Martha A Myers
Biographic Data
| ID | 3846319 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Martha A Myers |
| GIVEN NAMES | Martha A |
| FAMILY NAME | Myers |
| SIGNATURE | MYERS M A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Georgia |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 31 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 263 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 30 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1979 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2018 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
Inequality, Crime, and Social Control
Introduction - problems and prospects in the study of inequality, crime, and George S. Bridges and Martha A. Myers. Part 1 Directions for theory: the theoretical bases for inequality in formal Charles R. Tittle modelling the conflict perspective of Allen E. Liska rethinking and unthinking social control, Anthony M. Platt the police - symbolic capital, class and Peter K. Manning. Part 2 Dimensions of inequality: ethnicity - the forgotten dimension…
Assistance Funding to Syria: For Development or Strife
N egative I mpact of P olicy on H umanitarian A ssistance in G aza
Toward Theoretical Integration
Race, Labor and Punishment in the New South
Race, Labor, and Punishment in the New South
Race, Labor, and Punishment in the New South
Penitentiaries, Reformatories, and Chain Gangs: Social Theory and the History of Punishment in Nineteenth-Century America
Journal Article Penitentiaries, Reformatories, and Chain Gangs: Social Theory and the History of Punishment in Nineteenth-Century America Get access Colvin Mark, Penitentiaries, Reformatories, and Chain Gangs: Social Theory and the History of Punishment in Nineteenth-Century America. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997. x, 294 pp. $45.00. Martha A. Myers Martha A. Myers University of Georgia Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academi…
Gender and Southern Punishment After the Civil War
Recent scholarship raises two questions about the historical relationship between gender and official responses to criminality. First, to what extent has the formal social control of women changed in the past two centuries? Second, to what extent can changes in the presence of women within the criminal justice system be traced to the same factors that account for the changing presence of men? To address these questions, I focus on women incarcera…
Inequality and the Punishment of Minor Offenders in the Early 20th Century
This article extends recent theorizing on 19th- and early 20th-century social control to the punishment of minor offenders in the American South. Despite surface differences in state control and in court contexts, the punishment of convicted misdemeanants strikingly resembled its more serious counterpart. The racial composition of both chain-gang and penitentiary populations was similar, as were trends in the rate at which the public and private …
Race, Labor, and Punishment in Postbellum Georgia
This paper examines the relationship between the political economy and the organization of punishment in the state of Georgia between 1868 and 1936. Punishment at this time was well-suited to an agricultural mode of production, characterized by chronic labor shortages. Punishment was decentralized, involved forced labor under harsh conditions, and reflected the existence of a labor market grounded in racist assumptions about the nature of black a…
Economic Threat and Racial Disparities in Incarceration: The Case of Postbellum Georgia
Economic threat figures prominently in recent explanations of lethal social control directed against blacks after the Civil War. As the position of whites and blacks became more similar, racial antagonisms intensified and found expression in efforts to suppress and intimidate blacks through lynchings and executions. This paper applies the economic threat hypothesis to the exercise of nonlethal social control in Georgia between 1874 and 1936. Time…
Black Threat and Incarceration in Postbellum Georgia
Female Crime: The Construction of Women in Criminology
Female Crime, first published in 1987, surveys the major schools of criminology in order to explore the images of the female offender which underpin many contemporary crime theories. In reveals the ways in which male-centred norms dominated much analysis, and how crude stereotypes of women were a common attribute to the armoury of criminological research. Although feminists and other researchers are directing increasing attention to criminology, …
The Social Context of Criminal Sentencing
Symbolic Policy and the Sentencing of Drug Offenders
This paper examines the sentencing behavior of judges in a context characterized by significant legislative and social change. Data from Georgia are used to explore the ways in which judges accommodated their sentencing practices to a general crusade against drug use and to specific legislation that identified trafficking as criminal, set harsh penalties, and limited judicial discretion. The results suggest that judges selectively mitigated the h…
Patterns of Repressive Social Control in Post-Reconstruction Georgia, 1882-1935
Journal Article Patterns of Repressive Social Control in Post-Reconstruction Georgia, 1882–1935 Get access James L. Massey, James L. Massey Northern Illinois University Direct correspondence to James L. Massey, Department of Sociology, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL 60115. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Martha A. Myers Martha A. Myers University of Georgia Search for other works by this author o…
Social Background and the Sentencing Behavior of Judges
This paper explores the extent to which the social background of judges affects their sentencing behavior. An analysis of data on felons convicted in Georgia suggests that background has little direct bearing on sentencing outcomes. Instead, it conditions the weight judges attach to legally relevant and social background factors. Expectations about the role of the judge's age, religion, prior prosecutorial experience, and local background receive…
The Social Contexts of Criminal Sentencing
Economic Inequality and Discrimination in Sentencing
This paper integrates two separate research traditions that link inequality and official responses to crime. It focuses on inequality both as a property of communities where punishment occurs and as a property of punished offenders. Community inequality is conceptualized as a context that conditions differential treatment based on offender attributes and behavior. The analysis of data from Georgia supports such a conceptualization. Inequality ten…
Social Control Words, Social Control Deeds
Urban Justice, Rural Injustice? Urbanization and Its Effect on Sentencing
Using a sample of felons convicted in Georgia between 1976 and June 1982, this study examines rural‐urban diyerences in sentencing. Consistent with previous research, it is found that ostensibly similar oflenders are punished diflerently, depending on whether they were convicted in urban rather than rural counties. Diyerences in outcomes are based both on social background and on factors of explicit legal relevance. They occur for decisions about…
The Social Contexts of Racial Discrimination in Sentencing
This paper seeks to determine whether race differences in sentencing are contingent on who is being sentenced and where that sentencing occurs. Using data from Georgia, we find that certain legally-relevant factors and the racial composition of the county condition the influence of race. However, there is no evidence that blacks are punished more harshly than whites in contexts where their criminality may appear more threatening. Indeed, certain …
Common Law in Action: The Prosecution of Felonies and Misdemeanors
This paper draws attention to the common-law distinction between felonies and misdemeanors. It asks whether this distinction, when drawn on the level of formal criminal procedure, has its counterpart on the informal level, in the use of different criteria to decide whether and how to prosecute the defendant. Analysis of data from the District of Columbia indicates that the felony-misdemeanor distinction clearly conditions the role of both legally…
Judges, juries, and the decision to convict
The Social Contexts of Racial Discrimination in Sentencing
This paper seeks to determine whether race differences in sentencing are contingent on who is being sentenced and where that sentencing occurs. Using data from Georgia, we find that certain legally-relevant factors and the racial composition of the county condition the influence of race. However, there is no evidence that blacks are punished more harshly than whites in contexts where their criminality may appear more threatening. Indeed, certain …
Private and Public Trouble: Prosecutors and the Allocation of Court Resources
Private troubles are often made public through criminal prosecution. We argue that the decision to publicly prosecute a case involves a calculated allocation of court resources based on “strong case typification.” Support for this argument is found in a set of data made unique by their consideration of various types of evidence and the attributes of victims as well as defendants. Analysis focuses on a crucial point of entry into the criminal just…
Social Background and the Sentencing Behavior of Judges
This paper explores the extent to which the social background of judges affects their sentencing behavior. An analysis of data on felons convicted in Georgia suggests that background has little direct bearing on sentencing outcomes. Instead, it conditions the weight judges attach to legally relevant and social background factors. Expectations about the role of the judge's age, religion, prior prosecutorial experience, and local background receive…
Predicting the Behavior of Law: A Test of Two Models
Since its introduction, Black's (1976) theory of law has generated controversy (e.g., Eder, 1977; Stinchcombe, 1977), but few empirical evaluations. The most recent test (Gottfredson and Hindelang, 1979a) identified a number of empirical inadequacies and posited an alternative model to correct them. This paper assesses both Black's and Gottfredson-Hindelang's models of law, choosing as the arena of evaluation criminal law and its behavior. Analys…
Economic Inequality and Discrimination in Sentencing
This paper integrates two separate research traditions that link inequality and official responses to crime. It focuses on inequality both as a property of communities where punishment occurs and as a property of punished offenders. Community inequality is conceptualized as a context that conditions differential treatment based on offender attributes and behavior. The analysis of data from Georgia supports such a conceptualization. Inequality ten…
Offended Parties and Official Reactions: Victims and the Sentencing of Criminal Defendants
Theory and research in the field of deviance have generally neglected private parties who find the deviance of others personally offensive and problematic. This paper examines the victim's participation in the processing of criminal deviants. Using data from a sample of convicted felons, it explores the extent to which the behavior and attributes of the victim affect the sanction imposed on the defendant. The results indicate that victim characte…
Urban Justice, Rural Injustice? Urbanization and Its Effect on Sentencing
Using a sample of felons convicted in Georgia between 1976 and June 1982, this study examines rural‐urban diyerences in sentencing. Consistent with previous research, it is found that ostensibly similar oflenders are punished diflerently, depending on whether they were convicted in urban rather than rural counties. Diyerences in outcomes are based both on social background and on factors of explicit legal relevance. They occur for decisions about…
Rule Departures and Making Law: Juries and their Verdicts
This study addresses the issue of rule departures and law-making activity by juries adjudicating guilt in felony cases. Analysis of data from a sample of jury trials suggests considerable conformity to rules. That is, jury verdicts are influenced by evidence of the defendant's guilt and credibility as a witness. Rule departures appear to be limited. They reflect a concern not only with the defendant per se, but also with his choice of a victim an…
Symbolic Policy and the Sentencing of Drug Offenders
This paper examines the sentencing behavior of judges in a context characterized by significant legislative and social change. Data from Georgia are used to explore the ways in which judges accommodated their sentencing practices to a general crusade against drug use and to specific legislation that identified trafficking as criminal, set harsh penalties, and limited judicial discretion. The results suggest that judges selectively mitigated the h…
Common Law in Action: The Prosecution of Felonies and Misdemeanors
This paper draws attention to the common-law distinction between felonies and misdemeanors. It asks whether this distinction, when drawn on the level of formal criminal procedure, has its counterpart on the informal level, in the use of different criteria to decide whether and how to prosecute the defendant. Analysis of data from the District of Columbia indicates that the felony-misdemeanor distinction clearly conditions the role of both legally…
Economic Threat and Racial Disparities in Incarceration: The Case of Postbellum Georgia
Economic threat figures prominently in recent explanations of lethal social control directed against blacks after the Civil War. As the position of whites and blacks became more similar, racial antagonisms intensified and found expression in efforts to suppress and intimidate blacks through lynchings and executions. This paper applies the economic threat hypothesis to the exercise of nonlethal social control in Georgia between 1874 and 1936. Time…
Inequality and the Punishment of Minor Offenders in the Early 20th Century
This article extends recent theorizing on 19th- and early 20th-century social control to the punishment of minor offenders in the American South. Despite surface differences in state control and in court contexts, the punishment of convicted misdemeanants strikingly resembled its more serious counterpart. The racial composition of both chain-gang and penitentiary populations was similar, as were trends in the rate at which the public and private …
Personal and Situational Contingencies in the Processing of Convicted Felons
Traditionally, deviance research and theory have focused almost exclusively on the personal attributes of the alleged deviant. This paper questions the appropriateness of such a focus when examining the organizational processing of criminal defendants. It directs attention to situational contingencies that provide the context within which personal attributes and behaviors become meaningful and salient during labeling and sanctioning. Discussion f…
Race, Labor, and Punishment in Postbellum Georgia
This paper examines the relationship between the political economy and the organization of punishment in the state of Georgia between 1868 and 1936. Punishment at this time was well-suited to an agricultural mode of production, characterized by chronic labor shortages. Punishment was decentralized, involved forced labor under harsh conditions, and reflected the existence of a labor market grounded in racist assumptions about the nature of black a…
Patterns of Repressive Social Control in Post-Reconstruction Georgia, 1882-1935
Journal Article Patterns of Repressive Social Control in Post-Reconstruction Georgia, 1882–1935 Get access James L. Massey, James L. Massey Northern Illinois University Direct correspondence to James L. Massey, Department of Sociology, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL 60115. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Martha A. Myers Martha A. Myers University of Georgia Search for other works by this author o…
Social Contexts and Attributions of Criminal Responsibility
This paper investigates whether attributions of responsibility for crime are constrained by the contexts within which criminal action occurs and within which responsibility for them is assigned. Data on the verdicts of actual jurors are used to test hypotheses from the experimental and field literatures. The findings indicate that both action and attribution contexts shape attributions by affecting the salience of evidence and of victim and defen…
Black Threat and Incarceration in Postbellum Georgia
N egative I mpact of P olicy on H umanitarian A ssistance in G aza
Toward Theoretical Integration
Judges, juries, and the decision to convict
Rule Departures and Making Law: Juries and their Verdicts
This study addresses the issue of rule departures and law-making activity by juries adjudicating guilt in felony cases. Analysis of data from a sample of jury trials suggests considerable conformity to rules. That is, jury verdicts are influenced by evidence of the defendant's guilt and credibility as a witness. Rule departures appear to be limited. They reflect a concern not only with the defendant per se, but also with his choice of a victim an…
Private and Public Trouble: Prosecutors and the Allocation of Court Resources
Private troubles are often made public through criminal prosecution. We argue that the decision to publicly prosecute a case involves a calculated allocation of court resources based on “strong case typification.” Support for this argument is found in a set of data made unique by their consideration of various types of evidence and the attributes of victims as well as defendants. Analysis focuses on a crucial point of entry into the criminal just…
Offended Parties and Official Reactions: Victims and the Sentencing of Criminal Defendants
Theory and research in the field of deviance have generally neglected private parties who find the deviance of others personally offensive and problematic. This paper examines the victim's participation in the processing of criminal deviants. Using data from a sample of convicted felons, it explores the extent to which the behavior and attributes of the victim affect the sanction imposed on the defendant. The results indicate that victim characte…
Social Contexts and Attributions of Criminal Responsibility
This paper investigates whether attributions of responsibility for crime are constrained by the contexts within which criminal action occurs and within which responsibility for them is assigned. Data on the verdicts of actual jurors are used to test hypotheses from the experimental and field literatures. The findings indicate that both action and attribution contexts shape attributions by affecting the salience of evidence and of victim and defen…
Predicting the Behavior of Law: A Test of Two Models
Since its introduction, Black's (1976) theory of law has generated controversy (e.g., Eder, 1977; Stinchcombe, 1977), but few empirical evaluations. The most recent test (Gottfredson and Hindelang, 1979a) identified a number of empirical inadequacies and posited an alternative model to correct them. This paper assesses both Black's and Gottfredson-Hindelang's models of law, choosing as the arena of evaluation criminal law and its behavior. Analys…
Personal and Situational Contingencies in the Processing of Convicted Felons
Traditionally, deviance research and theory have focused almost exclusively on the personal attributes of the alleged deviant. This paper questions the appropriateness of such a focus when examining the organizational processing of criminal defendants. It directs attention to situational contingencies that provide the context within which personal attributes and behaviors become meaningful and salient during labeling and sanctioning. Discussion f…
Judges, juries, and the decision to convict
Common Law in Action: The Prosecution of Felonies and Misdemeanors
This paper draws attention to the common-law distinction between felonies and misdemeanors. It asks whether this distinction, when drawn on the level of formal criminal procedure, has its counterpart on the informal level, in the use of different criteria to decide whether and how to prosecute the defendant. Analysis of data from the District of Columbia indicates that the felony-misdemeanor distinction clearly conditions the role of both legally…
Social Control Words, Social Control Deeds
Urban Justice, Rural Injustice? Urbanization and Its Effect on Sentencing
Using a sample of felons convicted in Georgia between 1976 and June 1982, this study examines rural‐urban diyerences in sentencing. Consistent with previous research, it is found that ostensibly similar oflenders are punished diflerently, depending on whether they were convicted in urban rather than rural counties. Diyerences in outcomes are based both on social background and on factors of explicit legal relevance. They occur for decisions about…
The Social Contexts of Racial Discrimination in Sentencing
This paper seeks to determine whether race differences in sentencing are contingent on who is being sentenced and where that sentencing occurs. Using data from Georgia, we find that certain legally-relevant factors and the racial composition of the county condition the influence of race. However, there is no evidence that blacks are punished more harshly than whites in contexts where their criminality may appear more threatening. Indeed, certain …
The Social Contexts of Criminal Sentencing
Economic Inequality and Discrimination in Sentencing
This paper integrates two separate research traditions that link inequality and official responses to crime. It focuses on inequality both as a property of communities where punishment occurs and as a property of punished offenders. Community inequality is conceptualized as a context that conditions differential treatment based on offender attributes and behavior. The analysis of data from Georgia supports such a conceptualization. Inequality ten…
Social Background and the Sentencing Behavior of Judges
This paper explores the extent to which the social background of judges affects their sentencing behavior. An analysis of data on felons convicted in Georgia suggests that background has little direct bearing on sentencing outcomes. Instead, it conditions the weight judges attach to legally relevant and social background factors. Expectations about the role of the judge's age, religion, prior prosecutorial experience, and local background receive…
Female Crime: The Construction of Women in Criminology
Female Crime, first published in 1987, surveys the major schools of criminology in order to explore the images of the female offender which underpin many contemporary crime theories. In reveals the ways in which male-centred norms dominated much analysis, and how crude stereotypes of women were a common attribute to the armoury of criminological research. Although feminists and other researchers are directing increasing attention to criminology, …
The Social Context of Criminal Sentencing
Symbolic Policy and the Sentencing of Drug Offenders
This paper examines the sentencing behavior of judges in a context characterized by significant legislative and social change. Data from Georgia are used to explore the ways in which judges accommodated their sentencing practices to a general crusade against drug use and to specific legislation that identified trafficking as criminal, set harsh penalties, and limited judicial discretion. The results suggest that judges selectively mitigated the h…
Patterns of Repressive Social Control in Post-Reconstruction Georgia, 1882-1935
Journal Article Patterns of Repressive Social Control in Post-Reconstruction Georgia, 1882–1935 Get access James L. Massey, James L. Massey Northern Illinois University Direct correspondence to James L. Massey, Department of Sociology, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL 60115. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Martha A. Myers Martha A. Myers University of Georgia Search for other works by this author o…
Economic Threat and Racial Disparities in Incarceration: The Case of Postbellum Georgia
Economic threat figures prominently in recent explanations of lethal social control directed against blacks after the Civil War. As the position of whites and blacks became more similar, racial antagonisms intensified and found expression in efforts to suppress and intimidate blacks through lynchings and executions. This paper applies the economic threat hypothesis to the exercise of nonlethal social control in Georgia between 1874 and 1936. Time…
Black Threat and Incarceration in Postbellum Georgia
Race, Labor, and Punishment in Postbellum Georgia
This paper examines the relationship between the political economy and the organization of punishment in the state of Georgia between 1868 and 1936. Punishment at this time was well-suited to an agricultural mode of production, characterized by chronic labor shortages. Punishment was decentralized, involved forced labor under harsh conditions, and reflected the existence of a labor market grounded in racist assumptions about the nature of black a…
Inequality and the Punishment of Minor Offenders in the Early 20th Century
This article extends recent theorizing on 19th- and early 20th-century social control to the punishment of minor offenders in the American South. Despite surface differences in state control and in court contexts, the punishment of convicted misdemeanants strikingly resembled its more serious counterpart. The racial composition of both chain-gang and penitentiary populations was similar, as were trends in the rate at which the public and private …
Gender and Southern Punishment After the Civil War
Recent scholarship raises two questions about the historical relationship between gender and official responses to criminality. First, to what extent has the formal social control of women changed in the past two centuries? Second, to what extent can changes in the presence of women within the criminal justice system be traced to the same factors that account for the changing presence of men? To address these questions, I focus on women incarcera…
Penitentiaries, Reformatories, and Chain Gangs: Social Theory and the History of Punishment in Nineteenth-Century America
Journal Article Penitentiaries, Reformatories, and Chain Gangs: Social Theory and the History of Punishment in Nineteenth-Century America Get access Colvin Mark, Penitentiaries, Reformatories, and Chain Gangs: Social Theory and the History of Punishment in Nineteenth-Century America. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997. x, 294 pp. $45.00. Martha A. Myers Martha A. Myers University of Georgia Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academi…
Race, Labor, and Punishment in the New South
Political science (28 works) · Criminology (26 works) · Sociology (23 works) · Psychology (19 works) · Law (18 works) · Crime Patterns and Interventions (16 works) · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis (15 works) · Social Psychology (14 works) · Law (12 works) · Economics (8 works)