Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Firearm violence has long been a community concern in the United States. Criminological studies and public policy debate have focused on this issue due to the inherent probability for lethal or injurious outcomes. Firearms are involved in a substantial proportion of violent crimes each year, produce injuries that affect the lives of thousands of individuals, and generate tremendous social costs. The purpose of the following study is to explore and compare the severity of injuries sustained to residents of Detroit, Michigan. Data utilized in this study consist of citywide shooting reports from Detroit Police Department for the years 2001 and 2002. The primary importance of the study is the exploration of a number of offense characteristics and situational variables that may increase the likelihood of victims sustaining serious injury. In addition, policy implications are presented and discussed.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: “Diversity” has become a fashionable and plastic buzzword over the past thirty years. With the recent U.S. Supreme Court cases concerning affirmative action at the University of Michigan, the concept of diversity has received even greater public scrutiny. The existing scholarly literature that examines discourses about diversity usually relies on macro-level, legal, or text analyses, overlooking people’s interpretations of diversity in their everyday practices. The proposed paper helps to fill in this gap. It draws on over a year of ethnographic evidence about how interests groups involved in the lawsuits against UM—including university administrators, pro- and anti-affirmative action activists, legal professionals, and political leaders—politically and legally mobilized around the lawsuits and then responded to the Court’s decisions. The paper builds on cultural analyses of the law and collective action by examining how various interest groups negotiate different socio-legal paradoxes around diversity. Preliminary findings show how nearly every group is in favor of “diversity,” but they all confront challenges when defining this concept and putting it into practice. For example, outsider activists—both in favor of and opposed to affirmative action—talk about diversity by simultaneously endorsing it and questioning its relevance, meaning, or existence. The proposed paper concludes with a discussion of how ideas related to law acquire constituencies, constitute the categories through which people construct the world, and ultimately shape their efforts to address different social problems.

Publication Type: Poster
Abstract: Presenter: Tina Mainieri, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, 426 Thompson St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109; phone: (734) 615-2885; fax: (734) 936-3809; email: psidhelp@isr.umich.edu; homepage: http://psidonline.isr.umich.edu/CDS

The Child Development Supplement (CDS) is one research component of the PSID, a longitudinal study of a representative sample of U.S. individuals and the families in which they reside. Since 1968, the PSID has collected data on family composition changes, housing and food expenditures, marriage and fertility histories, employment, income and wealth, time use, health, and more. In 1997, the PSID supplemented its core data collection with additional information on PSID parents and their 0-12 year-old children. Five years later, the same children and adolescents (then aged 5-18 years) whose families remained active in the PSID panel as of 2001 were interviewed for a second time.


Within the context of family, neighborhood, and school environments, CDS studies a broad array of developmental outcomes including health, emotional well-being, academic achievement, and social relationships with family and peers. The CDS survey design is complex, relying on time diary methodology, cognitive assessments, height and weight measurements, and computer-assisted personal self-interviews. Data are collected from multiple family members and the schools that the youth attend.

Data and documentation are available on the Internet free-of-charge. The PSID-CDS Data Center is a user-friendly interface that allows the easy creation of customized data files and codebooks in a variety of formats.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: We now have this generation’s statement of the constitutional law of affirmative action in public university admissions. While the Supreme Court held that Michigan has a compelling interest in attaining a diverse student body and may use race preferences to achieve it, it upheld only the law school’s practices, striking down the undergraduate admissions process as too mechanical to satisfy the means element of Equal Protection analysis. Though it has been observed that universities would likely have continued using race preferences no matter what the Court did, these rulings are clearly a political victory for race preference proponents. That victory may be short lived, of course, if Michigan and other states decide to follow California and Washington State’s lead in banning race preferences. Yet just as important as the state law and politics of this issue may be the implications for federal constitutional law and judicial politics. Contrary to elite opinion, I submit, Justice O’Connor systematically departed the letter and spirit of the landmark ruling on which she claimed to rest her decision, Justice Lewis Powell’s controlling opinion in UC Regents v. Bakke. In the current climate of American judicial politics, it may be that only a centrist like Powell could be confirmed to replace a retiring member of the Grutter majority. If so, he will have ample reason and inclination to vote to overturn Grutter as a fundamental departure from Bakke.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper examines the role of the Christian Right in Michigan politics, focusing in particular on its role in the 2004 general election. While the Christian Right is a powerful force in state politics, it is by no means all-powerful. Indeed, the 2004 election clearly illustrates this as the Christian Right enjoyed mixed success. On the one hand, the Christian Right failed to carry the state for its favored candidate, George W. Bush, due in part to the fact that in Michigan economic issues seemed to be even more important than moral values among the electorate. On the other hand, the Christian Right contributed to the success of two “moral values” ballot proposals, one dealing with casino gambling and one dealing with gay marriage. Factors contributing to the success of the Christian Right include its alliance with the GOP, political events which have helped to mobilize and energize membership, and its growing political sophistication. Factors limiting the success of the Christian Right include political in-fighting, tactical mistakes, and political counter-mobilization. The Christian Right is likely to continue to play an important, though not a dominant, role in Michigan politics.