Literary Feature Reviews

Negritude and after: changing perspectives in French‐language African fiction

The Black Cloth: A Collection of African Folktales. Bernard Binlin Dadie. Translated from the French by Karen C Hatch. Amherst, Massachusetts: The University of Massachusetts Press. 1987. 140pp.np . hb

Black Docker. Sembene Ousmane. Translated from the French by Ros Schwartz. London: Heinemann Educational Books. 1987. 120pp. £3.95pb

Tribaliks: Contemporary Congolese Stories. Henri Lopes. Translated from the French by Andrea Leskes. London: Heinemann Educational Books. 1987. 86pp. £3.95pb

The Laughing Cry: An African Cock and BuU Story. Henri Lopes. Translated from the French by Gerald Moore. London: Readers International. 1987. 260pp. £4.95pb

Chinese literature in renaissance

Mulberry and Peach: Two Women of China. Hualing Nieh. London: Women's Press. 1986. 197 pp. £3.95pb

One Half of the Sky: Selection from Contemporary Women Writers of China. Edited and translated from the Chinese by R A Roberts and Angela Knox London: William Heinemann. 1987. 143 pp. £11.95hb

Leaden Wings. Zhang Jie. Translated from the Chinese by Gladys Yang London: Virago Press. 1987. 180 pp. £3.95pb

Waves. Bei Dao. Edited by Bonnie S McDougall. Translated from the Chinese by Bonnie S McDougall and Susette Ternent Cooke. London: William Heinemann. 1987. 234 pp. £11.95hb     

Treatment manuals: The good,the bad and the useful

Abstract

This paper offers a commentary on the debate between Marshall and Mann on the desirability and merits of treatment manuals in the treatment of sexual offenders. Marshall offers a view of manuals as restrictive to clinical practice and as stifling to clinical innovation. Mann takes the position that manuals are a vital component in effective correctional practice. The commentary suggests that these contrary views are understandable: Marshall takes a clinical perspective and advocates best practice; Mann speaks from a realist forensic perspective in which manuals offer a practical means to deliver treatment on a large scale within prisons and probation. Of course, both positions have their merits and it is suggested that the two are perhaps not irreconcilable if the skills of the practitioner and model of treatment delivery are taken into account.     

Development of the Observation Scale for Aggressive Behavior (OSAB) for Dutch forensic psychiatric inpatients with an antisocial personality disorder

The Observation Scale for Aggressive Behavior (OSAB) has been developed to evaluate inpatient treatment programs designed to reduce aggressive behavior in Dutch forensic psychiatric patients with an antisocial personality disorder, who are "placed at the disposal of the government". The scale should have the sensitivity to measure changes in the possible determinants of aggressive behavior, such as limited control of displayed negative emotions (irritation, anger or rage) and a general deficiency of social skills. In developing the OSAB 40 items were selected from a pool of 82 and distributed among the following a priori scales: Irritation/anger, Anxiety/gloominess, Aggressive behavior, Antecedent (to aggressive behavior), Sanction (for aggressive behavior) and Social behavior. The internal consistency of these subscales was good, the inter-rater reliability was moderate to good, and the test-retest reliability over a two to three week period was moderate to good. The correlation between the subscales Irritation/anger, Anxiety/gloominess, Aggressive behavior, Antecedent, Sanction was substantial and significant, but the anticipated negative correlation between these subscales and the Social behavior subscale could not be shown. Relationships between the corresponding subscales of the OSAB and the FIOS, used to calculate concurrent validity, yielded relatively high correlations. The validity of the various OSAB subscales could be further supported by significant correlations with the PCL-R and by significant but weak correlations with corresponding subscales of the self-report questionnaires. The Observation Scale for Aggressive Behavior (OSAB) seems to measure aggressive behavior in Dutch forensic psychiatric inpatients with an antisocial personality disorder reliably and validly. Contrary to expectations, a negative relationship was not found between aggressive and social behavior in either the OSAB or FIOS, which were used for calculating concurrent validity.     

Leaders,the Economy or Iraq? Explaining Voting in the 2004 Australian Election*

Following the 2001 “border security” election, it was assumed that the 2004 federal election would revert to the traditional campaign battleground of socio‐economic issues. This prediction proved to be only partly true, and while economic and social issues did figure in the election campaign, much more important were popular perceptions of the leaders. Indirectly, the Iraq War also had some impact, mediated through evaluations of John Howard. Analysis of leader effects suggests that Mark Latham was not the electoral liability for Labor that many have subsequently claimed. Ultimately, the Coalition won the election because they had a highly popular leader who had presided over a period of sustained economic growth. The election emphasizes the central role that the party leaders play in modern election campaigns.     

On tort as an implicit insurance system with state-dependent utility: The case of child mortality risk

Parents deriving utility from children and their material standard of living will equate neither marginal utilities of consumption nor of income across states of the world and, contrary to claims in the literature but according with the historical record, will sometimes purchase fair insurance against child mortality risks even if a child's death reduces the marginal utility of consumption. Thus criticism of tort as an implicit insurance system should be refocused. It is not inefficient per se because it leads to payouts in death-contingent states but, rather, because the implicit third-party insurance which it provides crowds out more cost-effective first party insurance which households would and did purchase prior to the expansion of suppliers' liability under tort.     

Interest groups and lobbying in Latin America: theoretical and practical considerations

The major purpose of this Special Issue is to provide the first comprehensive treatment of interest groups in Latin America. This first article provides background to this end by defining key terms and concepts; explaining the ubiquity of power groups, interests and interest groups in politics and government, and the fundamental elements of an interest group system, relating all this to past characteristics of Latin America's politics. Additionally, the article identifies the reasons for the dearth of studies of interest groups in the region and makes the case for the value of such studies. Drawing on this background, the article also sets out a heuristic for approaching the contributions to this volume and for developing a theoretical framework for the analysis of Latin American interest group systems. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On solow's residual with intermediate goods

Many efforts have been made to identify the sources of the ‘unexplained’ output, better known as the ‘residual’ generated in the process of growth. The paper is an attempt to show that the magnitude of the estimated residual based on Professor Solow's well‐known method actually depends on how the dependent variable in the production function is defined. Part of the computed residual is built‐in if value‐added, instead of gross production, is chosen as the dependent variable when Solow's method is applied to a disaggregated model. The paper also demonstrates how the extent of the bias is measured.