Neighborhood Disadvantage, Individual Economic Distress and Violence Against Women in Intimate Relationships

A continuing debate in sociological criminology involves the association of crime with economic disadvantage at both aggregate and individual levels of analysis. At the aggregate level, data from law enforcement sources suggest that rates of intimate violence are higher in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Disadvantaged neighborhoods may experience higher rates of intimate violence for compositional or contextual reasons, or rates may only appear to be higher because of differential reporting. Similarly, at the individual level, intimate violence appears more common among couples that are economically distressed, but whether economic distress triggers intimate violence is not certain. Using data from waves 1 and 2 of the National Survey of Families and Households and from the 1990 U.S. Census, we investigate the effects of neighborhood economic disadvantage and individual economic distress on intimate violence against women. Controlling for violence at time 1 and other individual level characteristics, we find that neighborhood economic disadvantage, neighborhood residential instability, male employment instability, and subjective financial strain influence the likelihood of violence at time 2. The relationship between neighborhood disadvantage and intimate violence appears to reflect both compositional and contextual effects.     

Financial frauds and pseudo-states in the Pacific Islands

Since 1990 financial frauds have been associated with pseudo-states in thePacific Islands, particularly the Dominion of Melchizedek. The relative success of these schemes can be understood in terms of (i) the general atmosphere of overconfidence about financial dealings that prevailed during the decade to early 2000, (ii) Melchizedek's creation of opportunities for a growing mutually supportive network of fraudsters, (iii) this pseudo-state's identification with a rising global tide of secession and indigenous self-determination through its increasing involvement in a variety ofethnic nationalist movements in Oceania that have been connected with questionable financial dealings, and (iv) the attractiveness of its developing postmodern personality as a libertarian cyber-state. The article concludes by seeing Melchizedek's facilitation of financialfrauds as a challenge to recent libertarian thinking about the law of cyberspace and the anticipated neo-medieval world-system.     

Equity or Efficiency? Explaining Public Officials' Values

This article analyzes the positions of top public officials on an equity‐efficiency trade‐off and the determinants of those positions. It uses data from a survey across 14 European countries. The results show that differences in public officials' positions on equity‐efficiency are related to the context in which they work and to their personal background. Officials at the top of the hierarchy and those with a business or economics education are more oriented toward efficiency. Additionally, results show important differences associated with country administrative culture, including a stronger equity orientation in Scandinavian countries, and a stronger efficiency orientation in Southern European countries. The positions of public officials reflect those held by citizens in their country, confirming the contextualized nature of administrative values. This article contributes to understanding the determinants of public officials' dominant values.     

Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument for mental health needs of youths in residential welfare/justice institutions: identifying gender differences across countries and settings

This study examines the use of the Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument-Second Version (MAYSI-2) for mental health needs among 1643 youngsters in residential welfare/justice institutions in Europe and the USA, identifying gender differences across countries and settings. Overall, the MAYSI-2 appeared to be a reliable instrument among these youngsters, with only some scales falling (slightly) below the threshold of acceptable internal consistency. Girls (vs. boys) in Belgian/USA justice institutions and Swiss mixed welfare/justice institutions displayed higher scores for the angry–irritable, depressed–anxious, somatic complaints, suicide ideation scales. Also, detained girls from Belgium and Switzerland reported higher scores for traumatic experiences. No gender differences were revealed among adolescents in German welfare institutions. Our findings suggest that the MAYSI-2 may serve as a useful mental health screening instrument among youngsters in welfare/justice institutions and that girls in justice institutions and mixed welfare/justice institutions form a particularly vulnerable population with regard to mental health problems.