Investigating perceptions of race and ethnic diversity among prospective police officers

Many have suggested police diversity will improve police-community relations, but research testing this hypothesis is inconclusive. We investigated perceptions of police race, ethnicity, and diversity in a heterogeneous sample of prospective police officers. Data are drawn from interviews with 42 criminal justice college students in the Southwestern United States, of which 15 were Hispanic, and who each wanted to become a police officer. Participants supported diversity in policing, and collectively expressed a belief that race plays a central role in policing today. Furthermore, participants expressed support for the ideals of both passive and active representative bureaucracy. Hispanics in the sample in particular anticipated they would positively affect police relations in Hispanic neighborhoods and encourage immigrants to cooperate with police.     

Advances in violence and trauma: toward comprehensive ecological models

The most important things learned about violence and trauma in the past 20 years are that interpersonal violence is prevalent, with different forms co-occurring, and that victims' reactions are complex. Researchers are called to consider models that include the ecological context within which victims experience violence and trauma to gain a better understanding of the variation seen in psychological outcomes. Multivariate data-analytic techniques such as structural equation modeling and cluster analysis are suggested as promising ways to explore questions framed by comprehensive models. These recommendations are predicted to provide comprehensive and individualized ways to intervene and prevent interpersonal violence.     

Le style de gestion des hommes et des femmes: convergence ou divergence?

Sommaire: Bien que le modele masculin de la gestion soit encore la norme, il cons-titue un obstacle au leadership efficace. En effet, l'adaptation aux changements structurels que connaissent les organisations exige un changement de leur culture, misant davantage sur l'ecoute d'autrui, l'intuition, l'empathie, la flexibility, qualites qui sont traditionnellement pratiquees par les femmes. La reorientation des modeles de gestion et l'augmentation du nombre des femmes dans les postes de direction donnent-ils l'occasion aux femmes d'exercer leurs fonctions sans avoir a se deguiser psychologiquement en hommes? Ces conditions leur ont-elles permis de changer la culture organisationnelle en y introduisant des facons de faire qui tiennent mieux compte des facteurs humains? Les hommes ont-ils et eux-memes influences en ce sens? Pour repondre a ces questions, un questionnaire mesurant les styles de gestion et les caracteristiques manageriales a ete complete par 398 gestionnaires de la fonc-tion publique quebecoise (230 hommes et 168 femmes). Les resultats montrent que comparativement a leurs collegues masculins, les femmes utilisent davantage des styles de gestion faisant appel aux ressources humaines, a la cohesion et a la vulnerability, conformement aux hypotheses. Mais, contrairement aux hypotheses, elles recourent davantage au pouvoir et aux normes. Elles utilisent done plus que les hommes des styles de gestion masculins et feminins. De plus, elles s'attribuent plus de caracteristiques manageriales masculines et feminines que leurs collegues masculins. Par ailleurs, les gestionnaires des deux sexes s'attribuent davantage de caracteristiques manageriales feminines que masculines, ce qui suggere que des changements se produisent dans la culture organisationnelle. Abstract: Although the traditional masculine model of management is still the norm, it is criticized as impairing effective leadership. Adaptation to structural changes actually taking place in organizations requires a significant shift in their culture towards valuing and using talents such as intuition, empathy, flexibility and caring that women have been socialized to develop. In view of this reorientation of management skills and of the increase in the number of women holding managerial positions, are women now allowed to perform their functions as women, without having to imitate men? Do women have the opportunity to contribute to organizational change by developing practices more sensitive to humane factors? Finally, have men been influenced by women's ways of managing? These issues were addressed in a survey conducted with 398 respondents from the Quebec public service (230 men and 168 women). A questionnaire measured preferred managerial styles and self-attributed psychological characteristics. Results revealed that, as predicted, women's managerial style emphasized human resources, cohesion and vulnerability. However, contrary to predictions, women used power, norms and procedures to a greater extent than men did. Their managerial style thus combines feminine and masculine features. Moreover, women reported having more feminine and masculine psychological characteristics than did men. But, overall, feminine characteristics were self-attributed by both males and females, suggesting emerging changes in organizational culture.     

The Influence of President Obama’s, Middle Name on Middle Eastern and U.S. Perceptions

In a series of cross-cultural experiments, we explore whether mentioning President Obama’s middle name facilitates or impedes his delicate position as a peace broker. Our results show that including Obama’s middle name affects perceptions of Obama and his proposals for the Middle East among Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs. We examine whether the use of Obama’s middle name inspires the same reactions in the United States by replicating the study among those who sympathize with Israelis and those who sympathize with Palestinians. Results show that the effect of Obama’s middle name differs in the United States. This study has important implications, not only for the President Obama’s standing in the Arab world and for the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, but also for our understanding of subtle ethnic cues and biases across cultural contexts.     

A matter of balance: the European Union as a mediator in Yemen

The mediation efforts of the European Union (EU) Delegation in Yemen started with the uprising in 2011 which led to the conclusion of the National Dialogue Conference in 2014. This article examines the EU's understanding of mediation vis-à-vis its practice. The case of Yemen lends itself to trace EU mediation capabilities from the implementation of the “Concept on Strengthening Mediation and Dialogue Capacities” to a more systematic approach because the Mediation Support Team (MST) of the European External Action Service took office in 2011. Building on an analytical framework of mediation as a tool of EU foreign policy, this article demonstrates how EU mediation presents itself along a political and a technical dimension. The collaboration of the MST and the EU Delegation personnel in Yemen fostered an increase in mediation awareness. However, it could not develop its full potential as the UN Special Advisor sidelined the EU and other members of the Group of Ten Ambassadors through his proactive approach. Despite those difficulties of standing up to established actors in the field, this study argues that EU mediation is about balancing its political and technical dimension. For now, the political seems to outweigh the craft of mediation in the case of Yemen.     

Application of Fordisc 3.0 to Explore Differences Among Crania of North American and South African Blacks and Whites,

Using discriminant function analysis, classification accuracies for ancestry and sex in white and black South Africans were compared using North American (FDB), African groups in Howells (HDB), and South African (SADB) databases in FORDISC 3.0. (FD3). Twenty‐four standard linear measures were collected from a total of 86 black and 101 white crania obtained from the Pretoria Bone Collection. White and black South Africans classified 73% correctly in FDB, 55% correctly in HDB, and 71% correctly in SADB. The percentage of atypical cases was higher with FDB than SADB. In all three databases, misclassification occurred more with sex than ancestry revealing differences in sexual dimorphism between population groups. Broad ancestral differences may explain low misclassification rates for ancestry. FD3, with a modern South African reference sample, can assist South African anthropologists to standardize methodology and to justify procedures for estimating ancestry.