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The article presents a case study examining the differences in community standards for the viewing of heterosexual and homosexual pornography. People disagree about what place, if any, pornography should have in a free society and to what extent, if any, pornography harms public safety and morality. Of major concern in determining the governments' right to censor pornography is the question as to whether pornography is a form of speech. This research is part of a study conducted in Leon County, Florida in 1996 as a result of political strife over so called pornographic video rentals. Of particular interest in this case was a homosexual video entitled Knockout without which one video store owner contended he would lose substantial revenue and possibly be forced to close. The State Attorney was accused of bias for singling out two movies that depict homosexual acts to prosecute. At the request of the judge in this case, a study was conducted in an attempt to establish a community standard regarding both heterosexual and homosexual pornography. The data are employed here to test the hypothesis that an individuals' religious affiliation will affect their attitude toward pornography.

This article presents a national opinion survey of 1201 Hispanics in the U.S. The survey solicits opinions on a variety of topics including civil rights, health care, crime and education. Unique features of this study allow attitude comparisons controlling for country of origin and ethnic heritage. Three questions of major importance for Hispanic youth were asked concerning the seriousness of drug use, violence, and high school dropouts. While a majority of all respondents considered all three to be detrimental, high school dropouts were considered to be the most serious problem facing the Hispanic community. Eighty-one percent of all respondents agreed that Hispanic children dropping out of school was a serious problem. The survey also found that those who feel most strongly about the seriousness of crime are also most likely to view the crime problem as having improved. The largest degree of variation among educational categories was found between those with no high school and those who had some high school education.

Examines the relationship between perceived probability of arrest and self-reported incidence of criminal behavior at the individual level. Survey of 611 college students in the United States; Link between fear of punishment and personal-level criminal inhibitions; Criminality as a function of two factors.

This study examines the opinions of men and women from a random phone sample of super voters (those persons voting in the last three out of four possible elections) in Florida (N = 413) toward gay men and/or lesbians as adoptive parents. The survey gathered information on whether the respondents would place boys or girls available for adoption with gay men or lesbians. Controlling for various demographic variables, bivariate logistic regressions were performed for each possible parent/child combination. Several variables were consistently significant across the models tested, explaining from 22 to 29% of the variance. These included race/ethnicity, religious identification, respondent's gender, and political ideology. Implications of this study for policy-makers and child welfare practitioners are posited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research investigates the predictive ability of four variables central to individual-level application of Braithwaite's shaming theory. The concept of the theory is the inclination of people to participate in gossip having been shamed reintegrativeley, been the object of gossip and stigmatically shamed. The study uses self-projected measures of criminal behavior obtained from telephone surveys. The resulting data supports the theory. The theoretical inhibitory shaming variables does not reduce projected misbehavior. Also, the advanced interdependency of individuals does not enhance the effects of the inhibitory shaming variables. It is suggested that the theory needs refinement and clarification.

Islamophobia appears to be growing, becoming a mainstream ideology in the United States. Despite the current spike in anti-Islamic sentiment and fear of the Islamic “other,” these ideas are not new and can be traced back to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Using survey data collected only months after the attacks (N= 422), this study uses an integrated threat framework to examine predictors of public support for increased security in the United States. The results show that perceived personal threat and support for policies that criminalize Muslims predict support for security policies that compromise civil liberties. This is especially true among older individuals, conservatives, individuals less inclined towards individual freedom, and those living in the Northeast or in the South. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Public policy in the area of youth crime has periodically shifted back and forth between punishment and child saving. Generally, scholars believe that public opinion and youth justice policies are linked. It is also believed that crime salience—fear and perceived risk of victimization—is linked to public opinion about youth sanctions. To test these widely held beliefs, this study examines public opinion about youth justice policies by exploring the impact of crime salience on public support for child saving versus youth punishment. This study expands on prior literature by also considering the public’s willingness to pay (WTP) for the youth justice policies they prefer. Results indicate that fear increases punitiveness, WTP for youth justice policies generally, and, more specifically, the WTP for youth punishment. However, fear does not affect the public’s WTP for child saving. Limitations and suggestions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]