FAMILY VIOLENCE,TELEVISION VIEWING HABITS,AND OTHER ADOLESCENT EXPERIENCES RELATED TO VIOLENT CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR*

This study employs multivariate analyses with retrospective self-report data to assess the relative importance of certain childhood and adolescent experiences to the commission of violent crimes as an adult. Specifically, the relationship is examined between violent criminal behavior and exposure to family violence, exposure to television violence, school performance, other adolescent activities, and differential reinforcement for previous illegal acts. The exploratory model is based on data collected on 100 male inmates incarcerated for violent crimes and 65 nonincarcerated, nonviolent males matched in terms of age, race, and neighborhood. Findings, from analyses which estimate both additive and interactive effects, indicate that the background experiences associated with violent crime vary depending upon an individual's race. The discussion focuses on the implications of these findings for further research on the causes of violent criminal behavior.     

Financial Management Grades for the States: A Prospective Use

This research examines whether financial management grades awarded to the states by the Government Performance Project (GPP) can provide some prospective gauge of fiscal performance in proximate years, particularly on the downside of the business cycle. Our findings confirm the weaker fiscal condition in both 2002 and 2003 of states that received lower financial management grades from the GPP in 2001, suggesting that these grades have the potential to be prospective as well as retrospective. These results, however, are tempered by several concerns that inform our suggestions for additional research to further assess the prospective potential of financial management performance grades.     

Seen but Not Heard: Committee Visibility and Institutional Change in the Senate National Security Committees, 1947–2006

Scholars have neglected the effect of the press on political institutions in favor of media influences on campaigns or on voters' trust and information about government. This article examines senators' committee preferences in response to declining media coverage of Congress, focusing on the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees from 1947 to 2006. The research relies on new, continuous measures of committee desirability and a unique dataset of congressional press coverage. Although both committees' visibility and attractiveness have declined dramatically over 60 years, statistical analyses indicate that change in internal rules and external events are the most important influences on senators' investment in committee careers.     

Sharing the burden in a free riders’ land: The EU migration and asylum policy in the views of public opinion and politicians

New divisions have emerged within the European Union over the handling of the recent migration crisis. While both frontline and favoured destination countries are called upon to deal with the number of migrants looking for international protection and better living conditions, no consensus has been reached yet on the quota-based mechanisms for the relocation of refugees and financial help to exposed countries proposed by the EU. Such mechanisms pose a trade-off for member states: the EU's response to the crisis offers help to countries under pressure, but it inevitably requires burden-sharing among all EU members and a limitation of their national sovereignty. Within this scenario, the article compares how public opinion and political elites in ten different EU countries view a common EU migration policy grounded on solidarity and burden-sharing. By tracing both within- and cross-national patterns of convergence (and divergence), the article shows that contextual factors influence policy preferences, with support for solidarity measures being stronger in countries with higher shares of illegal migrants and asylum seekers. While individuals’ predispositions, identity and ideological orientations account for both masses’ and elites’ attitudes towards burden-sharing measures, subjective evaluations and beliefs concerning the severity of the crisis provide additional and alternative explanations when looking at the public's preferences. In particular, it is found that concern about the flow of migrants to Europe consolidates the impact of contextual factors, whereas the overestimation of the immigrant population fosters hostility against solidarity measures, with both effects more pronounced as the country's exposure to the crisis increases. In the light of these results, the main implication of this study is that EU institutions have to primarily address entrenched beliefs and misperceptions about immigrants to enhance public support for a joint approach to migration.     

Structural Deficits and State Borrowing Costs

This study examines the factors that affect the borrowing costs of state governments with specific attention being paid to the impact of state structural deficits (or fiscal imbalances) on borrowing costs. The findings for 1999–2000 suggest that interest costs for state competitively sold municipal securities reflect estimates of state structural deficits. States with a higher structural deficit were found to pay significantly higher interest costs. The evidence implies that bond ratings do not fully reflect the fiscal problems faced by state governments.     

Evaluating expert judgments

Abstract.  Although expert surveys have gained a prominent place in comparative studies of party positions on issues, their validity has been called into question. In this article, some of the validity concerns are evaluated in the context of the authors' own expert survey on national party positions vis-à-vis European integration. One goal of the article is to demonstrate that this expert survey produces valid measures of party positions. An equally important goal, however, is to suggest some methods that can help in assessing the quality of expert survey data. These methods, which are rooted in psychometric theory, are applicable in a variety of contexts and are easily implemented.     

THE POLITICAL THOUGHT OF RICHARD CUMBERLAND: SOVEREIGNTY AND THE ESCAPE FROM THE SEARCH FOR ORIGINS

Abstract. Much of what seventeenth-century writers and preachers had to say about allegiance was framed in terms of deference to the past: subjects owed obedience now because they were heirs to some ancient obedience rightfully exacted. Patriachalists and contractualists alike supposed that questions of legitimacy were best resolved by examining what they took to be the origins of human society. Eventually it became possible to construct a utilitarian political theory which instead judged a given system in terms of the needs it met; Richard Cumberland's De Legibus Naturae (1672) marks an important stage in this process. His cosmology is Christian and his political theory shares many trappings with those of his contemporaries, but from an examination of human interdependence he succeeds in establishing an unequivocally utilitarian account of sovereignty.     

eHEALTH IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF THE ACCEPTANCE OF GERMANY'S ELECTRONIC HEALTH CARD

Given the increasing importance of eHealth as an integral part of eGovernment, this contribution concentrates on the issue of acceptance regarding the introduction of the German electronic health card (eHC). A brief introduction highlights the relevance of the subject and the differing acceptance rates of patients and service providers, i.e. physicians. Based on both the technology acceptance model and the relevant literature, important factors influencing the attitude towards and the potential use of the eHC are conceptualized and integrated in a research model. The empirical examination was conducted throughout Germany through an online survey of physicians. Overall, 502 responses were collected and included in the analysis, which was carried out with structural equation modelling using EQS. The empirical results show that the relevant determinants of the acceptance of the eHC in Germany, such as efficiency and usability of the system and the cost–benefit ratio, were properly identified.