This article examines the impact of editor-author networks of institutional ties on publication patterns in three leading sociology journals between 1960 and 1985. The "invisible college," a social network of elite scholars, is discussed as the major contributor to the editor-author connection. Results suggest a pattern of institutional connections between editors and authors over time beyond random chance alone. It appears, however, that fluctuations in academic labor markets have weakened this network, resulting in a reduction in the strength of the institutional connections in journal publication.

Standard sociology and criminology have not been sufficiently sensitive to the unique characteristics that places have. It has been implicitly assumed that one place (be it a neighborhood, census track, or metropolitan area) is interchangeable with another, given certain demographic and economic variables. This article attempts to recast environmental criminology within a sociological framework known as the “sociology of place.” The unequal spatial distribution of crime makes it an ideal candidate for analysis within this sociological framework: crime is universal, yet spatially concentrated; targets everyone, yet not everyone equally; is socially constructed, yet has a very real physical reality to it. The article addresses the important linkage between crime and place.

This research examines police decisions to report child abuse. A questionnaire was administered to 142 law enforcement oficem at both municipal and county police agencies in a southern county. Vignettes were used to determine the response of police to several abuse events that direr in their nature and seriousness. Other items measured include dogmatism, knowledge of the reporting law, and experience reporting child abuse. The results indicate that the primary contributors to police decisions are definition of the behavior as serious, perception that the behavior is criminal, and race of the family. Conclusions and inferences are made regarding how these perceptions are formed and their impact on police discretion.

Most interpretations of anornie emphasize the normative aspect. However, Durkheim viewed anomie as involving more than a lack of norms or a conflict of norms. Discussions in The Division of Labor in Society and Suicide show that according to Durkheim the primary threats to social solidarity in modern societies are weak or ineffective structural constraints on individualistic needs and desires. In modern industrialized societies the primary mode of social control is not a set of rules or norms, although they do have a cohesive function, but the development of solidary, interdependent social relationships among diverse individuals. Crucial in the development of solidary social relationships is the rate and nature of social change. For modern or modernizing societies the most important form of social change is industrialization. If industrialization is too rapid then the likelihood of social inequality, economic crises, and family disruption is greater. New and solidary forms of social relationships are not allowed to develop properly. This results in weak constraints on individualistic needs and desires that have been “excited” by the industrialization.

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