Evaluation of Racial Differences in Seat Belt and Child Restraint Use: A Review of Current Literature, 2004

This report presents the results of a literature review conducted to evaluate differences in seat belt use by race. A literature review was conducted to evaluate overall seat belt use, racial differences in seat belt use, overall child restraint use, racial differences in child restraint use, and information about seat belt and child restraint use specific to Iowa. A number of national studies and regional studies were found and are presented. Mixed results were found as to whether racial differences exist in both seat belt use and child restraint use. However, in the course of the literature review, several items that are of interest to safety in Iowa have emerged, although little data specific to Iowa was encountered. First, national seat belt use appears to be lower among African-Americans than for Caucasians or Hispanics. Second, national crash rates among Hispanics appear to be higher than those for Caucasians, particularly when population and lower vehicle miles traveled (VMT) are considered. One issue that should be considered throughout this literature review is that the Hispanic population may be higher than reported due to large numbers of undocumented persons who do not appear in population estimates, driver’s license, or other databases.

Understanding the Racial Nature of Police and Immigrant Relations In Finland. The Case of Africans in Turku

The focus of this study is to examine the role of police and immigrants’ relations, as less is known about this process in the country. The studies were approached in two different ways. Firstly, an attempt was made to examine how immigrants view their encounters with the police. Secondly, the studies explored how aware the police are of immigrants’ experiences in their various encounters and interactions on the street level. An ancillary aim of the studies is to clarify, analyse and discuss how prejudice and stereotypes can be tackled, thereby contributing to the general debate about racism and discrimination for better ethnic relations in the country. The data in which this analysis was based is on a group of adults (n=88) from the total of 120 Africans questioned for the entire study (n=45) police cadets and (n=6) serving police officers from Turku. The present thesis is a compilation of five articles. A summary of each article findings follows, as the same data was used in all five studies. In the first study, a theoretical model was developed to examine the perceived knowledge of bias by immigrants resulting from race, culture and belief. This was also an attempt to explore whether this knowledge was predetermined in my attempt to classify and discuss as well as analyse the factors that may be influencing immigrants’ allegations of unfair treatment by the police in Turku. The main finding shows that in the first paper there was ignorance and naivety on the part of the police in their attitudes towards the African immigrant’s prior experiences with the police, and this may probably have resulted from stereotypes or their lack of experience as well as prior training with immigrants where these kinds of experience are rampant in the country (Egharevba, 2003 and 2004a). In exploring what leads to stereotypes, a working definition is the assumption that is prevalent among some segments of the population, including the police, that Finland is a homogenous country by employing certain conducts and behaviour towards ethnic and immigrant groups in the country. This to my understanding is stereotype. Historically this was true, but today the social topography of the country is changing and becoming even more complex. It is true that, on linguistic grounds, the country is multilingual, as there are a few recognised national minority languages (Swedish, Sami and Russian) as well as a number of immigrant languages including English. Apparently it is vital for the police to have a line of communication open when addressing the problem associated with immigrants in the country. The second paper moved a step further by examining African immigrants’ understanding of human rights as well as what human rights violation means or entails in their views as a result of their experiences with the police, both in Finland and in their country of origin. This approach became essential during the course of the study, especially when the participants were completing the questionnaire (N=88), where volunteers were solicited for a later date for an in-depth interview with the author. Many of the respondents came from countries where human rights are not well protected and seldom discussed publicly, therefore understanding their views on the subject can help to explain why some of the immigrants are sceptical about coming forward to report cases of batteries and assaults to the police, or even their experiences of being monitored in shopping malls in their new home and the reason behind their low level of trust in public authorities in Finland. The study showed that knowledge of human rights is notably low among some of the participants. The study also found that female respondents were less aware of human rights when compared with their male counterparts. This has resulted in some of the male participants focussing more on their traditional ways of thinking by not realising that they are in a new country where there is equality in sexes and lack of respect on gender terms is not condoned. The third paper focussed on the respondents’ experiences with the police in Turku and tried to explore police attitudes towards African immigrant clients, in addition to the role stereotype plays in police views of different cultures and how these views have impacted on immigrants’ views of discriminatory policing in Turku. The data is the same throughout the entire studies (n=88), except that some few participants were interviewed for the third paper thirty-five persons. The results showed that there is some bias in mass-media reports on the immigrants’ issues, due to selective portrayal of biases without much investigation being carried out before jumping to conclusions, especially when the issues at stake involve an immigrant (Egharevba, 2005a; Egharevba, 2004a and 2004b). In this vein, there was an allegation that the police are even biased while investigating cases of theft, especially if the stolen property is owned by an immigrant (Egharevba, 2006a, Egharevba, 2006b). One vital observation from the respondents’ various comments was that race has meaning in their encounters and interaction with the police in the country. This result led the author to conclude that the relation between the police and immigrants is still a challenge, as there is rampant fear and distrust towards the police by some segments of the participating respondents in the study. In the fourth paper the focus was on examining the respondents’ view of the police, with special emphasis on race and culture as well as the respondents’ perspective on police behaviour in Turku. This is because race, as it was relayed to me in the study, is a significant predictor of police perception (Egharevba, 2005a; Egharevba and Hannikianen, 2005). It is a known scientific fact that inter-group racial attitudes are the representation of group competition and perceived threat to power and status (Group-position theory). According to Blumer (1958) a sense of group threat is an essential element for the emergence of racial prejudice. Consequently, it was essential that we explored the existing relationship between the respondents and the police in order to have an understanding of this concept. The result indicates some local and international contextual issues and assumptions that were of importance tackling prejudice and discrimination as it exists within the police in the country. Moreover, we have to also remember that, for years, many of these African immigrants have been on the receiving end of unjust law enforcement in their various countries of origin, which has resulted in many of them feeling inferior and distrustful of the police even in their own country of origin. While discussing the issues of cultural difference and how it affects policing, we must also keep in mind the socio-cultural background of the participants, their level of language proficiency and educational background. The research data analysed in this study also confirmed the difficulties associated with cultural misunderstandings in interpreting issues and how these misunderstandings have affected police and immigrant relations in Finland. Finally, the fifth paper focussed on cadets’ attitudes towards African immigrants as well as serving police officers’ interaction with African clients. Secondly, the police level of awareness of African immigrants’ distrustfulness of their profession was unclear. For this reason, my questions in this fifth study examined the experiences and attitudes of police cadets and serving police officers as well as those of African immigrants in understanding how to improve this relationship in the country. The data was based on (n=88) immigrant participants, (n=45) police cadets and 6 serving police officers from the Turku police department. The result suggests that there is distrust of the police in the respondents’ interaction; this tends to have galvanised a heightened tension resulting from the lack of language proficiency (Egharevba and White, 2007; Egharevba and Hannikainen, 2005, and Egharevba, 2006b) The result also shows that the allegation of immigrants as being belittled by the police stems from the misconceptions of both parties as well as the notion of stop and search by the police in Turku. All these factors were observed to have contributed to the alleged police evasiveness and the lack of regular contact between the respondents and the police in their dealings. In other words, the police have only had job-related contact with many of the participants in the present study. The results also demonstrated the complexities caused by the low level of education among some of the African immigrants in their understanding about the Finnish culture, norms and values in the country. Thus, the framework constructed in these studies embodies diversity in national culture as well as the need for a further research study with a greater number of respondents (both from the police and immigrant/majority groups), in order to explore the different role cultures play in immigrant and majority citizens’ understanding of police work.

Racial inequalities and perinatal health in the southeast region of Brazil

Few studies are available about racial inequalities in perinatal health in Brazil and little is known about whether the existing inequality is due to socioeconomic factors or to racial discrimination per se. Data regarding the Ribeirão Preto birth cohort, Brazil, whose mothers were interviewed from June 1, 1978 to May 31, 1979 were used to answer these questions. The perinatal factors were obtained from the birth questionnaire and the ethnic data were obtained from 2063 participants asked about self-reported skin color at early adulthood (23-25 years of age) in 2002/2004. Mothers of mulatto and black children had higher rates of low schooling (£4 years, 27.2 and 38.0%) and lower family income (£1 minimum wage, 28.6 and 30.4%). Mothers aged less than 20 years old predominated among mulattos (17.0%) and blacks (14.0%). Higher rates of low birth weight and smoking during pregnancy were observed among mulatto individuals (9.6 and 28.8%). Preterm birth rate was higher among mulattos (9.5%) and blacks (9.7%) than whites (5.5%). White individuals had higher rates of cesarean delivery (34.9%). Skin color remained as an independent risk factor for low birth weight (P < 0.001), preterm birth (P = 0.01), small for gestational age (P = 0.01), and lack of prenatal care (P = 0.02) after adjustment for family income and maternal schooling, suggesting that the racial inequalities regarding these indicators are explained by the socioeconomic disadvantage experienced by mulattos and blacks but are also influenced by other factors, possibly by racial discrimination and/or genetics.

The fallacy of racial pharmacogenomics

Personalized pharmacogenomics aims to use individual genotypes to direct medical treatment. Unfortunately, the loci relevant for the pharmacokinetics and especially the pharmacodynamics of most drugs are still unknown. Moreover, we still do not understand the role that individual genotypes play in modulating the pathogenesis, the clinical course and the susceptibility to drugs of human diseases which, although appearing homogeneous on the surface, may vary from patient to patient. To try to deal with this situation, it has been proposed to use interpopulational variability as a reference for drug development and prescription, leading to the development of "race-targeted drugs". Given the present limitations of genomic knowledge and of the tools needed to fully implement it today, some investigators have proposed to use racial criteria as a palliative measure until personalized pharmacogenomics is fully developed. This was the rationale for the FDA approval of BiDil for treatment of heart failure in African Americans. I will evaluate the efficacy and safety of racial pharmacogenomics here and conclude that it fails on both counts. Next I shall review the perspectives and the predicted rate of development of clinical genomic studies. The conclusion is that "next-generation" genomic sequencing is advancing at a tremendous rate and that true personalized pharmacogenomics, based on individual genotyping, should soon become a clinical reality.

Predicting Physical, Verbal, Social, Racial, and Sexual Bullying with Individual and Environmental Factors from an Evolutionary Ecological Framework

Evidence exists for subtypes of bullying, but there is a lack of studies simultaneously investigating the factors that influence each subtype. The purpose of my thesis was to investigate how individual and environmental factors independently and interactively predict physical, verbal, social, racial, and sexual bullying using an evolutionary ecological framework. Adolescents (N = 225, M = 14.05, SD = 1.54) completed self-reports on demographics, HEXACO personality, Rothbart’s temperament, parenting, friendship quality, school connectedness, and socio-economic status. Subtypes were predicted by low Honesty-Humility in addition to other personality and demographic factors with the exception of physical bullying, which was predicted by environmental factors. Results suggest adolescents adaptively and selectively use bullying to exploit victims and obtain resources, although the subtype used may depend on individual factors bullies possess within Bronfenbrenner’s microsystem, instead of the meso- and exo- systems. Anti-bullying efforts should target these factors and reinforce alternative strategies to obtain resources.

La cuestión racial en América

UANL

Social rejection of minority groups and its impacts on the individual's identity and perception of the self : exploring homosexual and racial identities in James Baldwin's Giovanni's room and Just above my head

Ce mémoire examine la question de la formation de l'identité en tant que procédure compliquée dans laquelle plusieurs éléments interviennent. L'identité d'une personne se compose à la fois d’une identité propre et d’une autre collective. Dans le cas où l’identité propre est jugée sévèrement par les autres comme étant déviante, cela poussera la personne à, ou bien maintenir une image compatible avec les prototypes sociaux ou bien résister et affirmer son identité personnelle. Mon travail montre que l'exclusion et la répression de certains aspects de l'identité peuvent causer un disfonctionnement psychique difficile à surmonter. Par contre, l'acceptation de soi et l’adoption de tous les éléments qui la constituent conduisent, certes après une longue lutte, au salut de l’âme et du corps. Le premier chapitre propose une approche psychosociale qui vise à expliquer le fonctionnement des groupes et comment l'interaction avec autrui joue un rôle décisif dans la formation de l'identité. Des éléments extérieurs comme par exemple les idéaux sociaux influencent les comportements et les choix des gens. Toutefois, cette influence peut devenir une menace aux spécificités personnelles et aux traits spécifiques. Le deuxième chapitre examine la question des problèmes qu’on risque d’avoir au cas où les traits identitaires franchiraient les normes sociales. Nous partons du problème épineux de la quête de soi dans Giovanni's Room de James Baldwin. L'homosexualité de David était tellement refusée par la société qu’elle a engendrée chez lui des sentiments de honte et de culpabilité. Il devait choisir entre le sacrifice des aspects de soi pour satisfaire les paradigmes sociaux ou bien perdre ce qu’il a de propre. David n'arrive pas à se libérer. Il reste prisonnier des perceptions rigides au sujet de la masculinité et de la sexualité. Mon analyse se focalise essentiellement sur l'examen des différents éléments théoriques qui touchent la question du sexe et de la sexualité. Le résultat est le suivant : plus les opinions dominantes sont rigides et fermes, plus elles deviennent une prison pour l’individu. Par contre, plus elles sont tolérantes et flexibles, plus elles acceptent les diversités de l'identité humaine. Dans le dernier chapitre, j'examine la question de la représentation des relations entre les caractères masculins dans Just Above My Head. L'homosexualité est présentée comme un moyen sacré pour exprimer l'amour. Les caractères révèlent leurs sentiments implicitement à travers les chants spirituel tel que le gospel ou bien explicitement à travers la connexion physique. Dans ce roman, Baldwin montre que c'est seulement grâce à la sincérité et à l'amour que l'individu peut atteindre la libération du soi.

La influencia del estereotipo cultural y las creencias sobre el prejuicio racial, y su relación con el afecto inducido.

El objetivo del presente trabajo es llegar a conocer cuáles son los mecanismos psicológicos que propician el racismo, así como conocer cómo influyen la cultura, nuestras creencias y nuestras emociones en la respuesta de las personas a los miembros de la raza negra. Participaron alumnos de COU, Filosofía y Letras, Psicología y Pedagogía. En la Parte Empírica I se abordan dos investigaciones instrumentales. La primera investigación que presentamos, y que se deriva de las conclusiones del estudio exploratorio, indaga sobre las creencias que los sujetos mantienen sobre las diferencias raciales; la segunda investigación, tiene como objeto detectar los elementos del estereotipo cultural sobre los negros, así como su carga afectiva. La Parte Empírica II comprende cinco investigaciones. En la primera de ellas, de forma evidente para el sujeto (priming consciente), se activó la etiqueta grupal, y se analizó el papel jugado por el estereotipo cultural, la valencia asociada a las características estereotípicas y las creencias de los sujetos sobre las diferencias raciales. En la segunda investigación se observaron las mismas variables, pero esta vez la activación de la etiqueta grupal se hizo fuera del umbral de conciencia del sujeto (priming inconsciente). En la tercera y cuarta investigación, utilizando la metodología de priming consciente, se analizó nuevamente el papel desempeñado por estereotipos culturales y creencias, cuando hay supresión o activación consciente de pensamientos estereotípicos. La quinta y última investigación indaga sobre el papel del afecto inducido en relación a los estereotipos. En otras palabras, dada la activación de la etiqueta grupal 'negros', hemos observado qué tipo de afecto ha propiciado la activación, a su vez, del estereotipo cultural y qué tipo de afecto ha activado las creencias personales. Los materiales utilizados han sido: encuestas, cuadernillo con proposiciones, bibliografía diversa, ordenador, estímulos, test. 1. Las personas tienen diferentes creencias para explicar las diferencias raciales; 2. Estas creencias influyen en la respuesta del sujeto ante un estímulo que posea un componente racial, siempre y cuando la persona esté motivada para ello y posea el tiempo y los recursos cognitivos necesarios; 3. El estereotipo cultural de la raza negra es conocido por todas las personas, independientemente de cuáles sean sus creencias sobre las diferencias raciales; 4. El simple conocimiento del estereotipo cultural influye en sus respuestas ante estímulos raciales en determinadas condiciones de déficits cognitivos o falta de motivación; 5. Esta influencia puede traducirse en una respuesta discriminatoria, independientemente de las ideas que el individuo mantenga sobre las diferencias raciales; 6. Determinadas condiciones (como la supresión consciente del estereotipo cultural o su explicitación) pueden acentuar los efectos del estereotipo cultural; 7. El priming negro facilita la respuesta de los sujetos ante estímulos negativos y la ralentiza ante estímulos positivos. De forma menos acusada, el priming blanco tiene el efecto contrario: ralentiza las respuestas de los sujetos ante estímulos negativos y la facilita ante estímulos positivos. Se puede decir que, de toda la información que tenemos sobre el grupo racial de los negros, una parte son creencias con las que nos identificamos, y otra parte es estereotipo cultural compartido socialmente, que conocemos y que puede o no ser congruente con nuestras ideas. Determinadas condiciones favorecerán que en nuestras respuestas influyan nuestras creencias o lo haga el estereotipo cultural que poseemos sobre el grupo. En definitiva, parece evidente el papel diferenciado que ejercen tanto los procesos automáticos como los procesos controlados en la respuesta prejuiciosa. En este sentido, las Teorías Implícitas pueden ser mejores predictoras de la respuesta racista en aquellas ocasiones en que el sujeto tiene recursos cognitivos, motivación y tiempo suficiente para emitir un juicio. Parece claro que, junto al desarrollo de técnicas de medición indirecta es útil contar con un instrumento con el que medir las creencias de los sujetos. En este sentido, es importante ir cercando, desde diversos frentes, a un fenómeno tan resbaladizo como el Racismo, y en un plano más general, a un concepto tan inasible como el Estereotipo.

Los problemas de la raza en Colombia: más allá del problema racial: el determinismo geográfico y las ‘dolencias sociales’

El texto de los problemas de la raza en Colombia fue publicado en una única edición en 1920. Desde entonces, ha sido un libro que ha suscitado gran Interés Inicialmente, despertó la curiosidad de políticos, científicos e intelectuales interesados por lo que concebían entonces como los problemas de la población colombiana. Más recientemente ha atraído a académicos que, desde diferentes disciplinas, han usado esta fuente primaria para aproximarse al periodo. A pesar de los múltiples análisis que desde los años ochenta se han producido desde este texto, nos encontramos frente a una obra de gran Riqueza que sigue ofreciendo un gran potencial para futuras investigaciones la gran mayoría de los análisis existentes se han concentrado en el problema de las "razas", recalcado por el título mismo de la obra. Sin embargo, como se sugiere en el estudio introductorio, la manera como los autores concibieron la problemática social del país la cual era mucho más amplia y no se limitaba a los asuntos raciales.

Racial and spatial interaction for neighborhood dynamics in Chicago

We look at at the empirical validity of Schelling’s models for racial residential segregation applied to the case of Chicago. Most of the empirical literature has focused exclusively the single neighborhood model, also known as the tipping point model and neglected a multineighborhood approach or a unified approach. The multi-neighborhood approach introduced spatial interaction across the neighborhoods, in particular we look at spatial interaction across neighborhoods sharing a border. An initial exploration of the data indicates that spatial contiguity might be relevant to properly analyse the so call tipping phenomena of predominately non-Hispanic white neighborhoods to predominantly minority neighborhoods within a decade. We introduce an econometric model that combines an approach to estimate tipping point using threshold effects and a spatial autoregressive model. The estimation results from the model disputes the existence of a tipping point, that is a discontinuous change in the rate of growth of the non-Hispanic white population due to a small increase in the minority share of the neighborhood. In addition we find that racial distance between the neighborhood of interest and it surrounding neighborhoods has an important effect on the dynamics of racial segregation in Chicago.

Génesis de la conciencia racial : un estudio sobre identificación y actitudes hacia el color de piel en niños de tres a once años.

Esta investigación ha sido financiada en el contexto del proyecto: factores cognitivos en el razonamiento racista

La influencia de las creencias en la actuación formal en tareas con contenido étnico-racial.

Se han pasado tres tareas de razonamiento lógico-formal a adultos de niveles socioculturales alto y bajo. El objetivo era averiguar cómo influye el contenido de la tarea (racial, neutral o abstracto) en la actuación de los participantes. Todas las tareas 'raciales' se diseñaron de modo que tuvieran una posible conclusión racista. Los resultados sugieren que los procesos de razonamiento se ven influidos por el contenido de la tarea. Sin embargo, tal influencia no es simple. En las tareas de tipo proporcional y probabilístico, donde hay un aspecto eminentemente aritmético, un signifiativo porcentaje de los participantes tienden a evitar una conclusión (aunque sea lógicamente correcta) si ésta puede interpretarse como una discriminación contra una determinada comunidad étnico-racial. Esta tendencia no se observa cuando la conclusión podría perjudicar a una comunidad no sometida a un prejuicio racial. Habría una activación, en el primer caso, de un cierto contrasesgo en contra del prejuicio dominante. En las tareas de carácter deducivo, donde no hay ningún componente numérico, ese efecto no es tan apreciable.

El desarrollo de la toma de conciencia racial : un estudio evolutivo con niños españoles de tres a cinco años.

Este trabajo de tesis tiene como principal objetivo obtener una medida del desarrollo de la toma de conciencia racial en niños españoles de 3 a 5 años. El principal marco teórico en el que se ha desarrollado el trabajo es la teoría socio-cognitiva. Desde esta teoría se propone que el prejuicio en los niños debe entenderse más como resultado de un proceso evolutivo que como un rasgo de personalidad. En otras palabras, los cambios cognitivos que se producen a lo largo de la niñez desempeñan un papel central en el surgimiento y desarrollo de las actitudes étnico-raciales.. Se diseñan tres estudios sucesivos con objetivos diferentes pero complementarios, en los que se tomó una medida de la conciencia racial así como de su relación con el desarrollo cognitivo del sujeto. Se elaboran un conjunto de tareas basadas en pruebas clásicas con una larga trayectoria en la investigación previa, para evaluar distintos procesos implicados en la conciencia racial. Concretamente, se estudia la percepción de similitudes y diferencias entre grupos raciales (categorización social), el conocimiento de etiquetas socio-convencionales para designar a los grupos raciales, la autoidentificación racial y las actitudes, medidas estas últimas a través de las preferencias y rechazos hacia miembros de distintos grupos raciales.. Los resultados muestran que entre los 3 y los 4 años se produce un importante avance en la toma de conciencia racial. A diferencia de lo que sucede en edades anteriores donde el color de piel apenas era relevante, las respuestas de los niños comienzan a estar guiadas por las claves físicas raciales. Además, la preferencia hacia el grupo interno fue más intensa que el rechazo hacia los grupos externos..