Effect of youth culture music on high school students' academic performance

This study investigated the assumption that youth culture orientation adversely affects school performance, using rock music as the youth culture component. Adolescents in grades 9–12 were assigned to a subject matter topic in the area of literature, mathematics, physical science, or social science and requested to study this topic intensely for 30 min in a music condition consisting of rock, classical, or no music. The subjects then were tested on their retention of the factual content of the article either immediately after the study period, 1 day later, or 3 days later. Retention was significantly lower in the rock music condition. Students recalled more content in the literature topic and in the immediate test. The results are discussed with reference to a social learning theory interpretation of youth culture.Received his Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Major interests are in the area of social and personality development in children and adolescents.Received her M.A. in psychology from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Major interests are in the area of child and family therapy and play behavior. At present she is working in a clinical setting.     

Institution-building issues in South Africa

This article discusses structural and labour-market factors associated with institution building in South Africa. It pays particular attention to the role of management development in institution building in the public sector. Two case studies that address the question of organizational restructuring following moves towards commercialization of some public sector organizations are discussed.     

An Inside View of Police Officers�� Experience with Domestic Violence

Since the recognition of domestic violence (DV) in the late 1970s, police officers have been frontline providers. Despite their changing role as a result of the criminalization of DV, little is known about their experiences and responses to this public health issue from their unique perspective. Via focus groups, 22 police officers discussed their scope of practice and emotional reactions to DV calls. Participants reported frustration with the recurring nature of DV and with the larger systems?? lack of accountability (e.g., courts, prosecution and community) that follow their initial interventions. Participants discussed the limitations of their role as protectors of public safety, attitudes that evolve over time and their beliefs as to contributing factors that perpetuate DV. Additionally, the officers recommend: more professional training, counseling, incident debriefing for officers including feedback on case disposition, better collaboration across professional groups, and evidence-based prosecution. Harsher penalties were also recommended.     

Why we need the independent sector: the behavior, law, and ethics of not-for-profit hospitals

Among the major forms of corporate ownership, the not-for-profit ownership form is distinct in its behavior, legal constraints, and moral obligations. A new empirical analysis of the American Hospital industry, using eleven years of data for all urban general hospitals in the country, shows that corporate form accounts for large differences in the provision of specific medical services. Not-for-profit hospitals systematically provide both private and public goods that are in the public interest, and that other forms fail to provide. Two hypotheses are proposed to account for the findings, one legal and one moral. While no causal claims are made, not-for-profit hospital behavior is consistent with the behavior required by law and morality. The moral argument, developed as a preliminary theory of not-for-profit ethics, also provides a potential reason to prefer not-for-profit hospitals. The findings provide a new justification for the not-for-profit tax exemption for hospitals, and also suggest new uses for ownership categories as regulatory tools.     

Formal rationality,substantive justice,and discrimination

This study examines the extent to which a juvenile court uses legal, substantive, and discriminatory criteria in assessing dispositions. The indicators of legal criteria are the seriousness of offense and the extent of prior arrest record, of substantive criteria, the presence of family and school problems, and of discriminatory criteria, race and social class. An examination of the dispositions accorded to a sample of 464 fourteen and fifteen year old arrestees in one juvenile court shows that, while discrimination in sentencing is minimal, the court is more likely to use substantive than formal criteria of decisionmaking. These findings suggest that studies of the juvenile court should be reoriented away from their traditional focus on legal and extralegal determinants of decision making toward a focus on substantive criteria.This study was supported by Ford Foundation under grant no. 73-96. We are grateful to Jackson Toby, principal investigator, for his aid in all phases of this study. William Smith and Antonia Steegen provided invaluable research assistance. This is a thoroughly revised version of a paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Criminology, November, 1977.