The Bali Road Map: Can it Deliver an Equitable Post-2012 Climate Agreement for Small Island States?

The ambition and architecture of the post-2012 climate change regime will be critical to the survival of many small island developing nations, many of which are low-lying, vulnerable to the impacts of sea-level rise and exposed to increasingly frequent and severe extreme weather events. This paper highlights the key outcomes sought by the Alliance of Small Island States in the international negotiating process on the post-2012 regime and compares these calls with what has been achieved thus far. The paper concludes that while little progress has been made to date, useful avenues for progress do exist if only the political will can be found.     

The perceived levels of job satisfaction among police officers: A descriptive review

Whereas job satisfaction is a popular research topic among industrial and organizational psychologists, police organizational researchers have all but ignored the area of job satisfaction. Considering its link to many organizationally important factors, such as productivity, morale, and personnel turnover, research on job satisfaction in policing should be important. The identification of how satisfied police officers are with various jobrelated factors can be extremely useful to the police executive. This article examines perceived satisfaction of a purposive sample of 2611 police officers, with respect to 23 job-specific and three global job satisfaction items.     

International research collaboration among women engineers: frequency and perceived barriers,by regions

International research collaboration is on the rise—and at the same time, women face potential barriers. Based on responses to surveys conducted among groups of women engineers, this article addresses (1) women’s frequency of international research collaboration; (2) the barriers to collaboration reported for both self and for other women; and (3) the patterns among women students as well as professionals, by national regions. Findings of this study have implications for policies to broaden participation in the increasingly important arena of international research collaboration, based on women in engineering, the scientific field in which women are most underrepresented. This makes the case focal for the study of women, science, and policy.     

The Small-Case Procedure of the United States Tax Court: A Small Claims Court That Works

Professor Whitford finds that the small-case procedure of the United States Tax Court, unlike most other small claims courts, provides a meaningful avenue of redress for taxpayers contesting small amounts and appearing pro se. The success of this procedure is attributed to the unique dispute'posture" of the Tax Court petitioner and to the extensive resources assigned to the small-case procedure by both the Tax Court and the chief counsel to the IRS. This special Tax Court invention is not likely to be replicated in courts of more general jurisdiction. Lack of political support will prevent allocation of resources sufficient to make pro se litigation work. The expenditure of such resources in the Tax Court apparently reflects a felt need to legitimate the tax system by providing fair disputing procedures.     

Correlates of handgun carrying among adolescents in the United States

Weapon-related violence, especially the use of handguns, among adolescents is a serious public health concern. Using public-use data file from the adolescent sample (N = 17,842) in the 2008 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), this study examines the behavioral, parental involvement, and prevention correlates of handgun carrying. Overall, 3.1% of adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 reported carrying a handgun in the past year. Results from a series of logistic regression models indicated that males, selling and using illicit drugs, were robustly associated with an increased probability of handgun carrying among adolescents. Furthermore, youth who carry handguns were significantly less likely to report a parent being involved in their lives and were significantly more likely to have encountered violence and drug prevention programming compared with youth who did not carry handguns. Implications of these results for prevention and policy are discussed.     

The Legal Situation on Stalking among the European Member States

Stalking became a subject of academic and social concern in Europe in the mid-1990s. Shortly afterwards the issue of legislation became the subject of debate in some countries and in 1997 the United Kingdom was the first European Member State that passed anti-stalking legislation. Denmark constitutes an exception because its Criminal Code of 1933 contains a provision which also deals with stalking. Other States that up to now have passed legislation against stalking in Europe are Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Malta, Ireland, Austria and, last in order of time, Italy. Where an anti-stalking law exists, legislators have introduced a new article into the existing Penal Code or have amended an article still in force for similar conduct, or have introduced a specific Act against Harassment or Domestic Violence which is intended to cover not only such conduct but also stalking. In the remaining European countries where an anti- stalking law does not exist, it is possible to prosecute stalking only when the behaviour amounts to crimes prosecutable under other existing norms. This article analyses legal regulations on stalking across European Member States in civil and criminal justice considering specific laws addressing the phenomenon or, alternatively, other laws under which stalking can be prosecuted. In the conclusions some advantages and disadvantages of European anti-stalking laws are discussed and some suggestions are given for future work in order to improve the protection of the victims of stalking.     

Education cooperation in the European Union at the threshold of the New Millenium

The principles of ‘double relevance’ and ‘user-friendliness’ are seen as being essential for the implementation of the EU education programmes SOCRATES II and LEONARDO da VINCI II. Against the background of the acquis in EU education cooperation two points are explored: a) the articles of the Treaty are not fully used, and b) the framework set is increasingly proving to be too restrictive. The Luxemburg process and the Bologna conference are the reason for the second point. The opinion is put forward that the exchanges of students and teachers and the information exchange can be further europeanized and, eventually, be organized in permanent European structures. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

美国行政性版权小额索赔制度革新及借鉴

由于版权作品数字化侵权使用的日益泛化,且现有版权司法救济途径多存在"周期长、举证难、成本高、收益低"的弊端,使得版权人,尤其是中小版权人,很难以较低的维权成本,真正实现其权利的司法保障。鉴于此,美国率先在行政性版权小额索赔制度的革新上作出突破性的示范,于司法体制外另辟蹊径,在版权局之行政性框架内,设置版权小额索赔委员会,专门处理小额版权纠纷。在知识产权保护方面,我国亦存在司法救济效率不高、数字版权侵权泛化的问题,因此,为迎合强化知识产权保护的时代政策,有必要总结美国行政性版权小额索赔制度革新经验,以为我国版权小额索赔问题的解决提供有益的制度借鉴。     

Block Randomized Trials at Places: Rethinking the Limitations of Small N Experiments

Objectives

Place-based policing experiments have led to encouraging findings regarding the ability of the police to prevent crime, but sample sizes in many of the key studies in this area are small. Farrington and colleagues argue that experiments with fewer than 50 cases per group are not likely to achieve realistic pre-test balance and have excluded such studies from their influential systematic reviews of experimental research. A related criticism of such studies is that their statistical power under traditional assumptions is also likely to be low. In this paper, we show that block randomization can overcome these design limitations.

Methods

Using data from the Jersey City Drug Market Analysis Experiment (N = 28 per group) we conduct simulations on three key outcome measures. Simulations of simple randomization with 28 and 50 cases per group are compared to simulations of block randomization with 28 cases. We illustrate the statistical modeling benefits of the block randomization approach through examination of sums of squares in GLM models and by estimating minimum detectable effects in a power analysis.

Results

The block randomization simulation is found to produce many fewer significantly unbalanced samples than the naïve randomization approaches both with 28 and 50 cases per group. Block randomization also produced similar or smaller absolute mean differences across the simulations. Illustrations using sums of squares show that error variance in the block randomization model is reduced for each of the three outcomes. Power estimates are comparable or higher using block randomization with 28 cases per group as opposed to naïve randomization with 50 cases per group.

Conclusions

Block randomization provides a solution to the small N problem in place-based experiments that addresses concerns about both equivalence and statistical power. The authors also argue that a 50 case rule should not be applied to block randomized place-based trials for inclusion in key reviews.     

Capital punishment views in China and the United States: a preliminary study among college students

There is a lack of research on attitudes toward capital punishment in China, and there is even less research on cross-national comparisons of capital punishment views. Using data recently collected from college students in the United States and China, this study finds that U.S. and Chinese students have differences in their views on the death penalty and its functions of deterrence, rehabilitation, and incapacitation. This study also reveals that the respondents' perspectives of deterrence, rehabilitation, retribution, and incapacitation all affect their attitudes toward the death penalty in the United States, whereas only the first three views affect attitudes toward capital punishment in China. Furthermore, retribution is the strongest predictor in the United States, whereas deterrence is the strongest predictor in China.     

Unwanted sex among young adults in the United States: the role of physical disability and cognitive performance

This study examined associations between unwanted sexual experiences and both physical disability and cognitive performance in a nationally representative sample of young adults. We used data from 11,878 participants (ages 26-32) in Waves I, III, and IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Logistic regressions determined associations between physical disability and level of cognitive performance (using a modified Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test) and the odds of experiencing physically forced and nonphysically coerced sex. Approximately 24% of females and 4% of males reported unwanted sexual experiences. Compared to respondents without disabilities, females with a physical disability had greater odds of experiencing forced sex (OR = 1.49; 95% CI [1.06, 2.08]), whereas males with a physical disability had greater odds of coerced sex (OR = 1.90; 95% CI [1.02, 3.52]). Compared to those with average cognitive performance scores, females with scores above 110 had slightly higher odds of coerced sex (OR = 1.20; 95% CI [1.03-1.41]). Further research on pathways underlying these associations is needed to inform prevention efforts.     

Domestic Violence and Risk Factors among Korean Immigrant Women in the United States

Domestic Violence is a serious problem among Korean immigrant women in the United States. However, little is known about the incidence of domestic violence as well as risk factors predicting violence experienced in intimate relationships. The purpose of this study is to describe domestic violence among Korean immigrant women, including type and frequency of violence and predictive factors of domestic violence experienced by Korean immigrant women. One hundred and thirty-six Korean women completed questionnaires developed in this study. Results indicate that domestic violence is a major family problem for Korean immigrant women. Implications are discussed in terms of the need of social services for Korean immigrant women.     

Service utilization, perceived changes of self, and life satisfaction among women who experienced intimate partner abuse: the mediation effect of empowerment

This study explored the growth experiences of women abused by their intimate partner, specifically focusing on the associations between social services and empowerment, perceived changes of self, and life satisfaction. The potential effects of demographic variables, social support, coping, and experience of partner abuse were also explored. A survey study was conducted through the collaboration of social workers in the Centers of Prevention and Intervention for Domestic Violence and private sectors in Taiwan. Through contact by their social workers, 191 participants completed the questionnaires. The results revealed that the participants had growth mainly in their psychological and interpersonal domains. The independent variables in the regression model explained 45.3% (adjusted) variance in perceived changes of self. In addition to empowerment and negative impact of violence, intensity of contact and professional relationship were two important service variables that directly and significantly correlated with perceived changes of self. A significant amount of variance (adjusted R2 = .556) in life satisfaction could be explained by the independent variables. Social support and empowerment directly correlated with life satisfaction. The findings also supported the mediation effect of empowerment. Seven variables (e.g., social support, coping method, and professional relationship) indirectly associated with perceived changes of self and life satisfaction through empowerment.     

Considering the Tower of Babel: Correlates of Assimilation and Multiculturalism among Ethnic Minority and Majority Groups in the United States

Survey data collected from multiethnic samples of geographically dispersed college students and a national probability sample of US adults were utilized to examine the correlates of support for multiculturalism and assimilation—two competing interethnic ideologies, or ideals for how an ethnically diverse society should optimally function. Endorsement of multiculturalism and assimilation was related to perceived ethnic group differences, intergroup bias, and voting behavior on a number of public policies, but in opposite directions. Relative to white participants, ethnic minority participants endorsed multiculturalism to a greater extent, reported higher levels of group identification, and were more likely to support pro-diversity public policies. Discussion focuses on explanations for the variety of observed differences between ethnic minority and majority respondents, on the meaning of assimilation and multiculturalism, and on the argument that harmony between ethnic groups and dissimilarity between ethnic groups need not be thought of as mutually exclusive.