Social Networks of Homeless Youth in Emerging Adulthood

Little is known about the social networks of homeless youth in emerging adulthood despite the importance of this information for interventions to reduce health risks. This study examined the composition of social networks, and the risks and supports present within them, in a random sample of 349 homeless youth (33.4% female, 23.9% African American, 17.7% Hispanic) between the ages of 18 and 24. Social network members who were met on the street were among the most likely to be perceived as engaging in risky sex, as well as to engage in substance use with the youth. Youth were more likely to count on relatives and sex partners for support compared to other network members, but they also were more likely to use substances with sex partners and perceived them as engaging in risky sex. Interventions may need to recognize the importance of intimate relationships during the developmental stage of emerging adulthood by enhancing supportive bonds and reducing substance use and risky sex in these relationships.     

The effectiveness of mediation: An independent analysis of cases handled by four major service providers

A study of 449 cases administered by four major providers of ADR services showed that mediation was capable of settling 78 percent of cases, regardless of whether the parties had been sent to mediation by a court or had selected the process voluntarily. Mediation also cost far less than arbitration, took less time, and was judged a more satisfactory process than arbitration.Jeanne M. Brett is the DeWitt W. Buchanan, Jr. Professor of Dispute Resolution and Organizations at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill. 60208     

Do child abuse rates increase on those days on which professional sporting events are held?

This paper examines possible relationships between days on which professional sports events are held and daily rates of substantiated physical abuse of children by males. Three different hypotheses about possible relationships between various types of sporting events and rates of child abuse are examined using statewide data drawn from the Missouri Division of Family Services. Hierarchical OLS Multiple regressions were used to test for these relationships. Effects were controlled for the month in which the abuse occurred and the day of the week during which the incident occurred. The findings do not support the hypothesis that sporting events yield increases in number of substantiated male-perpetrator child abuse cases.     

The Strategic Use of Interests,Rights, and Power to Resolve Disputes

To ensure success in resolving difficult disputes, negotiators mustmake strategic decisions about their negotiation approach. In this essay,we make practical recommendations for negotiation strategy based on Ury,Brett, and Goldberg's (1993) interests, rights, and power framework fordispute resolution and subsequent empirical research by Brett, Shapiro, andLytle (1998). We discuss how negotiations cycle through interests, rights,and power foci; the prevalence of reciprocity; and the one-sided,distributive outcomes that result from reciprocity of rights and powercommunications. We then turn to using interests, rights and powerstrategically in negotiations. We discuss choosing an opening stragegy,breaking conflict spirals of reciprocated rights and power communications,and when and how to use rights and power communications effectively innegotiations.     

Research Note: Reexamining the Suburban Exploitation Thesis in American Metropolitan Areas

The argument that suburbs exploit cities has been made so oftenthat it seems incontestable. Adherents to that view, however,rarely produce evidence for exploitation where suburban-generatedbenefits have been measured and compared with suburban-generatedcosts. Studies that examine only costs are not convincing evidencethat suburbs damage cities. Relatedly, what evidence existsthat metropolitan government fragmentation damages cities, whileconcentration helps them? When studies of those subjects arereviewed, the patterns challenge the suburban-exploitation thesis.Implications are discussed, including the significance for federalstructures of metropolitan governance.     

Experts Judging Experts: The Role of Expertise in Reviewing Agency Decision Making

What role does judicial subject matter expertise play in the review of agency decisions? Using a data set of decisions in which the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences (BPAI) is reviewed by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, we investigate this question and find that greater subject matter expertise does make it more likely that a judge will vote to reverse an agency decision.     

The river of inter-civilisational relations: the ebb and flow of peoples,ideas and innovations

As a tool for understanding the world in which we live the study of the history of political thought is stunted because of a preoccupation with the Western canon as the history of political thought to the exclusion of other histories and traditions. This ongoing exclusion is itself facilitated by a deeply entrenched select reading of the Western canon; a reading that overlooks a tendency within the canon to not just ignore but suppress and dismiss the value of other accounts of history and traditions of thought. An opening of the Western mind to these assumed to be alien traditions of social, legal and political thought reveals that, in the global market place of ideas, these purportedly competing and non-compatible traditions of thought might in fact have considerably more in common than what sets them apart: thus opening the way for an authentic inter-civilisational dialogue that focuses more on co-operation and less on clashes.