China’s economic system and its accession to the WTO

In moving towards becoming a market economy, China has made dramatic strides since embarking on reforms in 1978, but liberalizations have been accompanied by inflationary booms followed by bouts of social instability. These last account for much of the caution in China’s approach to joining the World Trade Organization, which is seen as critical to securing further foreign direct investment, foreign technology and access to foreign markets—all necessary to economic growth and development. There is a reluctance to make firm commitments to abide by WTO rules on a schedule faster than that expected of developing countries. Perhaps the commitments required could be undertaken in confidence-building stages. Albert Keidel III is president, Rock Creek Research Inc., economic consultants, Bethesda, Maryland, and teaches on China’s economy in the Department of Economics, Georgetown University, Washington D.C.     

Battered women who kill: A comparative study of incarcerated participants with a community sample of battered women

The present article examines demographic and background variables, psychosocial factors, critical incidents during childhood, battering incidents, and coping methods among 210 battered women. Based on in-depth interviews with a group of incarcerated battered women who had killed their batterers and a community sample of non-violent battered women, several key results were found. The vast majority of battered women who killed their abusive partners was much more likely than the community sample to: (1) have been sexually assaulted during childhood, (2) have dropped out of high school, (3) have an erratic work history of one to three unskilled jobs, (4) have cohabited with their partner, (5) experienced a drug problem, (6) have attempted suicide by drug overdosing, and (7) have access to the batterer's guns. The findings provide support for the increased probability of battered women killing their mates after they have encountered brutal and repeated assaults, death threats, failed in their attempts to escape through alcohol or drug abuse, and failed in their attempts to commit suicide.     

Social Media and Value Conflicts: An Explorative Study of the Dutch Police

The use of social media produces new value conflicts in public governance. The police force is a public organization directly confronted with these changes. However, there is no systematic understanding of these conflicts in daily police practice or of the coping strategies used. This article presents an explorative understanding of the value conflicts and coping strategies within the police force by combining the literature on social media use in the public sector and the literature on value conflicts and by conducting a case study within the Dutch police. The empirical findings show, first, a growing emphasis on conflicts related to the values that are strongly embedded in social media use—specifically, conflicts between efficiency and participation and between transparency and lawfulness. Second, although dynamic coping strategies were expected, the research reveals that the police often use a conservative coping strategy to deal with these rapid changes.     

Historical perspectives on crime in England

A.B., DePauw University 1949; A.M., University of Pennsylvania 1950; Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania 1953.