Empowerment and State Education: Rights of Choice and Participation

Two separate discourses surround the involvement of parents in their children's education in schools. One is concerned with what is often referred to as 'parent power,' based on the conferment on parents of rights to a degree of choice and participation in respect of their children's education, a feature of legislative changes to the governance of state education that started with the Education Act 1980 and which, in part, rests on consumerist and liberal rights based notions. The other focuses on the home-school partnership ideal in which parents and schools have obligations to support each other in realising children's potential. Labour and Conservative 2005 general election campaigns included proposals to 'empower' parents. But social rights such as those in education, which are important to notions of citizenship, tend to be weak. This article concludes that over the past 25 years little power has been ceded to parents, individually or collectively, and that, in the case of rights of choice at least, any further empowerment seems unrealistic. Moreover, the principal mechanism of parental involvement, particularly since 1997, has been the enforcement of parental responsibility, a form of 'technology of citizenship'. The extent to which children hold participation and choice rights is also considered.     

Herd behavior in designer genes

The ability of individuals to choose their children's genes has increased over time and may ultimately culminate in a world involving free market reprogenetic technologies. Reprogenetic technologies combine advances in reproductive biology and genetics to provide humans increased control over their children's genes. This Article offers economic perspectives that are helpful in understanding the possibly unexpected ethical, legal, and social issues at stake in using reprogenetic technologies for trait enhancement selection. The Appendix analyzes two competitive games that might arise in such a biotechnological society. Specifically, the Article focuses on herd behavior, caused by either a popularity contest or positional competition, in the choice of genetic traits. The analytical game-theoretic models in the Appendix can have several equilibrium outcomes in terms of individual reprogenetic technological choices and corresponding beliefs about such choices by others. This multiplicity of potential social outcomes suggests that a society can attain efficiency if the state or some private organization transforms individual parents' beliefs over the choices of other parents regarding their children's traits and, thus, coordinates parental reprogenetic decisions by selecting, as focal, certain beliefs over parents' reprogenetic decisions.     

Assessing children's competency to take the oath in court: The influence of question type on children's accuracy

This study examined children's accuracy in response to truth-lie competency questions asked in court. The participants included 164 child witnesses in criminal child sexual abuse cases tried in Los Angeles County over a 5-year period (1997-2001) and 154 child witnesses quoted in the U.S. state and federal appellate cases over a 35-year period (1974-2008). The results revealed that judges virtually never found children incompetent to testify, but children exhibited substantial variability in their performance based on question-type. Definition questions, about the meaning of the truth and lies, were the most difficult largely due to errors in response to "Do you know" questions. Questions about the consequences of lying were more difficult than questions evaluating the morality of lying. Children exhibited high rates of error in response to questions about whether they had ever told a lie. Attorneys rarely asked children hypothetical questions in a form that has been found to facilitate performance. Defense attorneys asked a higher proportion of the more difficult question types than prosecutors. The findings suggest that children's truth-lie competency is underestimated by courtroom questioning and support growing doubts about the utility of the competency requirements.     

儿童读经就是“蒙以养正”？——与郭齐家先生商榷

郭齐家先生是中国大陆力倡儿童读经的重镇之一,其关于儿童读经的言论在互联网上广泛流传、影响甚大.郭齐家先生倡导儿童读经的言论主要有:中国近百年成功引进和移植了西方教育;儿童读经能够回溯文化源头、传承文化命脉;儿童读经就是最佳的文化刺激和最佳的早期教育;儿童读经就是"蒙以养正";儿童读经能够开发脑力、增强国力;等等.郭齐家先生还对著名的"横渠四句"顶礼膜拜,以支持其儿童读经的主张.其实,黑格尔的"扬弃"理论,尼采的"上帝死了"和他的"重估一切价值"思想,胡塞尔的"回到事实本身"的思考,玛格丽特·米德对人类未来的发展如何处理后喻文明、互喻文明和前喻文明提出的告谕,都不失为我们审视郭齐家先生上述观点的重要理论视角.     

Desistance as a Developmental Process: A Comparison of Static and Dynamic Approaches

New research in the field of developmental criminology has led researchers to reconceptualize desistance as a behavioral process that unfolds over the life course. This approach puts more emphasis on the pathways by which people reach the state of non-offending, and less emphasis on the state of non-offending itself. This reconceptualization has implications for how we measure desistance in longi-tudinal data. In this paper, we suggest that the traditional measurement approach is inconsistent with this view, and we present an alternative measurement approach based on the premises of developmental criminology. Although not perfect, we argue that the dynamic measure better describes the key elements of the process of desistance. Both approaches are implemented using data from the Rochester Youth Development Study, a longitudinal study of youthful offenders. We demon-strate that the two approaches identify different people as desistors. Moreover, we argue that the dynamic definition of desistance has more promise for providing insight into the changes that are the behavioral focus of the desistance process.     

The Children's Code Reform Movement in New Mexico: The Politics of Expediency

Like many states, New Mexico has experienced a "get-tough" movement in regard to the handling of juvenile offenders. In 1993 the state formulated a major revision of˜the˜Children's Code, and this revision did a variety of things. Among the changes incorporated into the Children's Code revision was a movement from essentially one category of offenders - delinquent children – with provisions for transferring certain serious offenders to adult court, to three categories. The additional two categories of juvenile offenders included "youthful offenders" and "serious youthful offenders." The upshot of these designations was that the state legislature more carefully defined the jurisdiction of the children's (juvenile) court, and prescribed more severe punishment for the most serious offenders. This article explores some of the forces at work in bringing about the revisions in New Mexico's Children's Code. We argue that the personal and institutional goals of politicians and other opinion leaders were more important than a rational reaction to any real crisis. Specifically, the threat to institutional resources posed by such serious offenders may well have kept institutional stakeholders within the juvenile justice system from objecting to recent changes in New Mexico's juvenile code.     

Children's Law: Toward a New Realism

The realist approach that has dominated American jurisprudence has long had especially great acceptance in regard to children's issues. Ironically, however, decision making on such topics has seemed to be particularly unlikely to be informed by careful assessments of social reality. Symbolism has prevailed over pragmatism. Psycholegal research on children's issues has also often been misdirected. Application of the Convention on the Rights of the Child may point the way to more psychologically minded children's law.     

PROGRAMS FOR PROMOTING PARENTING OF RESIDENTIAL PARENTS: Moving From Efficacy to Effectiveness

This article reviews prevention programs that target primary residential parents as change agents for improving children's postdivorce adjustment. First, we review parental risk and protective factors for children from divorced families, including parenting quality, parental mental health problems, interparental conflict, and contact with the nonresidential parent. Following a discussion of brief informational interventions, we describe the findings of evaluations of three multisession, skill-building interventions for divorced parents. Impressive evidence is presented that parenting is a modifiable protective factor and that improving parenting leads to improvements in children's postdivorce adjustment. We then discuss, in greater detail, the New Beginnings Program, which we highlight because it has shown repeated, immediate effects on children's mental health outcomes as well as long-term effects on a wide array of other meaningful outcomes, such as diagnosis of mental disorder in the past year, externalizing problems, alcohol and drug use, and academic performance. Also, mediational analyses have shown that program-induced changes in parenting accounted for changes in mental health outcomes. The remainder of the article describes a research and action agenda that is needed to successfully implement the New Beginnings Program in domestic relations courts.     

Trends in the Reaction on Crime in Criminal Justice Systems in Europe in 1990–2007: A Comparison of Four European Regions

Recorded crime and prison populations seem to be increasing in Europe. Some explanations for this situation can be related to changes in the reaction on crime by the Criminal Justice Systems. The information collected in the European Sourcebook of Crime and Criminal Justice Statistics (ESB) provides a good opportunity to look in more detail at the changes in the various stages of the Criminal Justice Systems in more than 40 European countries over the period 1990 to 2007. In this study we look mainly at the changes over time of recorded crimes, the offender ratio, the conviction ratio and punitivity in Europe where the countries are clustered into four regions: North/West, South, Central and East Europe. It was found that the increase in the number of recorded drug crimes and a possible higher priority for violent crimes could help explain the increase in recorded crimes during the last two decades. The Criminal Justice Systems in Europe, with some differences between regions within Europe and despite not having more police resources, succeed in finding more offenders. The conviction ratio appeared to be increasing as well, mainly in Central Europe. While punitivity for Europe as a whole is stable, there are vast differences in the levels and trends between the regions.     

Social Exclusion and the Welfare of the Child

The 'best interests of the child' is a pervasive notion in law, and the welfare discourse within which it acquires meaning has become increasingly dominant in our culture's stock of 'common sense'. Because this discourse positions children as dependent and vulnerable, it underpins images of children that can perpetuate the social, legal, and political marginalization of children. This paper uses the area of children and divorce to explore the ways in which this exclusion of children persists alongside both an ostensible commitment to the welfare of children and an increasingly strong rights discourse. We argue that constructions of the child as victim have both political and psychological dimensions: they serve to legitimize state intervention into 'private' family life, and they help assuage social anxieties about the alleged demise of 'the family'. At an individual level, they facilitate a process whereby children can become the repository for feelings with which adults cannot cope. We then suggest that two fundamental changes are required in order to address children's exclusion: the development of a more psychodynamically informed view of personhood and a new image of the child to inform policies.     

Definitions of the Family as an Impetus for Legal Change in Custody Decision Making: Suggestions from an Empirical Case Study

Legal scholars and social scientists are increasingly calling on legislators, lawyers, and judges to recognize and embrace expanding definitions of the family. Implicit in such calls is the expectation that legal recognition of expanding definitions of the family will protect children's attachment relationships with adults, irrespective of their biological ties to those adults. Through a detailed, historical examination of custody decisions in disputes between biological and nonbiological parents in the state of Iowa, this research suggests that judicial recognition of more expansive definitions may not result in decisions that protect children's attachment relationships. This is true because the legal impact of family definitions appears to be contingent upon cultural and political factors that may undermine the expected effects of changing definitions. This research also suggests that judicial recognition of children's rights may be the most apt way to promote legal changes that will protect children's attachment relationships.     

STATE SUPREME COURT APPLICATIONS OF TROXEL v. GRANVILLE AND THE COURTS' RELUCTANCE TO DECLARE GRANDPARENT VISITATION STATUTES UNCONSTITUTIONAL

In this article, the author reviews state supreme court applications of Troxel v. Granville , analyzing the impact of the decision on the courts' ongoing efforts to adjudicate visitation disputes between parents and grandparents. Set against a background of legislative recognition of grandparents' rights and judicial uncertainty regarding the appropriate role of nonparents in children's lives, Troxel reaffirmed the constitutional right of parents to direct their children's upbringing. The author argues that state supreme courts evaluating gradparent visitation statutes and seeking to enforce Troxel 's presumption in favor of parents should be more willing to strike down overly broad statutes. Such an approach would be a positive step toward addressing the excessive judicial discretion that the Troxel Court found so problematic, and would signal to state legislatures the need for statutes that both provide for the needs of children and protect parental rights.     

CRITICAL ASPECTS OF PARENTING PLANS FOR YOUNG CHILDREN

The debate about the benefits and drawbacks of overnight schedules for young children is hotly contested in family law. This study investigated connections between occurrence of overnights, schedule consistency, number of caregivers, and young children's adjustment to parental separation and divorce. Families ( N = 161) with children aged 6 years or younger were recruited at the time of filing for divorce or child custody (if unmarried); follow-up data were obtained from 132 families 15 to 18 months later. Results indicated that parenting plan variables are related to children's social, cognitive, and emotional behavior, with caregivers and schedule consistency more salient than overnights. Girls benefited from overnights and more caregivers, whereas boys did not. Overnighting children aged 4 to 6 years when their parents filed manifested fewer problems 1.5 years later than did younger children. Even when controlling for parental conflict and parent-child relationship variable, the constellation of parenting plan variables contributed to young children's adaptation.     

The Rise of a More Punitive State: On the Attenuation of Norwegian Penal Exceptionalism in an Era of Welfare State Transformation

While sociologists of punishment have been interested in the notion of Nordic penal exceptionalism, rapid changes are taking place in the penal policies of one of the members of the Nordic zone. Norway’s penal state is growing increasingly punitive, and penal exceptionalism appears to be on the wane, evidenced by a growing incarceration rate, increasingly punitive sentiments in the population, moral panics over street crime, raised sentencing levels, the forcible detention and extradition of asylum seekers, punitive drug policies, and the creation of segregated correctional facilities for stigmatized foreign offenders. Penal transformation should be understood as the outcome of symbolic contestation between politicians eager to present themselves as “tough on crime,” increasing differentiation of the social structure that has led to the declining fortunes of rehabilitationism, and a nascent neoliberalization of the welfare state. As a consequence, Europe’s penal landscape may be growing more homogeneous.     

Enrolling children in public insurance: SCHIP, Medicaid, and state implementation

The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 established federal grants to the states to create the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). This presented the states with a number of implementation choices concerning administrative models for the new programs, as well as choices about eligibility standards, enrollment simplification, crowd-out, and cost sharing requirements. At the same time, the states were also implementing welfare reform. We describe the most important of these implementation choices, and using data from the Current Population Survey, we estimate the impacts of state policy on enrollment in this multiprogram environment. The results indicate that SCHIP programs that are administered as Medicaid expansions are more successful than either separate SCHIP plans or combination programs in enrolling children. States that remove asset tests and implement presumptive eligibility and self-declaration of income have higher enrollment levels. Continuous eligibility and adoption of mail-in applications have no effect on overall enrollment. Waiting periods and premiums reduce enrollment. Stringent welfare reform reduces children's enrollment, despite federal policy that was intended to protect children from the consequences of welfare reform. The negative impacts of a number of these policy reforms substantially reduce enrollment, potentially offsetting the more favorable impacts of other policy choices. We estimate that if all states adopted the policy options that facilitate program use, enrollment for children with family incomes less than 200 percent of the poverty line could be raised from the current rate of 42 percent to 58 percent.     

A Tale of Two Laws: The U.S. Congress Confronts Habeas Corpus Petitions and Section 1983 Lawsuits

Actions by state prisoners have comprised a large and growing body of litigation in the U.S. federal courts over the past thirty years. State prisoners can challenge the validity of their state trial court convictions (habeas corpus petitions) and the constitutionality of the conditions of their confinement to state prisons and jails (Section 1983 lawsuits). Currently, one out of every five civil cases filed in the federal system is brought by a jail or prison inmate. When in the past did these cases begin to arise? What is the present trend? What does the future hold concerning the number of cases likely to be filed? These questions are at the heart of the current research. Care is needed in addressing these queries because it is neither easy nor obvious to know what propels the volume of litigation. Moreover, the future is especially difficult to predict in light of recent legislation adopted by the United States Congress to limit the number of habeas corpus petitions and the number of Section 1983 lawsuits filed each year. The unique contribution of the current research is threefold. First, an improved methodology is used to describe past patterns and to forecast future trends. Simply stated, prisoner litigation is hypothesized to be related to the number of prisoners. As the number of prisoners increases, the volume of litigation increases proportionately. What is not obvious about this relationship is that it has persisted over the past decades despite substantial changes in legal doctrines designed to affect the filing of the litigation. Second, the effects of two major congressional actions passed in 1996 to limit prisoner litigation are examined and assessed for their success in achieving their intended objectives. The first of these, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, which sought to restrict habeas corpus petitions, is judged to have virtually no impact. The second piece of legislation, the Prisoner Litigation Reform Act, which sought to curtail lawsuits against correctional officials, appears to have lowered the volume of litigation in the short‐term, but has not disrupted the underlying link between the number of prisoners and the number of lawsuits. Finally, estimates are made of the future volume of litigation and the corresponding number of federal judges needed to resolve prisoner litigation. These estimates have the advantage of being based on significant statistical relationships and accounting for the effects of recent congressional action.     

SPECIFICATION PROBLEMS,POLICE LEVELS,AND CRIME RATES*

Research on the relationship between police and crime, like many criminological topics, is subject to uncertain causal direction and omitted controls. We recommend procedures that mitigate these problems: the Granger causality test, proxies for missing variables, robustness checks, and making data available to other researchers. Because specification problems are common in the social sciences, this strategy has applicability beyond the issue of police and crime. We analyze yearly police data and UCR crime rates, at the state and city levels, pooled over two decades. We find Granger causation in both directions. The impact of crime on the number of police is slight, but the impact of police on most crime types is substantial. The latter result is more robust at the city level.     

‘Robust and Raring to Go?’– Judges' Perceptions of Child Witnesses

This article explores judicial perceptions of child witnesses. It considers the impact of recent legislation in England and Wales as well as in Scotland which classified all child witnesses as vulnerable and introduced a series of special measures to facilitate children's evidence. The article reports the findings of an empirical research study conducted with the judiciary in Scotland which suggests that judicial perceptions of child witnesses extend across a complex spectrum where a child may be viewed as vulnerable but is also likely to be seen as suggestible, reliable or resilient. The article advances two propositions. First, that the statutory conceptualization of children as invariably vulnerable has not displaced established beliefs concerning children's suggestibility and therefore has made little difference to perceptions of their ability to produce reliable testimony. Second, that focusing on children's potential for resilience rather than their vulnerability may prove a more productive conceptualization of children, one which could better support their capability as witnesses.     

Children's Medicaid enrollment: the impacts of mandates, welfare reform, and policy delinking

From 1984 to 1990. Congress enacted a series of mandates that expanded Medicaid eligibility for low-income children by gradually delinking Medicaid eligibility from welfare eligibility. The 1996 national welfare reform law nominally completed the delinking process when the statutory phase-in of children's Medicaid coverage was preserved even as the states were given increased flexibility for administering welfare programs. This article provides estimates of the impact of these fedcral policy changes on children's Medicaid enrollment rates and analyzes the degree of success in uncoupling children's Medicaid enrollment from welfare. Data from the Current Population Survey for 1979 to 1998 are used to provide standardized enrollment probabilities for the United States and individual states. The results show important enrollment increases associated with the period of the mandated expansions, followed by enrollment declines associated with welfare reform. The largest increases in enrollment during this period were in states with historically restrictive welfare eligibility, but rates also rose in states that previously had relatively expansive welfare eligibility. The net effect was a reduction in the extent of state-to-state variation in enrollment. The Medicaid expansion peaked in 1995, prior to the advent of national welfare reform. Since then, children's Medicaid enrollment has fallen, with the largest declines falling on families with the very lowest incomes. Consistent with the desire to delink children's Medicaid coverage from welfare, the association between Medicaid and AFDC/TANF enrollment weakened during the expansionary period, but there still was a relatively strong relationship between policy outcomes for these two programs. Despite the policy changes, Medicaid coverage of children is still influenced by state-level welfare policy.     

Characterization of children's latent fingerprint residues by infrared microspectroscopy: forensic implications

The chemistry of children's latent fingerprint residues was investigated as a function of time and temperature by non-destructive spectrochemical analysis. Latent fingerprints from children, ranging in age from 2 to 11 years, were deposited onto aluminum-coated glass slides and were analyzed by Fourier-Transform Infrared Microspectroscopy. The results revealed that there are three major classes of compounds present in children's latent fingerprints: carboxylic acid salts, proteins, and esters. By studying the changes in the fingerprint residues as a function of time and at elevated temperatures, we discovered that the salts in the fingerprint residues are stable relative to the esters. These findings have relevant forensic implications; by targeting the acid salts instead of the esters or proteins, children's latent fingerprints may be recovered after extended periods of time have elapsed.