Habermas,Feminism, and Law: Beyond Equality and Difference?*

In this paper, I argue that Habermas' proceduralist model of law can be put to feminist ends in at least two significant ways. First, in presenting an alternative to the liberal and welfare models of laws, the proceduralist model offers feminism a way out of the equality/difference dilemma. Both these attempts to secure women's equality by emphasising women's sameness to men or their difference from men have placed the onus on women to either find a way of integrating themselves into existing institutions or to confront the so‐called question of women's difference. The proceduralist model renders this dilemma irrelevant. Instead, it proceeds from the fact of sexual difference; a fact that produces competing and conflicting needs and interests that require interpretation by both men and women. This, I argue, marks a change in the very way we conceptualise the so‐called problem of women's difference, insofar as the question is no longer framed in these terms. Second, I argue that this deliberative process over the interpretation of conflicting interests affects a fundamental shift in the nature of legal institutions themselves, insofar as law is no longer a vehicle for promoting male interests.     

Partying,Cruising, and Hanging in the Streets: Gangs,Routine Activities,and Delinquency and Violence in Chicago, 1959–1962

Objectives

Examine relationships between routine activities, character contests in the form of “signifying,” and general delinquency and fighting in a street gang context.

Methods

Samejima’s (Estimation of latent ability using a response pattern of graded scores. Psychometrika monograph supplement 17. Psychometric Society, Richmond, VA, Retrieved 10 Aug 2011, from http://www.psychometrika.org/journal/online/MN17.pdf, 1969) graded response models and multilevel ordinal logistic regression models are estimated using data from Short and Strodtbeck (Group process and gang delinquency. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1965) study of street gangs in Chicago, 1959–1962. The primary sample consists of 490 boys representing 10 black gangs, 4 white gangs, 9 black lower-class groups, 4 white lower-class groups, 2 black middle-class groups, and 2 white middle-class groups.

Results

Unstructured and unsupervised socializing with peers significantly increased the likelihood of delinquency among the boys and explained a significant portion of the group-level gang effect. In addition, the more time the boys spent hanging in the streets and attending parties, the more likely they were to participate in signifying, which, in turn, increased their risk of fighting.

Conclusions

Findings provide evidence that gangs contribute to delinquency partly through their effect on the routine activities of members. Findings also suggest that signifying is an important mechanism by which unstructured and unsupervised socializing with peers leads to violence.     

Self‐control,peer relations,and delinquency

This paper addresses gender-specific treatment in juvenile justice processing, an important topic in view of new funding opportunities to develop female-specific programs. This topic is controversial and includes many unresolved issues. To provide context, we relate this study to lessons from the initiative to address disproportionate minority confinement: that it is impossible to understand confinement without understanding the process by which youths are confined, that structural and demographic traits facilitate the process, and that benevolent interventions can have unintended negative consequences. We present empirical findings that juvenile justice cases are “gendered,” but that court treatment of those cases shows more gender similarities than differences. In contrast, interviews with officials suggest large gender gaps in opportunities for services, and indicate some gender biases. Bias and disparity also are themes among delinquent and “at-risk” girls who participated in focus groups; in addition, girls expressed preferences for treatment comparable to that given to boys. Finally, we evaluate what has been advocated as female-specific programming and recommend how best to proceed.     

Asian Criminology – Challenges, Opportunities, and Directions

Despite considerable advances in the field of criminology in Asia over the past few decades, the pace of growth has been quite slow compared with the rapid development of the field in North America and Europe. This paper discusses key features of the Asian context as they are related to the development of criminology in Asia. The paper examines the major challenges that Asia’s diverse culture, legal traditions, crimes, and crime control pose for development of criminology in Asia. It also discusses the opportunities afforded by the Asian context. The paper proposes general strategies in response to the challenges. The author suggests the importance of moving towards a unified paradigm of Asian Criminology. The Asian Journal of Criminology aims to play an instrumental role in this process of advancing Asian criminology.     

Power and inheritance: Male domination,property, and family in eastern Europe, 1500–1900

A widespread inheritance pattern in eastern and southeastern Europe was based on equally partible male inheritance and excluded women from inheritance and dowry. The western transition zone to the other predominant European inheritance systems coincided with the Hajnal line, which divides the distribution of European marriage patterns in historical times. New evidence is added to the historical depth of the cultural–historical transition zone already postulated by Mitterauer. Since the early Middle Ages, this zone also marked the border region of two basic European agrarian systems: the western Grundherrschafts system, which led to the intervention of landlords into inheritance patterns and family structures of the serfs and the non-interventionist tributary systems, which left inheritance practices based on customary laws untouched until the second half of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. The above-mentioned inheritance pattern, which was also widespread in Asia, allocated a huge amount of power to the agnatic core of the family and was part of a patriarchal system shaped by patrilineality, patrilocality, low age at marriage, complex family forms, and fragmentation of the soil when demographic transition set in.     

Social Justice and the Human–Environment Relationship: Common Systemic, Ideological, and Psychological Roots and Processes

Historical analyses and contemporary social psychological research demonstrate that prevailing systems, institutions, and practices espouse an ideology of conflict between humans and the natural world. The established paradigm of society espouses domination of and separation from the natural environment, and manifests in environmentally detrimental attitudes and practices. Ecological exploitation appears to stem from the same root socioeconomic processes as social injustice—the hierarchical arrangement of power which places some groups and the environment in a position devoid of power or rights. Accordingly, endorsement of social and environmental injustice is exacerbated by tendencies toward domination and hierarchy, such as social dominance orientation and right-wing authoritarianism. Moreover, injustice is perpetuated by motivation to uphold and justify social structures and the dominant paradigm, which stifles societal change toward intergroup fairness and equality and motivates denial and neglect in the face of environmental problems. Ideological tendencies in service of the system, including political conservatism, belief in a just world, and free market ideology, contribute toward perpetuating injustice as well as anti-environmental sentiment and behavior. Considering the shared psychological and ideological underpinnings of social and environmental injustice point to important interventions, such as cultivating interdependence through contact, fostering inclusive representations, and harnessing ideological motives toward overcoming resistance to change, and carry implications for expanding the scope of justice theory, research, and practice.     

Religion and Misconduct in “Angola” Prison: Conversion,Congregational Participation,Religiosity, and Self-Identities*

Prior research tends to find an inverse relationship between inmates’ religion and misconduct in prison, but this relationship has lacked empirical explanation. We therefore propose the religion-misconduct relationship is mediated by inmates’ identity transformation on existential, cognitive, and emotional dimensions. To test the mediation, we conducted a survey of inmates at the Louisiana State Penitentiary (a.k.a. “Angola”). Controlling for inmates’ sociodemographic and criminal backgrounds, we estimated a latent-variable structural equation model of disciplinary convictions. Results showed that inmates’ religious conversion and, to a lesser extent, religiosity itself were positively related to existential and cognitive transformations as well as a “crystallization of discontent,” which were in turn associated with two types of emotional transformation in the expected direction. The crystallization of discontent and transformation in negative affect were related to disciplinary convictions as hypothesized, and their mediation of the effects of conversion and religiosity on misconduct were found to be significant.     

“We are family”: Gender,microenterprise, family work,and well-being in Ecuador and the Dominican Republic — with comparative data from Guatemala,Swaziland, and Guinea-Bissau

The article analyzes the realm of family business to see what a difference the gender of the owner makes. Through the lens of the author's rapid appraisal and/or survey data from field studies in Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Swaziland, and Guinea-Bissau, three main issues are examined: (1) the use of family in the family business by women and men microentrepreneurs (MEs) — i.e., differential involvement of family members in different work patterns and differential reliance on home-based businesses; (2) similarities and differences in men's vs. women's ventures (type of economic activities, gender composition of employees, loan repayment, reinvestment of profits, etc.); and (3) the impact of the business' income on the ME and his/her family well-being (using hypotheses from my general theory of gender stratification). Finally, implications are extracted concerning the consequences of women's economic empowerment, as well as for Third World microenterprise credit and savings programs.     

“We are family”: Gender,microenterprise, family work,and well-being in Ecuador and the Dominican Republic — with comparative data from Guatemala,Swaziland, and Guinea-Bissau

The article analyzes the realm of family business to see what a difference the gender of the owner makes. Through the lens of the author's rapid appraisal and/or survey data from field studies in Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Swaziland, and Guinea-Bissau, three main issues are examined: (1) the use of family in the family business by women and men microentrepreneurs (MEs) — i.e., differential involvement of family members in different work patterns and differential reliance on home-based businesses; (2) similarities and differences in men's vs. women's ventures (type of economic activities, gender composition of employees, loan repayment, reinvestment of profits, etc.); and (3) the impact of the business' income on the ME and his/her family well-being (using hypotheses from my general theory of gender stratification). Finally, implications are extracted concerning the consequences of women's economic empowerment, as well as for Third World microenterprise credit and savings programs.     

Share and Share Alike? Hedge Funds,Human Rights,and Owning Enterprise in Britain

This article explores the meanings of ownership and shareholding in the context of the 2007 run on Northern Rock, its subsequent nationalization in 2008, and the resulting legal challenge brought by former shareholders. Drawing on evidence from a range of sources outside traditional legal and official doctrine, and from original empirical research, it focuses on the perspective and voices of local small individual shareholders in relation to shareholding, bank failure, and government responses to financial crisis. It tells the story of these individual shareholders against differing conceptions of share ownership rights and responsibilities, and from various angles, to show the many different subjectivities of corporate shareholding and ownership of enterprise of which orthodox legal and economic models take scant account. It concludes on a note of historic persistence in demand for proprietary shares in banking institutions, despite the differing levels of understanding and tolerance of equity risk among shareholders that our research reveals.     

Students’ Feelings of Safety,Exposure to Violence and Victimization,and Authoritative School Climate

Although many students feel unsafe at school, few malleable factors have been identified to increase students’ feelings of safety. Drawing on criminological behavior control theories, this study posits authoritative school climate as one such factor. With data from two nationally representative datasets, this study uses path analysis to examine the relationship between authoritative school climate and feelings of safety, as well as the extent to which this relation is explained by exposure to violence and victimization. Across both datasets, a more authoritative school climate was associated with increased feelings of safety at school. Both models also indicated that this relationship was explained in part by reduced exposure to violence and victimization, although the strength of this indirect effect varied across models. These findings suggest that strengthening students’ relationships with adults and increasing the fairness and consistency of rules in the school may both reduce exposure to violence and victimization and help students feel safer at school.     

Injustice in School and Students’ Emotions,Well-Being,and Behavior: A Longitudinal study

School can be regarded as an important factor in the development of children’s values and attitudes. Given this great importance of justice experiences for students’ development, this study aimed at examining the influence of perceived injustice in school on students’ emotions, well-being, and behavior with an experimental longitudinal design. In total, 196 students participated in this study and came to the university with their classes to receive extra teaching once a week for six consecutive weeks. To manipulate justice perceptions, a scenario of arbitrary privilege was chosen to lead students of the experimental group to experience injustice from a beneficiary perspective. We found that students in the experimental group reported higher well-being and a higher appreciation of the opportunity to learn than the control group did. Additionally, they showed an increase in justice-related negative emotions over time; that is, they expressed more of a bad conscience and stronger feelings of anger the more they became aware of their privilege. This study shows that even subtle experiences of injustice in school can have an impact on students’ outcomes. These results are discussed with regard to practical implications.     

Produced Water—Emerging Challenges,Risks, and Opportunities

Produced water should be viewed as an environmental asset—part of the water resource solution—not as a waste that contributes to environmental problems; its treatment and reuse can reduce the stress on fresh water resources. Treatment cost is the most significant factor determining the volume of produced water that will be available for reuse. Water pricing, which is in large part a matter of public policy, must also be considered when reexamining how to maximize the use of this valuable resource. When deciding whether to treat and use produced water companies will need to weigh the risk of litigation and regulatory enforcement actions against the benefits of introducing treated water into the stream of commerce. Allaying the public's fear of chemicals in the water supply is also a significant factor in determining whether produced water is viewed as part of a water resource solution or as a waste by-product.     

Race and Women’s Imprisonment: Poverty, African American Presence, and Social Welfare

Female imprisonment rates have increased proportionately more than male imprisonment rates over recent decades. There are substantial race differences in women’s rates, as is the case for men. Yet, there has been little quantitative research on the correlates of women’s imprisonment using data over time, or on potential race differences in those correlates. The present research analyzes data on black and nonblack female imprisonment rates in the 50 states for the period 1981–2003. The analyses are guided substantively by existing research on race, social threat and criminal punishment, and theory and research on the penal-welfare hypothesis. The study uses bivariate-response multilevel modeling to simultaneously examine the factors associated with black and nonblack women’s imprisonment rates. The results show that black female imprisonment rates increase when the concentration of African Americans in metropolitan areas and poverty rates grow, whereas nonblack female imprisonment rates are unaffected by poverty rates and actually decrease when African American populations become more concentrated in metro areas. Both black and nonblack women’s imprisonment rates increase when welfare spending declines. The results are consistent with social threat perspectives and the penal-welfare hypotheses.     

Policy coherence and interplay between Zambia’s forest,energy, agricultural and climate change policies and multilateral environmental agreements

There is increasing international demand by policymakers focussed on Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation for developing countries to conserve forests in the face of pressure from agriculture and energy demands. Improving forest conservation efforts requires a better understanding of how policies influence forest resources management, hence a need for better analysis of policy coherence and interaction. This study employs a content analysis of national sectoral policies in agriculture, energy and forestry, and national programmes under United Nations Rio conventions in Zambia to examine coherence and interplay between international- and national-level policies. Results show positive horizontal interplay between energy and forestry policies, while conflicts were observed between the agricultural and forestry policies despite the potential of conservation farming to provide a mutually supportive link. Policy documents show inconsistencies between national sectoral policies and national statements to the Rio conventions. Additionally, although national statements to Rio conventions share common ground on measures to address deforestation, they seem to be poorly mainstreamed into national policies and broader development policies at national level. Findings have further revealed a lack of coherence between national commitments to Rio conventions and national forest legislation. The paper concludes that although developing countries, such as Zambia, are ratifying international environmental conventions, measures are often not drafted into national policies and linkages remain largely superficial.     

Effect of Psychopathy, Abuse, and Ethnicity on Juvenile Probation Officers’ Decision-Making and Supervision Strategies

Probation officers exercise substantial discretion in their daily work with troubled and troubling juvenile offenders. In this experiment, we examine the effect of psychopathic features, child abuse, and ethnicity on 204 officers’ expectancies of, recommendations for, and approach to supervising, juvenile offenders. The results indicate that officers (a) have decision-making and supervision approaches that are affected by a youth’s psychopathic traits and history of child abuse—but not ethnicity; (b) view both abused youth and psychopathic youth as highly challenging cases on a path toward adult criminality; and (c) have greater hope and sympathy for abused youth than psychopathic youth. For abused youth, officers are likely to recommend psychological services and “go the extra mile” by providing greater support, referrals, and networking than is typical for their caseload. For psychopathic youth, officers expect poor treatment outcomes and are” extra strict,” enforcing rules that typically are not enforced for others on their caseload.     

Children’s Exposure to Intimate Partner Violence and their Social,School, and Activities Competence: Latent Profiles and Correlates

This study examined patterns of intimate partner violence (IPV) exposure and three domains of competence among 288 children recruited from community-based domestic violence agencies. Latent profile analysis (LPA) was performed to identify subgroups of children who differed based on levels of social, academic, and extracurricular competence and exposure to IPV. Five distinct latent profiles were identified: Frequent IPV Exposure-Low Activity Competence (39 % of children), Frequent IPV Exposure-Average Global Competence (31 % of children), Frequent IPV Exposure-High Global Competence (13 % of children), Low IPV Exposure-Compromised School Competence (11 % of children), and Low IPV Exposure-Compromised Global Competence (6 % of children). Covariates distinguished between the profiles (e.g., yearly household income, maternal education, number of children in the household) and the groups were characterized by statistically significant mean differences in total behavior problems. Implications for future research and community-based preventive intervention efforts are discussed.     

Religious fundamentalism,religiosity, and priming: effects on attitudes,perceptions, and mock jurors’ decisions in an insanity defense case

Jurors are asked to use their personal knowledge and experience to make verdict decisions; thus, it is no surprise that their religious beliefs might influence their decisions. During legal insanity trials, jurors might also be exposed to religious stimuli (e.g. crucifix, prayer, Bible, etc.), which could evoke (prime) religious beliefs and thus influence decisions. Two studies examined whether dimensions of religiosity and religious beliefs relate to attitudes and decisions concerning mental health defenses, testing social identity theory against Allport and Ross’s religiosity hypothesis. In Study 1 (attitudes survey) and Study 2 (mock juror decision-making paradigm), religious fundamentalist beliefs consistently predicted punitive attitudes and decisions related to mental health defenses and verdicts, and this was moderated by intrinsic religiosity, such that religious fundamentalist beliefs only predicted punitiveness for individuals low in intrinsic religiosity. Also, priming fundamentalist beliefs increased punitiveness in both verdict and sentencing decisions. Combined, these results suggest that religious beliefs play a role in jurors’ verdict decisions in an insanity case, and that priming fundamentalist beliefs increases jurors’ punitiveness. Allport and Ross’s religiosity hypothesis was supported, but social identity theory was not.