Ronald Helms
Biographic Data
| ID | 3797982 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ronald Helms |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ronald |
| FAMILY NAME | Helms |
| SIGNATURE | HELMS R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Western Washington University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 160 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 12 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1996 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Minority communities, economic inequality, and police-military resource sharing in the United states
Contextualizing race: A conceptual and empirical study of fatal interactions with police across US counties
Recent high profile killings of citizens at the hands of law enforcement have drawn attention to questions about the determinants of these violent encounters. The literature is replete with studies focused on individual characteristics and situational exigencies. This paper takes a structural approach to assess alternative explanations. Results show that race, criminal violence, and general conditions of economic inequality are strong predictors …
Criminal Threat, Immigrant/Minority Threat, and Political Ideology: An Examination of Handgun Permits Across Texas Counties
Objectives To assess the extent to which crime, Hispanic‐to‐white population changes, black‐to‐white population changes, and conservative political appeals affect gun permit application rates across Texas counties. Methods This article uses spatial lag regression and robust regression with county‐level data to assess structural sources of variation in handgun permitting across Texas counties in 2016. Conclusions Spatial and robust regression mode…
Energy Inequality and Instrumental Violence: An Empirical Test of a Deductive Hypothesis
Economic research has firmly established that energy consumption is closely linked to economic growth patterns. The subtext of such research is that disruptions to stable supplies of affordable energy could adversely affect quality of life and interrupt patterns of social cohesiveness. This article investigates a hypothesized link between patterns of energy consumption and instrumental violence across 868 U.S. counties. Tobit regression results c…
Service Learning and Criminal Justice Students: An Assessment of the Effects of Co-Curricular Pedagogy on Graduation Rates
Service learning courses provide meaningful community service for students in order to assist them with the integration of theory and practice. A partnership with local high schools allows students in a large criminal justice program on the west coast to serve as mentors for students who are referred to the program by school counselors and/or social workers. Data on student performance are used to assess whether the exposure to service learning i…
Modeling the politics of punishment: A conceptual and empirical analysis of ‘law in action’ in criminal sentencing
Race, politics, and drug law enforcement: An analysis of civil asset forfeiture patterns across US counties
The research on civil asset forfeiture has been largely anecdotal and has taken a politicised approach. Most accounts use specific cases to support their claims that widespread use of forfeiture is generated by dubious or ‘hidden’ law enforcement motives. Yet there are plausible theoretical reasons to believe that structural contexts condition the choice of mechanisms favoured by the law enforcement agencies. This research emphasises structural e…
The Impact of Political Context on Local Law Enforcement Resourcing: An Analysis of Deputy Employment Rates in US Counties
Determinants of municipal law enforcement have been studied intensively, but county deputy rates have rarely been the focus of research attention. This study uses a sample of 190 sheriff's offices and OLS regression methods to assess diverse environmental and internal organizational explanations for variation in the strength of law enforcement agencies in US counties. The results show that Sheriff's agencies with highly differentiated functional …
Toward a Political Sociology of Punishment: Politics and Changes in the Incarcerated Population
Collective Outbursts, Politics, and Punitive Resources: Toward a Political Sociology of Spending on Social Control
This study tests racial threat and political explanations for yearly fluctuations in per capita spending on corrections since the early 1950s. Racial threats indicated by riots or by the presence of nonwhites do not account for changes in imprisonment rates, yet both threat conditions explain subsequent shifts in total spending on jails and prisons. Increases in the political strength of the Republican Party, past breakdowns in the family, and gr…
Testing Coercive Explanations for Order: The Determinants of Law Enforcement Strength over Time
This research uses time-series regressions to explain yearly changes in the per capita number of law enforcement personnel in the U.S. Using a measure of economic inequality that are sensitive to the presence of the rich, the results show that shifts in economic inequality and movements in the crime rates lead to changes in police strength. However, quadratic specifications suggest that diminishing returns are present. Unemployment, nonwhite-whit…
Toward a Political Model of Incarceration: A Time-Series Examination of Multiple Explanations for Prison Admission Rates
This study examines yearly shifts in prison admissions since 1950. The effects of political and economic determinants are investigated with measures of economic inequality, political variables, and unemployment. The delayed effects of broken families are measured with a lagged moving average of out-of-wedlock births. The findings show that inequality due to the presence of the rich and past out-of-wedlock birth rates matter, but unemployment is n…
Toward a Political Model of Incarceration: A Time-Series Examination of Multiple Explanations for Prison Admission Rates
This study examines yearly shifts in prison admissions since 1950. The effects of political and economic determinants are investigated with measures of economic inequality, political variables, and unemployment. The delayed effects of broken families are measured with a lagged moving average of out-of-wedlock births. The findings show that inequality due to the presence of the rich and past out-of-wedlock birth rates matter, but unemployment is n…
Collective Outbursts, Politics, and Punitive Resources: Toward a Political Sociology of Spending on Social Control
This study tests racial threat and political explanations for yearly fluctuations in per capita spending on corrections since the early 1950s. Racial threats indicated by riots or by the presence of nonwhites do not account for changes in imprisonment rates, yet both threat conditions explain subsequent shifts in total spending on jails and prisons. Increases in the political strength of the Republican Party, past breakdowns in the family, and gr…
Toward a Political Sociology of Punishment: Politics and Changes in the Incarcerated Population
Testing Coercive Explanations for Order: The Determinants of Law Enforcement Strength over Time
This research uses time-series regressions to explain yearly changes in the per capita number of law enforcement personnel in the U.S. Using a measure of economic inequality that are sensitive to the presence of the rich, the results show that shifts in economic inequality and movements in the crime rates lead to changes in police strength. However, quadratic specifications suggest that diminishing returns are present. Unemployment, nonwhite-whit…
Modeling the politics of punishment: A conceptual and empirical analysis of ‘law in action’ in criminal sentencing
Race, politics, and drug law enforcement: An analysis of civil asset forfeiture patterns across US counties
The research on civil asset forfeiture has been largely anecdotal and has taken a politicised approach. Most accounts use specific cases to support their claims that widespread use of forfeiture is generated by dubious or ‘hidden’ law enforcement motives. Yet there are plausible theoretical reasons to believe that structural contexts condition the choice of mechanisms favoured by the law enforcement agencies. This research emphasises structural e…
The Impact of Political Context on Local Law Enforcement Resourcing: An Analysis of Deputy Employment Rates in US Counties
Determinants of municipal law enforcement have been studied intensively, but county deputy rates have rarely been the focus of research attention. This study uses a sample of 190 sheriff's offices and OLS regression methods to assess diverse environmental and internal organizational explanations for variation in the strength of law enforcement agencies in US counties. The results show that Sheriff's agencies with highly differentiated functional …
Criminal Threat, Immigrant/Minority Threat, and Political Ideology: An Examination of Handgun Permits Across Texas Counties
Objectives To assess the extent to which crime, Hispanic‐to‐white population changes, black‐to‐white population changes, and conservative political appeals affect gun permit application rates across Texas counties. Methods This article uses spatial lag regression and robust regression with county‐level data to assess structural sources of variation in handgun permitting across Texas counties in 2016. Conclusions Spatial and robust regression mode…
Toward a Political Model of Incarceration: A Time-Series Examination of Multiple Explanations for Prison Admission Rates
This study examines yearly shifts in prison admissions since 1950. The effects of political and economic determinants are investigated with measures of economic inequality, political variables, and unemployment. The delayed effects of broken families are measured with a lagged moving average of out-of-wedlock births. The findings show that inequality due to the presence of the rich and past out-of-wedlock birth rates matter, but unemployment is n…
Testing Coercive Explanations for Order: The Determinants of Law Enforcement Strength over Time
This research uses time-series regressions to explain yearly changes in the per capita number of law enforcement personnel in the U.S. Using a measure of economic inequality that are sensitive to the presence of the rich, the results show that shifts in economic inequality and movements in the crime rates lead to changes in police strength. However, quadratic specifications suggest that diminishing returns are present. Unemployment, nonwhite-whit…
Collective Outbursts, Politics, and Punitive Resources: Toward a Political Sociology of Spending on Social Control
This study tests racial threat and political explanations for yearly fluctuations in per capita spending on corrections since the early 1950s. Racial threats indicated by riots or by the presence of nonwhites do not account for changes in imprisonment rates, yet both threat conditions explain subsequent shifts in total spending on jails and prisons. Increases in the political strength of the Republican Party, past breakdowns in the family, and gr…
Toward a Political Sociology of Punishment: Politics and Changes in the Incarcerated Population
The Impact of Political Context on Local Law Enforcement Resourcing: An Analysis of Deputy Employment Rates in US Counties
Determinants of municipal law enforcement have been studied intensively, but county deputy rates have rarely been the focus of research attention. This study uses a sample of 190 sheriff's offices and OLS regression methods to assess diverse environmental and internal organizational explanations for variation in the strength of law enforcement agencies in US counties. The results show that Sheriff's agencies with highly differentiated functional …
Race, politics, and drug law enforcement: An analysis of civil asset forfeiture patterns across US counties
The research on civil asset forfeiture has been largely anecdotal and has taken a politicised approach. Most accounts use specific cases to support their claims that widespread use of forfeiture is generated by dubious or ‘hidden’ law enforcement motives. Yet there are plausible theoretical reasons to believe that structural contexts condition the choice of mechanisms favoured by the law enforcement agencies. This research emphasises structural e…
Modeling the politics of punishment: A conceptual and empirical analysis of ‘law in action’ in criminal sentencing
Service Learning and Criminal Justice Students: An Assessment of the Effects of Co-Curricular Pedagogy on Graduation Rates
Service learning courses provide meaningful community service for students in order to assist them with the integration of theory and practice. A partnership with local high schools allows students in a large criminal justice program on the west coast to serve as mentors for students who are referred to the program by school counselors and/or social workers. Data on student performance are used to assess whether the exposure to service learning i…
Energy Inequality and Instrumental Violence: An Empirical Test of a Deductive Hypothesis
Economic research has firmly established that energy consumption is closely linked to economic growth patterns. The subtext of such research is that disruptions to stable supplies of affordable energy could adversely affect quality of life and interrupt patterns of social cohesiveness. This article investigates a hypothesized link between patterns of energy consumption and instrumental violence across 868 U.S. counties. Tobit regression results c…
Contextualizing race: A conceptual and empirical study of fatal interactions with police across US counties
Recent high profile killings of citizens at the hands of law enforcement have drawn attention to questions about the determinants of these violent encounters. The literature is replete with studies focused on individual characteristics and situational exigencies. This paper takes a structural approach to assess alternative explanations. Results show that race, criminal violence, and general conditions of economic inequality are strong predictors …
Criminal Threat, Immigrant/Minority Threat, and Political Ideology: An Examination of Handgun Permits Across Texas Counties
Objectives To assess the extent to which crime, Hispanic‐to‐white population changes, black‐to‐white population changes, and conservative political appeals affect gun permit application rates across Texas counties. Methods This article uses spatial lag regression and robust regression with county‐level data to assess structural sources of variation in handgun permitting across Texas counties in 2016. Conclusions Spatial and robust regression mode…
Minority communities, economic inequality, and police-military resource sharing in the United states
Crime Patterns and Interventions (10 works) · Political science (10 works) · Law (9 works) · Criminology (8 works) · Politics (7 works) · Psychology (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Economics (6 works) · Demographic economics (5 works) · Inequality (5 works)