“Juvenile Drug Courts and Recidivism: Results from a Multisite Outcome Study”

This study reports findings from a study of nine juvenile drug courts (JDCs) from across the US. A quasi-experimental design, with one-to-one matching on possible confounders and sociodemographics, was used for the outcome assessment (n?=?1372). Baseline and outcome data were drawn from justice system records. Although there is variation across sites and, to some extent, outcomes, these JDCs were generally ineffective in reducing recidivism. Similar findings have emerged in other recent studies of JDCs. Given the results of this study and others, it is essential that juvenile courts work to improve the effectiveness of JDCs by increasing adherence to known principles of effective intervention.     

Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Juvenile Drug Court: Comparisons to Traditional Probation

Juvenile Drug Courts have been in operation in the United States for over 20 years, yet their effectiveness and design have been challenged throughout the literature. Using data collected from a Juvenile Drug Court (JDC) in Southeast Texas, this project sought to determine if the JDC intervention reduced recidivism compared to a comparison sample of juvenile offenders. Results indicate that the recidivism rates of participants in the JDC were lower than the comparison group, suggesting that the Drug Court intervention was successful. The program completion rates for JDC youths were also higher for those with fewer infractions. Although the JDC youths had statistically lower infractions, the intervention overall appears to need strengthening. A close inspection of program components could document which programmatic skills are tied to efficacy, leading to the achievement of better outcomes.     

Nicholas R. Lardy,ed., The State Strikes Back: The End of Economic Reform in China

Journal of Chinese Political Science -     

“Going to Law”: Reflections on Law,Religion, and Mitra Sharafi's Law and Identity in Colonial South Asia

This essay explores religion's need for law, comparing the story told in Mitra Sharafi's Law and Identity in Colonial South Asia (2014)—about the virtual hijacking of British colonial law to serve the communal religious needs of Parsis in colonial India—to other contexts in which secular and religious legal systems have built symbiotic relationships, including in the United States and Thailand. It concludes by urging a reweaving of religious and legal histories after the critique of secularism and its shadows, separationism, and antinomianism.     

A Grounded Theory of Korean Immigrants' Experiences of Re-Establishing Everyday Activities in New Zealand

This study explored how immigrants locate themselves in a new culture through analyzing 25 Korean immigrants' everyday activities in New Zealand. The findings suggest that they opted to either behave in Korean ways or to take up behaviors reflective of the receiving society, based on their level of control over activities disrupted by immigration. The findings supplement the concept of acculturation, explaining how 21st-century immigrants who retain transnational status engage in the acculturation process within a globalized context.     

The effect of uniform and prior knowledge on children's event reports and disclosure of secrets

The present paper examined the effect of police uniform on the accuracy of 6- to 8-year-old children's reports about an event and it explored the roles that interviewer prior knowledge and social status play in mediating any effects of uniform. Two studies were conducted; in the first study, interviewers wore uniforms that were independent of a forensic context whereas in the second study, the interviews were conducted by police officers who wore either uniform or civilian clothes. Children reported more information (accurate, as well as inaccurate) to a police interviewer in civilian clothes compared to uniform. This finding was found only in the police uniform context. Interviewer's prior knowledge had no impact on the children's reports in either context. The likely impact of police uniform is discussed. Authors' Note: Thanks to many teachers, principals and children who volunteered to partake in this project and to Sarah Agnew, Greg Angenent, Catherine Borg, Sue Connor, Agnes Kalinowski, Joanna Kellis and Vivian Mikhail who assisted in the data collection, coding and analysis. Thanks also to the members of the Victorian Police (Community Policing Squad) who conducted interviews for this project, and to Sergeant Lisa McMeeken, and Senior Constable Jennifer Evans of the VATE project who coordinated the police interviews.     

Bullying in schools: It's not a crime - is it?

The nature and prevalence of school bullying, and the detrimental and serious impact that it has upon its victims, has been the focus of research and debate since the early 1980s. Where a response is made to incidents of bullying, this is typically seen as the domain of the school, which has a powerful role to play in terms of socialising and disciplining its pupils. From the perspective of the victims of bullying, I argue that despite the existence of school disciplinary mechanisms, intervention by those working within the criminal justice arena is appropriate in two situations. First are situations where school measures are ineffective and the school is unable or unwilling to tackle the bullying. Second are situations that are too serious to be dealt with by the school alone. This issue is rarely discussed in literature on bullying. Using Lacey's metaphor of a set of lenses, I examine the 'criminalisation' of bullying, both at a formal level and at a practical level. I draw upon research that has studied the attitudes of adults and children to crime generally, as well as a qualitative survey of teachers, in order to explore the social construction of bullying as a crime and barriers to this.     

Halfway Homeowners: Eviction and Forced Relocation in a Florida Manufactured Home Park

The last four decades of US housing policy have seen a shift from the federal allocation of affordable housing as a public good to the neoliberal model of private and for‐profit provision of affordable housing. This shift warrants a study of the link between the interests that now shape low‐income housing markets and the stability of the housing they provide. Nowhere are the effects of this shift more evident than in the homes of the 20 million Americans living in manufactured housing, which is installed largely on the private lands of for‐profit developers who can close mobile home parks and force residents to move themselves and their homes with as little as 30 days' notice. This ethnography of mass eviction in a Florida mobile home park examines state regulations intended to protect residents of closing parks and analyzes how private interests shape the implementation of these policies.