Putting the Brakes on the Rush to Spend Down End‐of‐Year Balances: Carryover Money in Oklahoma State Agencies

End‐of‐the‐year spending sprees by government agencies are viewed generally as an example of government wastefulness. Agency personnel, however, rationalize the practice as a means for protecting their budgets from inexpedient cuts. In Oklahoma, a policy has been adopted that allows agencies to carry over and reprogram year‐end surpluses as long as the reprogrammed funds are spent within 16.5 months of the end of the fiscal year. Using agency theory as a theoretical lens, we show that this policy restructures the contract between the principal (legislature) and its agents (state agencies) so that their interests are better aligned, regarding end‐of‐the‐year surpluses.     

DECOMPOSING THE PEER EFFECT ON ADOLESCENT SUBSTANCE USE: MEDIATION,NONLINEARITY, AND DIFFERENTIAL NONLINEARITY*

Although the correlation between peer delinquency and delinquency is one of the most consistently demonstrated findings in delinquency research, researchers have focused primarily on the direct, linear, and additive effects of peers in statistical models, rather than on empirically modeling mediating, nonlinear, and moderating processes that are specified by theory. To address these issues, we measure respondent delinquency and peer delinquency with illegal substance use and then decompose the effect of peer substance use on self‐reported substance use. Logistic hierarchical models on a sample of adolescents from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN) indicate that the effect of peer substance use on self‐reported substance use is partially mediated by perceptions of the health risks of substance use. In addition, the direct statistical effect of peers is nonlinear: On average, the peer effect decreases at higher values of peer substance use, which is consistent with a “saturation” effect. We also find that the functional form of the peer substance use/substance use relationship is dependent on the neighborhood context. In neighborhoods with more opportunities for crime, the peer effect is initially strong but decreases as peer substance use increases, which is consistent with a saturation effect. Conversely, in neighborhoods with fewer opportunities for crime, the effect of peers is initially small, but as delinquent peer associations increase, the peer effect increases multiplicatively.     

VICTIMOLOGY REVISITED A Critique and Suggestions for Future Direction

Recent theoretical and research contributions related to victimology generally have supported earlier ideas of victim precipitation implied by von Hentig, Mendelsohn, Ellenberger, and others. Here we identify and evaluate some of the underlying assumptions of victim precipitation. In addition, suggestions are offered for the future development of victim-precipitation explanatory formulations in victimology.     

China Observes Day of Mourning as Relief Work for Mudslides Contmues

Mudslides buried and flooded hundreds of homes on Sunday, August 8, in Zhouqu,the Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of northwest Gansu Province. The death toll from the massive rain-triggered mudslides in Zhouqu County had risen to 1,239 as of August 15, a week after the devastating mudslides hit the county, with 505 others still missing.     

The EHRC: Transformational,Progressively Incremental or a Disappointment?

The ECHR has yet to decide its first substantive strategy and objectives within its broad set of statutory duties. This article seeks to identify the likely more influential factors in its external context and internal composition, and the extent to which those factors point towards a new universalist "integrated mandate" as distinct from the previous regime's approach focusing on particular groups (black and ethnic minority groups, women and men, disabled people etc.). The analysis suggests a possible contradiction in that, while the internal factors are on balance geared to the integrated model, the current external environment (in conjunction with an inevitable need to prioritise) on balance still points to the group based model. The article concludes with possible implications for the ECHR's strategy and that, among public bodies, the ECHR is uniquely well-positioned to tackle group-based inequalities.