The Influence of Future Certainty and Contextual Factors on Delinquent Behavior and School Adjustment Among African American Adolescents

This study examined the ability of future certainty—an individual's perception of future stability, operationalized as the likelihood of certain life outcomes–to explain variance in delinquency and school adjustment, while controlling for economic, neighborhood, and family factors, among a cross-sectional sample of 1422 male and 1562 female African American adolescents drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Three kinds of future certainty were examined: future life certainty (e.g., life expectancy), marriage certainty, and college certainty. In hierarchical multiple regression analyses, future certainty and family functioning were stronger predictors than economic and neighborhood variables: neighborhood disorganization and family socioeconomic status. Future life certainty and expectations of attending college were stronger predictors of delinquency among males than females. Marriage certainty was the weakest predictor of the three certainty variables.     

Detection and use of salivary hemagglutinins for forensic blood grouping

A sensitive method for the detection of anti-A and anti-B hemagglutinins in fresh saliva has been developed. The method utilizes a bromelin treated erythrocyte suspension as indicator cells and includes a simple procedure to concentrate these hemagglutinins. Antiserum directed against immunoglobulin A enhances the hemagglutination assay. We find that these salivary hemagglutinins are present in over 90% of the population and that their titer remains stable over a period of two months. These hemagglutinins can be used to blood type the donor of a saliva sample and can be used in a confirmatory test that complements the commonly used absorption-inhibition test which is used to detect salivary blood group agglutinogens. In preliminary studies we have determined that hemagglutinins can be successfully isolated and analyzed from dried saliva stains.     

Involuntary Resettlement as an Opportunity for Development: The Case of Urban Resettlers of the Three Gorges Project, China

The restoration of livelihoods in the event of involuntary resettlementis commonly based on providing compensation to those who aredisplaced. This policy has led to a series of horror stories.For this reason, it is proposed that by conducting resettlementas a development project in its own right, the performance ofresettlements can be improved and the benefits will accrue tothe local population. The Three Gorges Project on the YangtzeRiver is the first project in China in which the policy of resettlementwith development was translated into practice. This paper usesthe results of a survey of urban resettlers in two countiesto demonstrate that development policies have been unevenlyapplied across the Three Gorges Region and that in some countiesthe policies have had some success in maintaining and raisingthe incomes of resettlers.     

HLA DQ alpha typing of forensic specimens by amplification restriction fragment polymorphism (ARFP) analysis.

The alleles present at the HLA DQ alpha locus may be typed by either allele specific oligonucleotide (ASO) probing or by restriction mapping, referred to here as amplification restriction fragment polymorphism (ARFP) analysis. ASO typing relies upon hybridization principles, whereas ARFP typing relies upon restriction site analysis. Dot-blot ASO typings which are of doubtful interpretation may be directly checked by ARFP analysis. Aliquots of the PCR products amplified using the commercial Amplitype HLA DQ alpha system are digested with suitable restriction endonucleases. Electrophoresis, blotting and detection of biotin-labelled restriction fragments provides a sensitive and robust typing method suited to forensic analysis.     

Citizenship and the Biopolitics of Post-nationalist Ireland

In June 2004 voters in the Republic of Ireland endorsed a constitutional amendment to deprive children born on the island of Ireland of their previously automatic right to Irish citizenship. This change came amid increasing immigration and so-called 'baby tourism', whereby non-national mothers were alleged to be coming to Ireland to give birth for the sole purpose of bestowing Irish citizenship on their children. This article sets the referendum in its historical and contemporary context. Along with recent jurisprudence of the Irish Supreme Court, the amendment betokens a distinctive biopolitics orchestrated according to neo-liberal themes consonant with Ireland's membership of the European Union and its foreign direct investment strategy. As such, the amendment confirms the shift in Irish constitutional history from autarkic nationalism to cosmopolitan post-nationalism embodied in the Belfast Agreement of 1998.     

Voluntary and involuntary resettlement in China: a false dichotomy?

The success of involuntary resettlement is contingent on recasting the involuntary as voluntary. To explore this proposition, this article presents two projects in China – one “voluntary” (Poverty Alleviation Resettlement or PAR) and relatively “successful” and one “involuntary” (Three Gorges Project Resettlement or TGPR) and less so. The research finds the voluntary–involuntary dichotomy a false one. It is not volition that leads to better outcomes, but people-centred practices that are embedded in policy, planning, and implementation of PAR. Perhaps the most important lesson drawn is that all resettlements should be based on a commitment to settlement and not just resettlement.     

THE POLITICS OF PARTICIPATION AND NONPARTICIPATION IN DISPUTE PROCESSES

Although the access to justice movement has placed great emphasis on expanding participation in dispute processing through informal mechanisms, little theoretical or empirical research in the area has explored the relationship between the organization of dispute processing and legal participation. This article develops a framework for investigating that relationship by examining the ideological and organizational structure of participation and nonparticipation in a comparison between mediation and prosecution of minor criminal cases. The analysis suggests that the concept of participation associated with informal mechanisms has played a role in transforming the institutional legitimacy of dispute processing, yet patterns of participation in conventional dispute processes are reproduced in the neighborhood justice center.