Browsing by Author "Gray, Andrew C."
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Item Opioid-stimulant trends in overdose toxicology by race, ethnicity, & gender: An analysis in Delaware, 2013–2019(Journal of Ethnicity in Substance Abuse, 2022-08-16) Gray, Andrew C.; Neitzke-Spruill, Logan; Hughes, Cresean; O’Connell, Daniel J.; Anderson, Tammy L.Recent upticks of stimulant presence in overdose deaths suggest the opioid epidemic is morphing, which raises questions about what drugs are involved and who is impacted. We investigate annual and growth rate trends in combined opioid-stimulant overdose toxicology between 2013 and 2019 for White, Black, and Hispanic male and female decedents in Delaware. During these years, toxicology shifted to illegal drugs for all with fentanyl leading the increase and opioid-cocaine combinations rising substantially. While combined opioid-cocaine toxicology grew among Black and Hispanic Delawareans, White males continue to report the highest rates overall. These findings depart from historical patterns and may challenge existing opioid epidemic policies.Item Race and deadly force: assessing minority-threat arguments(University of Delaware, 2017) Gray, Andrew C.No social justice issue has been more present in the news media recently than the deaths of racial minorities at the hands of the police in the United States of America. This clear division between communities and the police has resulted in protests and marches sweeping the nation under the statement that “Black Lives Matter.” With racial disparities in the criminal justice system being a long-standing issue, the need for empirical investigations into the factors that contribute to police use of force is essential in today’s criminological literature. In this study, Blalock’s (1967) theory of minority-group relations is utilized to determine the impact that racial threat has on the use of deadly force by police. This study offers a state-level analysis that accounts fully for Blalock’s theory by including race-specific economic measures and indicators of political-threat, which are often overlooked in this literature. Census data are merged with other existing data on the use of deadly force [Supplementary Homicide Reports (SHR) and Mapping Police Violence (MPV)] to explore the impact of racial threat on racial patterns in police violence. This study indicates that there are some discrepancies in results based on which data source is used to measure police lethality, SHR versus MPV. In the end, though, there is some support for Blalock’s threat theory at the state-level; however, the most consistent result is family disruption, which may indicate that other theoretical frameworks, such as social disorganization, should be explored.Item Racial violence, past and present: examining the legacy of lynching, racial uprisings, and contemporary police violence(University of Delaware, 2022) Gray, Andrew C.Throughout the history of the United States, racialized forms of violence and social control have been used to enforce racial boundaries and the racial hierarchy of the nation. My dissertation offers a historically guided study of racial violence, resistance, and social control since the late 19th Century. I provide a detailed discussion of historical racial violence and how past violence has been embedded in more recent racially disparate forms of violence and formal criminal justice practices. Specifically, I examine two historical periods—the era of lynching and the era of resistance to racial injustices that was prominent through the 1960s and early 1970s—and consider how these periods may be related, as well as their potential legacy effects on more contemporary issues around policing (i.e., the use of lethal force by police measured through fatal shootings of Black Americans). We must grapple with forces of the past and attempt to understand how they may have transformed over time and may continue to influence contemporary social phenomena (e.g., criminal justice practices). The field of criminology has largely failed to acknowledge how the past may continue to influence contemporary issues. Thus, my dissertation offers a further step in understanding historical racial violence and resistance while addressing how this history can help us to understand contemporary forms of violence and social control.