US Science Education: The View from a Practicing Scientist

Science and mathematics education in the US is failing to produce an adequate number of American scientists. Foreign postdoctoral fellows and students who typically remain in the US and become permanent residents and citizens increasingly populate US research laboratories. Were these foreign scientists to return home upon completion of their training, we would be facing a severe shortage of well‐trained research personnel in US laboratories. The contributions of foreign scientists to US scientific research have been important and impressive, but as noted above, there are dangers in relying on other countries to provide the basic education of scientists to fill our US laboratories.     

People: hearts and minds Towards rebirth of the public service ethic

No country will escape the enormous forces that are now buffeting the public sector worldwide. The massive changes underway are affecting people—public servants and citizens alike—and not just bottom lines. Standard approaches to dealing with change may unwittingly overlook the fact that Public Services are first and foremost “people systems”. The article provides a timely reminder that players in public organizations—senior officials, middle managers and front-line workers—experience change differently given their distinct perspectives and levels of authority. While responses to change may vary considerably within organizations, a common humanity is what ultimately unites people. As a result, governments that choose to ignore rather than acknowledge the human side of change may experience needless difficulty in bringing about the successful renewal of the public sector. (© 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)     

The Third Wave: Muslim Migration to Europe

In this age of confrontation, the secular Turkish model has been seen as a bridge between Islam and the West as well as the link between Europe and Asia. Now that model faces the most severe test in its history. How the current crisis is settled will frame future relations between Islam and the West no less than the events of 9/11.     

A THEORY OF HOMICIDAL BEHAVIOR AMONG WOMEN*

This theory explains the homicidal behavior of women in a variety of settings. Structural, social, and cultural conditions of modern societies generate strain for all women, which produces negative affect. Women tend to internalize negative affect as guilt and hurt rather than externalize it as anger directed at a target. This results in a situation analogous to overcontrolled personality, and results in low overall rates of deviance punctuated by occasional instances of extreme violence. The conditions found in long-term abusive relationships and pre- or post-partum environments are more likely to produce this result, but the theory is not limited to explaining female homicide in these settings.     

FELONY MURDER AND CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: AN EXAMINATION OF THE DETERRENCE QUESTION

A proper test of the deterrent effect of the death penalty must consider capital homicides. However, the criterion variable in most investigations has been total homicides—most of which bear no legal or theoretical relationship to capital punishment. To address this fundamental data problem, this investigation used Federal Bureau of Investigation data for 1976–1987 to examine the relationship between capital punishment and felony murder, the most common type of capital homicide. We conducted time series analyses of monthly felony murder rates, the frequency of executions, and the amount and type of television coverage of executions over the period. The analyses revealed occasional departures (for vehicle theft and narcotics killings) from the null hypotheses. However, on balance, and in line with the vast majority of capital punishment studies, this investigation found no consistent evidence that executions and the television coverage they receive are associated significantly with rates for total, index, or different types of felony murder.