Mobilizing justice in sociolegal research: a mixed methods meta-analysis

Crime, Law and Social Change - Justice as a concept has permeated sociolegal scholarship in the U.S. since the founding of Law and Society as a field in the mid 1960s. Much of this scholarship has...     

The regulation of civilian drones' impacts on behavioural privacy

Surveillance technologies have burgeoned during the last several decades. To surveillance's promises and threats, drones add a new dimension, both figuratively and literally. An assessment of the impacts of drones on behavioural privacy identifies a set of specific threats that are created or exacerbated. Natural controls, organisational and industry self-regulation, co-regulation and formal laws are reviewed, both general and specific to various forms of surveillance. Serious shortfalls in the regulatory framework are identified. Remedies are suggested, together with means whereby they may come into being.     

Yes we can! Valence politics and electoral choice in America, 2008

The claim that the 2008 presidential election was a transformative one is fast becoming part of the conventional wisdom of American politics. Despite the election’s undoubted significance, this paper argues that factors affecting voting decisions were strikingly similar to those operating in many previous presidential elections. Using data from the CCAP six-wave national election survey, we demonstrate that a valence politics model provides a powerful, parsimonious explanation of the ballot decisions Americans made in 2008. As is typical in presidential elections, candidate images had major effects on electoral choice. Controlling for several other relevant factors, racial attitudes were strongly associated with how voters reacted to the candidates. Other models of electoral choice, such as a Downsian issue-proximity model, are also relevant, but their explanatory power is considerably less than that provided by the valence politics model.     

Seasonal and habitat abundance and distribution of some forensically important blow flies (Diptera: Calliphoridae) in Central California

Seasonal and habitat calliphorid abundance and distribution were examined weekly for two years (2001-2003) in Santa Clara County, California, using sentinel traps baited with bovine liver. Of the 34,389 flies examined in three defined habitats (rural, urban, and riparian), 38% of the total catch represented Compsomyiops callipes (Bigot) and 23% represented Phormia regina (Meigen). Other flies collected in this survey included Calliphora vomitoria (Linnaeus), Calliphora latifrons (Hough), Lucilia sericata (Meigen), Lucilia cuprina (Wiedemann), and Lucilia mexicana (Macquart), which is a new record for the area. Multivariate MANOVA and ANOVA (P ≤ 0.05) analysis indicate significant seasonal habitat preference for all fly species examined. This information may be used to identify potentially forensically impo rtant fly species within Santa Clara County, California.