Confronting Racial Discrimination: A CERD Perspective

From the perspective of a member of the Committee on the Eliminationof Racial Discrimination this article provides an overview ofthe implementation of the International Convention on the Eliminationof All Forms of Racial Discrimination. The article reviews thework of the Committee in endeavouring to fulfil a difficultmandate by ensuring that the Convention remains relevant, andalso demonstrates how, through mechanisms such as its concludingobservations and general recommendations, the Committee continuallyendeavours to address the contemporary meaning of racial discriminationas used in the Convention.     

Desistance as a Developmental Process: A Comparison of Static and Dynamic Approaches

New research in the field of developmental criminology has led researchers to reconceptualize desistance as a behavioral process that unfolds over the life course. This approach puts more emphasis on the pathways by which people reach the state of non-offending, and less emphasis on the state of non-offending itself. This reconceptualization has implications for how we measure desistance in longi-tudinal data. In this paper, we suggest that the traditional measurement approach is inconsistent with this view, and we present an alternative measurement approach based on the premises of developmental criminology. Although not perfect, we argue that the dynamic measure better describes the key elements of the process of desistance. Both approaches are implemented using data from the Rochester Youth Development Study, a longitudinal study of youthful offenders. We demon-strate that the two approaches identify different people as desistors. Moreover, we argue that the dynamic definition of desistance has more promise for providing insight into the changes that are the behavioral focus of the desistance process.     

The Impact of Parental Stressors on the Intergenerational Transmission of Antisocial Behavior

We examine the extent to which parental antisocial behavior is related to child antisocial behavior and, if it is, the extent to which the effect is mediated by parental stressors and by parenting behaviors. In particular, we examine two sources of stress–depressive symptoms and exposure to negative life events. The study is based on data from the Rochester Intergenerational Study, a prospective multi-generation panel study. The parent sample is 73% male and 27% female and predominantly African American (69%); the child sample consists of each parent’s oldest biological child. We find significant levels of intergenerational continuity in antisocial behavior for mothers and for fathers who live with or supervise their child, but not for fathers who have low levels of contact with their child. Results of structural equation models of mediating pathways are similar for mothers and for supervisory fathers. Of the two stressors we examine, depressive symptoms appears to be the more consistent mediator. It, both directly and indirectly via its impact on parenting behaviors, influences the child’s early onset of antisocial behavior. The results imply that childhood antisocial behavior has deep roots, extending back to the parent’s adolescent development.

School Disengagement as a Predictor of Dropout, Delinquency, and Problem Substance Use During Adolescence and Early Adulthood

Over the past 5 years, a great deal of attention has been paid to the development of early warning systems for dropout prevention. These warning systems use a set of indicators based on official school records to identify youth at risk for dropout and then appropriately target intervention. The current study builds on this work by assessing the extent to which a school disengagement warning index predicts not only dropout but also other problem behaviors during middle adolescence, late adolescence, and early adulthood. Data from the Rochester Youth Development Study (N = 911, 73% male, 68% African American, and 17% Latino) were used to examine the effects of a school disengagement warning index based on official 8th and 9th grade school records on subsequent dropout, as well as serious delinquency, official offending, and problem substance use during middle adolescence, late adolescence, and early adulthood. Results indicate that the school disengagement warning index is robustly related to dropout as well as serious problem behaviors across the three developmental stages, even after controlling for important potential confounders. High school dropout mediates the effect of the warning index on serious problem behaviors in early adulthood.