MISSING THE MARK: REFLECTIONS ON GREENBERG'S COMMENT*

Greenberg's (2003) Comment fails to address the substance or spirit of “The Privatization of Violence.”     

LIFE-COURSE TRANSITIONS AND DESISTANCE FROM CRIME*

Sampson and Laub (1993) provided a major contribution to the study of criminal careers by linking criminal behavior to life-course transitions, such as marriage, employment, and entry into the military. To interpret their findings, these investigators relied exclusively on control theory. In a sharp departure from that position, this study offers evidence that life-course transitions affect criminal behavior by altering relations with delinquent peers. Focusing on marriage, the analysis shows that the transition to marriage is followed by a dramatic decline in time spent with friends as well as reduced exposure to delinquent peers, and that these factors largely explain the association between marital status and delinquent behavior. The findings suggest that changing patterns of peer relations over the life course are essential for understanding criminal life-course trajectories.     

Yeah,Very Good

US post-punk favorites came,conquered and got very wet in Beijing's Haidian Park AFTER months of will-they-won't-they speculation,US indie rockers the Yeah Yeah Yeahs played the in- augural Modern Sky Festival that took place October 2-4 during the five-day National Day holiday.The hour-long wait between the preceding Joy Divi- sion-admiring RETROS and the head- liners suggested some space between     

The Brainy Bunch

China’s punk pioneers Brain Failure do fashion shoots and sing in English. What’s punk about that? FROM after-show beers     

Sounds Like China

A renowned British avant-garde artist is the latest to drill the aural environments of China＇s cities for a sound art project.     

DOES PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY WORK? AN ASSESSMENT TOOL

In recent years, there has been a drive to strengthen existing public accountability arrangements and to design new ones. This prompts the question whether accountability arrangements actually work. In the existing literature, both accountability ‘deficits’ and ‘overloads’ are alleged to exist. However, owing to the lack of a cogent yardstick, the debate tends to be impressionistic and event‐driven. In this article we develop an instrument for systematically assessing public accountability arrangements, drawing on three different normative perspectives. In the democratic perspective, accountability arrangements should effectively link government actions to the ‘democratic chain of delegation’. In the constitutional perspective, it is essential that accountability arrangements prevent or uncover abuses of public authority. In the learning perspective, accountability is a tool to make governments effective in delivering on their promises. We demonstrate the use of our multicriteria assessment tool in an analysis of a new accountability arrangement: the boards of oversight of agencies.     

Epistemological Perspectives in Legal Theory

Abstract The authors deal with several important epistemological problems in legal theory. The Nineteenth century background is analyzed from the emergence of legal science freed from the constraints of natural law and built on the model of the empirical sciences. The authors show how this science of law has been influenced by the social sciences and trends in ideological criticism throughout the Twentieth century. The epistemological question central to legal science is tackled, i.e., what kind of “epistemological break” should there be with regard to the object studied? To answer this question, the authors plead for the adoption of a “moderate external point of view” which bears in mind lawyers' “internal point of view.”     

The Sum of Parts

BEFORE China joined theWTO.automakers thatwanted to manufacture inChina were compelled touse local content.Earlyentrants like GM and Volkswagen builtup local supply networks and manufac-turing plants.China's WTO membershipbrought import duties down,promptinga rush of foreign firms bringing in kitsfor local assembly.Manufacturers im-porting60percent of parts,however,will shortly be taxed at the same rate asimported finished cars.To get around the tax,carmakers areencouraging their suppli…