Research Agenda
My research agenda focuses on the Latinx immigrant experience broadly. I am currently focusing on how Latinx immigrants and their children incorporate politically and how political institutions and the American public react to their attempts to create a place for themselves in the United States.
Book Manuscript
Late to the Party: Exploring the Political, Social, and Familial Effects of the Prolonged Socialization Process on the Children of Immigrants and their Parents
My book project challenges the canonical take on how political information flows between parents and children. The extensive literature on the political socialization process maintains that parents transmit political orientations to children, especially partisanship. The one-way flow of information advocated by prominent scholars throughout the decades such as Campbell et al., Converse, Niemi, Jennings, Beck, Markus, and Lewis-Beck has a wealth of documentation, supported by extended panel studies and cross-sectional surveys. Yet the traditional narrative leaves unanswered questions about the political socialization process as it relates to the transmission of political information to children and the political agency assigned to children when children introduce political information to the household. I address these questions in five interconnected chapters using a mix of intensive interviews with the offspring of immigrants, statistical analyses of existing survey data, and analyses of data from my original survey of immigrant communities to examine the wide-ranging political implications of the overlooked political socialization process of the children of immigrants.
My book project challenges the canonical take on how political information flows between parents and children. The extensive literature on the political socialization process maintains that parents transmit political orientations to children, especially partisanship. The one-way flow of information advocated by prominent scholars throughout the decades such as Campbell et al., Converse, Niemi, Jennings, Beck, Markus, and Lewis-Beck has a wealth of documentation, supported by extended panel studies and cross-sectional surveys. Yet the traditional narrative leaves unanswered questions about the political socialization process as it relates to the transmission of political information to children and the political agency assigned to children when children introduce political information to the household. I address these questions in five interconnected chapters using a mix of intensive interviews with the offspring of immigrants, statistical analyses of existing survey data, and analyses of data from my original survey of immigrant communities to examine the wide-ranging political implications of the overlooked political socialization process of the children of immigrants.
Publications
Carlos, Roberto F. (2021). “Politics of the Mundane” American Political Science Review
Extensive research on political participation suggests that parental resources strongly predict participation. Other research indicates that salient political events can push individuals to participate. I offer a novel explanation of how mundane household experiences translate to political engagement, even in settings where low participation levels are typically found, such as immigrant communities. I hypothesize that experiences requiring the children of Latinx immigrants to take on ‘adult’ responsibilities provide an environment where children learn the noncognitive skills needed to overcome the costs associated with participation. I test this hypothesis using three distinct data sets: a survey of Latinx students, a representative survey of young adults, and a ten-year longitudinal study. The analyses demonstrate that Latinx children of immigrants taking on adult responsibilities exhibit higher levels of political activity compared to those who do not. These findings provide new insights into how the cycle of generational political inequality is overcome in unexpected ways and places.
Boldt, Ethan, Boyd, Christina, Carlos, Roberto F., and Baker, Matthew. (2021). “The Effects of Judge Race and Sex on Pretrial Detention Decisions” Justice System Journal
The pretrial detention decision has critical implications for a defendant’s employment opportunities, family ties, likelihood of conviction, and length of prison sentence. While prior researchers have assessed the disparities that exist in the bail decision based on defendant and case characteristics, little systematic empirical attention has been paid to the effects of the pre- trial detention judge on decisions at this stage of criminal case proceed- ings. Here, we focus specifically on judge race and sex, exploring not only the unconditional effects of judge sex and race but also whether the effects of these judge characteristics at the bail decision are conditioned on the sex and race of the defendant. Using newly collected pretrial deten- tion data from 22 federal district courts from 2003 to 2013, we empirically examine the effects of judge and defendant race and sex on whether defendants are released on their own recognizance before trial or, instead, are given a more punitive pretrial outcome. Our results indicate important judge and defendant-based differences in bail setting leniency provided to defendants including that Black judges are more likely to grant pretrial release without hefty conditions to white defendants than are white judges. We also find that female judges are more likely to detain or require monetary bail for male defendants and less likely to do so for female defendants relative to male judges.
Carlos, Roberto F. (2018). “Late to the Party: On the Prolonged Partisan Socialization Process of 2nd Generation Americans.” The Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics
This article posits that the key to understanding the low levels of political involvement within contemporary immigrant communities, such as Asian and Latino communities, requires a closer examination of the partisan socialization process of the native-born children of immigrants. This article finds that many native-born children of immigrants, otherwise known as second-generation Americans, experience what I call a “prolonged partisan socialization process.” In the absence of parental partisan transmission, many second-generation Americans are left to find their own path to partisan attainment. The consequences of this are that many second-generation Americans eventually come to find their partisan identity outside of the home and much later in life. These findings disrupt the traditional partisan attainment story, which assumes that partisanship is the product of a process of socialization led by parents. Accounting for this pro- longed socialization process provides significant insight into why partisan identification, and by extension political participation, among many second-generation Americans, such as Latinos and Asians appears muted. Therefore, while it will likely take some time for many within these contemporary immigrant communi- ties to reach “partisan maturity,” we should not mistake the prolonged socialization process to mean that these individuals are destined to be politically disengaged.
Wilson, Walter, and Carlos, Roberto F. (2014). “Do Women Representatives Regender Legislative Bureaucracy? Assessing the Effect of Representative Sex on Women’s Presence among Congressional Staff.” The Journal of Legislative Studies 20 (2): 216-235.
Achieving greater female presence in influential positions is a commonly discussed strategy for gender reform in institutions such as the US Congress. Using theory adapted from research on gender in the workplace, this study examines whether women representatives, as ‘managers’ of congressional offices, alter patterns of gender representation in Congress by hiring and promoting more women staffers compared with men representatives. Cross-sectional logistic regression analyses of staffer sex during the 110th and 111th Congresses (2007–10) reveal a positive relationship between women representatives and female presence on congressional staffs. However, the relationship does not hold with respect to the most influential staff positions. These findings provide only limited support for theories that women representatives act as ‘change agents’ by directly facilitating opportunities for women, and highlight the importance of exploring alternative strategies for empowering women and regendering legislative institutions.
Extensive research on political participation suggests that parental resources strongly predict participation. Other research indicates that salient political events can push individuals to participate. I offer a novel explanation of how mundane household experiences translate to political engagement, even in settings where low participation levels are typically found, such as immigrant communities. I hypothesize that experiences requiring the children of Latinx immigrants to take on ‘adult’ responsibilities provide an environment where children learn the noncognitive skills needed to overcome the costs associated with participation. I test this hypothesis using three distinct data sets: a survey of Latinx students, a representative survey of young adults, and a ten-year longitudinal study. The analyses demonstrate that Latinx children of immigrants taking on adult responsibilities exhibit higher levels of political activity compared to those who do not. These findings provide new insights into how the cycle of generational political inequality is overcome in unexpected ways and places.
Boldt, Ethan, Boyd, Christina, Carlos, Roberto F., and Baker, Matthew. (2021). “The Effects of Judge Race and Sex on Pretrial Detention Decisions” Justice System Journal
The pretrial detention decision has critical implications for a defendant’s employment opportunities, family ties, likelihood of conviction, and length of prison sentence. While prior researchers have assessed the disparities that exist in the bail decision based on defendant and case characteristics, little systematic empirical attention has been paid to the effects of the pre- trial detention judge on decisions at this stage of criminal case proceed- ings. Here, we focus specifically on judge race and sex, exploring not only the unconditional effects of judge sex and race but also whether the effects of these judge characteristics at the bail decision are conditioned on the sex and race of the defendant. Using newly collected pretrial deten- tion data from 22 federal district courts from 2003 to 2013, we empirically examine the effects of judge and defendant race and sex on whether defendants are released on their own recognizance before trial or, instead, are given a more punitive pretrial outcome. Our results indicate important judge and defendant-based differences in bail setting leniency provided to defendants including that Black judges are more likely to grant pretrial release without hefty conditions to white defendants than are white judges. We also find that female judges are more likely to detain or require monetary bail for male defendants and less likely to do so for female defendants relative to male judges.
Carlos, Roberto F. (2018). “Late to the Party: On the Prolonged Partisan Socialization Process of 2nd Generation Americans.” The Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics
This article posits that the key to understanding the low levels of political involvement within contemporary immigrant communities, such as Asian and Latino communities, requires a closer examination of the partisan socialization process of the native-born children of immigrants. This article finds that many native-born children of immigrants, otherwise known as second-generation Americans, experience what I call a “prolonged partisan socialization process.” In the absence of parental partisan transmission, many second-generation Americans are left to find their own path to partisan attainment. The consequences of this are that many second-generation Americans eventually come to find their partisan identity outside of the home and much later in life. These findings disrupt the traditional partisan attainment story, which assumes that partisanship is the product of a process of socialization led by parents. Accounting for this pro- longed socialization process provides significant insight into why partisan identification, and by extension political participation, among many second-generation Americans, such as Latinos and Asians appears muted. Therefore, while it will likely take some time for many within these contemporary immigrant communi- ties to reach “partisan maturity,” we should not mistake the prolonged socialization process to mean that these individuals are destined to be politically disengaged.
Wilson, Walter, and Carlos, Roberto F. (2014). “Do Women Representatives Regender Legislative Bureaucracy? Assessing the Effect of Representative Sex on Women’s Presence among Congressional Staff.” The Journal of Legislative Studies 20 (2): 216-235.
Achieving greater female presence in influential positions is a commonly discussed strategy for gender reform in institutions such as the US Congress. Using theory adapted from research on gender in the workplace, this study examines whether women representatives, as ‘managers’ of congressional offices, alter patterns of gender representation in Congress by hiring and promoting more women staffers compared with men representatives. Cross-sectional logistic regression analyses of staffer sex during the 110th and 111th Congresses (2007–10) reveal a positive relationship between women representatives and female presence on congressional staffs. However, the relationship does not hold with respect to the most influential staff positions. These findings provide only limited support for theories that women representatives act as ‘change agents’ by directly facilitating opportunities for women, and highlight the importance of exploring alternative strategies for empowering women and regendering legislative institutions.
