The Series Hazard Model: An Alternative to Time Series for Event Data

An important pursuit by a body of criminological research is its endeavor to determine whether interventions or policy changes effectively achieve their intended goals. Because theories predict that interventions could either improve or worsen outcomes, estimators designed to improve the accuracy of identifying program or policy effects are in demand. This article introduces the series hazard model as an alternative to interrupted time series when testing for the effects of an intervention on event-based outcomes. It compares the two approaches through an example that examines the effects of two interventions on aerial hijacking. While series hazard modeling may not be appropriate for all event-based time series data or every context, it is a robust alternative that allows for greater flexibility in many contexts.     

Legitimacy and Deterrence Effects in Counterterrorism Policing: A Study of Muslim Americans

This study considers the circumstances under which members of the Muslim American community voluntarily cooperate with police efforts to combat terrorism. Cooperation is defined to include both a general receptivity toward helping the police in antiterror work and the specific willingness to alert police to terror‐related risks in a community. We compare two perspectives on why people cooperate with law enforcement, both developed with reference to general policing, in the context of antiterror policing and specifically among members of the Muslim American community. The first is instrumental. It suggests that people cooperate because they see tangible benefits that outweigh any costs. The second perspective is normative. It posits that people respond to their belief that police are a legitimate authority. On this view we link legitimacy to the fairness and procedural justice of police behavior. Data from a study involving interviews with Muslim Americans in New York City between March and June 2009 strongly support the normative model by finding that the procedural justice of police activities is the primary factor shaping legitimacy and cooperation with the police.     

Exploring the Social Context of Instrumental and Expressive Homicides: An Application of Qualitative Comparative Analysis

Using data from the UCR's Supplementary Homicide Reports, the methodof qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) is used to examine whetherinstrumental and expressive homicides are similar or unique in their socialcontext (i.e., combinations of offender, victim, and situationalcharacteristics). Instrumental and expressive homicides are found to haveboth common and unique social contexts, but the vast majority of homicideincidents involve combinations of individual and situational factors thatare common in both general types of homicides. Among subtypes ofinstrumental (like rape, prostitution, robbery murders) and expressivehomicides (like lovers' triangles, brawls, and arguments), there iswide variability in their prevalence of unique and common components. Afterdiscussing these results, the paper concludes with illustrations of how QCAmay be used in other areas within criminology.     

Packer in Context: Formalism and Fairness in the Due Process Model

Herbert Packer's The Limits of the Criminal Sanction (1968) has spawned decades of commentary. This essay argues that Packer's two‐model conceptualization of the criminal process is best understood within his professional milieu of doctrinal legal scholarship and the political context of the Warren Court revolution. Within this context, the essay suggests a distinction between two due process visions: formalism and fairness. This distinction is useful for illuminating debates and decisions on criminal procedure matters in the Supreme Court such as Terry v. Ohio (1968) and Apprendi v. New Jersey (2000) . I conclude by encouraging sensitivity to legal and historical context in future commentary on Packer's framework.     

A Constitution for Antidiscrimination: Exploring the Vanguard Moment of Community Law

It is a commonplace that 'non-discrimination' is a fundamental principle of Community Law. If the principle is taken to express a broader commitment to equality, however, there appears to be something quite unusual about it. When compared with the standards set by modern constitutional law, the commitment to equality is, at least with respect to Member State action, less extensive; in the context of indirect gender discrimination, however, the principle acquires remarkable scope. Although this 'vanguard moment' of Community Law is tacitly acknowledged in the practice of the ECJ, it is, at the same time, subdued; the resources of the principle might be tapped, however, by moving toward a constitution for antidiscrimination. The article explores both the philosophical presuppositions and the institutional context of what could become a constitutionalisation of antidiscrimination at the level of Community Law.     

A New Context for the Ramsar Convention: Wetlands in a Changing World

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) has had a considerable influence on the work under multilateral environmental agreements dealing with biological diversity, including the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. The MA developed a strong conceptual framework which brought together the natural and social sciences, and through that synergy promoted what it means to be sustainable. The MA provided a means to redefine the Ramsar Convention's wise use concept in terms of sustainability, especially the capacity of the ecosystem to continue to deliver the services on which other ecosystems and people depend. The messages from the MA impact also on the Ramsar Convention's concept of maintenance of ecological character; and thus the list of Wetlands of International Importance (Ramsar sites). 'Change in ecological character', which is a concept that is important in measuring Ramsar site effectiveness, can also be resolved in terms of ecosystem services – and thus the criterion for being and continuing to be a Wetland of International Importance essentially becomes an issue of capacity to deliver ecosystem services.     

It is and it is not: the Importance of Context when Exploring Gender Differences in Perpetration of Physical Partner Violence

The literature on gender differences in perpetration of physical partner violence (PV) consists of two opposing camps: those who emphasize gender symmetry, and those who emphasize gender asymmetry. We propose a both/and approach to this controversy by suggesting that the issue of gender symmetry is complex and dependent upon context. Furthermore, we discuss how the role of personal investment in political agendas contributes to this divide in the literature. We argue that this both/and approach to inquiry will significantly contribute to the understanding of gender differences in perpetration of PV, as well inform the development of interventions for PV.     

Reasonable Interpretation: A Radical Legal Realist Critique

International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique - The notion of reasonable interpretation of legal texts, as opposed to the absurd or unacceptable...     

中国语境中的“司法调解”——一种非标准性阐释

尽管当下司法调解的实践本身比各种话语表述更富创造力,然而一种以"中国"为中心的司法方法论、以"中国"为中心的司法调解观远远未能被我们发现或发明。这至少是因为我们如何评判司法调解与如何表述它皆成了问题。分析这些问题就是在表述:我们的司法调解不是完全经由法律适用来确认权利或利益,而是主要通过实践智慧弥合了公正问题与合法问题,亦即需要解决的争议重点不在于依据哪些法律来裁断,而是借助于转变了裁判者的身份,使其在现行的法律制度内作为调解者来促使纠纷的解决,并以此来追求某种社会公正与社会和谐。     

A Radical Economic Model of Crime with an Empirical Test in Non-city Zip Codes

This article addresses three main issues. First, the structural explanation of crime rates across zip codes within a US county outside of that county’s major city’s limits. Second, this article addresses whether the traditional social disorganization argument which links measures of disorganized neighborhoods and in particularly deficiencies in informal social control to race, income inequality and poverty provides an adequate explanation of variations in non-city zip code crime rates. Third, this article also examines a radical critique of the kind of structural model posed by social disorganization, and tests an alternative radical economic model of crime at the zip code level. The empirical evidence illustrates the weakness of social disorganization explanations of crime at the zip code level. In contrast to those results, the empirical results for the proposed radical economic model of crime support its use for explaining crime across county zip codes. This type of empirical evidence demonstrates that radical models of crime have utility in explaining how economic structures influence the distribution of crime independently of variable identified in orthodox criminology.     

Placing the Crime Decline in Context: A Comment on Baumer and Wolff

This paper provides comments on the article by Baumer and Wolff. The key goal of these remarks is to stimulate thinking about the broader context of crime declines.     

A Legal Semiotics Framework for Exploring the Origins of Hermagorean Stasis

Stasis is a process of classical rhetoric that identifies the core issue in a trial or a similar debate. Hermagoras of Temnos included the first comprehensive analysis of stasis in his second-century BCE treatise on rhetoric, now lost. Modern scholars tend to echo George Kennedy, who maintains that Hermagoras’ inspiration for the hierarchical structure of stasis is indeterminate. This article, however, employs scholarship in legal semiotics, including the work of Miklós K?ncz?l and Bernard S. Jackson, to argue that Hermagoras based stasiastic structure on Aristotle’s first-figure syllogism. Ideally, knowledge of that structure can enhance modern applications of stasis.     

转型期中国的大众文化与传媒角色

把问题摆在全球化语境下探讨,是因为“全球化”和“信息化”的发展促进了中西方的全面交流,其裹挟而来的文化冲击也进一步促使传统中国社会发生着深刻的转型。传统文化的历史底蕴及其内含的惰性因子、商业文化的蔓生和多元价值取向共同塑造了复杂的社会文化现象。作为一个社会影响力很强的“文化装置”,媒体具有极强的“聚合力”和“辐射性”,成为文化传播的强大推动力。当下传媒的文化表现与走向在很大程度上影响着大众文化转型的未来走向。应确立一种适应现代社会发展需要的,成熟、健康的文化形态,大众媒体应当对自己所扮演的角色进行重新定位,并努力寻找出一条展现自身使命之路。     

Examining the Neighborhood Context of the Violent Offending-Victimization Relationship: A Prospective Investigation

The persistent link between offending and victimization is one of the most robust empirical findings in criminological research. Despite important efforts to isolate the sources of this phenomenon, it is not fully understood. Much attention has been paid to the role of individual-level factors; however, few studies have systematically integrated neighborhood conditions. Using prospective data from the Pittsburgh Youth Study the current research examines a set of hypotheses regarding the interplay of neighborhood structural conditions and the victim-offender overlap. A multilevel analytical technique is applied to the data which purges time-varying covariates of all time-stable unobserved heterogeneity. Results indicate that the relationship between offending and victimization is pronounced in disadvantaged neighborhoods, while offending is not significantly related to victimization risk in contexts marked by lower levels of disadvantage. The implications of the results for theory are discussed, along with recommendations for future research.