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Criminological transition in Russia: Indiana University research

From "criminological transition" to marriage wage penalty, IU faculty present research at major sociology conference

EDITORS: Nearly 50 professors and graduate students from Indiana University will be presenting research or otherwise participating in the American Sociological Association's annual meeting in Montreal today (Aug. 11) through Aug. 14. Below is a sampling of the research to be presented. The information is embargoed until 12:01 a.m. the day of the individual presentations. For more information about the meeting, visit: http://www.asanet.org/page.ww?section=Meetings&name=2006 Convention Home.

Criminological transition. Russia may have experienced what Indiana University criminologist William Pridemore calls a "criminological transition." The Russian homicide rate doubled during the 1990s, notes Pridemore, and is now among the highest in the world. In prior research, Pridemore found evidence that the dramatic political, economic and social changes experienced by Russians are largely responsible for the increased rates of violence. The results from the research being presented at the American Sociological Association's annual conference, however, also suggest that this transition may be responsible for the changes he has found in Russia's "crime profile." Pridemore tapped homicide narratives drawn from court and police records in the Udmurt Republic to examine stability and change in the distribution of Russian homicide victims, offenders and incident characteristics before and after the fall of the Soviet Union. While the characteristics of the victims changed little, he said, the same cannot be said about the offenders or the incidents. For example, there have been substantial increases in the proportion of homicides that were premeditated, profit-motivated and/or involving more than one offender. Furthermore, a broader cross-section of the population now make up the ranks of homicide offenders. For instance, the education range of offenders has greatly expanded and a much smaller proportion of offenders now have a serious criminal record relative to the past.

• Background: Based upon historical research by other scholars, his own findings from Russia and a study he recently completed that compares homicide characteristics in Chicago from 1900 with those from 2000, Pridemore has borrowed from demographers in introducing the new term "criminological transition." He argues that a nation's crime profile (including characteristics of victims, offenders and events), and not simply its crime rate, may change as the nation develops or modernizes. Pridemore is an associate professor in IU Bloomington's Criminal Justice Department.

Pridemore will discuss his findings on Saturday (Aug. 12) during the "Criminology: Structures and Processes" session in the Palais des Congres de Montreal. Pridemore can be reached at 812-856-2220 or wpridemo@indiana.edu. More information about this and related research can be found at http://www.indiana.edu/~crimjust/faculty/Pridemore.shtml.

The marriage bonus for men. Claudia Geist, a doctoral student in IU Bloomington's Department of Sociology, found that it pays -- in dollars and cents -- for men to be married. Geist examined whether a wage gap existed between married and unmarried individuals in 15 countries, including the United States. She found a clear advantage for married men, compared with their bachelor counterparts, but the results for women were mixed. Married women's lower levels of education, experience and other differing characteristics, such as number of children, explain their lower wages in nine of the 15 countries. For men, taking into account the higher levels of education and labor market experience among those who are married reduces the marriage wage bonus. But all things equal in 14 of the 15 countries examined, married men still earn about 10 percent to 20 percent more than unmarried men. "The almost universal wage bonus for men, combined with the wide variation in the difference between married and unmarried women's wages, indicates that the impact of marriage on women's lives also varies widely cross-nationally," Geist said. Documenting this variation is important in better understanding gender inequality in many aspects of everyday life, she added. Geist will discuss her research on Friday (Aug. 11) from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. during the Marriage and Family session at the Palais des Congres de Montreal. Geist can be reached at cgeist@indiana.edu.

Voter turnout -- it could be worse. Voter turnout has been in a more or less steady decline since 1960. While most analysts have focused on the significance of individual factors, such as a younger electorate, and institutional factors, such as a less pronounced competition between political parties, few have systematically explored the importance of cohort replacement. Kyle Dodson, a graduate student in IU Bloomington's Department of Sociology, found that the replacement of older generations of voters by younger generations of nonvoters is critical to understanding the puzzle of turnout decline. "Had the demographic composition of the electorate remained the same since 1960, voter turnout would have actually increased," Dodson said. Moreover, the socio-economic "upgrading" of subsequent cohorts, in terms of improved income and educational attainment, mitigated the negative effects of cohort replacement. "If subsequent cohorts had not been as well-educated or financially well-off, the adverse effects of cohort replacement on voter turnout would have been much worse," Dodson said. Despite this trend, however, he found that other processes are positively affecting turnout, particularly increasing party mobilization, which his research suggests is a substantial boon to turnout. Dodson will discuss his research on Monday (Aug. 14) during the Voting Behavior session in the Palais des Congres de Montreal. He can be reached at kydodson@indiana.edu.

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