Jaccard's heel: Radex models of criminal behaviour are rarely falsifiable when derived using Jaccard coefficient

Purpose. This article considers whether the modular facet of popular ‘radex’ models of offender behaviour is falsifiable or a statistical inevitability when using Jaccard coefficient, as evidence from other domains suggests. Method. Data equivalent to that examined in previous papers, and artificial data varying on four parameters, were examined using the conventional procedure of deriving Jaccard coefficients and submitting these to a smallest space analyses (SSA‐I). The parameters were number of variables, number of cases, highest frequency of variable occurrence, and distribution of occurrences. Evidence of a modular pattern in each SSA‐I solution was assessed using one qualitative and two quantitative measures. Results. When variables were free to occur in more than 50% of cases, none of the Jaccard‐based SSA‐I solutions supported the null hypothesis of no modular facet. This contrasts equivalent analyses using Yules Q, where 95.7% of the solutions supported the null hypothesis. When variables were restricted to occur in less than 50% of cases, the number of solutions supporting the null hypothesis changes to .003 and 78%, respectively. Analyses of the artificial data found that reducing the number of variables in a Jaccard‐based solution increased the likelihood of supporting the null hypothesis, which suggests that these solutions are structured by variable occurrence (i.e., frequency) rather than variable co‐occurrence. Implications. Research using Jaccard coefficient to measure co‐occurrences among behaviours should not claim that the modular facet of their radex model is an empirical finding. Unfortunately, this is many of the existing publications.     

Falling Short of Constitutional Norms: Does “Normative (In)Congruence” Explain the Courts' Inability to Promote the Right to Water in South Africa?

In South Africa, municipal noncompliance with legislation promoting the constitutional right to sufficient water is both a failure of the rule of law and a betrayal of that right. Judicial intervention has prompted formalistic compliance with water law, but the underlying commitment to sufficient water remains unfulfilled. Does the inability of courts to achieve social justice despite enforcing social legislation confirm the thesis that commitments to the rule of law and to social justice are inconsistent, that upholding the rule of law may not advance social justice? This article offers an alternative to this “inconsistency thesis,” arguing that the rule of law can accommodate social justice if it demands normative congruence alongside congruence with formal rules. Empirical investigation reveals that structural challenges and the multifarious normative demands on officials create a condition of normative incongruence that impedes the pursuit of social justice, even as courts compel congruence with formal rules.     

Understanding the Authoritative Parenting–Early Adolescent Tobacco Use Link: The Mediating Role of Peer Tobacco Use

Eighth-grade students (N = 156) completed questionnaires in which they reported on their perceptions of parents' warmth, structure, and psychological autonomy granting (used to create an index of authoritative parenting) and their own levels of tobacco use. Adolescents were also asked to list the names of other students at their school with whom they spent time (friends). Independent reports obtained from these friends were used to form an index of the mean level of tobacco use among each adolescent's friends. Higher levels of authoritative parenting were associated with lower levels of tobacco use among target adolescents. The association between parental authoritativeness and adolescent tobacco use was mediated by levels of tobacco use among peers. An amplification effect was observed in which adolescents were particularly unlikely to use tobacco products when they both received authoritative parenting at home and were members of non-tobacco-using peer groups.     

Complications following insertion and replacement of percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) tubes

Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) tube insertion was introduced in 1980 as an alternative to nasogastric tubes and surgically placed gastrostomy tubes. The procedure is indicated in those patients who have an inability to sustain adequate nutrition in the presence of a functioning gastrointestinal tract. We report four deaths that arose within a ten-week period in 1998.     

Sentence length: Interactions with race and court

Sentencing research tends to focus on two questions. First, do some categories of offenders receive substantially different sentences than do other categories of offenders, for the same or similar offenses? Second, do some courts give substantially different sentences, when compared to other courts, for the same or similar offenses? Focusing on these questions, researchers have typically examined the impact of three types of variables on either sentence length or sentence type: defendant status variables (e.g., race, education), extra-legal process factors (e.g., court, plea), and legal factors (e.g., seriousness of offense, prior convictions). Study results have been contradictory and inconclusive.The problem with sentencing studies is that only main effects are examined. A more appropriate model is one that contains the interactions between the defendant's race (black/white) and the other independent variables, and the interactions between the court's locale (urban/rural) and the other independent variables.Using data collected in 1978 on 412 male prisoners in Maryland, four interaction terms were found to contribute to an understanding of sentencing decisions. It was found that blacks received longer sentences than whites, net of all other variables. However, whites received lengthier sentences for more serious offenses. In comparison to blacks, whites received lengthier sentences when they used more court resources. It was found that rural jurisdictions give lengthier sentences than urban jurisdictions, net of all other variables. However, in comparison to rural courts, urban courts give lengthier sentences when the defendant uses more court resources. More serious offenses receive lengthier prison terms in rural, as compared to urban, courts.