Book reviews

Datenhandbuch zur Geschichte des Deutschen Bundestages 1949 bis 1999. Edited by Peter Schindler. 3 Volumes. Baden‐Baden: Nomos, 1999. DM 98.

Finanzverfassung und Föderalismus in Deutschland und Europa. Edited by Thiess Buttner. Baden‐Baden: Nomos, 2000. DM 48 pb.

Krise und Reform des Föderalismus. Edited by Reinhard C. Meier‐Walser and Gerhard Hirscher. Munich: Olzog, 1999. DM 24.80.

Hinter den Kulissen von Regierungsbündnissen. Koalitionspolilik in Bund, Ländern und Gemeinden. Edited by Roland Sturm and Sabine Kropp. Baden‐Baden: Nomos, 1999. DM 74.

Austria — Out of the Shadow of the Past. By Anton Pelinka. Oxford: Westview Press, 1998.

Austria. World Bibliographical Series. Revised edition. Volume 66. By Michael Mitchell. Oxford: Clio Press, 1999.

The Official Concept of the Nation in the Former GDR. By Joanna McKay. Hants/Vermont: Ashgate, 1998.

NATO and the Future of European Security. By Sean Kay. Rowman and Littlefield, 1998.

Linguistics and the Third Reich: Mother‐Tongue Fascism and the Science of Language. By Christopher M. Hutton. Routledge Studies in the History of Linguistics. London and New York: Routledge, 1999.

The Language of the Third Reich. LTI ‐ Lingua Tertii Imperii. A Philologist's Notebook. By Victor Klemperer. Translated by Martin Brady. London and New Brunswick: The Athlone Press, 2000.

German Studies. Old and New Challenges. Undergraduate Programmes in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Edited by Peter Rolf Lutzeier. Berne: Peter Lang, 1998 (German Linguistic and Cultural Studies, vol. 1).

EU Enlargement and its Macroeconomic Effects in Eastern Europe. Currencies, Prices, Investment and Competitiveness. By Hubert Gabrisch and Rüdiger Pohl. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1999.

Welfare States in Transition. East and West. By Irwin Collier, Herwig Roggemann, Oliver Scholz and Horst Tomann. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1999.

Economic Transition in Hungary and East Germany. Gradualism and Shock Therapy in Catch‐up Development. By Johannes Stephan. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1999.

Doing Business with Germany. Edited by Jonathan Reuvid and Roderick Millar (consultant eds.). In association with German‐British Chamber of Industry and Commerce, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Eversheds. Business Lawyers in Europe. London: Kogan Page, 2nd edn. 1999. Reprinted 2000.

The German Skills Machine: Sustaining Comparative Advantage in a Global Economy. Edited by Pepper D. Culpepper and David Finegold. Berghahn Books, 1999.

Reconstructing Education. By Rosalind M.O. Pritchard. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 1999.

In a Cold Crater: Cultural and Intellectual Life in Berlin, 1945–1948. By Wolfgang Schivelbusch. Translated by Kelly Barry. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.

The Longman Companion to Germany Since 1945. By Adrian Webb. London: Longman, 1998.

Ausgewcihlte Aspekte des Transformationsprozesses im Cesundheitswesen der neuen Bundeslander. Edited by Viola Schubert‐Lehnhardt, Christel Gibas and Birgit Möbest. Berlin: Trafo Verlag, 1998.

Lebensbedingungen, Lebensgestaltung und Lebensinn von älteren Frauen in Deutschland und Europa. Edited by Viola Schubert‐Lehnhardt. Berlin: Trafo Verlag, 2000.     

The Influence of Case and Professional Variables on the Identification and Reporting of Child Maltreatment: A Study of Licensed Psychologists and Certified Masters Social Workers

All 50 states have laws requiring mental health and other professionals to report suspected maltreatment. Unfortunately, many professionals who are mandated to report suspicions of child maltreatment often fail to recognize potential maltreatment or fail to report their suspicions. The present study examines several factors that may influence identification and reporting of child maltreatment. Subjects were licensed psychologists in the Midwest and certified Masters social workers in Nebraska. Child maltreatment included neglect, physical abuse, psychological maltreatment, and sexual abuse. Characteristics associated with the family or “case” (race, socioeconomic status of family, age of victim, type of maltreatment) were manipulated and presented in hypothetical case vignettes. Characteristics of the professional (e.g., training and experience with identification and reporting, personal history of maltreatment and violence) were also investigated. Ratings of the severity of the potential maltreatment situation, suspiciousness that maltreatment is occurring, and likelihood of reporting maltreatment were completed after reading each case vignette. The results indicate that a variety of case and professional factors may influence identification and reporting of maltreatment. Implications for training professionals and further research are discussed.     

Introduction to the forum ‘The EU's Common Security and Defence Policy and the challenge of democratic legitimacy beyond the nation-state’

The democratic control and legitimacy of the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) has received growing attention. However, thus far, studies have mostly focused on ‘blue prints’, i.e., the analysis of formal powers of formal institutions, especially the European Parliament. These studies leave two desiderata that the contributions to this forum aim at overcoming: Firstly, in-depth case studies are required on how formal institutions make actual use of their formal powers in CSDP. Secondly, an examination of the ‘sociocultural infrastructure’ in which formal institutions and decision-making processes are embedded is required. The contributions to this forum redress both deficits. First, the actual practices of parliamentary involvement in the case of the EU's first maritime mission ‘Atalanta’ are examined. Second, the most important dimensions of the ‘sociocultural infrastructure’ are empirically studied, namely public opinion, the public sphere and civil society.     

Resolving and Managing Conflictsin Academic Communities: The Emerging Role of the “Pracademic”

The academic world is where a new kind of dispute resolution specialist—the pracademic—is working. Solidly based in academe by virtue of his or her scholarly credentials and career, this person has also developed expertise in alternative (or appropriate) dispute resolution. The pracademic is frequently called upon to help resolve particular disputes and can help identify sources of problems among the many layers of organization found in an academic setting. The authors discuss the role, responsibilities, and challenges of pracademics and speculate on future directions for this emergent practice.     

Towards a framework for measuring local government return on investment in arts and cultural development

Local governments make a significant annual investment in arts and cultural development programmes. However, the practicalities of measuring the return on this investment have been largely overlooked by researchers, and investigations into return on investment have frequently focused on the economic return. Here, it is argued that intrinsic social and cultural returns on investment are equally important. A further issue is that measurement frameworks have often taken an outputs-based approach, seeking to evaluate the performance of one-off events rather than measuring the outcomes or impact of the total investment in arts and cultural development over the life of a policy or strategy. This paper therefore takes a broader, outcomes-based approach and offers a practical evaluation framework. An implementation-ready method is presented which will allow local government policy-makers to provide evidence of medium- and long-term outcomes and impacts of their arts and cultural development programmes and weigh this against their investment.     

The use of neuroscientific evidence in Canadian criminal proceedings

This article addresses the question of how neuroscientific evidence is currently used in the Canadian criminal justice system, with a view to identifying the main contexts in which this evidence is raised, as well as to discern the impact of this evidence on judgements of responsibility, dangerousness, and treatability. The most general Canadian legal database was searched for cases in the five-year period between 2008 and 2012 in which neuroscientific evidence related to the responsibility and recidivism risk of criminal offenders was considered. Canadian courts consider neuroscientific evidence of many types, particularly evidence of prenatal alcohol exposure, traumatic brain injury, and neuropsychological testing. The majority of the cases are sentencing decisions, which is useful given that it offers an opportunity to observe how judges wrestle with the tension that evidence of diminished capacity due to brain damage tends to reduce moral blameworthiness, while it also tends to increase perceptions of risk and dangerousness. This so-called double-edged sword of the biological explanation of criminal behavior was reflected in this study, and raises questions about whether and when the pursuit of such evidence is advisable from the defense perspective.     

VOICE ALTERATIONS

The experience of divorce is difficult for everyone involved. To best help with the legal experience, we need to understand gender differences that affect the process. This article adds to the understanding of that difference by addressing women's development and the female "voice." Women have not been acculturated to the subtle rules of litigation, which are in the male "voice." The authors offer an alternative scenario to add balance to the traditional experience of divorce for women and men and to the divorce process itself.     

THE INFLUENCE OF BLACKS IN STATE AND LOCAL FAIR HOUSING POLICY-MAKING

The influence of black officials and organizations on public policy varies among political settings. Factors responsible for this variation include the relatively limited political resources still available to blacks, the size of the black population in a location, the representation of blacks in elective office, the control of political gate keepers, and prevailing ideology. The ability of blacks to influence fair housing policy is further predicated upon the level of government addressed. Black individuals and organizations were in- strumental in gaining agenda status for the passage of federal fair housing legislation in the 1960s. Experiences in Cleveland and Ohio reveal a less prominent role for blacks in state and local fair housing policy. Two major factors peculiar to this topic, inattention of traditional civil rights groups and diminished public support for civil rights policies, combine with repre- sentational issues to require a broader coalition for support of these policies. The lead in advocacy has been assumed by black/liberal white coalitions that promote managed residential integration contrary to the preferences of black-dominated interests that prefer equality of housing opportunity regardless of racial impact. The latter group, lacking the politi- cal resources of the former, usually reacts to policy rather than initiating policy. Black elected officials, who play a pivotal role in responding to the demand-protests of their constituents, may be hampered or helped by the political resources available in state and local settings. The theory of politi- cal incorporation helps to explain the incremental gains of blacks as com- pared to long-term policy responsiveness in state and local policy-making.