The differential predictive validity of the Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory: the role of gender

Most criminogenic risk assessments are developed and empirically validated on samples of boys or samples comprised of mostly boys, and subsequently applied to girls. Using a sample of male (n = 1,267) and female (n = 453) probationers, the purpose of the current study was to examine the potentially differential performance of the Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory (YLS/CMI) and the instrument’s eight domains for female juvenile offenders. Findings revealed gender differences in the predictive validity of the YLS/CMI in which girls scored significantly higher on the risk assessment, but recidivated at significantly lower rates than boys two years following the administration of the assessment. The predictive validity of the instrument was impacted by these gender differences in which the YLS/CMI total score was a better predictor of recidivism for boys (area under the curve (AUC) = .623) than girls (AUC = .565). The only subscales that significantly predicted recidivism for girls were the family (AUC = .607) and personality (AUC = .572) domains, whereas all of the subscales significantly predicted recidivism for boys. Directions for future research as well as gender-responsive assessment, programming, and policy implications are discussed.     

Explaining Organizational Variety in Evaluation Quality Assurance: Which Conditions Matter?

The growth in evaluation practice has not always gone hand in hand with an increase in the actual quality of these evaluations. This article addresses this concern, by examining the factors that explain organizational variety in the application of evaluation quality assurance measures. We present the results of an analysis of 18 Flemish (Belgian) public sector organizations. To unravel different explanatory trajectories, we combine two comparative methods that rely on Boolean analysis: the most similar different outcome/most different similar outcome technique on the one hand, and crisp set qualitative comparative analysis on the other hand.     

Unequaled Acts of Injustice: Pan‐Indigenous Encounters with Colonial School Systems

This essay reviews a recent film dealing with the forced removal of Australian Aboriginal children from their communities by the Australian government for the best part of 60 years. It uses the review to draw parallels between Australian Aboriginal ‘stolen generations,’ the colonial schooling experienced by the indigenous Maori of New Zealand, the ‘mission school syndrome’ suffered by First Nations people in North America, and the routine punishment for language offenders experienced by the Coorg people from India. Anachronistic as they may seem, such racist policies are not relics of the past but features of modern governance that have only been abandoned relatively recently. In some cases, their ramifications are only just beginning to be felt. Some of the implications for criminology are touched upon. The film is situated in the context of existing video and literary materials dealing with the issue of schooling as a tool for assimilation that readers may find equally informative.     

The ABCs of Communication

People in every culture tend to regard the way they do things as"normal."This includes the communicative practices and norms that people learn from interacting inside their culture.But in regard to ways of speaking,what may seem natural to one person may be odd or misunderstood by someone outside that culture.What seems natural to the speaker is actually ritualized behavior,generated and governed by cultural norms.     

Rules of the Tongue

I believe Chinese teachers here have the best intentions in the world. Schools must measure and assess how students learn, yet evaluating language learning is a particularly slippery slope.     

Members of the international commission for the history of representative and parliamentary institutions as at 31 march 1984

F.L. Carsten: The First Austrian Republic 1918–1938: A Study Based on British and Austrian Documents. (Gower Publishing 1986, pp. 309; ISBN 0 566 05162 1; £22.50.)

A.R. Peters: Anthony Eden at the Foreign Office 1931–1938. (Aldershot: Gower Publishing and New York: St. Martin's Press, 1986; pp. viii, 402; ISBN 0 5660 5117 6; £25.00.)

Brian Girvin and Roland Sturm (eds.): Politics and Society in Contemporary Ireland. (Aldershot: Gower Publishing, 1986; pp. ix, 199; ISBN 0 566 05135 4; £18.50.)

Klaus von Beyme: Political Parties in Western Democracies (Aldershot: Gower Publishing, 1985; pp. xiii, 444; ISBN 0 566 00570 0 £25.00.)

Gordon Smith: Democracy in Western Germany: Parties and Politics in the Federal Republic (3rd edition, Gower, 1986; pp. xi, 243: ISBN 0 566 05267 9 (pb); £6.95.)

George C. Malcher: Poland's Politicized Army: Communists in Uniform (New York, Praeger Publishers, 1984: pp. xvi, 287; ISBN 0 275 91221 3; £34.95.)

I. Crewe and M. Harrop (eds): Political Communications: The General Election Campaign of 1983 (Cambridge University Press, 1986; pp. vii, 335; ISBN 0 521 30425 3; £25.00.)     

Process and Social Formation: Petty Commodity Producers in Zinder,Niger

This case study employed a qualitative methodology to examine gender relations in urban domestic water supply under duolocality where heterogeneous spouses live in separate residences. It is based on the experiences of the Ga of Ghana at the present time (2011–present), with James Town as the study area. Results show that gender relations in duolocal water supply is mediated by several factors, including women's economic positioning and time reported to sleep at husbands' homes, age and authority structure, proximity of males and females, distance to water points, and availability of public showers and sachet water. There is significant participation of duolocal men in household water provision, aided by short distances to water points and ready access to showers and pure water. Women renegotiate their subordinate position in domestic water provision by using their economic clout as leverage, manipulating their physical presence at men's residences, including late arrival to sleep but early departure, and capitalising on opportunities presented by new social dynamics to form indirect alliances with men. The study provides additional contribution to understanding gender discourse in urban water supply as it uncovers previously under-explored social processes in the linkages between residential patterns and gender relations in resource access and use.     

How Resilient are Labour Markets to Natural Disasters? The Case of the 1998 Bangladesh Flood

Natural disasters devastate economies as they impede capital accumulation. The resilience of labour markets is crucial for the poor who rely on labour to reduce risk. We evaluate how the 1998 ‘flood of the century’ affected wages in Bangladesh. We find short-term declines in agricultural and non-agricultural wages. Agricultural workers who moved towards non-agricultural employment to cope benefitted through a lower percentage reduction in short-term wages. Endowed with human capital, salaried workers were unable to mitigate income risk. Extending the eligibility of credit access or relief programmes may preserve local businesses and their employees in the years following a flood.     

Molecular Assay for Screening and Quantifying DNA in Biological Evidence: The Modified Q‐TAT Assay*

Abstract: A method is described for the quantitation of total human and male DNA. Q‐TAT utilizes end‐point, multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of the amelogenin and SRY loci to quantify DNA and incorporates a cloned nonhuman template to detect PCR inhibition. Standard curves of fluorescence from amelogenin or SRY amplicons were generated from amplification of known amounts of NIST traceable SRM‐female or SRM‐male DNA. Curves showed good linearity up to 500 pg of SRM‐template (R² > 0.99) and reliably estimated total and male DNA content in casework samples. The nonhuman pRL_null template included in each PCR was a sensitive indicator of known PCR inhibitors including EDTA, hemin, blue denim dye, and humic acid. Finally, the SRY amplicon was a sensitive indicator of male DNA and, in mixtures, could reliably estimate male DNA present in an excess of female DNA. The Q‐TAT multiplex is a reliable quantitation method for forensic DNA typing.