James D. Wright

University of Central Florida | UCF · Department of Sociology

The United States is witnessing a growing aging population stemming in part from medical advancements allowing people to live decades longer than previous generations. Simultaneously, food insecurity among older adults has increased, and is projected to get worse as the Baby Boomer generation ages. This review focuses on an assistance program for o...

Throughout the world, much food produced is wasted. The resource impact of producing wasted food is substantial; however, little is known about the energy and water consumed in managing food waste after it has been disposed. Herein, we characterize food waste within the Food-Energy-Water (FEW) nexus and parse the differential FEW effects of produci...

This project studies desistance from substance use and homelessness. In the early 1990s, the New Orleans Homeless Substance Abusers Project (NOHSAP) tested new treatment approaches for homeless substance users. The program ran for three years and enrolled 670 clients. The current project involved finding as many of these individuals as possible and...

Studies of homelessness and health date back to at least the 1970s. The current paper presents a summary on the state of the literature on homelessness and health since the onset of Housing First initiatives. Housing First initiatives represent a change in the previously used model used by social services providers and government agencies from reco...

Although research has documented the majority of homelessness experienced by individuals and families in the US to be transitional rather than chronic, the mechanisms by which some families successfully escape homelessness while other do not remains relatively unclear. To provide more information to this area of inquiry, this study analyzed the tra...

The theory of food deserts is that poor people eat poor diets in part because fresh, healthy food is not accessible in areas where they tend to live. We review evidence from a number of disciplines on various elements of this theory and find it wanting. Access to a car is, for most, a more important consideration than access to a full service super...

The first systematic effort to understand where, how, and why criminals acquire, carry, and use guns was by Wright and Rossi (1986). Key findings were that criminals rarely acquired firearms through conventional retail markets, that much criminal gun possession was self-defensive and not specifically for the purpose of committing crimes, and that c...

The history of applied social research is reviewed. The social sciences generally are a product of the Enlightenment and most of the social sciences originated in applied concerns. Thus, in contrast to the conventional view that the basic science is developed first and then applied to solving certain problems, most of the social sciences developed...

Homeless people are sometimes the perpetrators and quite often the victims of crime and violence. This article reviews the available research on this topic, focusing mainly on studies conducted in the United States. Homeless teens, women, the mentally ill, and the substance-abusive are shown to be especially high-risk subpopulations. Random acts of...

The Experience of Food Insecurity: An AARP/UCF Survey of Floridians age 18+. Report presented to the AARP Foundation. November, 2014.

Sea level rise (SLR) is posing a great inundation risk to coastal areas. Some coastal nesting species, including sea turtle species, have experienced diminished habitat from SLR. Contingent valuation method (CVM) was used in an effort to assess the economic loss impacts of SLR on sea turtle nesting habitats for Florida coasts; and to elicit values...

This article reports on formative research as part of a broader interdisciplinary campaign to increase voluntary environmentally responsible boating in a local lagoon. A telephone survey was conducted with a sample (N = 404) of targeted boaters to explore their views on the environmental issue and motivations to perform the desired behavior. Result...

This article presents findings from an exploratory, qualitative examination of an intensive outpatient treatment program for homeless women recovering from substance dependence disorders. Structured interviews of seven current program clients and three graduates of the program were conducted to ascertain how clients maintain their sobriety in addit...

We are now well into the second decade of the “outcomes” revolution, the increasing expectation on the part of funders that social and human services agencies report on the impacts or outcomes of their programs. It is no longer enough to “do good” poorly; rather, the expectation these days is that the agencies report on program outcomes and the imp...

Unsheltered or “street” homeless are an under-researched subset of the homeless population although they account for 37% of the total number of homeless people. The current study examines the lives of homeless people who reside in camps in the woods of East Orange County, Florida. Data for this study were collected via five focus groups with a tota...

Tracking homeless individuals over time has proved to be extremely difficult; thus, only limited longitudinal data on the homeless exist. We analyze longitudinal data originally collected from the New Orleans Homeless Substance Abusers Program in 1991–1993, supplemented with mortality data for the same sample by year 2010. We use social bonding the...

We examine relationships between childhood abuse and two maladaptive marital communication patterns – hostile and withdrawing – and test whether covenant marriage or pre-marital counseling mediate the effects of childhood abuse. Drawing on a sample from the Marriage Matters (1997–2004) data, we find both gendered differences in communication and in...

The new homelessness has drawn sustained attention from scholars over the past three decades. Definitional inconsistencies and data limitations rendered early work during this period largely speculative in nature. Thanks to conceptual, theoretical, and methodological progress, however, the research literature now provides a fuller understanding of...

An exploratory, qualitative examination of homeless, recovering alcoholic men in a Twelve-Step program shows the ways these men adapt tools of sobriety to match their needs. Using semi-structured interviews, the experiences of these men were evaluated in order to find out how they stay sober without a formal place to live. Based on the narrative hi...

Clinical data from the National Health Care for the Homeless program are analyzed to provide a portrait of the health status of the urban homeless. Ill health, physical as well as mental, is both a cause and a consequence of homelessness; homeless people suffer from many physical disorders at dramatically elevated rates. Homelessness also greatly c...

Although homelessness is a serious social problem in the United States, there is little direct information about the actual experiences of violence, past and current, among homeless people. This volume, based on the Florida Four-City Study, brings together interview material from 737 women, including structured quantitative interviews as well as in...

The theme of the 2008 meeting of the Association for Applied and Clinical Sociology was “Engaging Sociology: Applied Sociology's Past, Present, and Promise.” The theme suggests that applied sociology has a past that is different from the parent discipline of sociology, and given how the history of sociology has come to be taught and remembered, tha...

In the 1970s, social psychologists conducted numerous studies analyzing physical appearance as a social variable. More recent studies in the social sciences appear to have abandoned this topic as unimportant; in any case, very few social scientific studies have been found that incorporate a measure of attractiveness into their analyses. The present...

The premise that childhood victimization is a risk factor for crime and violence in adulthood finds general support, though few agree that there is a direct causal relationship. Mediating factors and intervening variables are often studied. Rarely investigated, however, are the complex and difficult dynamics experienced by those enmeshed in these “...

An exploratory, qualitative study of homeless, recovering alcoholic men in a Twelve-Step program examines the problems they encounter maintaining sobriety. Using semistructured interviews, the experiences of these men were analyzed in order to learn how they stay sober without a formal place to live. Four kinds of special barriers to sobriety are i...

This study contributes to research on the deinstitutionalization of marriage and changing gender ideologies by focusing on a unique group of marriage innovators. With quantitative and qualitative data from the Marriage Matters project (1997-2004), this study used a symbolic interactionist perspective to compare covenant- and standard-married couple...

This study investigates the impact of automatic firearm usage on the presence of multiple victims within a violent encounter. In addition, key situational and contextual variables from the criminal events perspective are controlled. Data were collected from the National Incident-Based Reporting System of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Logisti...

This study examines attitudes toward gay marriage within the context of concern over the weakening of heterosexual marriage. We use data from a three-state survey conducted in 1998 – 2000 and designed to explore attitudes toward marriage and divorce reform (N = 976). We find that women, Whites, and younger persons are more approving of gay marriage...

As a part of welfare reform, states throughout the country have enacted legislation to promote marriage. Lawmakers believe that by promoting marriage, the states will achieve lower divorce rates and lower rates of cohabitation by converting cohabitating couples into more stable married households, which in turn will lead to fewer women and children...

Regardless how you interpret the statistics, the divorce rate in the United States is staggering. But, what if the government could change this? Would families be better off if new public policies made it more difficult for couples to separate? This book explores a movement that emerged over the past fifteen years, which aims to do just that. Guide...

We evaluated the safety of room occupants in the Tuberculosis Ultraviolet Shelter Study (TUSS), a double-blind, placebo-controlled field trial of upper-room ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) at 14 homeless shelters in six U.S. cities from 1997 to 2004. Data collection involved administering questionnaires regarding eye and skin irritation t...

Assisted living (AL) stresses the importance of resident autonomy in the provision of good quality care. Resident autonomy has been linked to better resident well-being, less reliance on supportive services, and greater participation in social activities. Little is known, however, about factors that foster resident autonomy in AL. This article revi...

We extend prior research on the association between premarital cohabitation and marital outcomes by investigating whether covenant marriage, which entails more stringent requirements for divorce, minimizes the deleterious effects of cohabitation on subsequent marital quality and stability. Using a unique longitudinal data set of covenant and standa...

This article explores the relationships between homeless women and their intimate partners. Based on results from a focus group of homeless women at a domestic violence shelter and 20 in-depth interviews with women at two centers for the homeless, the authors suggest that the nature of the intimate relationships homeless women have are varied and i...

Demographic projections confirm a dramatic increase in the size of America's elderly population over the next several decades. The elderly now comprise 13% of the population; by 2045, they will comprise 22%. As the elderly population grows, so too will the elderly poor, the elderly homeless, and the elderly uninsured. The implications of the so-cal...

Using data from the National Survey of Homeless Assistance Providers and Clients (NSHAPC) and an application of Felson's Routine Activities Theory, this paper examines gender and age differences in victimization experiences of a sample of more than 4,200 homeless and near-homeless people, mostly adults. Results suggest that there are no differences...

Using data from the National Survey of Homeless Assistance Providers and Clients (NSHAPC), this article examines the applicability of Felson's Routine Activities Theory to a national probability sample of older homeless individuals. Results indicate that the relative protection that women often have from most crimes is not transferred to the older...

Because of the differential perspectives, needs, and interests that undergird clinical and research objectives, program staff may wittingly or unwittingly sabotage randomization. A case study of the New Orleans Homeless Substance Abusers Program amply documents this process.

This chapter discusses the resolution of methodological issues in the evaluation of a health care program for homeless people.

Reviews the past 25 years of applied social research, with an emphasis on evaluation research, whose intent is the estimation of the net impacts of effects of social programs. The 1960s and early 1970s represent the 'Golden Age' of evaluation, an age that ended with the Reagan Administration. During this period, the evaluation field was dominated b...

We report research on public opinions about covenant marriage and divorce to inform policy analysts of the social climate in which these legal initiatives are taking place. We collected data via telephone surveys from a sample of 1,324 adults in Louisiana, Arizona, and Minnesota. From these data, we draw four implications for policy: policy efforts...

In response to the growing concern over the provision of long-term care to an ever-expanding older population, new methods of delivering services to older adults are constantly being developed. The development and expansion of long-term care via assisted living facilities (ALFs) is one approach that has proven surprisingly popular all across the na...

In 1997, Louisiana codified a new family form by becoming the first state to pass covenant marriage legislation. Soon after, Arizona and Arkansas followed suit. This act created two marriage types with substantially different marital and divorce provisions. In spring 1998, the authors conducted qualitative interviews with focus groups consisting of...

Drawings of the ‘ideal person’ completed by 82 children (aged 5 through 17) attending a programme for working children in Honduras were scored for content, emotional indicators and intellectual maturity. Analysis revealed that the content of street children’s drawings could provide insight into their aspirations, resourcefulness and life circumstan...

Drawings of the 'ideal person' completed by 82 children (aged 5 through 17) attending a programme for working children in Honduras were scored for content, emotional indicators and intellectual maturity. Analysis revealed that the content of street children's drawings could provide insight into their aspirations, resourcefulness and life circumstan...

Although other universities have established partnerships with inner-city communities in many forms of service learning, few institutions of higher learning have aggressively attempted to revitalize the most severely impoverished sectors of their cities with large outlays of time, resources, and personnel. The Campus Affiliates Program, a collabora...

Cet article resume quinze ans de recherche sur les sans-domicile aux USA. Les nouveaux sans-domicile forment un groupe diversifie et heterogene; y sont surrepresentees des personnes assez jeunes, tres pauvres, appartenant aux minorites ethniques, et en tres mauvaise sante. Plus que par le passe, les femmes et les enfants en constituent une part non...

Analysis of the housing dynamics and individual characteristics of a sample of 670 participants in the New Orleans Homeless Substance Abusers Program reveals substantial diversity with respect to income, education, and occupational attainment. Nevertheless, drug consumption and dependence serve as socioeconomic levelers, dissolving otherwise potent...

The hypothesis that drug use among Honduran street children is a function of developmental social isolation from cultural and structural influences is examined. Data from 1,244 children working and/or living on the streets of Tegucigalpa are described, separating "market" children from "street" children. The latter group is then divided into those...

The New Orleans Homeless Substance Abusers Project (NOHSAP) was designed as a randomized field experiment to test the effectiveness of a residential alcohol and drug treatment program on the sobriety, employment, housing, and social integration of homeless substance abusers. However, program staff sabotaged randomization into treatment and control...

The growing emphasis on health behavior among health researchers and the parallel emphasis on prevention among health practitioners should not be allowed to obscure critically important relationships between health behavior and larger social, cultural, and economic forces. In the language of research methods, behavior is an intervening variable, no...

Retrospective self-reports of behavior are widely used in alcohol and drug research. However, assessments of the reliability and validity of such data among certain populations are nonexistent. This study examines the ability of the Addiction Severity Index (ASI), a widely used clinical and research instrument, to provide valid and reliable data wi...

This article reports findings from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth on the effects of working while in high school on educational attainment and a variety of labor force outcomes roughly a decade after high school completion. Previous studies focused on short-term consequences and reported mixed and contradictory results. The results of th...

This article evaluates a residential alcohol/drug treatment program for the homeless. The process evaluation documents numerous deviations from the program as designed and other implementation problems. Foremost among these: The project was designed as a randomized experiment, but randomization was sabotaged by the treatment staff. Nonrandom resear...

Housing dynamics of homeless people limit all efforts to count them. Data on 60-day housing histories from a sample of homeless substance abusers in New Orleans show that homeless people spend relatively few nights in locations that would make them potentially countable, no matter how thorough the enumeration procedure.

As health services research focuses on prevention and drug treatment programs for special populations, maintaining panel samples at adequate levels over time becomes more important. Differential panel mortality poses a serious threat to the internal validity of experimental designs and the external validity of study conclusions. Minimizing responde...

This volume, develops three principal themes. First, poverty is not monolithic; secondly, the so-called underclass within the poverty population represents a new and corrosive development; and, third, the War on Poverty of the 1960s offered a boldness of vision that today's poverty policies tend to lack. The authors show how the social and economic...

This paper reviews the main treatment effects observed in the New Orleans Homeless Substance Abusers Project and then analyzes and discusses factors that appear to interact with treatment to produce successful treatment outcomes. Outcomes are assessed for alcohol and drug use, housing stability, and employment. Results show marginally significant p...

Research methodology and data analysis in sociology are dominated by probability theory. However, probability theory cannot always deal with the imprecisions of the real world. In this paper, the basic concepts of fuzzy sets theory and fuzzy classification are discussed. An empirical example is presented. The fuzzy classifications of respondents ba...

Media reports consistently point to a substantial increase in handgun ownership among American women during the 1980s and have attributed the rise to crime fears. As well, they have suggested that the profile of women gun owners has been changing in recent years; women handgun owners now are alleged to be more urban, more middle class, and more pro...

In New Orleans, the United States' 25th largest city, the problems of substance abuse and homelessnws are exacerbated by some unique economic and cultural characteristics of the city. This article describes the development of a program designed to achieve sobriety, residential stability, economic independence, and family re-integration within this...

Though the prevalence of gun possession and carrying among juveniles is now fairly well documented (at least among non-serious offenders), little research has examined juveniles' reasons for possessing and carrying guns beyond noting that youth who report robbery and assaultive behavior have higher rates of gun and other weapon possession than do n...

This paper examines the effects of preschool children on the quality of life of housewives and working women. Two sets of multiple regression models are employed to (a) analyze the differential levels of satisfaction of housewives and working women with and without preschool children and (b) investigate the effect of the number of preschoolers on t...

In the May 1991 issue of the American Journal of Diseases of Children, I wrote of the health and social problems confronted by the nation's homeless children.1 In September 1992, the federal government released its 1991 poverty report, the first of the annual reports to show the effects of the current recession. With the official 1991 federal pover...

The United Nations' Year of the Child and its Declaration on the Rights of Children have focused the attention of the pediatric community on the situation of homeless street children in less developed countries throughout the world. Recent investigations1-4 document widespread family disorganization, exploitation, abandonment, violence, police brut...