Economic Conditions, Deterrence and Juvenile Crime: Evidence from Micro Data

This article investigates the determinants of criminal activityamong juveniles in the United States. It uses a survey of U.S.high school students conducted in 1995, which provides detailedinformation on offenses; personal, family, and neighborhoodcharacteristics; as well as deterrence measures. The determinantsof selling drugs and committing assault, robbery, burglary,and theft are analyzed separately for males and females. Theresults provide some evidence that juveniles respond to incentivesand sanctions. Employment opportunities and policies designedto increase the probability of arrest may be effective toolsfor reducing juvenile crime.     

Producers' response in rice production — A comparison between ten Indian states under planning

This investigation attempts to compare rice producers' response to price and yield expectations in terms of changes in the planted area in different Indian states under two decades of planning. It provides an explanation of why the response function may differ between the states and offers supporting evidence.     

Correlates of drug abuse in adolescents: A comparison of families of drug abusers with families of nondrug abusers

This study was designed to compare drug-abusing adolescents and their families with nondrug-abusing adolescents and their families by (1) a comparison of the adolescents on measures of self-esteem and perceived parental behavior, (2) a comparison of the parents of drug-abusing adolescents with the parents of nondrug-abusing adolescents on child-rearing attitudes and on distortion in perceived parental behavior, and (3) an identification of the salient factors contributing to the prediction of drug-use in adolescents. The subjects in this study were 26 clinical inpatient drug-abusing adolescents and their parents and 26 nondrug-abusing adolescents and their parents. Testdata consisted of the adolescent's self-esteem score on the Self Esteem Inventory (SEI), the adolescent's factor score on the Child's Report of Parental Behavior Inventory—Revised (CRPBI-R), and the parents' scale score on each of the five factors of the Parent Attitude Survey (PAS). Findings indicate that the adolescent's self-esteem and perception of parental behavior, the ability of the parents to predict the child's parental perceptions, and the professed parental attitudes toward confidence and responsibility in child rearing all combine to suggest a set of factors differentiating the drug-abusing adolescent from the nondrug-abusing adolescent.     

Securing the Homelands: Transatlantic Co-operation after Bush

Since 9/11, internal security co-operation has grown into a major feature of transatlantic relations. This article seeks to appraise both the achievements of the Bush administration in this field and the prospects for President Obama's period of office. Homeland security has been a new and difficult area of co-operation to foster, yet both sides of the Atlantic have come to recognise their shared interests in working together. The article cautions those European policy-makers who are hoping for a major change in homeland security co-operation under the new president. It is likely that the policies of the new administration will be characterised more by continuity than by change.     

Vindictive but vulnerable: Paradoxical representations of women as demonstrated in internet discourse surrounding an anti-rape technology

Much media interest surrounded a campaign to raise funds to distribute 30,000 Rape-aXe condoms to women during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The barbed device is worn inside the vagina and attaches to a penis upon penetration. This paper presents an analysis of popular attitudes towards women and rape as identified from comments made upon online news websites and popular blogs in response to this technology. Two over-arching representations emerged; first, that the Rape-aXe would be employed as a weapon for vengeance and deceit, and second, that it was a means of helping women negotiate risk. We argue that such paradoxical representations of women as simultaneously vindictive and vulnerable make problematic the utility of such an anti-rape device. We suggest that the cultural entrenchment of stereotypical and negative attitudes towards women needs to be recognized and counter-acted upon before rape intervention measures, like the Rape-aXe, can have any positive effect.     

Who owns our data?

The layman's answer to the question posted in the title to this paper lies in the question itself. The common understanding of people when they talk about information about themselves is that it is indeed “theirs”. Until relatively recently, the law has been content to remain agnostic on the subject. The Common Law in general and English Courts in particular have traditionally avoided philosophical debates about the nature of things, preferring to develop concepts and principles from the results of cases decided on specific facts and circumstances. This approach has been acceptable while we have been winding our way gently up the foothills of the Information Age, but now that we see the towering peak of Big Data standing before us, covered by the ubiquitous Cloud, it is necessary to make a critical examination of some of the basic assumptions which we have hitherto carried with us about the way in which the law should treat rights over personal information. This paper will argue that the correct approach which the law should adopt is a proprietary one. That is to say that the protection of the economic value inherent in personal information should be grounded in property rights acknowledged by the law.