Notes on contributors

The question of the linkage of democratic forms of government with the incidence of terrorist violence is explored. Distinguishing between the presence of terrorist groups in a nation and violent terrorist events, and using multiple indicators of democratic development, evidence is presented clearly linking democracy with the presence of terrorist groups. Terrorist groups are less likely to be found in non‐democratic settings than in democratic ones.     

The appointments clause: Judge Bork and the role of ideology in judicial confirmations

The Law of Obligations: The Roman Foundations of the Civilian Tradition. Reinhard Zimmermann. Cape Town: 1990. Ixiv + 1241pp. (incl. Indexes).

Reconstructing the Criminal: Culture, Law and Policy in England, 1830–1914. Martin J. Wiener. Cambridge, 1991. The University Press, ix + 390pp. (incl. Index). £35/$39.50 hb. ISBN 0 521 35045 X.

Women, Crime and Custody in Victorian England, Lucia Zedner. Oxford, 1991. Clarenden Press. 364pp. (incl. Index). £40 hb. ISBN 0 19 820264 4.

St Albans Quarter Sessions Rolls 1784–1820. Edited with an Introduction by David Dean. Hitchen, 1991. Hertfordshire Record Publications, xx + 197pp. (incl. Indexes). £15.95 hb. ISBN 0 9510728 6 2.

The Background of the Common Law. Derek Roebuck. 2nd edn. Hong Kong, Oxford and New York, 1990. Oxford University Press, ix + 143pp. (incl. Index). £6.99 pb. ISBN 019 585165 X.

The Physician‐Legislators of France: Medicine and Politics in the Early Third Republic, 1870–1914. Jack D. Ellis. Cambridge, 1990. The University Press, xii + 305pp. (incl. Index). £35.00/$49.50 hb. ISBN 0 521 38208 4.

Combination and Conspiracy: A Legal History of Trade Unionism 1721–1906. John V. Orth. Oxford, 1991. Clarendon Press, xvi + 207pp. (incl. Index). £30hb. ISBN 0 19 825299 4.

Law and the Shaping of the American Labor Union Movement. William E. Forbath. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 1991. Harvard University Press, xvi + 211pp. (incl. Index). ISBN 0 674 517814.

The State, Law and Religion: Pagan Rome, Alanwatson. Athens, Georgia, 1992. University of Georgia Press, xv + 136pp. (incl. Index). $30 hb. ISBN 0820313874.

American Constitutional Rights: Cases, Documents, and Commentary. William A. Carroll and Norman B. Smith. Lanham, USA. 1991. University Press of America, Inc. xviii + 785pp.     

Written records of police interrogation: differential registration as determinant of statement credibility and interrogation quality

Abstract

The backbone of Dutch criminal procedure is the case file including a large number of written records. In Dutch courts the focus is primarily on evaluation of written records. The written record of police interrogation is a mediated account of the interrogation itself. In this study we explore how individual differences in the production of written records by police officers affect the jurists' evaluation of the suspect's story and of the quality of the interrogation itself. In the first study, five police officers produced written records of one and the same interrogation on video of a denying suspect. In the second study, three of those written records are evaluated by jurists. They are asked to determine story acceptability of the suspect and procedural fairness of the interrogation. Findings show that a short and simple interrogation of a suspect results in written records that are quite different (Study I). It is further shown that these differences affect the jurists' evaluation of some of the core issues addressed in a criminal process (Study II). Implications of these findings are discussed as well as a number of possible ways to improve the current state of affairs.     

Non-market Returns to Traditional Human Capital: Nutritional Status and Traditional Knowledge in a Native Amazonian Society

Soviet Agricultural and Peasant Affairs. Edited by Roy D. Laird London: Constable &; Co. 1964, xiv, 335 pp. 60/‐

India's Export Trends and the Prospects for Self‐Sustained Growth. By Manmohan Singh. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1964, pp. xiv + 370. 45s.

The Political Economy of Mexico. By W. P. Glade and C. W. Anderson. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 1963. Pp. xii, 242, $5.     

Community Empowerment or a Strategy of Containment? Evaluating Neighbourhood Governance in the City of Westminster

The longstanding emphasis on the neighbourhood as a scale for intervention and action has given rise to a variety of forms of governance with a number of different rationales. The predominant rationales about the purpose of neighbourhood governance are encapsulated in a fourfold typology developed by Lowndes and Sullivan (2008). This article sets out to test this approach by drawing on an evaluation of neighbourhood initiatives in the City of Westminster which were delivered through a third sector organisation, the Paddington Development Trust. ‘Insider’ perspectives gathered at city and neighbourhood levels regarding the infrastructure for neighbourhood management are discussed and evaluated in the light of these rationales. The conclusions, while broadly reflecting Lowndes and Sullivan and a follow-up study of Manchester, suggest that in Westminster the civic and economic rationales tend to predominate. However, the Westminster approach is contingent on the prevailing ethos and funding regimes at central and local levels and remains relatively detached from mainstream services. While community empowerment is an important part of the policy rhetoric, it is argued that in practice a ‘strategy of containment’ operates whereby residents in the neighbourhoods have relatively little control over targets and resources and that new governance mechanisms can be relatively easily de-coupled when required. In retrospect, co-production might have been a more effective model for neighbourhood governance, not least given its fit with policy direction.     

Book reviews

Michael Waller, Peace, Power and Protest: Eastern Europe in the Gorbachev Era, London: Institute for the Study of Conflict, 1988 (Conflict Study No.209). Pp.27. £5.50.

Paul Leventhal and Yonah Alexander (eds.), Nuclear Terrorism: Defining the Threat. Washington: Pergamon‐Brassey's, 1986. Pp.vii + 218. NP.

Paul Leventhal and Yonah Alexander (eds.), Preventing Nuclear Terrorism. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 1987. Pp.xviii + 472. NP.

Paul Wilkinson and Alasdair M. Stewart (eds.), Contemporary Research on Terrorism. Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1987. Pp.xx + 634. £45.

Richard E. Rubenstein, Alchemists of Revolution: Terrorism in the Modern World. New York: Basic Books, 1987. Pp.ix + 272. $17.95.

James Adams, Secret Armies. London: Hutchinson, 1988. Pp.440. £14.95.

David C. Martin and John Walcott, Best Laid Plans: The Inside Story of America's War Against Terrorism. New York: Harper & Row, 1988. Pp. 392 $22.50.