EXPLAINING THE GENDER DIFFERENCE IN ADOLESCENT DELINQUENT BEHAVIOR: A LONGITUDINAL TEST OF MEDIATING MECHANISMS*

The extent to which mediating mechanisms account for the gender difference in delinquency was tested on a sample of 2, 753 adolescents studied across three points in time. Results using structural equations modeling showed that males are more likely to be involved in delinquent activities, partly because they are less bound to conventional values, more likely to be associated with delinquent peers, and report more adverse experiences with the authorities. These effects remain after partialling out the stability effect of prior delinquency and other sociodemographidstructral variables. However, although males are more likely than females to report frustration in achievement, frustration in achievement does not directly affect subsequent delinquent behavior in a multivariate context. In addition, adolescent males and females tend to report similar patterns of delinquent activities, and the influences of mediating variables on delinquent outcome are generally similar for males and females.     

New York's Landmark October 2003 Brownfields Legislation and Environmental Claims Exposures

New York's new 107-page brownfields law encourages the redevelopment of contaminated properties in order to increase tax revenues, revitalize communities, create jobs, protect the environment, and preserve open space. The legislation contains significant financial incentives to volunteers and municipalities to investigate, remediate, and redevelop brownfields to promote the reuse of such properties. While the law provides certain liability protection for claims by the State, it retains the “polluter pays” philosophy and contains scary re-opener provisions. This article will provide a brief overview of New York's recently enacted environmental law and explain why the legislation encourages the procurement of environmental insurance to mitigate the risks inherent with brownfield redevelopment projects.     

POLICE REPORTS AND VICTIMIZATION SURVEY RESULTS An Empirical Study

To test the assumption that police reports cannot be used as a representative sample of all criminal events, a research study was undertaken comparing the characteristics of robberies and robbery victims derived from police offense reports in San Jose, California, to those derived from a victimization survey in the same area The result of the comparison of these two data sources disclosed that: (1) for commercial robberies there were no differences between police offense reports and victimization survey data for the characteristics which were compared; (2) for personal robberies, there were no differences for the characteristics of victim's sex and age, number of victims, victim/offender relationship, and number of offenders. The differences observed for victim's race and time of occurrence can be attributed to classification problems and methodological differences It is highly probable that the police robbery offense reports and the Victimization survey data are representative of the same population of robberies Results suggest that further evaluation of the assumption that police offense reports do not reflect the “true” nature of all (i.e., reported and unreported) crime is warranted.