The prevalence of mental disorders in a German sample of male incarcerated juvenile offenders

The current study investigated the prevalence of mental disorders among incarcerated juvenile offenders in Germany and sought to identify clinically relevant subgroups. In sum, 149 newly incarcerated male juvenile delinquents (M age = 19 years) were included. Diagnostic tools included the German version of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV and the Psychopathy Checklist-Screening Version. The most prevalent diagnoses in the sample included conduct disorders (81%), Cluster B personality disorders (up to 62%), and substance-related disorders (up to 60%). Moreover, psychopathic features were found among 21% of the participants. Cluster analysis distinguished three subgroups among this group of young offenders. The most problematic consisted of juveniles with multiple psychopathology, including antisocial traits, personality pathology, higher scores on the Psychopathy Checklist, as well as multiple substance abuse. Study outcomes are discussed in light of their implications for the development of effective treatment for juvenile offenders.     

Women’s perspectives on the value of a father’s initiative in shifting gendered practices within families

This paper explores the qualitative perspectives of women about a community embedded fathers’ initiative in Northern England. Projects to improve the well-being of men and their children are less common within the landscape of parent and child support, with mothers more often being the target recipients. Asking women about their perceptions of an initiative for fathers then offers original insights from women who are positioned as ‘related outsiders’, in that they were ‘outside’ the project but ‘inside’ the family and community. Findings suggest that women are able to see the positive impact of such a project, identifying that it offers a shared space for men and children, time for mothers without their children and can help with shifting roles and attitudes around childcare and emotional labour in the home. The initiative was also seen by the women as offering men more healthy means of coping, including men moving away from traditional hegemonic practices, which in turn shifted some women’s long held gendered beliefs about men as fathers. This research then offers a relational gendered backstory to a father’s initiative, demonstrating how such initiatives can potentially ‘undo’ gender and the positive implications this could have for families.     

Voting while ailing? The effect of voter facilitation instruments on health-related differences in turnout

Several studies suggest that people suffering from ill health or disabilities have a lower propensity to vote. Using six rounds of the European Social Survey, we examine whether the effect of health or functional disabilities on electoral participation is less or more pronounced in countries which utilize a wider range of facilitation instruments, such as advance or postal voting, proxy voting and voting outside the polling stations. Our findings show that with the exception of proxy voting, voter facilitation instruments not only have insignificant main effects but also a negative interaction effect with poor health/functional ability (FA). As a result, voter facilitation intensifies the health-related differences but not by activating those who are more active to begin with, as suggested in previous studies. The endogeneity argument thus seems most warranted explanation for our findings: countries with low turnout among people with impaired FA or health are more likely to adapt facilitation practices.     

Ideological Recycling of the Socialist Legacy. Reading Townscapes of Minsk and Astana

This article addresses the ways in which the systemic transformation of the former Soviet republics has been reflected in urban development in two capital cities, Minsk (Belarus) and Astana (Kazakhstan). Changes taking place in these capitals have been analysed through the prism of an ideological recycling of the socialist legacy, a concept that permits exploration of which aspects of the socialist legacy have been jettisoned and which retained, in the process of formation of a capital. The article explores the nationalising strategies adopted by Belarus and Kazakhstan and reified by various practices, including those involving the recasting of cities. These strategies, however, are analysed not as inventions of post-Soviet regimes, but as forms of structural continuity.     

Book reviews

Love, power and political interests

Anna G. Jónasdóttir, Love Power and Political Interests. Towards a Theory of Patriarchy in Contemporary Western Societies. 255 pp. Örebro Studies 7, 1991.

The power of the Will. Natalie Zahle. A biography

Birgitte Possing, Viljens Styrke. Natalie Zahle. En biografi (The Power of the Will. Natalie Zahle. A biography.) 2 vols. 622 pp. Summary in English. Copenhagen: Gyldendal 1992.

Image of god and gender models in Judaeo‐Christian tradition

Kari Elisabeth Börresen, ed, Image of God and Gender Models in Judaeo‐Christian Tradition. Oslo: Solum forlag, 1992.

Rethinking change

Rethinking Change ‐ Current Swedish Feminist Research. Uppsala: Swedish Science Press, 1992.

On the politics of theorizing strangers

Julia Kristeva, Strangers to Ourselves. Transl. Leon S. Roudiez. Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1991.

Julia Kristeva, Muukalaisia itsellemme. Transl. Paivi Malinen. Gaudeamus, 1992.

Julia Kristeva, Främlingar för oss själva. Transl. Ann Runnqvist‐Vinde. Natur och kultur, 1991.

The state, mothers and day care for children

Arnlaug Leira, Welfare States and Working Mothers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.     

Employment of Displaced and Non-Displaced Households in Luhansk and Donetsk Oblasti

Abstract

This essay investigates the employment of displaced and non-displaced households in a region next to the conflict zone. We show that the casually observed average 0–5% difference in employment between displaced and non-displaced household heads conceals positive selection into displacement. Relative to locals, internally displaced persons are positively selected based on observable as well as unobservable factors. After controlling for personal characteristics, the structure of the household, location, non-labour incomes and endogeneity of displacement, heads of IDP households are still 20% less likely to be employed two years after resettlement.     

Explaining Social Class Inequality in Voter Turnout: The Contribution of Income and Health

Occupation‐based social class is an important, yet under‐explored, factor in electoral participation. In this article, social class differences in voter turnout over time are measured, and how two other resources – namely income and health – mediate or modify this relationship is analysed. The analysis is based on an individual‐level register‐based 11 percent sample of the entire electorate in the 1999 Finnish parliamentary elections, and secondarily on smaller register‐based samples in the 2012 presidential and municipal elections. Results show that income mediates part of the effects of social class on voting, while social class and utilised health indicators exert mainly independent effects on turnout. Social class differences remain largely stable in all income and hospital care groups, except that no differences between classes are observed among those most severely affected by health problems. Results are also mostly similar between those of working age and the older population, and between men and women, and remain stable over time and in different types of elections. The findings imply that social class should be taken account in theoretical and empirical models of turnout.     

Transparency by Conformity: A Field Experiment Evaluating Openness in Local Governments

Sunshine laws establishing government transparency are ubiquitous in the United States; however, the intended degree of openness is often unclear or unrealized. Although researchers have identified characteristics of government organizations or officials that affect the fulfillment of public records requests, they have not considered the influence that government organizations have on one another. This picture of independently acting organizations does not accord with the literature on diffusion in public policy and administration. This article presents a field experiment testing whether a county government's fulfillment of a public records request is influenced by the knowledge that its peers have already complied. The authors propose that knowledge of peer compliance should induce competitive pressures to comply and resolve legal ambiguity in favor of compliance. Findings indicate peer conformity affects both in the time to initial response and in the rate of complete request fulfillment.