Legitimacy,Democracy and Rights: the Conservatism of Janet Albrechtsen

In recent years, media columnists have been instrumental in redefining Australian conservatism. One of the most prominent is Janet Albrechtsen. Using her critique of a bill of rights, this article examines how this new Australian conservatism rejects or reverses core elements of traditional conservatism. Utilitarianism exchanges the transcendent for the social. Equality and democracy replace elitism. Elites were minorities, albeit ones with leadership virtue. Now minorities of any sort threaten equality and undermine democracy. These changes reflect broader changes in society itself. In this sense, conservatism has made peace with modernity, hostility to which originally prompted its birth. Now the enemy is internationalism or postmodernity, the two often interchangeable. Albrechtsen's hostility to a bill of rights matches her rejection of international law and institutions that threaten the nation‐state and its guarantee of democracy and the rule of law.     

The missing link between job satisfaction and correctional staff behavior: The issue of organizational commitment

Over the past twenty years, several empirical studies have examined the consequences of job satisfaction among correctional staff. When looking at worker behavior in other disciplines, though, it is commonplace to include both job satisfaction and organizational commitment. However, very few studies about correctional staff behavior include both concepts. This paper discusses job satisfaction and organizational commitment, and addresses the link between these concepts as it relates to correctional staff attitudes and behaviors. Further, a discussion of measurement issues and recommendations for future research is presented. This is a revision of papers presented at the 1998 American Society of Criminology annual meeting in Washington, D.C. The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions.     

Neighborhood Characteristics, Peer Networks, and Adolescent Violence

Although ecological researchers consistently find high rates of crime and violence within socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods, there is little consensus as to why this pattern exists. To address this question, we use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (n=12,747) to examine three related research questions. Are neighborhood characteristics associated with adolescent violence net of compositional and selection effects? Are neighborhood characteristics associated with adolescents’ exposure to violent and prosocial peers? Does peer exposure mediate the neighborhood characteristics–violence association? Results indicate that across a wide range of neighborhoods, socioeconomic disadvantage is positively related to adolescent violence net of compositional and selection effects. Additionally, neighborhood disadvantage is associated with exposure to violent peers, and peer exposure mediates part of the neighborhood disadvantage–violence association. Joining structural and cultural explanations for violence, our findings suggest that neighborhood disadvantage influences adolescent violence indirectly by increasing opportunities for youth to become involved in violent peer networks.