STATE POLITICAL CULTURE AND SENTENCE SEVERITY IN FEDERAL DISTRICT COURTS

Previous studies have established a strong relationship between state politics and policies and have documented the role of state politics in the recruitment of federal judges. This study uses indicators of the political. policy, and socioeconomic characteristics of the American states to explain variance in the severity of sentences rendered in 1970 cases involving violation of the Selective Service Act. The findings reveal that a substantial proportion of the sentencing variation in these cases is associated with the political, policy, and socioeconomic environments of the state in which the case is adjudicated. Consistent with mast of the literature on state policy variance, it is found that the socioeconomic environment is a more effective predictor than either state politics or policy.     

The design and implementation of Family Foster Care Services for high risk delinquents Transitioning from Correctional Confinement

Specialized Family Care (SFC) provides planned, long term family foster care to youth who have been adjudicated as delinquent and who are at high risk of on-going delinquent behavior following their transition into the community from correctional confinement. The program is funded and operated through a collaborative arrangement among The Casey Family Program-Bismarck Division, the North Dakota Department of Human Services (DHS) and the North Dakota Division of Juvenile Services (DJS). Specially recruited, trained and supported foster families work closely with a dual case management system of services provided by SFC social workers and DJS case managers responsible for community-based aftercare. Individual case plans for youth involve a mix of intensive aftercare programming for delinquent behaviors, individually designed intervention strategies, intensive supervision, and intensive casework. This article discusses the program model, implementation challenges, costs and preliminary outcomes.     

Intelligence Methodologies Applicable to the Madrid Train Bombings, 2004

You Gotta know when to hold

Aleksandr Fursenko and Timothy Naftali: "One Hell of a Gamble:” Khrushchev, Castro and Kennedy 1958–1964, W.W. Norton and Company, New York, 1997, 408 p., $27.50.

Encyclopedic hits and misses

Norman Polmar and Thomas B. Allen: Spy Book: The Encyclopedia of Espionage, Random House, New York, 1997, 633 pp., $30.00

Political arithmetic and cyberterrorism

Winn Schwartau: Information Warfare; Cyberterrorism: Protecting Your Personal Security in the Electronic Age, New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, (2nd ed., p.b.) 1996; 768 p. $16.95.

Snooping around Asia

Peter Elphick: Far Eastern File: The Intelligence War in the Far East, 1930–1945, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1997, 510 p., S$47.95.     

A TEST OF LATENT TRAIT VERSUS LIFECOURSE PERSPECTIVES ON THE STABILITY OF ADOLESCENT ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOR*

Latent trait and life-course theories provide contrasting interpretations of the well-established finding that childhood antisocial behavior often precedes adolescent conduct problems and adult crime. Longitudinal data from 179 boys and their parents were used to test hypotheses derived from the two theoretical perspectives. The findings largely supported the life-course view. Oppositional behavior during late childhood predicted reductions in quality of parenting and school commitment and increased affiliation with deviant peers. These changes, in turn, predicted conduct problems during early adolescence. Although there was a moderately strong bivariate correlation between childhood antisocial behavior and adolescent conduct problems, there was no longer an association between these constructs when the effects of parenting, school, and peers were taken into account. Further, there was evidence that improved parenting, increased school commitment, or reduced affiliation with deviant peers lowered the probability that boys who were oppositional during childhood would graduate to delinquency and drug use during adolescence. Together, these findings suggest that the correlation between childhood and adolescent deviant behavior reflects a developmental process rather than a latent antisocial trait.     

SUBSTANCE USE‐INDUCED DIMINUTION OF VIOLENCE: A COUNTERVAILING EFFECT IN LONGITUDINAL PERSPECTIVE*

Although the literature supports a positive association between substance use and violence, scattered reports suggest a basis for predicting an inverse relationship. Using panel data (N = 2, 222) from subjects tested during early adolescence and three years later, we estimate structural equation models that specify within‐wave relationships between substance use and violence constructs, stability of these constructs over time, and lagged effects of each construct on the other. As hypothesized, net of the within‐wave positive relationships, substance use was inversely related to later violence. The findings support theoretical orientations that accommodate motivation to use substances to assuage distressful self‐feelings (including those that instigate violence).