PROBLEMS AND STRATEGIES IN GAINING RESEARCH ACCESS IN POLICE ORGANIZATIONS

“Access” is conceived of as involving passage through two gates: one manned by the top-level authority figures of the organization, and the other by the proposed subjects of one's study. Within this framework, informal contacts, contingent acceptance at successive organizational levels, and self-selection are identified and discussed as the factors most central to an understanding of our successful access into three police organizations and our failures to gain access to two police organizations.     

略论刑法学研究中的“事”与“器”

<正>"工欲善其事,必先利其器",这句古语最直白地说明了工具的重要性,同时也包含了"事"与"器"的单向逻辑关系——由事择器。然而,对于一门学科("事")的研究和发展而言,研究方法("器")的意义却复杂得多,其中至少还存在着一种相反相成的逻辑——"因器明事"。前者自不必说;后者的意义则在于,方法的突破也许会改变学科的研究内容甚至整个学科的知识体系。基于学科与研究方法的这种"事"与"器"的辨证关系,对于方法的研究一方面有必要阐明学科本身之"事",不应以假想的"事"之前提来研究"器"之选择;另一方面也要关注方法对学科的反作用。近来,刑法学研究方法的问题受到越来越多的理论关注,本文即在这两个逻辑路径的指导下,对我国刑事法学的"事"与"器"进行导论式探讨,以期对目前我国刑法学研究在本体内容和研究方法上的瓶颈与迷失的解决表达些许管见。     

INTRODUCING PERSPECTIVES IN FAMILY LAW AND SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH

This article provides an editorial introduction to the following three related articles on the growing use and influence of social science research in family law. It first considers why this has become problematic and identifies some common strategies used by advocates, sometimes under the guise of scholarship, to destroy the standing of research findings contrary to their ideological or political position. Then it discusses briefly the remedies proposed to mitigate these kinds of problems within the following three articles.     

REGULATING THE PROCUREMENT OF STATE ENTERPRISES IN CHINA: CURRENT STATUS AND FUTURE POLICY CONSIDERATIONS

While the procurement of state enterprises is one of the most contentious issues for China's GPA accession negotiation,the regulation on such procurement is also of concerns under domestic law.From the Chinese domestic perspective,this Article first analyses the extent to which the procurement of state enterprises is regulated by national,ministerial,as well as firm-level procurement rules.On that basis,the incentives for adopting a principled approach to regulating such procurement are explored,such as value for money,preventing corruption,and fighting against local protectionism.A brief suggestion is made regarding the consolidation of the exiting rules in the context of complicated underlying institutional framework.     

TIME AGGREGATION AND TIME LAG IN MACRO-LEVEL DETERRENCE RESEARCH*

Recent arguments in research on individual-level deterrence suggest that the effect of perceived sanction risk on illegal behavior might occur over a shorter time period than the yearly lags typically incorporated in panel studies. This study raises the same issue for macro-level deterrence research by suggesting that panel studies using yearly data might have failed to capture the deterrent effect. The analysis uses ARIMA models with data aggregated monthly, quarterly, and semiannually to estimate the reciprocal effects between arrests and crimes for robbery, burglary, larceny, and auto theft in Oklahoma City from 1967 through 1989. No effect of crimes on arrests is found, but significant effects of arrests on crimes appear for three of the four offenses in the shorter temporal aggregations. The results suggest a need to reconsider conclusions based on panel studies that have used time aggregations and time lags that might be too long to uncover deterrent effects.     

FUTURE CHILD'S RIGHTS IN NEW REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGY:THINKING OUTSIDE THE TUBE AND MAINTAINING THE CONNECTIONS

This article considers whether children born through assisted human reproduction are entitled to information about their biological origins. It examines the issue both from a clinical perspective, citing social science research and the personal narratives of donor‐conceived children, and from a legal perspective, outlining the extent of a child's “right to know” in different jurisdictions. The article suggests that a uniform legal approach is needed that will recognize the right of all children to access details about their identity and conception, for the sake of their psychological well‐being. The article includes a fact scenario that considers the situation of a donor‐conceived child who has become the subject of a custody dispute, and who has not been told the circumstances of his conception.