Pubertal Timing and Substance Use in Middle Adolescence: A 2-Year Follow-up Study

Earlier research has associated early puberty with emotional and behavioral symptoms particularly among girls, while among boys, findings have been contradictory as to whether risks are associated with early or late pubertal timing. We studied the association between pubertal timing and substance use behaviors in middle adolescence in a 2-year follow up study of 2,070 (mean age 15.5 years, SD 0.36; 56.4% females) Finnish adolescents. Pubertal timing was measured by age at menarche/oigarche. Eleven years or less was classified as early, 12–13 years as normative and 14 years or later as late pubertal timing. Substance use behaviors were elicited by a number of questions related to alcohol use patterns, smoking and cannabis use. As factors that could explain the association between pubertal timing and substance use, we studied depressive symptoms, delinquency and aggression, and parental monitoring. In boys, all these substance use behaviors were the more common the earlier the puberty and the associations persisted at age 17. Among girls, early pubertal timing was similarly associated with substance use behaviors at age 15, but no longer at age 17. The associations between pubertal timing and substance use behaviors persisted when symptom dimensions and parental monitoring were added into the models. Early puberty is a risk factor for substance use particularly among boys. Among girls, the impact of pubertal timing already tempers off during adolescence.     

Performance Standards and Evaluation

The benefits of performance monitoring for public services are identified as greater transparency of objectives and accountability for results. This article considers recent experience in developing standards to evaluate efficiency and effectiveness of public services. In broad terms this is being done through performance information which is a much more encompassing concept than standards or indicators. Such information is an element of an accountability framework that provides greater management autonomy and flexibility and extends to the private sector which is increasingly providing, or involved with the provision of, public services.     

The drug trade in Southern Africa

Introductory Address by Dr. AM Omar MP, Minister of Justice, at the South African Institute of International Affairs’ Workshop on ‘The Drug Trade in Southern Africa’, 5 June 1997, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.     

Integrated leadership system in the Australian Public Service

On 16 July 2004 the Australian Public Service Commission launched a new approach to leadership capability development for the public service. This approach, the Integrated Leadership System (ILS), is described as innovative and unique by the four speakers who make up this presentation—including Andrew Podger (AO), Public Service Commissioner, Jane Halton, Secretary of Health and Ageing, Anne Simic, Head of People, Qantas, and Dr Peter Shergold, Head of the Public Service and Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.     

Assessment of sexual interest using a choice reaction time task and priming: A feasibility study

Purpose. We investigated the feasibility of assessing sexual interest in hetero‐ and homosexual men using two information‐processing methods, namely a choice reaction time task and priming. The participants were expected to have longer reaction times for sexually explicit when compared with non‐explicit pictures due to sexual content‐induced delay. In addition, the reaction times of the heterosexual (N=15) and homosexual (N=11) men for pictures corresponding with their sexual interest were compared to pictures not corresponding with their sexual interest. Heterosexual men were expected to have longer reaction times during the presentation of sexually explicit female as opposed to male pictures, whereas homosexual men were expected to have the opposite pattern. Method. The participants were presented either sexually explicit or non‐explicit male and female target pictures (and primes that preceded the targets in random combinations) while simultaneously performing a choice reaction time task in three phases each containing a total of 160 prime–target pairs. Results. Both expectations were confirmed in phase 1 of the study. In phase 2, the means differed in the expected way, but the effects were not significant. In phase 3, the expected effect was moderated by a complex priming effect. Conclusions. The results suggest that the choice reaction time task is a promising way of measuring sexual interest but that questions of habituation should be given more attention in future studies.     

Problem solving and youth violence: an evaluation of the Boston Gun Project

The Boston Gun Project is a problem-solving policing initiativeaimed at reducing homicide victimization among young peoplein the city of Boston. It represented an innovative partnershipbetween researchers and practitioners to assess the city's youthhomicide problem and implement an intervention intended to havepowerful impacts in the near term. In early 1996, a workinggroup representing a variety of law enforcement and social serviceagencies implemented an intervention that strategically respondedto gang violence, focused enforcement efforts on gun trafficking,and emphasized communication of the strategy to generate deterrence.The intervention is associated with a 60% decline in youth homicidevictimization (i.e., two fewer victims per month). There aresmaller declines in other measures of violence. The declinein youth homicide is sharp and occurs coincident with the introductionof the intervention. Competing hypotheses appear unable to accountfor the decline.     

Challenges to prosecutorial discretion

In the ordinary conduct of prosecutions, challenges are faced when, especially, discretionary decisions need to be made. That situation arises at many stages of the process, some of which are identified in this paper. Many legal and factual circumstances will operate to determine the outcome of such situations. In addition, legal challenges may be able to be made to actions taken by prosecutors and that possibility should be anticipated when decisions are being made and action taken.     

Varieties of Good Governance: A Suggestion of Discursive Plurality

The concepts of good governance and also good administration have increased in popularity over recent years. They have found a convincing conceptual niche on a European and global level. This is also visible in scholarly activity; from the early 1990s on, there has been a wave of good governance talk and consequently, research and criticism. In this article the concepts of good governance and good administration are discussed from a discursive standpoint. The main claim is that the concepts are over-inclusive and can signify a plethora of meanings. Consequently, the mechanisms of this indeterminacy are studied; the criteria according to which good governance and administration are defined vary. This is exemplified in the contexts of the EU and the Council of Europe. Accordingly, different “good-nesses” can contradict each other. It is suggested that the different discourses or vocabularies of good governance and good administration form closed systems of meaning which identify only claims which adhere to their own rationality. Furthermore, these different meanings enable different forms of exercising societal power. The approach is inspired by systems theoretical reading of discourses.