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Ethnic residential segregation can result from preferential choices or from market forces. Depending on whether it evolved voluntarily or forcibly, segregation can have differential effects on immigrant integration. Using the example of Munich as a major German city, we examine the unequal spatial distribution of migrants and non-migrants. Following an approach proposed by Frank Kalter we calculate indices of residential segregation, which are adjusted for differences in socio-economic status. Results show that almost 14 percent of the residential segregation of immigrants can be attributed to socio-economic restrictions. This finding suggests that factors related to immigration and, possibly, also ethnic boundaries are determinants of the unequal spatial distribution also in high-status cities such as Munich.
The aim of this study is to uncover effects of selection and socialization on the perceived need for punishment within the police force. Punitiveness and authoritarianism of police officers can be relatively stable attitudes that can already appear when individuals choose the police profession in terms of a selection effect. Two effects of institutional socialization are examined. Firstly, the effect of the time already spent at the university within the police sample. Secondly, the effect due to increasing age and work experience. The analyses are based on data from police students with and without prior police work experience (n = 274) and a representative sample of the general population (n = 892).
The results indicate that there are hardly any selection effects. The duration of the police studies has a reducing effect on punitiveness and authoritarianism. Police students with prior work experience as police officers are less punitive and authoritarian with increasing age. The cause of this age effect, which is not directly related to work experience, is discussed.
Wer gestaltet die Stadt? Sozialer Status und soziales Kapitel als Faktoren kommunaler Partizipation
(2022)
This article presents the primary results of a longitudinal study on attitudes toward punishment, among social work students in Germany. This is particularly relevant because social workers, especially in the field of criminal justice, are part of the state control bodies required to set boundaries and decide for or against certain sanctions. The results show that punitive attitudes are not uncommon among first-year social work students but decrease during the course of their study, especially in students majoring in the field of criminal justice. Simultaneously, “selective punitiveness” was evident.
Studies have shown the impact of a population’s age structure on the crime rate. Germany is — like many other industrialized countries — facing an ageing of its population. This trend will continue in the future: Until the year 2020 the share of younger people aged 14 to 24 years will decrease from 12.3 % to 10.7 % and the share of elderly persons aged 60 years and older will increase from 25.9 % to 30.1 %. Crime is, however, not only influenced by age, other factors also play an important role. Research has shown that the level of social disorganization is especially related to the crime rate. The aim of the present contribution is to explain the crime trends between 1995 and 2010 using multivariate panel estimators that take into account the demographic changes and social disorganization. These models are in a second step used to forecast the crime trends until the year 2020. The data base consists of pooled time-series at the county level from four German states (Bavaria, Brandenburg, Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt). The results show that the age structure plays only a limited role in explaining the past crime trends. The most important factor is residential instability. The forecasts expect a decline of the number of registered offences till 2020. However, the decline will be faster in the eastern states than in the western states and some offences are expected to increase in the future.
This paper analyses if the economic situation is related to punitivity, that is, if adverse of economic patterns go along with a longing for harsher sanctions in the population. Several scholars have postulated that increased economic insecurities and anxieties may lead to the preference for harsher sanctioning. Empirical research, however, could not confirm the link between individual economic conditions and punitivity. We therefore introduce the concept of relative deprivation as mechanism between the economic situation and punitivity. Database is a nationwide representative survey (N = 3,073) with a multilevel design that allows to differentiate between the individual and the county level conditions. Our analyses confirmed the impact of the regional economic situation on punitivity. The objective individual situation, however, has no influence on punitivity, when we control for relative deprivation and education. Additionally, we find a significant impact of relative deprivation on punitivity. Relative deprivation itself is dependent on the individual economic situation as well as on the county level economic conditions.
