Students’ Personal Belief in a Just World,Well-Being,and Academic Cheating: A Cross-National Study

Social Justice Research - A cross-national study with university students from Germany (n?=?1135) and Turkey (n?=?634) tested whether personal belief in a just world (PBJW)...     

Students’ Feelings of Safety,Exposure to Violence and Victimization,and Authoritative School Climate

Although many students feel unsafe at school, few malleable factors have been identified to increase students’ feelings of safety. Drawing on criminological behavior control theories, this study posits authoritative school climate as one such factor. With data from two nationally representative datasets, this study uses path analysis to examine the relationship between authoritative school climate and feelings of safety, as well as the extent to which this relation is explained by exposure to violence and victimization. Across both datasets, a more authoritative school climate was associated with increased feelings of safety at school. Both models also indicated that this relationship was explained in part by reduced exposure to violence and victimization, although the strength of this indirect effect varied across models. These findings suggest that strengthening students’ relationships with adults and increasing the fairness and consistency of rules in the school may both reduce exposure to violence and victimization and help students feel safer at school.     

Students’ Feeling of Safety in School: Does Frequency of Victimization Matter?

One consistent finding in the area of school violence is that students that have been victimized at school are more likely to feel unsafe. This finding is based primarily on analysis of dichotomous measures of victimization. Little attention has been given to the effect of repeated victimization experiences on the feeling of safety. We used a nationally representative sample of 2199 Israeli Jewish and Arab students to explore this issue with reference to multiple experiences with the same type of victimization as well as experiences with different types of school violence. Our study confirms that being a victim of school violence decreases the feeling of safety, but suggests that a single experience may be more significant for this relationship than multiple victimizations.     

The Meaning of Students’ Personal Belief in a Just World for Positive and Negative Aspects of School-Specific Well-Being

In two cross-sectional questionnaire studies with N = 1792 German and Indian students, aged between 12 and 17 years, we investigated the relation between personal belief in a just world (BJW) and positive as well as negative dimensions of school-specific well-being. Furthermore, we considered students’ personal experience of teacher justice as possible mediator in this relation and controlled for confounding effects of gender, neuroticism, and locus of control. In Study 1, we used multilevel modeling to analyze the German data and to control for class-level effects. In accordance with our hypotheses, Study 1 showed that the more students believed in a personal just world, the better their positive attitudes toward school, their academic self-esteem, and their enjoyment in school were, and the less somatic complaints in school, social problems in school, and worries toward school they experienced. These associations partly differed between classes, but generally persisted when controlled for sex, neuroticism, and locus of control. Finally, the association between personal BJW and well-being was at least partly mediated by students’ personal experience of teacher justice. In Study 2, we focused on the generalizability of the pattern of results across different cultural contexts. However, we did not aim to carry out comparative research. Results from bootstrap mediation analyses were predominantly the same as in Study 1. The adaptive functions of BJW and implications for future school research are discussed.     

The Kids Aren’t Alright: School Attachment,Depressive Symptoms,and Gun Carrying at School

Social science has frequently examined the relationships between school environment and delinquency, mental health and delinquency, and school environment and mental health. However, little to no research to date has examined the interrelationship between these variables simultaneously, especially at it relates specifically to delinquent acts committed at school. The current study uses data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) to look at the interrelationship between these variables. What is found in this data is that the relationship between negative mental health states and delinquency at school, specifically measured as depressive symptoms and gun carrying at school, respectively, is possibly a spurious one, wherein both of these variables are partly shaped by school attachment, which accounts for their correlation. Implications for theory and policy are discussed.

     

Parental Migration,Caretaking Arrangement,and Children’s Delinquent Behavior in Rural China

The purpose of this study was to investigate the associations between parental rural-to-urban migration, caretaking arrangement, and left-behind children’s self-reported delinquency in rural China. The direct effect of parental migration on children’s delinquency as well as the indirect effect through children–caretaker conflict, school bonding, and children’s association with deviant peers are explored. The study uses data from the Parental Migration and Children’s Well-Being Survey, which collected information on parental migration and delinquency from a probability sample of 600 middle school students in southern China. Path models are used to evaluate hypotheses generated from mainstream criminology theories and the literature of immigration and internal migration in rural China. Parental migration and caretaking arrangement has a significant effect on children’s socialization and behavioral outcomes in rural China. Results indicate that pathways to delinquency among left-behind children differ across various caretaking arrangements. Grandparents and other extended family members, when serving as primary caretakers, are challenged to effectively monitor and supervise left-behind children’s interaction with deviant peers, which is the main route to further delinquency. Stay-at-home mothers, on the other hand, have difficulty in developing strong mother–child bonds and in avoiding conflictual and strained relationships with their children. The study highlights the importance of a father’s presence on children’s behavioral outcomes in the context of rural China.     

Teaching Dissent in the Law School: Have Students Learned to Disagree?

This paper offers an analysis of the qualitative evidence obtained from a research project in relation to the teaching of a module on the Trials of Dissenters in the context of an undergraduate law degree. It will consider whether a pedagogically innovative course has encouraged and enabled undergraduate law students to think more creatively on the issues raised by specific historic trials and to be prepared to construct more critical and open ended arguments. The study of the Trials of Dissenters, we hoped, would encourage our students to dissent both from the standard model of legal education and from the acceptance of what lecturers say as “true”. We here consider the success of our project in relation to how students view dissent.     

Concurrent and Across-Time Relations between Mother/Father Hostility and Children’s Aggression: A Longitudinal Study

This study examined the concurrent and across-time relations between father/mother hostility and child aggression in a sample of 523 (58.7% girls) primary and secondary school children. Data were collected over a period of 3 years, in which the children’s mean age was 11.1, 12.17, and 13.19 years old, respectively. Correlational analyses and cross-sectional and longitudinal structural equation models showed significant relations between parental hostility (both father and mother) and child aggression. These relations, which mainly concerned mothers, predicted future child aggression 1 and 2 years later. Child aggression and parental hostility also elicited each other, thus providing evidence for family socialization as an interactive process. This study have been supported by the Vicerrectorado de Investigación UNED as part of the Research Promotion Plan.     

Beyond Confinement: The Regulation of Girl Offenders’ Bodies,Sexual Choices,and Behavior

Throughout transformations in juvenile justice, control over girls’ bodies, sexual behavior, and reproductive choices has remained a constant focal point among decision makers, with girls infrequently charged with serious law violations and commonly judged in terms of their moral welfare and chasteness. Using interview data with 62 court and correctional decision makers, this article examines how the contemporary juvenile justice system responds to girls’ sexual behavior and explores the policies and procedures used to restrain sexual agency and reproductive choices, both physically and cognitively. This article also investigates the penalties enforced when girls resist such controls as well as intentions toward change and reform in the system.     

University Students’ Views of Formal and Informal Control in Japan: An Exploratory Study

Both formal and informal crime controls are used to deter individuals from engaging in criminal behavior in many societies, including Japan. This study used survey data from a convenience sample of 267 Japanese college students to examine the importance of formal and informal crime control. In general, there were higher levels of support for informal methods of crime control than formal methods. Respondents felt that fear of being rejected by family, neighbors, and peers was a stronger deterrent to crime than fear of being punished by the law. The respondents ranked family the most important mechanism in crime prevention, followed by peers, police, schools, neighborhoods, correction facilities, and courts. There was also a fair amount of support for blended formal and informal crime control methods. Mobility (i.e., the number of times the respondent had moved in his/her life) and age were positively associated with the belief that formal crime control deterred crime. The population size of the town where the respondent grew up was negatively associated with support for formal crime control. Students who grew up in larger urban areas tended to rate formal control higher than those who grew up in a small town or the countryside.     

A Comparison of Chinese and US College Students’ Crime and Crime Control Views

While there is a growing trend to look at criminal justice issues from an international perspective, there has been little literature examining differences in views of crime, criminals, punishment, and treatment between the citizens of the People’s Republic of China and the United States of America. Using data from 524 students at a large university in China and 484 students from a large public university in the USA this study found that, while US respondents were more likely to agree that crime was high in their country, Chinese respondents were more likely to feel that crime was the most serious social problem facing their society. Chinese respondents were more supportive of the death penalty for serious crimes but also were more supportive of rehabilitation of offenders in general. In addition, the study found similarities between students from the two countries in their views. The reasons behind the differences and similarities were explored.

Sex offenders’ perceptions of the effectiveness and fairness of humanity,dominance, and displaying an understanding of cognitive distortions in police interviews: A vignette study

Abstract

Forty-three convicted sex offenders read each of four different offence vignettes that involved a man forcing a female victim into sex and the offender's subsequent police interview. The experimental manipulation involved giving participants each of four different scenarios concerning how the police interviewed the offender. These were interviews characterized by humanity, dominance, displaying an understanding of sex offenders’ cognitive distortions, or a neutral, control interview. Participants were required to rate the interviews on a variety of dimensions, such as the offender's likelihood of confessing, and the fairness of the interview. Where participants were told the man had been interviewed with humanity and compassion, they rated the offender as more likely to confess and rated the interview as fairer than the other conditions. In contrast, participants rated the offender interviewed with a dominant approach as less likely to confess, and for this procedure to be less fair than the other conditions. Displaying an understanding of sex offenders’ cognitive distortions appeared to have had no influence on perceived likelihood of confessions but was perceived to make the crime appear less serious.     

Children’s Exposure to Intimate Partner Violence and their Social,School, and Activities Competence: Latent Profiles and Correlates

This study examined patterns of intimate partner violence (IPV) exposure and three domains of competence among 288 children recruited from community-based domestic violence agencies. Latent profile analysis (LPA) was performed to identify subgroups of children who differed based on levels of social, academic, and extracurricular competence and exposure to IPV. Five distinct latent profiles were identified: Frequent IPV Exposure-Low Activity Competence (39 % of children), Frequent IPV Exposure-Average Global Competence (31 % of children), Frequent IPV Exposure-High Global Competence (13 % of children), Low IPV Exposure-Compromised School Competence (11 % of children), and Low IPV Exposure-Compromised Global Competence (6 % of children). Covariates distinguished between the profiles (e.g., yearly household income, maternal education, number of children in the household) and the groups were characterized by statistically significant mean differences in total behavior problems. Implications for future research and community-based preventive intervention efforts are discussed.     

Neighborhoods,Individuals, and Instrumental Crime in Russia and Ukraine: A Multilevel Test of Merton’s Anomie Theory

Objectives

Empirically assess Baumer’s (Theor Criminol 11(1):63–93, 2007) efforts to unify Merton’s anomie/strain theory within a multilevel framework that anticipates instrumental crime among individuals who are both strongly committed to monetary success goals and weakly committed to the normative means for pursuing these goals, particularly if they possess certain other personal attributes or are embedded within anomic socio-cultural contexts.

Methods

Multilevel overdispersed Poisson regression models are estimated using survey data from 1431 adult residents of 41 neighborhoods in Lviv, Ukraine, and Nizhni Novgorod, Russia.

Results

Consistent with expectations, financial dissatisfaction among individuals appears to exacerbate the effect of the goals-means interaction on instrumental crime. However, no evidence was observed of moderation involving perceived risk of punishment, commitment to non-monetary success goals, and blocked legitimate opportunities. Although neighborhood anomie exerted a statistically significant main effect on instrumental crime, theorized cross-level interactions involving strong cultural emphasis on monetary success goals, weak cultural emphasis on normative means, and limited consensus regarding the normative means by which to pursue monetary success goals did not materialize.

Conclusions

Findings cast doubt on the cross-cultural generality of Baumer’s multilevel conceptualization of Merton’s strain/anomie theory. However, they confirm financial dissatisfaction as a key predictor of instrumental crime and moderator of unbalanced value commitments among individuals. They also suggest that future efforts to bridge the micro and macro strands of Merton’s theory will need to incorporate alternate theoretical predictors (e.g., personal morality) and consider ways in which an anomic social order contributes to deviant behavior directly rather than merely indirectly through the proportion of the population experiencing a goals-means disjuncture.

     

The University of Barchester,Coketown University,Ipswich Cathedral Choir School,Gas Street Comprehensive School and the European Convention on Human Rights: A link?

This article focuses on the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and especially Article 6 entitled Right to a Fair and Public Hearing , all now fully incorporated into the UK via the Human Rights Act (HRA, 1997). This article discusses the implications for UK education institutions and the potential conflict with the exclusive jurisdiction of the Visitor in English chartered universities and colleges. Also discussed are UK schools, colleges and universities as 'public authorities' and 'emanations of the state', the creation of a Higher Education Ombudsman as a 'Super-Visitor' or 'HERO' (Higher Education Regulatory Office), the impact of HRA and ECHR less dramatic for schools than for universities (or at least for the Visitor function within them), and finally the coming three decades of legal uncertainty and fees for lawyers.     

Multi-agent scavenging patterns in Hawai‘i: A forensic archaeological and skeletal case study

Knowledge of the behavior of local fauna can aid forensic investigators in developing awareness of site formation processes. In Hawai‘i, little has been published on the effects of feral domestic pig (Sus scrofa) and feral domestic dog (Canis familiaris) scavenging and bone dispersal on field recovery and laboratory observations. In this Pacific tropical setting, the most consequential terrestrial taphonomic agents are pigs and dogs, both in terms of hard tissue modification and dispersal of remains across the landscape. In 2017, an archaeologist discovered the remains of an unidentified decedent on the island of Kauaʻi, State of Hawai‘i during a cultural resource management survey. Subsequently, a forensic recovery team in conjunction with Kaua‘i police and crime scene investigators used archaeological techniques, including pedestrian survey, tape-and-compass, and GPS mapping, to map and recover the remains. A feral pig trail transected various areas of the recovery site and corresponded with the distribution pattern of recovered skeletal material, including both the main concentration more broadly dispersed skeletal elements. While much of the skeleton was present, missing or unrecovered skeletal elements are consistent with expectations based on existing literature. Much of the postmortem bone deformations were characteristic of marks related to feral dog and/or feral pig scavenging. These results assisted local investigators in deciding the manner of death, as well as providing the family with an accounting of the decedent’s remains for burial. Thus, forensic anthropologists and archaeologists need to understand and develop knowledge of local animal behavior to recover and interpret human remains of medicolegal significance.     

Lay Victims’ Conceptions of Environmental Crime and Environmental Injustice: The Case of the Chem-Dyne Superfund Site

Social Justice Research - This project explores lay victims’ conceptions of environmental crime and environmental injustice through in-depth interviews with a snowball sample of people...     

Trends in the Experience of Injustice: Justice Indexes About Earnings in Six Societies, 1991–1996

This paper examines trends in the experience of injustice in six societies—Bulgaria, Czech Republic, East and West Germany, Hungary, and Russia—between 1991 and 1996. Using data collected by the International Social Justice Project, we estimate the justice index, JI1, and its decomposition into the amount of injustice attributable to poverty and the amount of injustice attributable to inequality; and we also examine gender differences in the justice index and its decomposition. The justice index is a summary measure of individuals' justice evaluations, and therefore the paper also takes a preliminary look at the two basic quantities that underlie the justice evaluation—actual earnings and just earnings—and their determinants, investigating, for the men of East and West Germany, the actual and just returns to schooling and experience in 1991 and 1996.