Helping to Break the Glass Ceiling? Fathers,First Daughters,and Presidential Vote Choice in 2016

Political Behavior - Throughout her 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton crafted messages intended to appeal to fathers of daughters and to highlight the...     

Race, Region, and Representative Bureaucracy

Scholars of representative bureaucracy have long been interested in the linkage between passive representation in public agencies and the pursuit of specific policies designed to benefit minority groups. Research in this area suggests that the structural characteristics of those organizations, the external political environment, and the perceptions of individual bureaucrats each help to facilitate that relationship. Work to date has not, however, sufficiently investigated the impact of region on representation behavior, which is surprising given the emphasis that it receives in the broader literature on race and politics. Drawing on that literature, this study argues that, for black bureaucrats, region of residence is an important moderator of active representation because it helps to determine the salience of race as an issue and the degree of identification with racial group interests. It tests hypotheses related to that general argument in a nationally representative sample of more than 3,000 public schools. The results suggest that black teachers produce greater benefits for black students in the South, relative to other regions. A supplementary analysis also confirms the theoretical supposition that race is a more salient issue for Southern black bureaucrats, when compared with their non-Southern counterparts.     

Built-in Safeguards and the Implementation of Civil War Peace Accords

This article contributes to analyses of peace agreement implementation by focusing on the role of built-in safeguards as procedural mechanisms within peace agreements. Recent empirical studies suggest that negotiated peace agreements are a frequent mode of armed conflict termination and implementation of those agreements to be the primary predictor of enduring peace and the quality of that peace. However, in many instances implementation takes years or even decades and is subject to breakdown before achieving the key implementation objectives. In this article, we identify and theorize three key safeguards in peace accords: transitional power-sharing, dispute resolution, and verification mechanisms. We argue that these safeguards lead to higher implementation of provisions negotiated in peace agreements by addressing mutual suspicion and by facilitating more constructive working relationships among former rivals. To test our arguments, we analyze implementation of comprehensive peace agreements negotiated between 1989 and 2012 from the Peace Accords Matrix Implementation Data (PAM_ID). We find that the built-in safeguards that we have identified significantly explain variations in levels of peace agreement implementation.     

Ian Paisley and the Reformed Tradition

This article examines the religious beliefs underlying the political ideology of Ulster's fundamentalist politician, Ian Paisley. Paisley claims to follow the Reformation tradition in both his theology and political beliefs, and cannot be understood without reference to this tradition. Adopting an apocalyptic world view from Reformation Protestants such as Knox, Paisley views the Roman Catholic Church as the Harlot of Babylon condemned in Revelation, and this belief underlies his anti-Catholicism. This world view shapes Paisley's understanding of politics because he follows Knox in believing that the political community has a covenantal relationship to God requiring complete repudiation of Roman Catholic 'idolatry'. Paisley invokes the Scottish covenanting tradition as a model for Protestant political activity in Ulster, advocating resistance against any attempt to show political favour to the Roman Catholic Church.     

Sense of Belonging Among High School Students Representing 4 Ethnic Groups

The authors investigated the dimensions and mechanisms of belonging relevant to motivation and achievement among high school students representing 4 ethnic groups. Using survey data from 9th to 12th grade students (N = 5,494) attending 7 ethnically-diverse high schools, structural equation modeling was employed to explore, independently for each ethnic group, the relationships between students’ perceptions of their belonging (encompassing relationships with teachers and peers, extracurricular involvement, and perceived ethnic-based discrimination), motivation (efficacy beliefs and valuing school activities), and academic success. All 4 measures of belonging were significant for European-American and Latino students. However, friendship nominations were not significant for all groups, suggesting potential variability in perspectives across ethnic groups. The strength of the structural model postulating belonging as a mediator, including statistically significant indirect paths, supported the hypothesis that the belonging construct accounted for much of the relationship between student motivation and success across groups.Beverly Faircloth is a doctoral candidate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research interests include the developmental and motivational processes that support adolescent school engagement in ethnically diverse settings.Jill Hamm is an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1996. Her research interests are adolescents’ peer relations in ethnically diverse schools and classrooms.     

A preliminary study on findings of psychopathy and affective disorders in adult sex offenders

The construct of psychopathy has often been considered mutually exclusive to the presence of genuine depressive or anxiety symptomotology. This article addresses the hypothesized reasons for this dichotomous relationship. In this study, 68 civilly committed adult male sex offenders were evaluated using a variety of psychological measures to determine if psychopathic individuals in this group would demonstrate clinically significant affective symptoms. Results indicate that the men in this sample endorsed high rates of psychopathy on the PCL-R, with 42% of these expressing concurrent symptoms of depression and 26% manifesting symptoms of an anxiety disorder. Relationships between affective symptoms and PCL-R factor scores and qualitative differences between these constructs in child molesters and rapists are also discussed.     

Reliability of Sexually Violent Predator Civil Commitment Criteria in Florida

The present study investigated the reliability of Sexually Violent Predator (SVP) civil commitment criteria under Florida's Jimmy Ryce Act. The purpose of the study was to determine if, independently, 2 evaluators would reach the same conclusions about the same client (n = 295). According to civil commitment criteria outlined by the United States Supreme Court (Kansas v. Hendricks, 1997), SVPs must display a mental abnormality predisposing them to sexual violence and a likelihood of future sexual violence. The interrater reliability of 8 DSM-IV diagnoses applied by evaluators to determine whether a client has a "mental abnormality that predisposes him to sexual violence" was found to be poor to fair (kappa = .23 to . 70). The interrater reliability of risk assessment instruments used to determine "likelihood of reoffense" was good (ICC = .77 to .85). The recommendations made by evaluators regarding whether or not to refer a client for civil commitment demonstrated poor reliability (kappa = .54). Implications for practice and policy are explored.     

The quantification of fingerprint quality using a relative contrast index

Research into fingermark enhancement techniques has traditionally used visual comparisons and qualitative methods to assess their effectiveness based on the quality of the developed fingermark. However, with increasing research into the optimisation of these techniques the need for a quantitative evaluative method has arisen. Parameters for acceptable fingerprint quality are not well defined and generally encompass clear, sharp edges and high levels of contrast between the fingermark ridges and background material. Using these current parameters, a conclusive measurement of fingerprint quality and thus the effectiveness of development techniques cannot be achieved.This study presents a model through which an aspect of fingerprint quality can be objectively and impartially measured based on a relative contrast index, constructed through measuring the reflective intensity of the fingermark ridges against the background material. Using a fibre-optic spectrophotometer attached to a microscope with axial illumination, the intensity counts of the ridge detail and background material were measured and a logarithmic contrast index constructed. The microscope and spectrophotometer parameters were experimentally tested using a standard colour resolution chart with known reflective properties. The protocol was successfully applied to four sample groups: black inked fingerprints on white paper; latent fingermarks on white paper developed separately with ninhydrin and physical developer; and fingermarks in blood deposited on white tiles and enhanced with amido black. The contrast indices obtained quantitatively reflect the level of contrast and provide an indication of fingerprint quality through a numerical representation rather than previous qualitative methods. It has been suggested that the proposed method of fingerprint quantification may be viable for application in the forensic research arena as it allows the definitive measurement of contrast to aid the evaluation of fingermark detection and enhancement techniques.     

ADHD among incarcerated youth: An investigation on the congruency with ADHD prevalence and correlates among the general population

The limited literature on the topic speculates that the rate of ADHD would be higher among incarcerated youth than found in the general population. However, to our knowledge no such published figures exist for juveniles in the United States. This study investigates the likelihood of ADHD diagnosis among 453 incarcerated youth and compares and contrasts a variety of demographic, social, educational, psychological, and criminal characteristics to the general literature on ADHD. Both similarities and differences are reported. This project was supported by Grant #99-RT-VX-K020 awarded by the National Institute of Justice. Points of view in this document are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. An early version of the paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Academy of Criminal Justice Science in Chicago, Illinois.