Philadelphia's “black mafia”: A social and political history

Trends in Organized Crime -     

Corruption tolerance as a process of moral,social, and political cognition: evidence from Latin America

Crime, Law and Social Change - While corruption is commonly understood in behavioral terms, the dominance of political and economic approaches has hindered the integration of relevant psychological...     

Economic justice,political behavior,and American political values

Although theories of political economy state that citizens' concerns about economic outcomes are important determinants of their political responses, an alternative perspective states that concerns about economic justice influence political responses. Survey data were examined to determine the relative influence of each of these factors on political evaluations and behaviors. Concerns about the justice of the procedures used by the government to make decisions about the distribution of benefits and services strongly predicted evaluations of President Reagan and participation in policy-related political behavior, and were weakly related to general political activism. Concerns about the justice of the distributions of economic benefits were related to evaluations of President Reagan but not to political activism. Judgments about personal economic gain or loss relative to the past predicted evaluations of President Reagan while global subjective judgments of present economic outcomes weakly predicted policy-related political activism. The effect of justice is explained by considering the relationship between citizens' concerns about economic justice and values associated with the American political culture.     

Canadian news. BC introduces a new social assistance benefit, slashes others

A new $225 monthly health benefit for food, vitamins, minerals, and bottled water is introduced while other health benefits are cut.     

Law,state and economy: A Canadian overview

Within the last two decades increasing attention, both public and academic, has been directed towards the relationship between law and social change in Canadian society. A body of literature has emerged, including texts, articles and a journal, which focus upon relationships between law and society, institutionalized law reform commissions, and socio-legal centres. Theoretically the work has gone from an early focus upon consensus, order related assumptions to more recent critical studies in political economy. In order to appreciate the complex and contradictory nature of law and social institutions, a dialectical approach seems appropriate. This allows one to incorporate relevant research and insights from other theoretical perspectives, while providing a comprehensive, structural sense of legal activity and change within a social context. Of particular significance is the appreciation of human action and struggle, praxis, within changing structural and historical conditions.     

Workplace harassment: A test of definitional criteria derived from an analysis of research definitions and Canadian social definitions

Public awareness of the occurrence and effects of workplace harassment continues to grow. However, despite increasing awareness, ambiguity remains about how harassment is defined and, consequently, how to determine whether a questionable situation should be judged as harassment. For this research we reviewed definitions of workplace harassment and identified four elements that were frequently included as criteria for making judgments of whether harassment had occurred (i.e., repetition, intent, perceived intent, consequences). In two separate studies, fictional scenarios were used to evaluate the extent to which participants' judgments about harassment were affected by the presence or absence of the four elements. Ratings of the scenarios provided by student participants (study one; N = 160) and a convenience sample of community participants (study two; N = 292) with varying levels of work experience and diverse professional backgrounds were analysed. According to our results the four elements significantly influenced participants' judgments of harassment. The intent of the harasser had the strongest and most consistent effect on harassment judgements and whether the behaviour was repeated had the weakest and least consistent effect. In addition to the unique effects of the individual elements, significant interactions between the elements emerged and suggest that harassment judgements depend on the interplay of a variety of factors. Though the results of these studies add to the growing body of research that focuses on defining workplace harassment, they also highlight the need for additional research in the area.     

社会进步视野中政治制度的功能分析

政治制度能够为物质文明的发展提供制度保障,为精神文明的创建奠定制度框架,为调节相互冲突的政治利益关系设置制度安排。政治制度对于社会进步的重要意义由此得以凸显。     

论社会保障制度的政治道德基础——分配正义

社会保障制度不仅是人类消极地适应工业化时代经济和社会问题的产物,它还有着深厚的政治道德基础.本文从分配正义的角度揭示了社会保障制度的规范意义,阐明了分配正义原则的理论内涵,介绍了西方分配正义原则的当代争论,并从分配正义角度对我国社会保障制度的建设进行了理论思索.     

A negative relationship between religion and the percentage of women state legislators in the United States

State contextual variables strongly associated with the percentage of women state legislators include the percentage of Christians and political culture. The percentage of Christians is inversely related to the percentage of women state legislators. This is a new finding. The relationship with political culture, noted by previous researchers, is confirmed by our research. Other state contextual variables associated weakly with the percentage of women legislators include the percentage of labour union members and multi‐member districts. Using multiple regression analysis, over 70 per cent of the variation in the percentage of women state legislators has been accounted for. Thus election of women state legislators in 1991 is primarily associated with ideological rather than political or demographic factors. Data from all 50 states are used in the analysis.     

Crime,social disorganization,and social structure: A research note on the use of interurban ecological models

The social disorganization perspective, as set forth by Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay, has enjoyed renewed interest in criminological explanations of crime and delinquency. This paper extends this perspective beyond the traditional intraurban focus of the neighborhood to a more encompassing interurban model, using 682 SMSA counties. The results using these counties were generally consistent with neighborhood studies, demonstrating the robustness of the social disorganization model.     

Gender as social threat: A study of offender sex,situational factors,gender dynamics and social control

Purpose

Adopting a social threat perspective, the assessment explores how gender and social gender dynamics affect the labeling of convicted felons using a unique sentencing outcome - adjudication withheld.

Methods

This research investigates the direct effect of gender, and interactive impact of offender sex/crime type, on adjudication withheld for a sample of probationers (N = 110,419) sentenced in Florida between 2000 and 2002 using Hierarchical Generalized Linear Modeling. The study also explores how social gender dynamics moderate these relationships.

Results

Female offenders are significantly more likely than men to receive adjudication withheld. Women convicted of atypical crimes, such as assault, auto theft and drug sale/manufacturing have better odds of avoiding the felon label than females convicted of other crimes. Finally, measures of gendered threat do not increase the use of social control for female offenders.

Conclusions

Women have significantly better chances of avoiding a felon label; however, this varies by crime type. Criminal justice actors may be reluctant to penalize female offenders with a felon label and the stigma of violent crime convictions. Finally, gendered threat measures did not weaken the leniency shown to female probationers in Florida, possible due to the increased resources available to women in the study areas.     

美国对社会思潮冲击的应对模式及其启示

美国流派纷呈的社会思潮对其思想政治教育有着复杂的影响。美国在应对社会思潮冲击的过程中,形成了包括美国资本主义制度及其优越性的教育、责任公民的教育和美利坚民族精神教育等在内的较为完备的思想政治教育体系。美国还通过采用显性教育与隐性教育相结合的方式,走学校教育与社会教育相结合的路径,实现了数量众多的外来移民的"美国化"。美国的这些做法对我国具有重要启示。我们要坚持用社会主义核心价值体系引领社会思潮;加强应对社会思潮时的"无意识教育";增强应对社会思潮时的"教育合力"。     

Canadian Muslims,Islamophobia and national security

Demographic changes in Canada have resulted in an increase in the Muslim portion of the Canadian population. The anti-Muslim “Islamophobia” reaction to the 9/11 attacks led to an isolation and marginalization of Canada's Muslim citizens and residents. As the isolation and marginalization of any community creates a National Security vulnerability, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police has been working with Muslim-Canadians using the principles of community policing to create trust and work towards the mutual goals of the safety of all Canadians.