Adolescent Girls’ Use of Avoidant and Approach Coping as Moderators Between Trauma Exposure and Trauma Symptoms

High rates of child maltreatment demand attention, as exposure to child maltreatment substantially increases the risk of developing PTSD. Some evidence exists that the presence of coping skills may reduce the likelihood that victims of childhood maltreatment will develop PTSD (Agaibi & Wilson, Trauma Violence Abuse 6:195–216, 2005). This study examined whether avoidant and/or approach coping skills moderated the relationship between childhood trauma exposure and trauma symptoms among adolescent females with a history of complex trauma. Results suggest that the use of avoidant coping moderates the relationship between trauma exposure and trauma symptoms. More specifically, girls with higher levels of trauma exposure demonstrated lower levels of trauma symptoms if they reported using higher levels of avoidant coping. Clinical implications for these results are discussed.     

Youth violence in South Africa: the case for a restorative justice response

Crime presents a fundamental challenge in South Africa. Particularly disturbing is the prevalence of violence committed by and against young people. The main purpose of this article is to look at how South Africa should deal with the issue of youth violence. It argues that while structural violence constitutes a significant contextual cause of the phenomenon, a more proximate and specific cause lies in young people’s exposure to direct violence in their schools, homes and communities. In many cases, therefore, simply sending young people to prison – where they may experience even greater levels of violence – is not the answer. This article thus examines the potential merits of restorative justice as a response to the problem of youth violence, focusing particularly on the 2009 Child Justice Act. This research is based on fieldwork in South Africa and draws upon both the author’s qualitative interview data and a range of surveys with young people conducted by the Center for Justice and Crime Prevention in Cape Town.     

“Membership in a Particular Social Group”: International Journalists and U. S. Asylum Law

At least thirty non-U.S. journalists in the last decade have argued in U.S. Courts of Appeal that U.S. immigration authorities erroneously denied their asylum applications based on persecution in their native countries. However, only about 20% of journalists were successful, mirroring the approximate national asylum success rate for all applicants. The U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act does not include journalism as a basis for asylum, but some circuit court judges have stated that reporting on systemic official corruption is inherently political and, as a result could be grounds for asylum for persecuted journalists. A 2007 opinion from the U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals defining “particular social group,” a key requirement for asylum, is examined for its application to journalists.     

Agency conflict and the signalling snafu in the mexican peso crisis of 1994

In this paper I explore the role of signalling in the agency conflict that pits national governments against international lenders in the Mexican peso crisis of 1994. (The term international lenders includes domestic residents with the capacity to invest abroad.) I give evidence for the conventional conclusion that Mexico's underlying economic and financial situation did not warrant the humiliating treatment inflicted on it by the international financial markets. The humiliating treatment, however, was not a mindless overreaction to suddenly perceived changes in the country's political fragility. On the contrary, I show that the country's evolving political fiagility was recognized and compensated for as far back as 1991. It was rather the result of a rational reevaluation of the costs of the agency conflict that is inherent in the relationship between national governments and international lenders and the power of national governments through moratoriums, repudiation, or default to subordinate the claims of international lenders to those of domestic agents. I model the conflict as a government held option to default and introduce signalling by assuming that the Mexican government had monopolistic information on the economy's true situation. I then give evidence that the agency costs were reevaluated when it became clear that the Mexican government had been sending false signals to the international investment community and that these false signals had made it possible for Mexico to borrow close to or beyond the point where default was the optimal financial strategy.     

American Views About Public Services: A Challenging Paradox for Public Administrators

This review of public opinion about the role of government in the United States finds a perhaps surprising combination of conservative and liberal beliefs. For example, while they are strongly supportive of tax cuts, Americans also want more government activism in a wide variety of areas. This certainly presents a challenge for public administrators and government since the means for fulfilling these desires of the citizens are far from readily apparent.     

The boom-bust cycle in wyoming county spending: Implications for budget theories

This paper presents a case study of county spending in Wyoming during the 1970s and 1980s to test the applicability of several competing perspectives upon budget policy derived from higher level and more visible governments in the United States. Our findings about the consequences of Wyoming's boom and bust cycle during the 1970s and 1980s for county finances possess several implications for the competing theories of budget policy.

Concerning how budgets are made, they confirm the growing consensus that models of “budgetary incrementalism” are inadequate, as well as providing some evidence consistent with the “garbage can” model of decision-making. However, they also suggest that “the baby should not be thrown out with the bath water,” since temporal consistency and incrementalism are evident in several areas. Turning to the factors affecting budget substance, resource base turned out to be the most important factor influencing Wyoming county budgets. Several instances of special social needs and political leanings could be discerned as well. However, most of these also suggested that resource constraints were the principal driving force behind county budgeting in Wyoming.     

Post‐war Iraq: an assessment

Sir Terence Clark is a Council Member of the Society. He retired from the Diplomatic Service after a distinguished career spent mainly in the Middle East, where he was Ambassador to Iraq and Oman. He is the author of many articles in specialist journals and co‐author of Oman in Time (2001). On 18 June 2003, Sir Terence, together with Sir Harold Walker, Chairman of the Society, spoke to the Society about the situation in Iraq as it then appeared. The following is an edited and updated version of Sir Terence's talk.     

Nationalism and orthodoxy: Nichifor Crainic and the political culture of the extreme right in 1930s Romania

This article explores the interplay of religion, anti-Semitism, and personal rivalries in building the ultra-nationalist movement in 1930s Romania, using the career of Nichifor Crainic as a case study. As a theologian, Crainic created and taught a synthesis of nationalism and Romanian Orthodoxy which was broadly accepted by most ultra-nationalists in interwar Romania. As a journalist, Crainic directed several newspapers which spearheaded acrimonious attacks on democratic and ultra-nationalist politicians alike. As a politician, he joined and left both Corneliu Zelea Codreanu's Legion of the Archangel Michael and A.C. Cuza's National Christian Defense League before attempting to form his own Christian Workers' Party. Crainic's writings ultimately earned him a place as a minister in two governments and membership of the Romanian Academy. His career reveals an ultra-nationalist movement rife with division and bickering but united around a vaguely defined ideology of religious nationalism, xenophobia, and anti-Semitism.