5.4 million Americans--1 in every 40 voting age adults-- are denied the right to participate in democratic elections because of a past or current felony conviction. In several American states, 1 in 4 black men cannot vote due to a felony conviction. In a country that prides itself on universal suffrage, how did the United States come to deny a voice to such a large percentage of its citizenry? What are the consequences of large-scale disenfranchisement--both for election outcomes, and for public policy more generally? Locked Out exposes one of the most important, yet little known,...

This first volume of The Society Pages series focuses on politics. Drawn largely from feature content, posts, and exchanges provoked by the elections of 2012, the chapters are organized into three main sections. Core Contributions exemplifies how sociologists and other social scientists think about otherwise familiar political phenomena like power, polling, and social movements. Chapters in the Cultural Contexts section draw out the political content and implications of cultural realms from religion and race, to sports, humor, and new media technologies that are often ignored or taken for...

The second volume in this series tackles crime and punishment. As in the first volume, the chapters are organized into three main sections. "Core Contributions" exemplifies how sociologists and other social scientists think about otherwise familiar phenomena like crime, incarceration, and suicide. Chapters in the "Cultural Contexts" section engage crime in cultural realms--from politics to families to international crime and justice--that are often ignored or taken for granted among laypeople or in other social science disciplines. Finally, the "Critical Takes" chapters provide sociological...

A collection of short, accessible pieces designed to demystify the research process and show how methods are put into action.