Latino Immigrant Acculturation and Crime

Recent debate on the future of immigration policy in the United States has spawned much discussion on social costs and consequences for immigrants, such as employment, education, health care, and most notably, crime. Although recent Latino immigrants are often portrayed as outsiders in popular media, their successful acculturation into the American way of life may present more crime-related risk rather than less. This study examines arrest records for Latinos in two southwestern American cities to determine the extent to which Latino acculturation is related to arrests and convictions for both misdemeanors and felonies after controlling for certain legal and extra-legal factors. Results indicate that acculturation is consistently and positively associated with all four crime-related outcomes in this sample. Implications for policy and future research are discussed.     

Harsh Discipline and Child Problem Behaviors: The Roles of Positive Parenting and Gender

This study examined harsh verbal and physical discipline and child problem behaviors in a community sample of 2,582 parents and their fifth and sixth grade children. Participants were recruited from pediatric practices, and both parents and children completed questionnaire packets. The findings indicated that boys received more harsh verbal and physical discipline than girls, with fathers utilizing more harsh physical discipline with boys than did mothers. Both types of harsh discipline were associated with child behavior problems uniquely after positive parenting was taken into account. Child gender did not moderate the findings, but one dimension of positive parenting (i.e., parental warmth) served to buffer children from the detrimental influences of harsh physical discipline. The implications of the findings for intervention programs are discussed. This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.     

Revenge,Retribution, and Values: Social Attitudes and Punitive Sentencing

This study examined the pattern of relations between vengeance attitudes, right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), and social dominance orientation (SDO) using the structure of value types proposed by Schwartz (Adv Exp Soc Psychol 25:1–65, 1992). Relations between these variables and support for a variety of sentencing options, including capital punishment, were then investigated. One hundred and forty-eight students in Adelaide, South Australia, completed a Vengeance Scale (Stuckless and Goranson, J Soc Behav Pers 7:25–42, 1992), measures of RWA and SDO, the Schwartz Value Survey (1992), and a Sentencing Goals Scale. As predicted, vengeance attitudes and SDO were found to be positively related to the importance of power values and negatively related to the importance of universalism and benevolence values. Vengeance attitudes were negatively related to rehabilitation and positively related to support for retribution and incapacitation sentencing goals, while RWA was positively related to the endorsement of deterrence and incapacitation as sentencing goals. Regression analyses indicated that only RWA and vengeance attitudes were unique predictors of death penalty support. Results provide support for the suggestion that vengeance is closely associated with our notion of retributive justice.     

Limitations to developing virtual communities in the public sector: A local government case study

Abstract: This article explores how new information and communication technologies affect public administration practice. It examines efforts by the University of Alberta to develop a web‐based “meeting place,” an on‐line community of practice in the local government sector that was to be a forum for practice‐building discourse and a resource for professional development courses. While the MuniMall project was not an unequivocal success, it does provide important lessons for others who are contemplating similar projects. There are important differences between “open” and “closed” virtual communities, as well as differences among professional groups with respect to their receptivity to engaging in discourse in an open forum. For virtual communities targeted towards a specific professional community, critical factors for ensuring success include the readiness of site architecture upon rollout, as well as the culture, capacity and readiness of the audience. Sommaire: Le présent article approfondit la maniére dont les nouvelles technologies de I'information et de la communication influent sur I'exercice de l'administration public. I1 examine les efforts déployés par 1'Université de l'Alberta pour mettre en place un « lieu de rencontre » sur Internet, réseau en ligne d'échanges de pratiques dans le secteur de l'administration municipale qui devait être un forum de discussions sur le renforcement des pratiques et une resource pour les cours de perfection‐nement professionnel. Alors que le project « MuniMall » n'a pas été un succès sans équivoque, il foumit des leçons importantes à ceux qui envisagent des projects simi‐laires. I1 existe de grandes différences entre les communautés virtuelles « ouvertes » et « fermées », ainsi que des différences parmi les groupes professionnels en ce qui conceme leur réceptivitéà s'engager dans un discours au sein d'un forum ouvert. Pour les communautés virtuelles visant une communauté professionnelle particulière, les facers critiques de succès comprennent l'état de preparation de l'architcc‐ture ciu site dès sa mise en place, ainsi que la culture, la capacité et l'état de préparation de l'audience.     

Strategic Voting in a U.S. Senate Election

Due to the strength of its two-party system, the opportunity for voters to strategically defect in favor of third party or independent candidates is rare in high profile American elections. Indeed, it has been almost a century since a third party candidate finished better than one of the major party presidential nominees—in 1912 Bull Moose Progressive Teddy Roosevelt finished ahead of Republican William H. Taft. In this study we examine strategic voting in a U.S. Senate election where the independent candidate also finished above one of the major party nominees. In the 2010 Florida Senate contest the sitting Governor Charlie Crist shed his Republican label in order to compete in the general election since he was certain to lose in the GOP primary to Marco Rubio, the eventual winner. Crist finished second by taking a substantial share of votes away from the third place candidate, Democrat Kendrick Meek. Because this type of contest seldom occurs, in American politics there is scant empirical research on strategic voting under these conditions. We employ an unobtrusive survey of a large sample of registered Floridians in order to assess the likelihood of strategic voting among respondents who preferred the Democrat Kendrick Meek. For voters who sincerely preferred the Democrat, a significant portion defected in favor of the Independent Charlie Crist if they expected him to finish ahead of Meek. Additionally, we find that after a major news story broke, in which former President Bill Clinton allegedly advised Meek to drop out of the race so that Crist might win, respondents surveyed after this event were more likely to vote strategically in favor of Crist. Our study clearly demonstrates the importance of political context. Under the appropriate conditions, we find a high likelihood of strategic voting.     

Cultural intertexts and scientific rationality: the case of pregnancy ultrasound

The text begins a line of dialogue between feminist and epistemological work in the life sciences using a case study of the concepts ‘foetus’ and ‘baby’ in diagnostic ultrasound and parental discourse. The case material illustrates the multiple, coexisting registers of clinical discourse and the significance of cultural intertexts, the insertion within biomedical discourse of concepts from other cultural domains. It follows that biomedical rationality lacks the autonomy that Canguilhem argued it has; rather than giving itself its own laws, biomedical rationality is heteronomous, receiving and using cultural intertexts from many and varied domains.     

Retributive and Inclusive Justice Goals and Forgiveness: The Influence of Motivational Values

Who is more likely to forgive, given that justice is important and motivating for people? In this article, we argue that the relation between justice and forgiveness depends on the type of justice involved; specifically, the goals of justice, i.e. retributive versus inclusive. We also explored the influence of motivational values on justice goals and forgiveness. Using data from 178 undergraduate psychology students who responded to measures of retributive and inclusive justice attitudes, forgiveness attitudes and dispositions, and values, we found support for our hypotheses that retributive justice goals are negatively related to forgiving attitudes and dispositions; inclusive justice goals are positively related to forgiveness; and benevolence and power values play the dominant role in predicting forgiveness. The results have implications for how the relation between justice and forgiveness is conceptualised and applied.     

HUNTER‐GATHERER COLLABORATIVE PRACTICE

This article describes the development of a practice group based on a hunter‐gatherer model, with the mission of providing high quality collaborative divorce services, with an emphasis on protecting children and divorcing partners, and expanding access to middle‐ and lower‐income families. The practice group professional disciplines include law, mental health divorce coaching, co‐parent coaching, financial analysis, and case administration. These professionals have collectively associated their individual practices to address challenges facing their collaborative practices. With common purpose, the practice group builds skills, generates client base, nurtures trust, and lays a common knowledge base. Collaborative divorce teams formed from its members serve divorcing families with efficient, cost‐conscious, interest‐based negotiation processes that protect children and help parties productively move on with their lives.     

The Intersection of Redistricting,Race, and Participation

The drawing of congressional district lines can significantly reduce political participation in U.S. House elections, according to recent work. But such studies have failed to explain which citizens’ voting rates are most susceptible to the dislocating effects of redistricting and whether the findings are generalizable to a variety of political contexts. Building on this nascent literature and work on black political participation, we show that redistricting's negative effects on participation—measured by voter roll‐off in U.S. House elections—are generally strongest among African Americans, but that black voters can be mobilized when they are redrawn into a black representative's congressional district. Our findings, based on data from 11 postredistricting elections in five states from 1992 through 2006, both expand the empirical scope of previous work and suggest that redistricting plays a previously hidden role in affecting black participation in congressional contests.