One aspect of Johnson’s work that intersects CSDA signature themes examines earnings inequality among various racial/ethnic groups. With Donald Tomaskovic-Devey and Melvin Thomas, Johnson developed a sociologically variant of human capital that conceptualizes human capital acquisition as a social product, not an individual investment. They apply this model to racial earnings inequality focusing on how exposure to discrimination influences both human capital acquisition and earnings inequalities as they develop across the career. Their paper on the effects of race and human capital accumulation across the career has been published in the American Journal of Sociology.
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Johnson’s primary interest lies in how race and gender inequality influence crime and delinquency. Her work seeks to understand the collateral consequences of incarceration for individuals and communities. She has collaborated with Jacqueline Johnson on two papers that investigate the linkages among incarceration, social inequality, and earnings for African Americans, Latinos and whites. In other work Johnson investigates the role of incarceration, human capital acquisition and racial inequality in labor markets.
Johnson’s second area of research explores the relationship between schools and delinquency. Here she considers the extent to which stratification, disciplinary practices within schools and individual-level characteristics affect delinquency. She is particularly interested in examining how delinquent behavior varies across race/ethnicity, gender and immigration status. This line of research has been funded by a CSDA Junior Researcher Award (Fall 2005). During summer 2006, the funds provided for this research enabled Johnson to attend an ICPSR short course on Multilevel Modeling and also the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) Users Conference held at the NIH campus. Currently, CSDA houses the restricted-use files of the Add Health data and provides researchers access to the data and a computer designated to store this data. This fall, Johnson began working with this sensitive data and has completed the preliminary analyses for a paper on curriculum tracking, zero tolerance policies, and delinquency among African American and Latino youth.
Johnson’s research on schools and delinquency fits clearly with the emphasis on the risks to children and adolescents shared by many in the life-course cluster.
Use of infrastructure cores and activities
Johnson relies on CSDA created a sensitive data cold room that provides researchers who work with the restricted–use files of Add Health. This includes research space and a stand-alone computer designated for storing and analyzing this confidential data. The computing statistical core worked with CSDA Associate Kathryn Schiller to develop the security plan and implement the requirements specified by the University of North Carolina. This core manages the day-to-day operations of the cold room. Johnson also benefits from preparatory work and assistance of the computing statistical core.