HORMONES, HEIFERS AND HIGH POLITICS – BIOTECHNOLOGY AND THE COMMON AGRICULTURAL POLICY

The recent ec ban on imports of hormone-treated beef and the central place of agricultural régime liberalization in the Uruguay round of GATT (General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs) negotiations have combined to make agricultural reform a matter of 'high politics' in international trade. But debates on medium-term reform of the Common Agricultural Policy fail to consider the impact of future developments in biotechnology, which threaten to overwhelm the ec 's ability to cope with agricultural surplus. Meanwhile, the ec has begun to accelerate its efforts to promote Europe's competitiveness in global biotechnology markets through new collaborative research programmes. The clash of interests between the ec 's agricultural and technology policy communities has produced contradictory policies and new obstacles toward the critical goal of reforming the cap . The ec 's efforts to promote biotechnology must be reconciled with biotechnology's future impacts on European agriculture through more rigorous technology assessment and reform of agricultural policy-making mechanisms.     

COMPULSORY COMPETITIVE TENDERING FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT SERVICES: THE EXPERIENCES OF LOCAL AUTHORITIES IN THE NORTH OF ENGLAND 1988-1992

This article examines the response of a sample of local authorities in the North of England to the introduction of Compulsory Competitive Tendering (Cm) following the 1988 Local Government Act. It analyses the Organizational implications of CCT and highlights how officers, councillors and trade union representatives viewed the changing nature of management within local authorities in the period following the award of the first service contracts. In particular, it examines the different reactions to the development of a more commercial approach to the management of services and ends by assessing the specific impact of CCT in the context of other important changes in local government.     

TURNING POINTS IN THE LIFE COURSE: WHY CHANGE MATTERS TO THE STUDY OF CRIME*

This article examines conceptual issues relating to continuity and change in crime over the life course. Building on past efforts, we first distinguish self-selection from a cumulative, developmental process whereby delinquent behavior attenuates adult social bonds (e.g., labor force attachment, marital cohesion). We then conceptualize various types of change and argue that social capital and turning points are crucial in understanding processes of change in the adult life course. These concepts are illustrated by examining person-based, life-history data drawn from the Gluecks' longitudinal study of 1,000 men. Although adult crime is clearly connected to childhood behavior, these qualitative data suggest that both incremental and abrupt change are structured by changes in adult social bonds. We conclude with some hypotheses and implications for future research on subjective contingencies, opportunity structures, and chance encounters as potential turning points for change, especially as they interact with race, class location, and historical context.     

A CENTURY OF CRIME IN TORONTO: GENDER,CLASS, AND PATTERNS OF SOCIAL CONTROL, 1859 TO 1955 *

A great deal of attention has been focused on the nature and extent of contemporary gender differences in criminality and, especially, recent increases in female crime rates. The failure to examine the relation among gender roles, social control mechanisms, and crime rates within a broad historical context, however, has contributed to several shortcomings and misconceptions in current research and theorizing. Results of a time-series analysis of male and female arrests in Toronto from 1859 to 1955 reveal an overall decline in male and female rates, as well as an overriding similarity in long-term patterns of male and female arrest rates for different categories of offenses In particular, the preponderance of public order arrests for males and females strongly confirms the enduring relation between social class and official criminality, regardless of gender. To explain the long-term reduction in female arrest rates, qualitative data are used to illustrate the historically contingent relation between gender roles and changes in formal and informal structures of social control. The findings point to the prominent role of “Yrst-wave feminists” in changing the forms of both formal and informal controls on women, which contributed to a sharp decline in female arrest rates during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.     

POLICE AND PUBLIC ORDER

Does economic deterioration in a developed country such as Great Britain inevitably mean increasing disorder and lawlessness? How would the forces of law and order react to authoritarian governments of the political left and right? These two questions and the likely answers form the first part of this essay. The Royal Commission on the Police (1962) faced the question of either retaining a police system based on local government or recommending its replacement by a national police force under the Home Secretary. With one powerful dissension they chose the former. They claimed to have solved the problem of democratic accountability of the police, but in recent years cracks have begun to appear in the system. The vexed question of the prospects of schism between a chief constable and his police authority committee is examined. Finally, it is suggested the British governmental institutions, including Parliament itself, are insufficiently democratic, and that a Bill of Rights protecting civil liberties is long overdue.     

SUBTERRANEAN SOURCES OF SUBCULTURAL DELINQUENCY BEYOND THE AMERICAN DREAM*

Are subcultural forms of crime and delinquency wholesale rejections or distorted reflections of core values of market-oriented societies? Current evidence casts doubt on the former position, while contemporary theory suggests the possibility that a culture of competition encourages hierarchic forms of self-interest, leading to the acceptance of inequality and anomic amorality and, ultimately, to group-related delinquency. Oddly, the effects of this culture of competition and hierarchic self-interest have not previously been documented empirically in sociological or criminological research, even though this step is fundamental and crucial to the argument that subcultural crime and delinquency derive from market-driven values. We analyze data from four sites in East and West Germany to identify the strands of a subterranean causal web that link core values of market society to subcultural delinquency.     

POLICE SUSPICION AND DISCRETIONARY DECISION MAKING DURING CITIZEN STOPS*

This study examines the influence of racial, demographic and situational variables on types of police suspicion and the ancillary decision to stop and question suspects. Data were drawn from an observational study of police decision making in Savannah, Georgia. Based on the literature, we hypothesized that minority suspects will be more likely to be viewed suspiciously by the police for nonbehavioral reasons. We also hypothesize that minority status will play a significant role in the decision to stop and question suspicious persons. The findings from this study provide partial support for these hypotheses. The results indicate that minority status does influence an officer's decision to form nonbehavioral as opposed to behavioral suspicion, but that minority status does not influence the decision to stop and question suspects. We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding race and its role in police decision making.