and local levels. To improve children’s health—and thus, the health of future generations— it is critical to have data that can be used to assess both current conditions and possible future threats to children’s health. It describes what is known about the health of children and what is needed to expand the knowledge. The long-term consequences of these disorders are significant, because unhealthy children become unhealthy adults. Health during childhood should be a national concern because children are important in their own right and because the nation cannot thrive if it has large numbers of unhealthy adults.

Greg J. Duncan is Edwina S. Tarry Professor of Education and Social Policy and an IPR faculty fellow.