Sentencing Female Drug Offenders: Reexamining Racial and Ethnic Disparities

This study analyzes the relationship between race/ethnicity and sentencing outcomes for female drug offenders in Florida. Grounded in the focal concerns perspective, the research examines whether, in the specific case of drug offenders, minority women are treated more harshly than White women. Interaction models are estimated to determine the influence of drug offense type on racial and ethnic sentencing disparities. Differences in sentencing outcomes are also examined following significant policy changes in the state. In general, the findings suggest that minority female drug offenders are disadvantaged at both the incarceration and sentence length decisions. It also appears that perceptions of dangerousness associated with female offenders' race/ethnicity and offense are incorporated into sentencing authorities' patterned responses. That is, the level of disparity between Black, Hispanic, and White females is conditioned by type of drug offense in the interaction models. The changes in sentencing policy also impact the role of race and ethnicity in sentencing decisions. By analyzing drug offenders exclusively, the current study clarifies the role of race in sentencing decisions for females. In contrast to prior research that examined all offense categories together, the current study suggests that for drug offenses, minority females may, in fact, be deemed more dangerous and culpable than White female drug offenders.     

Reassessing the Influence of Criminal History in Federal Criminal Courts

Abstract

Prior sentencing research indicates that defendants with more extensive criminal histories receive more punitive dispositions and that criminal history influences sentencing decisions over and above its influence on the guideline recommended sentence. To date, these additional effects of criminal history have almost exclusively been treated as linear effects. However, there are plausible reasons to expect that criminal history could have curvilinear effects on sentencing outcomes that taper off at higher scores. The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential curvilinear effects of defendant criminal history on incarceration, sentence length, and downward departure decisions in federal criminal courts. The findings suggest that criminal history has curvilinear effects on each of these sentencing outcomes. As criminal history category increases, defendants receive more severe sentences, net of other factors, but only up to a certain threshold level, at which point criminal history effects taper off and even reverse.     

Narratives of the EU in Israel/Palestine: narrative “stickiness” and the formation of expectations

ABSTRACT

Analysis of narrative can help identify the expectations actors hold about each other in international relations. This article triangulates a mix of elite interviews, media content analysis and an original Q-sort public opinion methodology to map the presence of narratives about EU relations among young Israelis and Palestinians. Our aim is not to explain the effects of EU public diplomacy in these countries. Instead we aim to identify the narrative “terrain” or conditions that the EU communicates to and with and, drawing on feminist and everyday narrative studies, to examine the role of affect and identity to explain why some narratives are more “sticky” than others in those societies. We find, first, a broad recognition that the EU’s capacity to act in international relations is necessary but limited in the face of greater challenges in the international system, and indeed, within the EU itself. We find, second, little evidence that young people radically reshape the narratives they encounter in their public spheres, but nevertheless some important divisions emerge that pose problems for how EU policymakers can communicate consistently without dismaying some citizens in third countries.     

新时代青年政治引领的价值、挑战和策略

青年是中华民族伟大复兴的生力军,是与新时代脉搏同步跳动的新力量.青年阶段是人生的"拔节孕穗期",最需要精心引领、引导和栽培.切实做好青年政治引领,对于为实现中华民族伟大复兴的中国梦凝聚青春磅礴力量具有重要的时代意义和价值.新时代青年思想活跃、思维敏捷,主体意识和参与意识强,交流交往的国际化程度高,信息获取及时广泛,价值认同多元并存,关注点发散且迁移多变.传统的青年政治引领,面临形式枯燥、吸引力弱化、受外部环境影响和干扰较大等挑战,工作相对乏力.针对青年工作的现实需要,提出做好新时代青年政治引领的对策:一是夯实理论基础;二是营造成长环境;三是突出价值认同;四是创新方式方法;五是践行青春担当.     

Immigration effects on crime in a midwestern,nontraditional destination: a neighborhood-level analysis of Cincinnati,Ohio

Abstract

A wide-ranging body of research on the immigration-crime relationship has shown that immigration does not increase community crime levels. However, most prior studies have focused on traditional immigrant destinations or border cities. This study addresses several gaps in this line of research by exploring immigration effects on neighborhood levels of Violent and Property Index crimes for the 2008 to 2014 period in Cincinnati, Ohio – a Midwestern, mid-sized, nontraditional immigrant destination. Overall, our findings are consistent with previous research and indicate that controlling for other factors, the percent foreign-born has largely neutral effects on census tract-level crime rates in Cincinnati. Moreover, our findings show no signs of indirect effects of immigration on crime through neighborhood disadvantage.     

ECFA对海峡两岸区域金融合作的法律支撑分析

随着《海峡两岸经济合作框架协议》(ECFA)的签署,其对海峡两岸区域金融合作的法律支撑效应尽显。从法律定位角度分析,ECFA不仅涵盖两岸货物贸易、服务贸易(含金融服务),还涉及投资内容,完全符合世界贸易组织(WTO)认可的"深度PTA"特征。从金融合作的实质内容来看,ECFA在金融方面的全面渗透,广泛合作的态势对金融监管提出了严峻的挑战,要求两岸在监管方面也必须配套广泛性和协同性。截止目前,ECFA框架尚未达成解决解决争端的救济模式,但考虑以政治性、法律程序性混合机制公允、灵活解决争端应成为题中应有之义。