Evaluating the Effectiveness of the National Curriculum and Training Institute’s “Cognitive Life Skills” Program among Parolees Supervised by Pennsylvania’s Board of Probation & Parole

Recently, cognitive-behavioral approaches for rehabilitation have shown measured success for reducing recidivism rates among offenders after release from prison. The present analysis utilized data provided by Pennsylvania’s Board of Probation & Parole about offenders who completed the Cognitive Life Skills program developed by the National Curriculum and Training Institute. Propensity scoring techniques were employed to match a group of offenders who completed the program (treatment) with a statistically equivalent group who did not receive it (control). Matching variables included location and year of release, risk level, gender, age, race, offense category, and history of violent offending. General findings from a Cox proportional hazard model revealed gender, age, and criminal history impacted future incidents of recidivism, measured as re-incarceration. More importantly, the hazard model revealed, on average, a 24 % reduction in recidivism among the treatment group offenders and, on average, a 31 % reduction among high risk offenders exclusively. Policy implications will be discussed.     

A Survey of Arts Management Educators' Teaching on Diversity Issues

This study answered two research questions: (1) do arts management educators teach about diversity issues in their courses? If so, how and why? If not, why? (2) Do demographic characteristics impact if an arts management educator teaches about diversity issues in their courses? Most respondents (eighty-six percent) teach about diversity issues in their courses, primarily through discussion (ninety-one percent), and most (ninety-nine percent) believe arts management students should receive education on diversity issues in the arts. This study is significant because no known inquiry into the teaching practices of arts management educators relative to diversity issues in the arts previously existed.     

Allele frequencies of 15 autosomal STR loci in the Iraq population with comparisons to other populations from the middle-eastern region

Allele frequencies for the 15 autosomal STR loci included in the AmpFlSTR((R)) IdentifilerTM PCR Amplification Kit panel from Applied Biosystems (D3S1358, vWA, FGA, D8S1179, D21S11, D18S51, D5S818, D13S317, D7S820, TH01, TPOX, CSF1PO, D19S433, D2S1338, D16S539) and several statistical parameters were estimated from a sample of 103 unrelated individuals, mostly Shia and Sunni Arabs, living in most of central and southern Iraq provinces. We compared the allele frequency spectrum detected in the Iraqi population to allele frequencies from 11 other data sets from published studies of individuals from Turkey, Iraqi-Kurdistan, Saudi Arabia, Arab Emarates, Oman, Iran, Syria, and Jordan. Significant global differences in allele frequencies were detected in 9 of the 11 comparisons following sequential Bonferroni corrections. Comparisons with the two independent panels from Saudi Arabia were not significant after applying Bonferroni corrections, however, low P-values (P<0.05) associated with these two contrasts nonetheless suggested that at least slight genetic differences between populations may exist.     

On Some Merits of the Israeli Judgment on Targeted Killings

The recent judgment by the Israeli Supreme Court on targetedkillings is a landmark decision in many respects. Its main meritlies in trying to give precision to, and therefore make concretelyapplicable by the belligerents, some loose standards of internationalhumanitarian law on the conduct of hostilities. In particular,the judgment is significant because (i) it concluded that theissue of targeted killings did not amount to a non-justiciablequestion, (ii) it suggested a novel and imaginative way of narrowingdown the vague scope of imprecise international rules on methodsof combat, and in addition (iii) it set out a range of measuresthat belligerents must take both before and after armed attacksagainst civilians participating in hostilities, so as to avoiddamage to innocent civilians as far as possible. The measuresauthoritatively suggested in the judgment may serve both toturn some unclear international rules into workable standardsof conduct, and also to open the way to the possible prosecutionof individuals (superiors and subordinates) who do not complywith such standards.     

Isolating Target And Neighbourhood Vulnerabilities In Crime Forecasting

Risk terrain modelling (RTM) is emerging as an effective approach for predicting how and where crimes concentrate within cities and regions. However, in its previous applications there is a tendency to overestimate the influence of external environmental risks and preventive factors. Most studies applying RTM have investigated factors associated with the characteristics of the urban setting, whilst only a limited number have focused on identifying the risks associated with the availability and the characteristics of potential targets for criminals. This study uses RTM to identify the spatial risk and protective factors related to residential burglaries in the city of Milan, Italy. Factors considered are the neighbourhood- and target-related contextual factors, the exposure to crime and potential mitigating strategies. The results show that when the place and target of the offence are intrinsically related a target-oriented approach to select factors is useful for increasing the understanding of why some locations are most likely to experience future crimes. Indeed, the peculiarities of the target itself are integral to understan both the decision-making of criminals and the overall level of crime risk. Related policy implications are discussed.     

The difficult issue of age assessment on pedo-pornographic material

The issue of juvenile pornography has seen an increase in the past few years of the number of expert opinions requested to forensic pathologists, paediatricians and other various experts within the forensic and medical fields concerning the age of represented individuals. Regardless of the entity of the problem, no actual method exists which can allow us to give an objective and scientific answer, particularly in the postpubertal stage. Using parameters related to sexual maturation can be very dangerous. Nonetheless some experts still insist with similar types of “expertises”. This study aims at verifying the ability of different experts in assessing age of postpubertal individuals represented in pornographic material. Results underline the difficulties and major uncertainties of age evaluation by visual observation of photographic material particularly when the subjects have reached the sexual maturation stage – and therefore in verifying whether the individual is above or below 18 years of age (an important age limit for most European countries as far as this type of crime is concerned). Furthermore the study stresses the need both to search for an alternate approach and to apply extreme caution in judicial evaluation.     

Centre–periphery relations in Afghanistan: Badakhshan between patrimonialism and institution-building

The article offers a review of centre–periphery relations and local politics in the Afghan province of Badakhshan from the 1980s to the post-2001 era. It maps the local powerbrokers and charts the transformations that occurred during this period, with particular reference to the impact of the central government's policies on local political alignments and relations of power. The key argument is that President Karzai's and the cabinet's behaviour towards Badakhshani politics was aimed at re-establishing a patrimonial system, rather than at institution-building as claimed. Unable or unwilling to successfully deal with established local players, Kabul resorted to sponsoring new players in local politics and facilitating their rise in order to weaken more independent powerbrokers. However, a local perception of weakness in Kabul, not least due to uncertainty over the durability of the Karzai administration, led local players, old and new, to behave with very short-term horizons, as ‘roving bandits’ rather than as ‘stationary’ ones.     

从反核威慑战略到最低核威慑战略:中国核战略演进之路

当前学者们对中国核战略的争论焦点在于,没有任何一种现有核战略定义能够完全涵盖中国核政策的特点。本文认为,正确理解中国核战略,需要摆脱现有核战略理论概念体系的束缚。只有从中国核战略产生和发展的具体时代背景中寻找线索,才能认识到,中国核战略经历了从反核威慑战略到最低核威慑战略的巨大转变,而中国长期大规模备战核战争遗留下来的物质遗产和思想基础,仍然对中国核战略产生着巨大的影响力。中国学者应从中国核战略实践出发,参与构建主流话语体系,为核战略学科建设做出自己的贡献。     

全球减排路线图的正义性——对胡鞍钢教授的全球减排路线图的评价与修正

任何全球减排路线图的绘制都无法脱离国际正义而具有生命力。气候变化问题的特性要求全球减排路线图尊重具有两面性的国际气候正义:环境正义和发展正义,需要考虑国家间公平、人的公平和代际公平。仅以人类发展指数(HDI)作为衡量国家承担减排责任的标准缺乏足够的正义,至少还需要加入人均历史累积排放和气候变化脆弱性两个指标。三者分别体现气候变化正义性中的人的平等发展权、减排责任分担和对受害者在排放权上的补偿。综合三大指标后的四分组分类,才是更体现正义性、更容易被接受和执行的路线图。从正义性出发,中国应承担相应的减排责任,并努力推动全球减排进程,但也要注意维护自身的发展权益。中国在全球减排中的作为,应是在国际正义与国家发展战略间取得平衡。     

The Role of Ego-Resiliency as Mediator of the Longitudinal Relationship between Family Socio-Economic Status and School Grades

Family socio-economic status (SES) represents one of the major determinants of youth’s scholastic achievement, and thus it is important to unravel the psychological factors underlining this relation. In this article, we examined youth’s ability to flexibly adapt and, thus, cope with harsh environmental conditions—assessed by the construct of ego-resiliency—as a mediating mechanism in the across-time association between family SES and academic achievement. The longitudinal sample was composed of 265 (56% females) Italian students who were about 13 years old at Time 1 (T1) and about 18 years old at Time 2 (T2). In a structural equation model analysis, family SES significantly predicted ego-resiliency 6 years later while controlling for the latter’s strong longitudinal stability. Students’ school grades at the end of senior high school were also predicted by ego-resiliency assessed at the age of 13, controlling for grades in the last year of junior high school, gender, and initial differences in ages. In accordance with the posited hypothesis, this study provided support for a two-wave meditational model in which the relation between family SES at 13 years and later school grades at 19 years was mediated by ego-resiliency. All in all, results support the argument that being resilient, and thus being able to flexibly adapt one’s own emotional state and resultant behavior, matters to school success.