School Belonging and School Misconduct: The Differing Role of Teacher and Peer Attachment

The schools-as-communities perspective provides a popular explanation for school-disruptive behavior, stating that interpersonal bonding at school and feelings of school belonging prevent misconduct. In this article, we build on this perspective in three ways. First, we test whether the preventive influence of school belonging acts at the individual or school level. Secondly, we test whether a distinction should be made between the different actors with whom students bond at school, by assessing whether perceived teacher support, school belonging, and peer attachment relate differently to school misconduct. Lastly, the present study investigates whether the associations of bonding with teachers, peers and the school with school misconduct differ by socio-ethnic school context. Multilevel analyses were performed on data from the Flemish Educational Assessment. The sample consisted of 11,872 students (51.4% female) in 85 schools, most of whom were natives (88.8%), with immigrants (11.2%) mostly having Turkish or Moroccan backgrounds (both about 30% of immigrants in the sample), and others Southern-European (16%), Eastern-European (8%), North-African (5%), or other (17%) backgrounds. Results showed that the students’ individual feelings of bonding with peers, teachers and school associate with school misconduct, rather than the overall school cohesion. Results further showed that, while higher perceived teacher support and school belonging related to less school misconduct, higher peer attachment was associated with higher rates of school misconduct. No differences were found by socio-ethnic context. Implications are discussed.     

Supplementary vote; analysis, applications, and alternatives

The Supplementary Vote (SV) was invented as a compromise between the two-round runoff system and the alternative vote. This paper shows that in many ways it is not. Under SV voters rank order a limited number of candidates. If one candidate is supported by over 50% of the voters he/she is declared the winner. Otherwise, all but the top two candidates are eliminated from the contest. Then, all second preferences of voters are taken into account. The candidate winning most first and second votes is declared the winner. SV violates fundamental criteria used to evaluate electoral systems and is difficult for voters. The paper discusses an alternative to SV which avoids at least some of its most apparent flaws.     

Stimulating Simulations: Making the European Union a Classroom Reality

This article examines the organization and development of the Mid-Atlantic European Union Simulation Consortium (MEUSC), with special emphasis on linking theory to practice within its simulation program. The MEUSC program, initiated in 1993, brings fifteen colleges and universities to Washington, D.C., each December for an intercollegiate experiential learning exercise on the European Union. During the simulation, students meet with professional diplomats from both the United States and Europe, and they engage in consensus-building activities that mirror the decision-making processes of the EU Commission, Parliament, Council of Ministers, and the European Council. As a result, participants are able to refine and enhance a range of academic and practical skills that are keys for success in today's political and business worlds. The authors of this article make special use of a survey that was undertaken to gauge the impact of the simulation on its participants and, thus, its success as an educational venture.     

The Influence of Clothing and Wrapping on Carcass Decomposition and Arthropod Succession During the Warmer Seasons in Central South Africa*

Abstract: The influence of clothing and wrapping on carcass decomposition and arthropod succession was investigated to provide data to enable estimated postmortem interval in homicide investigations. Six pig carcasses, Sus scrofa, were divided into three sample groups, each with a clothed carcass wrapped and a carcass wrapped with no clothes. Two more carcasses, one with no clothes or wrapping, the other with clothes and no wrapping were used as controls. The clothed or wrapped carcasses had larger visible maggot masses, which moved more freely and these carcasses took longer to dry out. The blow fly maggot masses were dominated by Chrysomya marginalis and Chrysomya albiceps. Oviposition occurred simultaneously on all carcasses. High temperatures in one case caused significant maggot mortality. The Coleoptera community was dominated by Silphidae, Thanathopilus micans larvae, Dermestidae, Dermestes maculatus adults and larvae, and Cleridae, Necrobia rufipes.     

Police cooperation in the Southern African region: politics and practicalities

This paper describes some of the issues around which cooperation among police agencies in the South African region have been coalescing. Cooperative engagements have resulted in a degree of harmonisation of policy and standardisation of police training. Within the region too a rhetorical commitment to common values and standards associated with democratic policing is forthcoming. Overall the processes underway are shaped by regional dynamics of a broader socio-political and specific police organisational nature. Structural underdevelopment, the weakness of institutions such as the police and contrarian politics more widely provide the context within which cooperation has evolved. By drawing on documentary analysis and interviews with practitioners in the field, the substantive areas around which cooperation is taking place are outlined. In this account particular reference is made to the role of a regional structure (the Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Coordination Committee) and the national police agency (the South African Police Service) of South Africa, in the evolving business of cooperation in the Southern African region. Research for this paper was made possible through funding received from the Open Society Foundation (SA).

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Agencies without borders: Explaining partner selection in the formation of transnational agreements between regulators

Transnational collaboration between regulatory agencies has proliferated rapidly within the last three decades. However, given that information regarding the motives, trustworthiness, and capabilities of potential partners is typically imperfect, decisions about with whom to collaborate are inevitably characterized by a degree of uncertainty. To better capture these dynamics, this article uses a network analytical perspective and hypothesizes that agencies are more likely to form agreements with agencies to whom they are already indirectly connected (transitivity), that are highly connected (preferential attachment), or with whom they share tie-characteristics (assortativity). To test these hypotheses, a stochastic actor-oriented model is used to analyze an original, self-coded data set in which bilateral information exchange agreements between national securities agencies (n = 143) are mapped out over a 18-year period. The results show that the formation of agreements between regulatory agencies is driven by (i) the number of shared partners (i.e. triadic closure); and (ii) similarity regarding agency characteristics (i.e. homophily).     

A preliminary investigation of the effects of giving testimony and learning yogic breathing techniques on battered women's feelings of depression

Researchers have shown that mood and sense of control over one's life are significantly affected by testimony and other forms of disclosure and that learning to control breathing has positive effects on mood and anxiety. This preliminary experiment tests whether African American and European American abused women who give testimony about their experiences of intimate partner violence and learn how to use yogic breathing techniques have reduced feelings of depression. Results indicate that learning yogic breathing techniques alone and combined with giving testimony significantly reduces feelings of depression. Recasting women as authorities on domestic violence and teaching them how to calm their minds by focusing on yogic breathing may be simple and effective ways to help women take control over their bodies and lives.     

The International Energy Agency after 35 years: Reform needs and institutional adaptability

Despite the mounting scholarly interest in processes of institutional change in international organizations, still very little is known about how and when such evolutionary dynamics occur. This article hopes to contribute to this young, yet growing body of literature by process-tracing the changes that have occurred in the institutional setup of the International Energy Agency (IEA). Founded during the first oil crisis of 1973–74, the IEA has had to deal with major environmental changes over its lifetime. In response, the agency has diversified away from its original raison d’être, namely managing an emergency oil sharing mechanism, to become a more proactive policy adviser guiding its member governments toward sustainable energy economies. The article seeks to explain the observed patterns of change and inertia, using a theoretic paradigm that builds on theories of “new institutionalism.” The paper argues that the agency’s institutional flexibility can only be fully explained by taking into account a combination of factors: (1) the member states’ choices, in particular the impulses of the G8-members of the IEA; (2) path dependency, especially the institutional link with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD); and (3) agency by the secretariat and the executive bureau of the IEA.     

Family breakdown in nineteenth-century Netherlands: divorcing couples in The Hague.

This is an analysis of divorce trends in the Netherlands in the second half of the nineteenth century. "Use was made of a case-control research design in which the social characteristics of all marriages which ended in divorce were compared with those of a random sample from the marriages which ended in widowhood. The author analyzed a group of 2,300 marriages contracted in The Hague from their inception until their dissolution by death or divorce. All migrants were followed to their new place of residence. Multivariate (proportional hazards) analysis showed that the highest probability of divorce was found among persons who had already gone through a divorce before. Other factors related to divorce were high mobility, low ages at marriage, and large age and religious differences between spouses. Higher social classes had relatively high divorce risks."     

An Evaluation of the Economic Approaches Used by Policy Actors towards Investment in Place-Based Partnerships in Victoria

Place-based partnerships are supported by the state and include various organisations and interests within particular geographic areas. The Victorian government has established place-based partnerships to plan and coordinate resource allocation decisions to meet objectives such as economic development and social inclusion. In the literature there are positive and negative views of these partnerships. One view is that they allow regions to build competitive advantage, while another is that they are a means of pursuing a neoliberal policy agenda that seeks to reduce government protection and investment. We help clarify the tensions between positive and negative views of partnerships by examining the economic approaches used by policy actors toward place-based partnerships in Victoria. We find that policy actors combine neoclassical and institutionalist approaches to argue that partnerships generate networks that enable more efficient and equitable resource allocation within places .