Reactions to participating in dating violence research: are our questions distressing participants?

In recent years, there has been increased research focus on dating violence, producing important information for reducing these violent relationships. Yet Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) are often hesitant to approve research on dating violence, citing emotional distress of participants as a possible risk of participation. However, no known research has examined the reactions of research participants to questions about dating violence. The current study examined the reactions among college students to completing a self-report measure on dating violence. Results showed that participants reported numerous positive experiences as a result of their research participation, with only mildly increased negative emotional reactions evident for some. Findings are discussed in relation to IRB proposals and appropriate informed consent for research participants.     

Maternal Attachment Trajectories and Criminal Offending By Race

Parental attachment is a key predictor of juvenile offending. Most prior research on the topic, however, assumes that parental attachment is stable throughout youth and adolescence. On the contrary, recent research has established that parenting is a dynamic factor for many youth during adolescence. In the current study, we assess the relationship between trajectories of maternal attachment and offending during adolescence and young adulthood. Following a cohort of 859 youth from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth data aged 10 or 11 over a period of 6 years, we find four distinctive trajectories of maternal attachment and two distinctive trajectories of offending. The results suggest that changes that occur in maternal closeness are linked to changes in offending across adolescence. However, when young adult offending is assessed when the youth are 18 or 19 years of age, we find that adolescent maternal attachment trajectories are not significant predictors of offending.     

“I Don’t Know Where it is Safe”: Trans Women’s Experiences of Violence

Scholars are only beginning to take account of how trans people experience violence motivated by their gender identity and expression. Based on a series of focus groups and interviews across Canada, this article aims to further this area of inquiry. The fear of victimization, and thus hyper-vigilance, seems to be particularly acute among trans women. Many of them spoke of the multiple and complex layers through which they defined “safety” and lack thereof. We share their experiences and perceptions of the threat of hate motivated violence, and their subsequent reactions.     

State Corporate and Federal Securities Law: Dual Regulation in a Federal System

Corporate law in the United States involves dual regulation.Although state and federal corporate law typically functionwithout mutual interference, the last thirty years have revealedpotential conflicts, chiefly in two situations. One involvescivil remedies for investors under federal securities statutes;the other is state anti-takeover regulation and its relationshipto the federal Williams Act. The postwar years until 1975 sawperhaps too much reliance on the federal component of corporateregulation. Since 1975, there has been a renaissance of statelaw. Recently, however, appreciation for state regulatory authoritymay have degenerated into hostility to the will of Congress.The authors argue that the core interpretive task in federalsecurities law is preservation of both regimes to maximum effect,because the Congress has expressly declared that state authorityshould continue adjacent to federal regulation.     

Technology transfer into capital-intensive industry II. Effect of legislative action

Government policy supports the customary industrial goal of putting new technology to work in industry as quickly as possible, so as to enhance productivity and save energy. There is continuing debate over how to achieve this goal, specifically as to the impact of legislation on efforts to improve industrial energy conservation. The Office of Technology Assessment has studied the effects of four types of legislation on four large energy-using industries: Chemicals, paper, petroleum refining and steel. The legislative options include fuel taxes, changes in depreciation rules, energy tax credits, and lower interest rates. The analysis indicates that reasonable levels of the first three of these will not be persuasive in motivating new investments, and will not speed up the rate of new technology penetration. The limits of new technology introduction are set by capital availability and cash flow. Accordingly, lower interest rates which promote capital availability would indeed increase the levels of capital spending and hence accelerate energy conservation.