Agricultural Biotechnology and Regime Formation: A Constructivist Assessment of the Prospects

Controversies surrounding the appropriate use and diffusion of agricultural biotechnologies are giving rise to questions about governance at the international level. This article investigates the likelihood that a single, international regime or multiple regimes governing this technology will form by way of negotiation. We show that four normative–institutional arrangements, organized around distinct general principles, have a potential governance role: world food security and safety, liberalized trade, protection of intellectual property, and conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. We argue that an adequate amount of compatibility between the principles and norms of these arrangements is required to support the type of communicative action or truth–seeking needed to develop the intersubjective understanding for a regime. Using a framework for assessing normative compatibility, we find not one, but two nascent understandings rooted in the trade and biodiversity areas competing to form the foundation for governance. Further analysis of levels of institutional density between the two developing regimes reveals they are presently too low to support a negotiated resolution of normative conflict. Finally, we demonstrate that recent framing attempts at the international level to decrease areas of tension and incompatibility in principles/norms between the regimes have neglected to create the crucial normative background conditions needed to avert a scenario of increased political conflict in the near future.     

Federal criminal justice legislation and the post-World War II social structure of accumulation in the United States

This article explores the relationship between the political economy and the criminal justice system through an analysis of the impact of long economic cycles in the social structure of accumulation on U.S. federal criminal justice legislation from 1948 to 1987. An analysis is conducted which compares both qualitative and quantitative changes in these legislative acts from the period of economic expansion (1948 to 1967) to the period of contraction (1968 to 1987). The research findings of this investigation indicate that mechanisms of social control intensify during periods of prolonged economic contraction; however, the concept of an exceptional state, with a proportional increase in more coercive crime control strategies, is somewhat challenged.Earlier versions of this paper were presented at meetings of the American Society of Criminology (1988, 1989, 1990).     

Blunt force injury of the abdomen complicating previously undiagnosed peliosis hepatis in a 2-year-old female

Peliosis hepatis is an abnormal accumulation of blood-filled lakes in the liver that is most commonly seen in adults and is generally associated with chronic wasting diseases, use of androgenic steroids or bacterial infection. Few cases have been reported in children. We report a case of a 2-year-old female with no past medical history who presented with homicidal blunt force abdominal injury. The autopsy revealed lacerations in the liver and previously undiagnosed peliosis hepatis.     

A Retrospective Analysis of Repeated Incarceration Using a National Sample: What Makes Female Inmates Different From Male Inmates?

As a consequence of the War on Drugs, many women experience repeated incarceration. Extant research on habitual offending has mostly focused on male offenders. Drawing upon research on female and male offenders’ recidivism, traditional theories of female criminality and the premises of GST, social control, and differential association theories, we constructed an integrated model to examine risk factors for repeated incarcerations among male and female adult offenders. We used data from the Survey of Inmates in State Correctional Facilities. Our analysis revealed that, similarly to male offenders, female offenders’ repeated incarcerations were statistically associated with drug abuse, exposure to family members’ and friends’ drug addiction, parental incarceration, and unemployment.     

One Size Does Not Fit All: Traditional Lockdown Versus Multioption Responses to School Shootings

ABSTRACT

Two paradigms inform responses to active shooting situations: a traditional lockdown approach where individuals find cover in a classroom and lock the door, and a multi-option approach where individuals evacuate the area, create barricades, and, in last resort situations, actively resist the gunman. While a majority of schools conduct active shooter drills, typically using a traditional lockdown approach, little is known about their effectiveness. Through simulations, this study sought to determine which of the two paradigms that inform active shooter drills is the most effective. Drills informed by the multi-option response paradigm were found to end more quickly and result in fewer people being shot.     

Literacy and State–Society Interactions in Nineteenth-Century France

Modern states are distinguished by the breadth and depth of public regulation over private affairs. This aspect of state capacity and state power is predicated on frequent and dense encounters between the state and the population it seeks to control. We argue that literacy in the language of state administration facilitates state–society interaction by lowering the transaction costs of those encounters. We support this claim with evidence drawing upon detailed historical data from nineteenth-century France during a crucial period of state and nation building. Focusing on the specific domain of French marriage regulations, we find that increasing literacy predicts greater popular involvement with local authorities across French regions over time. These results demonstrate that literacy plays an important role in political development not solely by enhancing loyalty to the state, as the literature has recognized, but also by lowering linguistic and human capital barriers to state–society interaction.