Women's work,artisanal discourse,and community: a response to Sheila Blackburn

This article is a comment on Sheila Blackburn's response to the author's original essay, ‘Gender Constructions and Gender Relations in Cotton and Chain-making in England: a contested and varied terrain’, which appeared in Women's History Review (6[3], 1997). As the author repeats in this response, the apparently dominant artisanal discourse of the male chainmakers of nineteenth-century Walsall, supporting the exclusion of female labor from the trade, was undermined by conditions existing in Cradley Heath, where the community depended on that labor. Foregrounding this division regarding gender understandings, it is argued, provides a vantage point from which to gain a fuller and more accurate picture of the ways in which those understandings, as well as gender and community relations, were negotiated in one industry towards the end of the nineteenth century     

Efficiently Taking Soundings in a Sea of Change: Two Histories of Public Budgeting and Finance

Books reviewed:
Irene S. Rubin, Class, Tax, and Power: Municipal Budgeting in the United States.
Donald R. Stabile, The Origins of American Public Finance: Debates over Money, Debt, and Taxes in the Constitutional Era, 1776–1836.     

Toward Rational Criminal HIV Exposure Laws

This article examines criminal HIV exposure statues that address undisclosed exposure through consensual sexual activity. Twenty-seven U.S. states have adopted some form of HIV exposure statute. Thirteen of these statutes specifically address exposure through sexual activity, while another eleven statutes could be applied to exposure through sexual activity, while another eleven statutes could be applied to exposure through consensual sexual interactions. Although the penalties for breach of these laws are often severe, the risk of actual harm posed by the many of the behaviors prescribed is minimal and in some cases virtually nonexistent. After an overview of the various types of U.S. criminal HIV exposure statutes and discussion of the risk of HIV transmission through the various sexual activities addressed in the laws, the authors highlight the tenuous relationship between proscribed activities and actual risk of virus transmission. The authors address this limitation in the law by offering a framework for the evaluation and construction of HIV exposure statutes that considers not only the intent of the HIV-positive actor but also the risk that his or her conduct poses to others.     

Expert Testimony on Psychological Injury: Procedural and Evidentiary Issues

This article introduces psychologists to aspects of the legal process most pertinent to their role as expert witnesses in civil litigation. It summarizes the role of psychological evidence in the adjudication of common law tort claims, the structure of the court system, and the stages of the litigation process. It also explains the various roles a psychological expert may play during litigation and the implications of those roles for expert confidentiality and disclosure. The article then provides an overview of legal policy governing the admissibility of psychological expertise, especially as admissibility is affected by the “Daubert” standard applied in most North American courts.     

A view from below: industrial re-structuring and women's employment at four Russian enterprises

The labor market in Russia has changed significantly during the last decade. This transformation has resulted in notable changes in employment and unemployment patterns, and in labor mobility, flexibility and insecurity. One critical question is whether these changes signal important differences in labor market outcomes by gender. The approach taken here is to focus on the Russian industrial enterprise. In our study, we find that women experience different internal labor market opportunities and external job prospects than men and those differences in experience are reflected in the actual hiring practices at our firms, with men substituting for women, and women finding it particularly difficult to negotiate the increasingly closed labor market in Russia. At the same time important differences persist among women, differences that do not exist for men.     

A comparison between the Intercept Oral Fluid Collection Device® and urinalysis among Baltimore City probationers

Few studies compared oral fluid (OF) analysis to laboratory urinalysis (UA) in real-world criminal justice environments, and no studies had collected survey data, from either specimen providers or specimen collectors, about the overall OF collection experience. In the most comprehensive toxicological comparison study conducted to date, urine and OF specimens were collected from a sample of 223 adult probationers in Baltimore City, Maryland, between March and May 2004. In addition, probationers and probation staff were surveyed about the OF collection experience. With confirmed UA as the reference standard, the Intercept Oral Specimen Collection Device® (Intercept) was 100 percent sensitive and 99 percent specific for benzodiazepines, 92 percent sensitive and 96 percent specific for cocaine, 77 percent sensitive and 96 percent specific for opiates, 39 percent sensitive and 98 percent specific for marijuana, and 75 percent sensitive and 91 percent specific for the detection of at least one drug. Seventy-two percent of the probationers and 88 percent of the probation staff rated the Intercept experience better than the collection of urine specimens. Implications for criminal justice policy and research are discussed.     

Assessing law enforcement preparedness to address Internet fraud

Recent societal concern regarding computer crime was well documented in the research literature. To date, however, modest research addressed how large, local police and sheriff's departments confront Internet fraud. Using data collected from surveys distributed to the seven hundred largest police- and sheriff's departments, the present article addresses law enforcement: (1) preparedness to enforce Internet fraud crimes; (2) perceptions of Internet fraud; (3) cooperative policing efforts; and (4) Internet fraud information dissemination practices. Among other things, results suggested that individuals within these departments believed Internet fraud was problematic, although they lacked the resources to properly address the problem. These results are discussed as they relate to the organizational design of law enforcement agencies and their potential to adapt to innovative crimes. Suggestions are offered for a more effective approach to confronting Internet fraud.