Housing Choice Voucher Location Patterns a Decade Later

In 2003, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) prepared a study of the location patterns of the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program. This study became an important baseline for the evaluation of the HCV program and its ability to serve the goal of poverty deconcentration. The study examined the ability of HCV households in the 50 largest metropolitan areas to make entry to a broad array of neighborhoods and to locate in high-opportunity neighborhoods with low levels of poverty.

New data from HUD and the American Community Survey permit the study to be replicated. We find that vouchers continue to consume only a small portion of the housing stock, with relatively small amounts of spatial concentration. Unfortunately, only about one in five voucher households locate in low-poverty neighborhoods, and this share is rising only very slowly. If the nation wants to pursue poverty deconcentration through the HCV program, we cannot rely on the program, as it is now structured, to accomplish this goal. Additional incentives and constraints will be needed, similar to those that were part of the Gautreaux and Moving to Opportunity programs.     

An Equality and Human Rights Commission Worthy of the Name

The Human Rights Act 1998 came fully into force on 2 October 2000, enabling the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to be relied on directly in our domestic courts.¹ The Act lacked provision for a Human Rights Commission to advise and assist alleged victims in bringing proceedings for breaches of Convention rights, to research, intervene in court proceedings, and promote a culture of human rights, although such a Commission had been created for Northern Ireland. A White Paper has now been issued outlining plans for a Commission for Equality and Human Rights. This paper considers the future role and potential impact of the Commission and highlights opportunities that have been missed since October 2000 in its absence. We focus on its human rights aspects and summarize key conditions for the new Commission's success.     

Sex as a moderator and perceived peer pressure as a mediator of the externalizing-delinquency relationship: A test of gendered pathways theory

Purpose

The current study sought to determine whether sex moderated peer mediation of the externalizing-delinquency relationship as part of a larger test of the gendered pathways theory of crime.

Methods

Data gathered from 4,144 (2,079 males and 2,065 females) members of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-Child sample were subjected to simple correlational and moderated mediation analysis.

Results

Externalizing behavior and delinquency correlated equally in boys and girls but in testing a full moderated mediation model it was discovered that sex moderated the mediating effect of perceived peer pressure on the externalizing–delinquency relationship. Whereas externalizing behavior predicted delinquency in both boys and girls, perceived peer pressure only mediated the externalizing-delinquency relationship in boys.

Conclusions

These results support the gendered pathways to delinquency model to the extent that the relationship between childhood externalizing behavior and delinquency was mediated by perceived peer pressure in males but not females. The implications of these results for theoretical refinement of the gendered pathways approach and crime prevention and intervention are discussed.     

Peer Victimization,Antisocial Cognition,and Delinquency in Early Adolescent Schoolchildren: A Test of the Person–Situation Interface

ABSTRACT

Interactive and mediating effects have the ability to elucidate variable relationships. The goal of the current study was to explore how these two effects potentially clarify the victimization–offending relationship. Examining three waves of longitudinal data, it was predicted that Wave 1 victimization would enhance Wave 2 cognitive impulsivity, Wave 2 victimization would interact with Wave 2 cognitive impulsivity, and Wave 2 cognitive impulsivity and the victimization x cognitive impulsivity interaction would both fuel a rise in Wave 3 delinquency. All predicted relationships were observed when evaluated in a group of 960 early adolescents (457 boys, 503 girls) from the Illinois Study of Bullying and Sexual Violence (ISBSV). When cognitive insensitivity replaced cognitive impulsivity as the mediator, the mediating and moderating effects were no longer significant. These results suggest that victimization stimulates reckless thinking, which, when aided by subsequent victimization, encourages future delinquency.     

Methods for the enhancement of fingermarks in blood

Fingermarks formed in or by blood often require specific development techniques. This review examines techniques and materials that may be used to enhance and record fingermarks deposited in blood or fingermarks generated by blood-contaminated papillary ridges. A large number of techniques are presented here and are discussed from a chemical as well as practical perspective. It is concluded that an optimized sequence of techniques targeting both latent (non-bloody) and bloody fingermarks must be applied to detect and enhance the maximum number of marks, and therefore optimize the information content from exhibits that may bear marks in blood.     

Chile's Criminal Law Reform: Enhancing Defendants' Rights and Citizen Security

Many democratic governments in Latin America have implemented broad judicial reforms, some of which are aimed at making criminal law and legal institutions more transparent and modern. Although such reforms are important for democratic development, scholars debate whether the reforms result in more rights for defendants and whether they jeopardize citizens' perceptions about security. Using two original datasets and a fixed‐effects model, this study shows that groundbreaking criminal law reforms in Chile have improved certain aspects of defendants' rights by decreasing the number of individuals in pretrial detention. Chileans' perceptions about crime and violence in regions where the reforms were implemented also have improved. Chile's success appears to be due to the government's commitment to the reforms, as well as to concerted and consistent efforts by the police to fight crime. These results have implications for other countries implementing similar significant reforms.     

Challenging normative constructions of parentage in Ireland

Legal conceptions of the family have evolved considerably in recent years. Many legal systems now offer recognition to what are commonly termed ‘non-traditional’ families, namely those that fall outside of the ‘sexual family’ ideal. Such reforms are certainly encouraging but they may nonetheless be criticised on the basis that they promote a heteronormative construction of the family rather than providing an innovative new perspective on modern family relationships. Using recent Irish reforms as the basis for the discussion, this article will examine the normative approach to family recognition which has been adopted in both Ireland and England and Wales and it will question whether those legal systems adequately accommodate families which fall outside the normative ideal. Where failings are identified, suggestions are presented as to how the law could be modified so as to fully accommodate ‘non-traditional’ families, in particular gay and lesbian families.     

美国大学的通识教育

生活是一个整体,而非划分为不同的专业。现代社会中的工作、生活都已超越了传统的专业边界,所有的学生都需要通识教育以获得全面发展。美国德克萨斯A&M大学设立的校级核心课程、文学院课程和国际研究课程,对其他大学开展通识教育可能会有参考作用。