Implementing randomized experiments in criminal justice settings: An evaluation of multi-systemic therapy in the Netherlands

This paper addresses several issues that we encountered when implementing a randomized experiment to evaluate a promising intervention for serious juvenile delinquents, multi-systemic therapy (MST). The issues overlap with issues others experienced when trying to conduct randomized experiments in clinical practice, but are complicated because MST takes place in a legal context. The complex juvenile justice system makes it difficult to come up with a simple system of randomization. Problems encountered are the complexity of the referral process in this type of intervention, legal issues and the ethical concerns raised by clinicians. Our experiences might be useful to others planning to carry out a randomized efficacy study within the juvenile justice system. Firstly, other researchers might feel supported if they realize that others experience similar problems, and, secondly, we provide some concrete suggestions concerning the following: selecting the procedures and determining the moment of randomization, dealing with and overcoming the resistance of institutions involved, maintaining the cooperation of both the institution and the sample, and keeping turnover of research staff to a minimum.     

A New Language of Equality: Jews and the State in Nineteenth-Century Morocco

Abstract

In the late nineteenth century, the Moroccan government’s concern for its image abroad ushered in a new approach to understanding Jews’ rights. Although the sultans never abandoned the dhimma contract in favour of religious egalitarianism, government officials increasingly adopted a new language of equality to describe how Jewish subjects should be treated. This language of equality borrowed vocabulary from Western notions of tolerance, but did not fundamentally conflict with Islamic ideals of justice. Mawlāy ?asan (reigned 1873–1894) refused to declare that Jews and Muslims were equal, but he increasingly insisted that Jews and Muslims must be treated equally before the law. Jews trod a similarly fine line, between pushing the envelope of their legal rights as dhimmīs and affirming their status as the personal protégés of the sultan. Through an examination of correspondence among Moroccan government officials, Jews and foreign diplomats, this article locates the shifting relationship between the state and its Jewish subjects in the language which the Makhzan used to define justice.     

Identities,Boundaries, and Accounts of Women Methamphetamine Users

Drug users often define themselves as functional users and depict others as dysfunctional (i.e. junkies). Previous research on the social identities of drug users has focused on the symbolic boundaries they create to distance themselves from stigmatized others. Investigators have yet to focus on how users account for their own boundary violations. Here, we examine the narratives of 30 former women methamphetamine (meth) users to determine how they make distinctions between functional and dysfunctional meth users (i.e. “meth heads”). The distinctions they make are based on users’ abilities to maintain control of their lives and to hide their use from outsiders. Those who saw themselves as functional but who engaged in behaviors inconsistent with this image accounted for these behaviors to maintain desired identities. We show the complexity of drug users’ identities and illustrate how anti-drug campaigns that provide grotesque caricatures of drug users may prolong drug using careers.     

Einwegkunststoff im Fokus des Gesetzgebers

Natur und Recht - Im Lichte der Richtlinie (EU) 2019/904 über die Verringerung der Auswirkungen bestimmter Kunststoffprodukte auf die Umwelt hat der nationale Gesetzgeber eine neue...     

Land Reform and the Social Origins of Private Farmers in Russia and Ukraine

This article examines land privatization in two administrative regions of Russia and Ukraine. In both regions, members of two distinct social groups were the beneficiaries of land distribution for private commercial cultivation: rural elites, and people on the margins of rural society. This double-ended distribution led to the recapitulation of Soviet forms of production. Traditional analysis of agrarian economies emphasizes actual productive capacities, while literature on property rights centres on the presumed legal categories of production. This article integrates these two theoretical concerns to understand how private property regimes affected cultivation practices and thus, participation in markets.