Lines and shadows: Perceptions of racial profiling and the Hispanic experience

Despite a longstanding research tradition examining the intersection of policing and race, extant research focused almost exclusively on race and ethnicity in Black and White terms. As such, academic knowledge of the Hispanic experience remained opaque. In this study, data from a random sample of New York City residents were used to compare the perceptions of racial profiling among Hispanic and non-Hispanic citizens. In particular, factors relating to the perception that racial profiling was widespread, justified, and personally experienced were examined. Findings were grounded within the literature on police-citizen relations and racial profiling.     

The Effect of Image Quality and Forensic Expertise in Facial Image Comparisons

Images of perpetrators in surveillance video footage are often used as evidence in court. In this study, identification accuracy was compared for forensic experts and untrained persons in facial image comparisons as well as the impact of image quality. Participants viewed thirty image pairs and were asked to rate the level of support garnered from their observations for concluding whether or not the two images showed the same person. Forensic experts reached their conclusions with significantly fewer errors than did untrained participants. They were also better than novices at determining when two high‐quality images depicted the same person. Notably, lower image quality led to more careful conclusions by experts, but not for untrained participants. In summary, the untrained participants had more false negatives and false positives than experts, which in the latter case could lead to a higher risk of an innocent person being convicted for an untrained witness.     

The Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) and faith‐based NGO aid to Africa

The authors examine the role of international faith‐based NGOs in foreign aid and development assistance for Africa, with special reference to the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). The MCC is successful in its contribution to development and empowerment in the 20 African countries in which it works because of its philosophical and programmatic focus on accountability, its holistic approach to basic rights, and a ‘listen and learn’ approach which embraces empowerment and social justice. Although a ‘small is beautiful’ philosophy does not necessarily feed the ‘quick fix’ methods associated with the New Policy Agenda, it remains the most effective, efficient, accountable, and grassroots‐responsive way of dealing with development issues.     

The Impact of Supreme Court Activity on the Judicial Agenda

When the Supreme Court takes action, it establishes national policy within an issue area. A traditional, legal view holds that the decisions of the Court settle questions of law and thereby close the door on future litigation, reducing the need for future attention to that issue. Alternatively, an emerging interest group perspective suggests the Court, in deciding cases, provides signals that encourage additional attention to particular issues. I examine these competing perspectives of what happens in the federal courts after Supreme Court decisions. My results indicate that while Supreme Court decisions generally settle areas of law in terms of overall litigation rates, they also introduce new information that leads to increases in the attention of judges and interest groups to those particular issues.     

Teen pregnancy in New Orleans: Factors that differentiate teens who deliver,abort, and successfully contracept

This study reports findings from interviews with three groups of black teenagers: child bearers (n=136), terminators (n=92), and contraceptors (never been pregnant,n=151). The focus of this research is to describe the differences between these three groups of teenagers in an attempt to identify factors that may best differentiate the groups. The findings suggest that, among the teens who became pregnant, motivation to use contraceptives may be the key factor. More than 86% of these teens knew about contraceptives at the time they became pregnant and nearly three-quarters knew where to obtain contraceptives. However, only 16% of teens who became pregnant reported to be using a contraceptive at the time they became pregnant. Education about the availability and mode of contraceptive use is essential.Funding was provided by the Research Council, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana.Received her MPH from Tulane School of Public Health. Major interest is evaluation research of population programs.She received her Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago. Her major interest is evaluation of family planning programs.Received her M.D. and MPH from Tulane University. Current research interests are nutritional status of adolescent mothers and their children; growth and development of children and sex education.Received her Ph.D. from Purdue University. Her research interests are categorical data analysis and research design.     

Attachment in adolescence: A narrative and meta-analytic review

The purpose of this paper is to review the literature that has examined adolescent attachment relations with parents, and any association between attachment and adolescent development or adjustment. The paper begins with a review of traditional attachment theory and concepts. The organizational perspective advanced by Sroufe and his colleagues is described in addition to other extensions of the study of attachment. The study of adolescent attachment is one extension of the attachment literature that has received increasing attention in recent years. A narrative review of studies of adolescent attachment is presented in which conceptualizations of adolescent attachment, methodologies, and results are described. The narrative review is followed by a metaanalytic review of this literature. The paper concludes by discussing the results of the reviews, the current state of adolescent attachment research, and some recommendations for further advancing the empirical and theoretical literature on adolescent attachment and adaptation.Received Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame. This paper was completed while the author was a doctoral student at the University of Notre Dame. Major interests are in object relations theory and adolescent ego development. 511