“THE PLACE OF JUSTICE IS AN HALLOWED PLACE”1

This article discusses the concept of justice and differentiates between restorative and retributive justice. The Judeo-Christian roots of justice are explored in the context of a need to reform the adversarial nature of the process of family law.     

A path analytic approach to the validation of a taxonomic system for classifying child molesters

This study examined the validity of the most recent revision of a taxonomy for child molesters developed at the Massachusetts Treatment Center (MTC:CM3). The taxonomy is distinguished both from earlier versions of this system and from other systems, by three major changes: (a) the partitioning of the regressed/fixated dichotomy into two separate factors-level of social competence and degree of fixation on children, (b) the introduction of a new type (narcissistic) to fill an empirically determined gap between the object-related offender and the antisocial, exploitative offender, and (c) the differentiation of the violence in the sexual offense into nonsadistic and sadistic components. MTC:CM3 was used to classify 177 child molesters who were committed to the Treatment Center. Variables coded from the clinical files were rationally grouped according to developmental period and subjected to principal-components analysis (PCA). The PCA-derived components then were entered into a series of regression analyses. The resulting three path models indicated that the new subtypes created by the aforementioned refinements had distinct developmental courses and adult adaptations.     

Environmental management and street-level regulators: A cultural trap?

It has been argued that environmental management is in an administrative trap. Numerous factors leading to this trapped situation have already been identified in the literature: institutional rigidity, lack of co-ordination, formalization, non-accountability and political interference. This study focusses on the organizational, cultural dimension of the administrative trap and argues that in order to reform administrative structures, the organizational culture must also be reformed. On the basis of several face-to-face interviews with street-level environmental regulators in Hong Kong, the study claims that a role-oriented, hierarchical culture exists. While such an organizational culture is in perfect agreement with existing administrative arrangements, it may, in the end, hamper the effectiveness of environmental management.     

Public opinion and presidential responsibility for the economy: Understanding personalization

The general mechanisms which underlie the psychological phenomenon ofpersonalizing (cognitive simplification and defensive attribution) would seem to have great utility in explaining attributions of presidential control over the economy. Yet previous research has generated inconsistent and inconclusive empirical results. This study identifies several sources of inconsistency and then attempts to clarify the approach by focusing separately on the object and the subject of personalizing. Our findings suggest that the determinants of personalizing to the president are different from the factors that explain personalizing to the incumbent. In addition, we find that the impact of the two psychological mechanisms differs substantially within economic subject areas.Paper prepared for delivery at the 1984 Annual Meeting of the Southwestern Political Science Association, Fort Worth, Texas.