Consistency in policy thinking

This study examines consistency in opinion on a variety of important state and national policy questions. The data come from a two-wave panel study of adult Floridians conducted in 1981 and 1982. Wide variations in consistency of opinion over the 1-year period are found. Salience has an important impact on consistency, with respondents who find an issue salient almost always exhibiting more consistent opinions, but salience cannot explain the variations in consistency across issues. The level of government on which the issue is focused (national or state) has no bearing on consistency. Most important, the particular nature of the issue itself, especially how central it is to the individual and how long it has occupied the political agenda (maturity), affects consistency of opinion. Centrality and maturity both contribute to issue attitude consistency and even can compensate for one another. Both highly central new issues and remote old issues can produce consistent attitudes, but deficiences in centrality seem to override issue maturity. These findings illustrate the value of looking beyond opinion distributions to the meaning of the survey response. With information on consistency and its sources, the public opinion analyst can interpret polling results intelligently, and the study of public opinion can become more objective and scientific.     

The Legislative Role of Juries

Is it possible that jurors, in the process of evaluating the evidence against a defendant, act to some degree as legislators by assessing the soundness of policies they perceive the criminal law to be supporting? To test the hypothesis that jurors reflect public opinion in making such judgments, the author correlated changes in public opinion on war policy with fluctuations in the proportion of jury trial defendants found guilty of violating selective service laws. It was found that juries convicted those accused of draft evasion at a higher rate when a war was in progress than during peacetime and that during the Korean and Vietnam wars the conviction rate was directly correlated with public approval of American military actions, A breakdown of regional differences showed that the South was somewhat more supportive of the Vietnam War and more prone to convict in selective service cases than the rest of the nation was, but the results of this comparative analysis were inconclusive. Although the correspondence between public opinion and verdict tendencies was far from perfect (perhaps in part because of the skewed composition of juries), the study does sup port the notion that jurors draw on prevailing popular sentiments about laws and the public policies the laws further.     

Association of sexual revictimization with sexuality and psychological function

This study explores the associations of sexual revictimization (experiencing sexual abuse in childhood and adulthood) in a sample of 230 African American women who are low-income. Data indicate that women who experience sexual revictimization are more at risk for emotional stress and psychological pathology than women with no history of abuse. In addition, women who are revictimized appear to be at greater risk for emotional problems than women sexually abused only as a child or sexually assaulted only as adults. Revictimization also appears to be associated with an increased probability of engaging in prostitution, even higher than women with childhood- or adult-only victimization, who showed increased probability when compared to women never abused. Finally, women who are revictimized showed increased HIV risk, in that they were 4 times less likely than other women to consistently use condoms, but no more likely to be in monogamous relationships or less likely to have multiple partners.     

Work Choices and the Radical Revision of the Public Realm of Australian Statutory Labour Law

Australia’s statutory labour law has undergone very significantamendment following the enactment of the Workplace RelationsAmendment (Work Choices) Act 2005 (the Work Choices Act). Thisarticle argues that the new law radically revises the publicrealm of labour law established through the century-old systemof conciliation and arbitration. The Act seeks to strip backthe influence of trade unions and the traditional regulator,the Australian Industrial Relations Commission. It generatesa realm of private employer power, augmented where necessarywith direct intervention by Executive government to ensure thatthe old system does not re-emerge. The Work Choices Act is remarkablein its use of statutory language to obscure and defer meaning.The processes of its making were also marked by a reluctanceof the government to explain or even acknowledge the importof the law. It is tentatively concluded that the Act is a productof the mix of ideological, pragmatic and psychological motivationsunderlying its creation.     

Policy Diffusion and Program Scope: Research Directions

A major omission in diffusion research is the scope of changein program adoptions. Diffusion studies focus almost exclusivelyon the rate of change, thus ignoring possible variance in thecontent of programs selected by leaders, followers, and laggards.States may adopt new programs in one area, such as state-mandatedstudent testing. While most states now have a testing policy,these policies vary in terms of the number of students subjectto examinations. Thus, the amount of program change dependson the content of each state's policy. An interstate diffusionstudy of the pattern of program adoptions ignores this variance.It is also possible that policy scope is influenced by certainaspects of the diffusion process. One possibility is that programinnovators generally select more extensive programs than followers.Similarities or differences in policy scope among adopters mayalso be related to innovation attributes (e.g., whether a newprogram is symbolic, redistributive, or administratively complex).Finally, the number of years required for interstate diffusionmay result in similarities or differences in policy content.     

The Prevalence and Correlates of Depression and Hopelessness among Sex Offenders Subject to Community Notification and Residence Restriction Legislation

Little research has investigated the prevalence of mood disturbance among sex offenders despite the fact that psychological distress may bear some relationship to community reintegration, and ultimately, recidivism. All offenders on New Jersey’s sex offender Internet registry were mailed surveys about their experiences with, and perceptions of, notification and residence restriction statutes, the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), and the Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS). On average, respondents (N = 104) reported mild to moderate levels of depressive symptoms (M _BDI = 17.1) and hopelessness (M _BHS = 6.9). Additionally, offenders who reported being negatively affected by residence restrictions and notification statutes reported higher levels of both depression and hopelessness. Given evidence that sex offender specific legislation may de-stabilize offenders, this research highlights the importance of managing affective states in this population.     

Women’s Exposure to Psychological Abuse: Does That Experience Predict Mental Health Outcomes?

Women’s experience with psychological abuse was examined as a predictor of symptoms and clinical levels of depression, anxiety, and somatization, as well as suicidal ideation and life functioning. A national sample of 361 women reporting themselves to be in a problematic or conflictual relationship completed an online survey assessing psychological abuse, pre-existing risk factors, risk factors related to exposure of psychological abuse and mental health indicators. The results indicated that while psychological abuse does predict mental health outcomes, perceived negative changes in one’s traits, problematic relationship schemas, and response styles more strongly predict mental health outcomes than the reported abuse. Implications discussed include the importance of identifying women in psychologically abusive relationships who are at risk for mental health problems, prevention of development of mental health problems, and the need for mediation path analysis of the factors explored in this study.