THE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SECURITY'S TREATMENT OF ABORIGINAL POLYGYNY AND TRIBAL MARRIAGE: A SAGA OF ADMINISTRATIVE DEBATE

Abstract: Since the inclusion of Aborigines in the Australian social security system, the treatment of Aboriginal polygyny and tribal marriage by the Department of Social Security (DSS) has been a recurring minor issue of departmental, and at times extra-departmental, debate. This article traces the history of that debate from the early 1960s to the present day. Although the article is primarily historical, there is also some attempt made to analyse both the nature of the administrative processes involved and the types of administrative argument deployed in the debate.     

Distributive and Procedural Justice in Seven Nations

The paper examines the impact of distributive justice and procedural justice variables on judgments in seven countries (Bulgaria, France, Hungary, Poland, Russia, Spain, and the United States). Subjects were presented with each of two experimental vignettes: one in which the actor unsuccessfully appeals being fired from his job and one in which the actor unsuccessfully goes to an employment agency to seek a job; they were asked to rate the justness of the outcome and how fairly the actor had been treated. The vignettes manipulated deservingness and need of the actor (distributive justice factors) and impartiality and voice in the hearing (procedural justice factors). Four hypotheses were tested: first, a distributive justice hypothesis that deservingness would be more important than need in these settings; second, a procedural justice hypothesis that the importance of voice and impartiality vary depending on the nature of the encounter and the forum in which it is resolved; third, because of their recent socialist experience, Central and Eastern European respondents make greater use of need information and less use of deservingness information than Western respondents; and fourth, that distributive justice and procedural justice factors interact. The distributive justice hypothesis is supported in both vignettes. The procedural justice hypothesis receives some support. Impartiality is more important in the first vignette and voice is more important in the second vignette. The interaction hypothesis was not supported in the first vignette, but does receive some support in the second vignette. The cultural hypothesis is not supported in either vignette. The implications for distributive and procedural justice research are discussed.     

The development,function and future of home furlough programs

Home furloughs are widely recognized as serving valid correctional aims. This was not always the case: when temporary release programs were first established, prevailing penal philosophy emphasized isolation from the community and institutional efforts to achieve inmate reform. It was not until penologists began to address the offender’s post-release adjustment difficulties that temporary release came to be viewed as a valuable aid to offender rehabilitation. Today, the graduation of release that home furloughs can provide make temporary release programs a routine and valuable aspect of correctional programming. Home furloughs can serve a variety of correctional objectives in addition to their principal function of facilitating inmate readjustment to the community. Temporary respites from confinement may humanize the prison experience and promote therapeutic goals. Home visits may act as incentives for good inmate behavior and may serve broader aims than those addressed by more narrowly focused conjugal visiting programs. Finally, observations of the offender’s performance on furlough may assist parole officials in evaluating an offender’s readiness for release. Although the future of temporary release programs is unclear, it appears that the multitude of functions served by home visits will insure their place in correctional programming. However new influences on correctional managers, such as the reforms proposed in the “justice model for corrections,” will undoubtedly modify the administration of temporary release programs and may well lead to some unanticipated consequences for the correctional community.     

Uncertainty and Turnout

This article develops a model that simultaneously considersindividual turnout and vote choice while also accounting foruncertainty about candidates. The theoretical development ofthis model implies that the effects of uncertainty on turnoutvary with the strength of individual preferences. Applicationof the model to individual choice in the 1996 American presidentialelection confirms that decreasing uncertainty about the charactertraits of the candidates decreases the probability of abstentionfor individuals with strong preferences but increases the probabilityof abstention for individuals with weak preferences.