Denunciation and the Illusion of Social Control: The Case of the Nevada Black Book

In Nevada, individuals me excluded from entering licensed casinos when their names have been listed by state regulatory bodies in what is popularly known as the Black Book. As a state regulatory procedure, Nevada's Black Book is officially aimed at excluding organized crime figures from the gaming industry. Beyond its manifest function, however, we believe that the drama of entering persons' names into the Black Book symbolically affirms the legitimacy of gaming and the efficacy of its regulatory body against perceived threats to the industry. Application of the procedure solely to the southern part of the state—Las Vegas— and chiefly to Italians reflects the group interests, culture conflicts, and stereotypes that underlie regulation of gaming. Central issues explored are the relationships of perceived threats to the origin and implementation of the Black Book; the perceptions of threat to the industry as emanating from those most alien to established groups; the sharp distinctions between the ethnic origins of the regulators and of those selected for inclusion in the Book; and the dramatization of the disreputability of those whose names are entered.     

Understanding transnational bribery: a corporate crime framework

Despite calls for utilizing white-collar and corporate crime frameworks to study corruption, the role of corporations in supplying bribes to foreign government officials is not well understood. In the current study, we draw upon a recent framework designed to examine the transnational corporate bribery process from an opportunity theory perspective. We apply the framework to a sample of individuals and organizations with enforcement actions levied against them by the United States Department of Justice’s Fraud Section for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 between 2011 and 2016. Using an exploratory mixed methods approach, we assess the prevalence and qualitative nature of multiple components of the framework. Our goal is to develop a systematic way to apply it to different sets of bribery data and to move toward a fuller theoretical account of transnational corporate bribery. Our findings demonstrate the significance of the corporate role in foreign bribery, the utility of the bribery process framework, and some areas of refinement and future theoretical development.

     

Development and preliminary psychometric evaluation of the domestic violence--related financial issues scale (DV-FI)

Intimate partner violence (IPV) occurs at disproportionate rates within impoverished groups of women and can include economic abuse as a form of psychological maltreatment. The current study developed a comprehensive assessment of the unique financial issues facing female victims of IPV using a sheltered sample (N = 113). An exploratory factor analysis (principal-axis factoring with varimax rotation) was conducted on 24 items of the newly developed Domestic Violence-Related Financial Issues Scale. Preliminary results supported five extracted factors, which accounted for approximately 53% of the total common variance in the women's responses. Psychometric properties of the instrument are presented.     

French Cities’ Struggle Against Incivilities: from Theory to Practices in Regulating Urban Public Space

In France, public policies began defining “incivilities” as a primary topic and target to focus on more than two decades ago. Yet what this term actually means is still somewhat unclear: almost every organization that uses it has its own definition, sometimes its own observatory. Despite, or perhaps because of, its very vagueness, the concept has become widely shared and used, securing itself a place on the agendas of most local security policies, becoming an explicit part of the remits of an increasing number of professionals, from police officers to social workers, including a wide range of municipal agents. The range of situations and behaviors potentially included in the list of “unruly conduct” is seemingly endless, from groups of teenagers hanging out to homeless people privatizing public places, and from using playgrounds as public toilets to noise, garbage, dog fouling, graffiti, queue-jumping, pushing and shoving, street harassment, insults of all kinds, badly parked cars, and so forth. However, not all of them provoke the same public attention. This article focuses on the way disorders are actually defined, measured, and dealt with in practice. Incivilities are often said to be growing because of increasing powerlessness. Our research proves action is far from being merely correlative to the legal capacity for sanction.     

Sexual abuse and anti-wrinkle cream: evidence from octocrylene

In a case of a driving ability assessment, hair analysis for ethyl glucuronide (EtG) was requested by the authorities. The person concerned denied alcohol consumption and did not present any clinical sign of alcoholism. However, EtG was found in concentrations of up to 910pg/mg in hair from different sampling dates suggesting an excessive drinking behavior. The person declared to use a hair lotion on a regularly base. To evaluate a possible effect of the hair lotion, prospective blood and urine controls as well as hair sampling of scalp and pubic hair were performed. The traditional clinical biomarkers of ethanol consumption, CDT and GGT, were inconspicuous in three blood samples taken. EtG was not detected in all collected urine samples. The hair lotion was transmitted to our laboratory. The ethanol concentration in this lotion was determined with 35g/L. The EtG immunoassay gave a positive result indicating EtG, which could be confirmed by GC-MS/MS-NCI. In a follow-up experiment the lotion was applied to the hair of a volunteer over a period of six weeks. After this treatment, EtG could be measured in the hair at a concentration of 72pg/mg suggesting chronic and excessive alcohol consumption. Overnight incubation of EtG free hair in the lotion yielded an EtG concentration of 140pg/mg. In the present case, the positive EtG hair findings could be interpreted as the result of an EtG containing hair care product. To our knowledge, the existence of such a product has not yet been reported, and it is exceptionally unusual to find EtG in cosmetics. Therefore, external sources for hair contamination should always be taken into account when unusual cosmetic treatment is mentioned. In those cases, it is recommended to analyze the hair product for a possible contamination with EtG. The analysis of body hair can help to reveal problems occurring from cosmetic treatment of head hair. As a consequence, the assessment of drinking behavior should be based on more than one diagnostic parameter.     

Political participation of ethnic minorities in the 1980s

Currently political participation, especially voter registration and turnout, varies substantially with ethnicity. Blacks and non-Hispanic whites participate at roughly equal rates, while Latinos and Asian-Americans are substantially less active. This variation may be the direct product of cultural factors, or it may reflect differences in the distribution of various determinants of participation, most notably education, citizenship, and age. Using data collected in 1984 on samples of California's black, Latino, Asian-American, and non-Hispanic white populations, we conclude that such variables fully account for lower Latino participation rates. Even with these controls, however, Asian-Americans remain less likely to vote. Because ethnic group consciousness is one of the variables related to activity, we conclude that ethnicity does have an indirect effect on participation as a basis for mobilization. In addition, we establish that noncitizens engage in nonelectoral activities, and we project future political participation rates of Latinos and Asian-Americans under several scenarios.