Canadian Cold Front

Good old days for Canada-China relations are gone with Ottawa caught in a China policy dilemma     

SOCIAL-DEMOGRAPHIC ATTITUDES AND VIOLENCE*

In this study, we examine the relationships among social-demographic characteristics, attitudes, and violence, drawing on cultural theories. Structural equation modeling techniques are employed to examine data from a representative sample of the general population and a sample of ex-offenders. The findings indicate that age, gender, and SES are related to attitudes toward retribution and courage and to disputatiousness. Further, attitudes toward courage and retribution have significant effects on disputatiousness and violence, which explains a substantial portion of SES effects. The results suggest that lower-class persons are more likely to engage in violence to a large extent because they are more punitive and place greater emphasis on showing courage in conflicts.     

Canada's Conservatives Change Their Mindset

As the United States' influence wanes in the global downturn, its neighbor's prime minister moves to thaw frosty relations with Beijing     

EXTENDING SOCIAL DISORGANIZATION THEORY: MODELING THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN COHESION,DISORDER, AND FEAR*

In this study, we build on recent social disorganization research, estimating models of the relationships between disorder, burglary, cohesion, and fear of crime using a sample of neighborhoods from three waves of the British Crime Survey. The results indicate that disorder has an indirect effect on burglary through fear and neighborhood cohesion. Although cohesion reduces disorder, nonrecursive models show that disorder also reduces cohesion. Part of the effect of disorder on cohesion is mediated by fear. Similar results are obtained in nonrecursive burglary models. Together, the results suggest a feedback loop in which decreases in neighborhood cohesion increase crime and disorder, increasing fear, in turn, further decreasing cohesion.