Combining work and family in the Netherlands: Blessing or burden for one's mental health?

In this article we study which characteristics of combining work and family put people at risk for mental illness. Two alternative perspectives on the impact of multiple social roles on mental health are tested: the role accumulation perspective and the role strain perspective. Both perspectives are studied with data from a cross-sectional national survey held among a large, representative sample of Dutch people (N=1008). Multivariate analyses provided support for both perspectives. Having more social roles was related to better mental health. We also found a positive mental health effect of having a full-time job in combination with having children. However, having a partner who contributes less to household duties or having a job with low decision latitude or lower skill discretion was related to mental illness. So, certain aspects of social roles may also threaten people's mental health. Overall, our findings do not support the idea that combining work and family is necessarily a burden and harmful for people's mental health. Whether multiple social roles are a blessing or burden for people's mental health seems to depend on the characteristics of the social roles.     

Procedural decisions in intergroup conflict situations: The influence of hierarchical group membership

A review of research on procedural and distributive justice shows that whereas distributive justice research has examined people's actual choice of outcomes, procedural justice research has paid little attention to the investigation of people's actual choice of procedures. In the present paper, three experiments are presented, all investigating people's actual choice of procedures. In all three experiments, participants were in a middle-management position where their subordinates demanded an opportunity to voice their opinion, while their superiors demanded that the subordinates should not be allowed voice. In Experiments 1 and 2 it was found that participants who were induced to identify with the low hierarchical group (subordinates) allowed more voice than participants who were induced to identify with the high hierarchical group (superiors), but that the effect of hierarchical group membership was absent when maximizing performance (Experiment 1) or participative values (Experiment 2) were explicitly emphasized. In Experiment 3 it was found that the effect of hierarchical group membership on procedural decision making was also evident in persons who progressed from identifying with both hierarchical groups to identifying with one hierarchical group. In the discussion it is argued that cross-fertilization between the fields of procedural and distributive justice will deepen our understanding of social justice in general.     

Toward Understanding the Psychology of Reactions to Perceived Fairness: The Role of Affect Intensity

In social psychology it has been argued that the importance of justice cannot be overstated. In the present paper, we ask whether this indeed is the case and, more precisely, examine when fairness is an important determinant of human reactions and when it is less significant. To this end we explore what drives people's reactions to perceived fairness and argue that although social justice research has reported effects of fairness perceptions on people's affective feelings, a close examination of the literature shows that these reactions appear less frequently and less strong than one would expect. It is proposed here that this has to do with the neglect in the social psychology of justice of an important determinant of affective reactions: individuals' propensity to react strongly or mildly toward affect-related events. As hypothesized, findings of two empirical studies show that especially people high in affect intensity show strong affective reactions following the experience of outcome fairness (Study1) and procedural fairness (Study2). When affect intensity is low, however, weak or no fairness effects were found, suggesting that then fairness may not be an important issue. In the discussion it is thus argued that incorporating affect intensity into the justice literature may further insights into the psychology of reactions toward fairness.     

Mothers Affected by Domestic Violence: Intersections and Opportunities with the Justice System

Secondary analysis from two qualitative studies was used to explore the interactions of mothers exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV) with the justice system. Results were categorized according to three key themes: (a) negative interactions within the justice system, (b) positive interactions within the justice system, and (c) recommendations for an improved justice system response to domestic violence. Overall, findings suggested that mothers affected by domestic violence are confronted with negative attitudes and ineffectual practices within convoluted bureaucratic criminal justice systems, leaving many feeling revictimized. Despite the negative aspects of the legal system, women in both studies cited positive examples of feeling comforted, validated, and even empowered by the actions of the specific service providers. The findings of both studies underscore the need for greater efficiencies within the justice system and mandatory training for service providers, making it easier for women who have left their abusers to access appropriate support services, as well as the importance of affirmational support particularly when it can be provided by a peer with shared experiences. Future research is needed to guide the development of interventions that will limit the impacts of IPV exposure on child developmental outcomes.     

The Moral Superiority Effect: Self Versus Other Differences in Satisfaction with Being Overpaid

This paper focuses on how people think about their own and other's reactions to being overpaid. Two experiments investigate the discrepancy between people's own satisfaction and their perception of other's satisfaction with overpayment. The results of both experiments support our hypothesis that people think others are more satisfied with being overpaid than they are themselves. Our results are consistent with the idea that people think others are more influenced by egoism-based considerations whereas they themselves are more influenced by considerations of right and wrong. In other words, people show a moral superiority effect. In the general discussion, we argue why it is less likely to find moral superiority effects on people's reactions to being equally paid and underpaid, and we relate our findings to the literature of self-serving biases.     

How Law Changes the Environmental Mind: An Experimental Study of the Effect of Legal Norms on Moral Perceptions and Civic Enforcement

This paper examines how different legal instruments affect people's moral intuitions and willingness to engage in social enforcement in the field of environmental law. These instruments vary in terms of their governance technique, the process through which they were enacted, and their allocation of enforcement responsibilities. Their effect on citizens' moral evaluation and emotional reaction to corporate polluting behaviour are examined, based on an experimental survey of a representative sample of 1400 individuals in Israel.
Our findings demonstrate that their design influences people's level of moral and emotional resentment when faced by environmentally problematic behaviour, as well as their motivation to engage in private enforcement. The design of the regulatory instrument could thus generate biases in social reactions to polluting behaviour, irrespective of its actual ecological adverse effect. We analyse the moral and psychological mechanisms which underlie these effects and explore their various policy implications.     

Examining social cohesion and victimization in a Malaysian multiethnic neighborhood

The ecological theories linking neighborhood characteristics to victimization have rarely been tested in Asia. This article examines three conceptual models of social cohesion (collective efficacy, sense of belonging and feeling of morale) that are designed to explain the residents' victimization in Malaysia. This study focuses on the effects of social cohesion on crime using a sample of 294 ethnically diverse residents living in a high-crime neighborhood. The study shows the relevance of all three conceptual models in predicting victimization for both males and females. The findings indicate that a greater sense of belonging and feeling of morale among the neighborhood residents is significantly associated with lower levels of victimization. Contrary to the literature, the collective efficacy measure was associated with higher reported victimization. Our model also links social cohesion measures to neighborhood racial heterogeneity, a finding that adds knowledge to the study of ethnic diversity and crime–community relationships.     

Emotion and the Law: A Framework for Inquiry

This paper draws on research in social and cognitive psychology to show how theories of judgment and decision making that incorporate decision makers' affective responses apply to legal contexts. It takes 2 widely used models of decision making, the rational actor and lens models, and illustrates their utility for understanding legal judgments by using them to interpret research findings on juror decision making, people's obedience to the law (e.g., paying taxes), and eyewitness memory. The paper concludes with a discussion of the advantages of modifying existing approaches to information processing to include the influence of affect on how legal actors reach judgments about law and legal process.     

Implicit Ingroup Favoritism,Outgroup Favoritism,and Their Behavioral Manifestations

Three broad themes that emerge from the social psychological research on unconscious or implicit prejudice and stereotypes are highlighted in this article. First, individuals who belong to socially advantaged groups typically exhibit more implicit preference for their ingroups and bias against outgroups than do members of socially disadvantaged groups. This research suggests that intergroup preferences and prejudices are influenced by two different psychological forces—people's tendency to prefer groups associated with themselves as a confirmation of their high self-exteem versus their tendency to prefer groups valued by the mainstream culture as a confirmation of the sociopolitical order in society. Second, these inplicit prejudices and stereotypes often influence people's judgements, decisions, and behaviors in subtle but pernicious ways. However, the path from implicit bias to discriminatory action is not inevitable. People's awareness of potential bias, their motivation and opportunity to control it, and sometimes their consciously held beliefs can determine whether biases in the mind will manifest in action. Finally, a new line of research suggests that implicit biases exhibited by individuals who belong to socially disadvantaged groups towards their own group may have unintended behavioral consequences that are harmful to their ingroup and themselves.     

刍议人民监督员制度的完善

人民监督员的任务是监督监督者的司法活动,工作的性质是“民督宫”,由此决定了人民监督员应具备较高道德、业务素质,并能够代表社会各阶层的利益。他们应当来自于企事业单位和社会团体。国家机关工作人员、人大代表皆不宜兼任人民监督员职务。现试行的人民监督员制度,对人民监督员的选聘条件规定过于粗糙,选聘程序在实际操作中缺乏透明度,监督员的责任也未明确,难以保障监督的实效,故该制度应在许多方面予以完善。     

Formation of procedural beliefs about legal arenas: Do people generalize from loosely related past legal experiences?

Few studies have addressed how people develop beliefs about legal authorities' neutrality and fairness. Using a cross-sectional survey of taxpayers (N = 147), this study examines the sources and processes underlying the formation of these beliefs. Controlling for significant contributions of media stories about audits and past audit experiences, past loosely related negative legal events (traffic court) also shape perceptions that tax auditors are more biased and unfair. Information about police officers exchanged in conversations also creates perceptions that tax auditors are more biased. These generalization effects occur only when people do not have prior direct experience with tax auditors. For taxpayers with prior audit experience, positive experiences are related to more positive perceptions of auditors and media stories about tax audits produce more negative perceptions. The findings suggest that positive and negative past experiences shape beliefs only when they disconfirm prior perceptions based on imagination or indirect sources. Implications and future research directions are discussed.     

The Neurobiology of Fairness and Social Justice: An Introduction

The study of social justice has always been an interdisciplinary undertaking, but in recent years neurobiologists have joined scholars and scientists from other areas to tackle complex questions concerning fairness, empathy, equality, hierarchy, and ideological conflict and polarization. By synthesizing insights from multiple, mutually informative levels of analysis, it is possible to shed new light on basic biological processes that reflect, inspire, and inhibit the pursuit of a more just society. With this special issue we highlight groundbreaking research on the neurobiology of fairness and social justice, bringing together six articles that address core themes of social justice, including individual variability in definitions of fairness, the genetic basis of economic egalitarianism, neural bases of empathy in environmental and intergroup domains, and the neural and genetic correlates of ideological polarization. Taken in conjunction, these diverse contributions bring multiple theoretical perspectives and research methods to bear on the shared goal of understanding and promoting social justice.     

论社会资本与农村社区文化建设——基于CGSS2005调查数据的分析和思考

农村社区文化作为新农村建设的一个重要方面,己不仅仅是一种文化娱乐、文化设施,还影响和包容着人们的行为规范、信仰观念、人际关系等。基于一项全国性调查数据(CGSS2005)的分析显示,当前我国农村社区文化活动从绝对数量和相对数量上看都非常的匮乏。相关分析显示,农村社区社会资本与社区文化的发展状况之间存在显著的正相关关系,加强农村社区文化建设不仅有利于增进农村社区社会资本、强化社区认同感、增进地缘关系和人际关系,而且对于使村民超越个体私利形成具有集体责任感和归属感的农村社区具有重要作用。     

Beyond PTSD: an evolving relationship between trauma theory and family violence research

During the past 20 years, we have learned how similarly harmful are experiences of terror, violence, and abuse, whether they occur on the combat field or at home. The field of family violence has gained much from the field of traumatic stress, and collaborations between these two previously separate fields have yielded important new answers, as well as new research questions. The field of traumatic stress is poised to integrate, more fully than in the past, a variety of aspects of trauma such as social betrayal, as well as outcomes of trauma such as depression, criminality, and physiological harm that go beyond posttraumatic stress. The field of family violence has much to offer in this process. We look forward to improved research designs that will further our knowledge of how trauma affects aspects of people's lives, including productivity, relationships, cognition, and emotions, in negative and positive ways.     

Social science in Supreme Court criminal cases and briefs

This article describes citations of social science research evidence in 200 criminal cases decided by the Supreme Court and in the briefs filed by the parties and amici curiae in these cases. It also examines the uses of social science authorities in samples of Supreme Court exclusionary rule and jury decisionmaking cases, and accompanying briefs. The correspondence between the social science references cited in the decisions and the briefs is used as one measure of the brief-writers' contributions to the Court's use of social science materials, and related contributions of the brief-writers are explored, as well. The justices appeared to locate the majority of social science references cited in their opinions without assistance from the briefs, and thus also presumably attempted to evaluate the research evidence on their own. Individuals and organizations with scientific expertise rarely filed amicus briefs in these cases, which may help explain why the Court so frequently was without assistance in locating or examining research evidence. It is suggested that the appellate judiciary's informed use of social science materials would be promoted if more social scientists, and their professional organizations, participated as amici curiae in cases presenting social fact issues within their competence.     

The moderating effects of religiosity on the relationship between stressful life events and delinquent behavior

Previous research has shown that many forms of strain are positively related to delinquency. Evidence also suggests that religiosity buffers the effects of strain on offending, but this issue requires further research. Using data from a national sample of adolescents, this study examined whether or not religiosity conditioned the relationship between strain and delinquency. This study also looked at the ability of social support, self-esteem, and depression to moderate the influence of strain on delinquent behavior. The findings here lend support to general strain theory in that strain had a direct positive effect on delinquency, yet there was little evidence that the relationship was moderated by religiosity or other conditioning variables. The roles of moderating variables on strain across genders were also considered.     

The sexual distribution of benefits and burdens in the household: Adolescent experiences and expectations

An examination of self-reported contributions to housework and use of resources in the home by 1296 Scottish 16- and 18-year-olds revealed sharp differences between the sexes in both areas. In only one area of housework sampled, household repairs, did boys contribute more often, and in only one area of resources, use of space for friends, did girls benefit more often. Moreover, with respect to housework, sexual inequality was inversely related to social class. Beliefs about sex roles were broadly egalitarian, but weakly related to housework done; among both male and female, contributing to more areas of housework was associated with more egalitarian beliefs. Neither access to resources nor contributions to housework were related to financial contributions made to the household. Generally, the results indicate that sex was the most powerful determinant of both housework and use of resources. It seems that young people are already extensively prepared for inequality in adult sex roles within the family by their own direct experience, if not their sex-role beliefs.     

Reentry preparedness among soon-to-be-released inmates and the role of time served

Purpose

While reentry funding is flowing into states, its target efficiency and effectiveness depends on whether it goes to the right people in the right ways. The purpose of this study was to examine whether and how the amount of time incarcerated affects reentry readiness.

Materials and Methods

A population-based survey was conducted. Approximately 4000 soon-to-be-released male inmates were drawn from a state correctional system. Readiness is described in terms of feeling ready and material, social, and treatment resources available for reentry by time served on current conviction (episode effect) and since age 18 (cumulative effect). Generalized hierarchical linear models were used to estimate the effects of demographic, criminological, and time served variables on reentry readiness outcomes.

Results

Reentry vulnerability increased with time served since turning 18 (cumulative effect) but not with time served on the current conviction (episode effect). Inmates serving more than 10 years since turning 18 were at greatest reentry risk.

Conclusions

The findings indicate that inmates who have served more prison time over their lifetime have more pronounced needs and risks suggesting that reentry funding be targeted towards those who have served more time over the course of their lifetime.     

Youth crime and family disruption in Canadian municipalities: An adaptation of Shaw and McKay’s social disorganization theory

Using an adaptation of Shaw and McKay’s (1942) theory, the present study examined the effects of social disorganization and family disruption on youth crime. Based on data from 483 Canadian municipalities, the results revealed that low income, mobility and ethnic heterogeneity had the expected positive effects on youth crime, particularly in municipalities with smaller population and lower prevalence of low income. The effect of single parenthood was positive as expected whereas that of divorce was unexpectedly negative. The findings suggest the importance to specify the conditions for the effect of social disorganization and differentiate the effects of divorce and single parenthood. The unexpected negative effect also raises the possibility of divorce as law mobilization, thus underscoring the roles of planning and legal intervention in social disorganization. In terms of policies, the findings suggest early intervention for social disorganization, support for single-parent families, and the incorporation of divorcees in productive activities.     

Qualitative Research and Intersectionality

Much of the extant criminological literature on the relationships between race, class, gender, and crime has treated these demographic characteristics as isolated, independent variables. More recent theorizing has called our attention to fact that these constructs are not autonomous. Instead, people’s identity lies at the intersection of race, class, and gender and it is the combination of these constructs that often shapes people’s experiences with the criminal justice system and other social structures. It is well-documented, however, that purely quantitative methodologies are not well suited to studying intersecionality. The findings of qualitative research have lent a greater understanding to the intersection of race, class, gender, and crime. The appropriateness of certain methodological frameworks and the thematic contributions of qualitative research to intersectionality are discussed.