From trust on intimacy: A new inventory for examining erikson's stages of psychosocial development

A new inventory for examining the first six of Erikson's psychosocial stages is described. The self-report questionnaire, developed in a pilot study of 97 adolescents and tested in a study of 622 adolescents, has 12 items for each subscale. Measures of reliability and validity are reported. It is concluded that the Erikson Psychosocial Stage Inventory (EPSI) is a useful measure for researchers interested in development from early adolescence and in mapping changes as a function of life events.This research was supported by a grant from the Education Research and Development Committee.Received Ph.D. from University of Melbourne. Current research interests are adolescent adjustment, ethnicity, and sex-role psychology.Received Ph.D. from University of Melbourne. Current research interests are effects of unemployment and adolescent adjustment.Received Ph.D. from Florida State University. Current research interests are sex-role psychology and adolescence.     

JOINT CUSTODY AND THE PRESCHOOL CHILD

A longitudinal study of 25 families, with children aged 14 months—5 years, in joint custody, is reported. Varying motivations that lead divorcing parents to undertake and sustain joint custody are discussed, together with the stresses and gratifications of these arrangements for the parents and children. Findings are that where both parents are motivated primarily by interest in the child, where the parenting is sensitive and where the child is shielded from interparental conflict, young children do well. Such families were not the majority in this study. Significant differences emerged in the adjustment of the 1–3 age group as compared with the 3–5 age group which point to greater difficulties for the 3–5 year-olds.     

Civil liability of private security: Enforcer of moral obligations to right legal wrongs

The private security industry in the United States now has approximately twice as many personnel as does the public police. Private Security personnel have authority over the liberty, and sometimes the lives, of customers and employees. Often they exercise this awesome responsibility with little if any background and training. In most instances private security personnel are not considered law officers or peace officers and are, therefore, not bound by the same rules and regulations that apply to public police. More and more frequently, untrained or minimally trained, and basically unqualified security officers are taking actions against customers and employees which are excessive and unreasonable. Without the Constitutional protections which would be available if the act were committed by a public police officer, the only recourse for a private individual against reckless and wanton conduct on the part of private security personnel is a civil action, seeking compensation for the inconvenience caused or injuries received. The courts have found that companies and their security personnel have an obligation to be reasonable in their investigations of suspected criminal violations by employees and customers. Failure to conduct a proper and reasonable investigation will open the individual directing the investigation, and the company authorizing it, to liabililty for the injury their improper actions have caused. Civil liability suits have become the moral enforcer for improper and excessive conduct by private security personnel.     

Entrapped on the Web? Applying the Entrapment Defense to Cases Involving Online Sting Operations

Many law enforcement agencies are currently responding to the problem of online crime by establishing proactive investigative units that track criminals on the Internet. Not only do these specialized teams face problems in the area of emerging technology, they are also faced with handling emerging legal issues. The current research examined the issue of the entrapment defense, and how previously established physical realm doctrine could be applied to the investigation of online crimes such as child pornography. Relying on previous case law it would appear that entrapment claims related to online sting operations involve consideration of: a) did the law enforcement officer continuously contact the suspect with the intention of trying to convince the individual to engage in a particular type of behavior, b) how long was the relationship between the undercover officer and the suspect, and c) how much, if any, reluctance to commit the criminal act did the suspect provide evidence of?     

Clinically Significant Trauma Symptoms and Behavioral Problems in a Community-based Sample of Children Exposed to Domestic Violence

This study assessed the associations of characteristics of domestic violence incidents with clinically significant levels of traumatic symptoms and behavioral problems in a socio-economically and ethnically mixed sample of 687 children participating in a community-service program for children witnessing violence. Study predictors included child/family demographic characteristics, type and chronicity of exposure, and child’s perceptions of control over the event and threat to personal safety. Outcomes consisted of traumatic symptoms and behavior problems. Results showed that perceived threat and control were associated with greater odds of clinically significant levels of several trauma symptoms (and behavior problems in the case of perceived threat) after adjusting for effects of demographic factors and violence characteristics. Child co-victimization increased odds of reaching clinically significant levels of traumatic symptoms compared to children who witnessed the event but were not victimized. Female sex and White ethnicity increased odds of specific trauma symptoms and behavior problems. Increasing age reduced odds of some trauma symptoms. Associations between predictors and one outcome measure did not generalize across the other outcome measure. Implications of study findings, and directions for future research are discussed.     

Buddhism,Mindfulness, and Transformative Politics

This article examines whether the American cultural phenomena of the practice of Buddhism or the Buddhism-derived technique of mindfulness are likely to be helpful to the political left. It summarizes the central teachings of the ancient Buddhist texts, with particular focus on the issues of mindfulness and politics. It also reviews the political history of Buddhist countries. The author argues that although modern Buddhism has shed its historical embrace of absolutist monarchy in favor of republicanism, and although there is some ideological overlap between Buddhism and the American Left, Buddhism in America is too small a movement for it to be of much significance for progressive politics. Mindfulness appears to be capable of becoming a much larger phenomenon, but its separation from its Buddhist origins makes it also unlikely to be strategically important for the Left.     

From Reflection to Refraction: Rethinking Paradigms of Cultural Interaction and Identity in Peru and Mexico

This article explores the construction and reworking of paradigms of culture contact and identity by social scientists and cultural critics in response to contradictory sociocultural experiences of modernity in Peru and Mexico. It seeks to do so in the context of calls made by the Peruvian critic Antonio Cornejo Polar for greater historicism and critical thinking about these, and the concern that this appeal has since generated in the field of Latin American Cultural Studies. Focusing first on the postcolonial, ideologically driven model of 'mestizaje', the article then traces continuities and discontinuities between it and latter–day thinking about cultural pluralism.     

Out of Darkness into Light? Introducing the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

On 13 December 2006, the General Assembly of the United Nationsadopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities(CRPD) and an associated Optional Protocol. The formulationof the CRPD has been hailed as a great landmark in the struggleto reframe the needs and concerns of persons with disabilityin terms of human rights. The CRPD is regarded as having finallyempowered the world's largest minority to claim their rights,and to participate in international and national affairs onan equal basis with others who have achieved specific treatyrecognition and protection. This essay interrogates the intellectualantecedents of the CRPD and its continuity and discontinuitywith 25 years of international law and its struggles with disabilityand human rights. It then explores the text of the CRPD, criticallyexamining its potential contribution to the realisation of therights of persons with disability.