Shared Race/Ethnicity,Court Procedural Justice,and Self‐Regulating Beliefs: A Study of Female Offenders

Using survey data from a sample of white, black, and Hispanic incarcerated females (N = 554), we examine if the theoretically hypothesized and empirically demonstrated relationship between procedural justice and obligation to obey the law is substantiated among a sample of offenders and explore the impact that sharing the race/ethnicity of the defense attorney and prosecutor in their most recent conviction has on female inmates' perceptions of court procedural justice and their perceived obligation to obey the law. The findings reveal that female offenders who perceive the courts as more procedurally just report a significantly greater obligation to obey the law. In addition, white female inmates who had a white prosecutor were significantly more likely to perceive the courts as procedurally just. Non‐whites, though, perceive the courts as more fair if they encountered a minority prosecutor regardless of whether the prosecutor was black or Hispanic.     

The patron system in academia: Alternative strategies for empowering academic women

In this paper we present an typology of the academic patron system which differentiates among its various functions in terms of the type of power academic patrons have (formal or informal) and the kind of faculty orientation they have (professional or organizational). Using the dichotomies of authority (formal power) or influence (informal power) and professional orientation (cosmopolitan) or organizational orientation (local), four types of academic patronage are identified: professional authority, organizational authority, professional influence, and organizational influence. For each type of academic patronage, associated strategies for empowering women are discussed. These strategies are considered in terms of the extent to which they affect not only ‘professional enfranchisement’, i.e. access, but also ‘professional efficacy’, i.e. a sense of personal power, of being in control, of having the ability to make a difference, for academic women. We conclude that the effective use of professional and organizational influence offers the best hope for the inclusion of women in academia and for changing the academic bureaucracy from a system of ‘participatory autocracy’ to a system of true collegiality.     

Editors' Note

At the beginning of Act IV of Shakespeare's King Lear, Edgarcongratulates himself on the fact that, reduced to beggary,there is nothing worse that can happen to him. The discoverya few minutes later that his father has been blinded, ruinedand cast out quickly disabuses him of such a foolish notionand, enlightened as to the true nature of this uncertain world,he says

Who is't can say ‘I am at the worst?’... The     

Editors' Note

In the week we wrote this editorial, former US Vice PresidentAl Gore accepted the Nobel Peace Prize for his environmentalwork with the words "We, the human race, are confronting a planetaryemergency—a threat to the survival of our civilisationthat is gathering ominous and destructive potential even aswe gather here". What, you may ask, has this to do with a Journalsuch as this, concerned with     

Reflecting Upon Etic and Emic Perspectives on Distributive Justice

The study of distributive justice may be examined using two research perspectives. The first, etic perspective seeks to unveil the common characteristics that characterize the spectrum of distributive justice phenomena across different cultures and circumstances. This perspective focuses on the universal aspects of justice behavior, namely, general laws and causal explanations. The second, emic perspective focuses on the ways in which justice behavior is expressed in specific socio-cultural contexts. This paper proposes a three-part reflection on these two perspectives on distributive justice. First, we review the ways in which the emic, culturally specific perspective has hitherto been incorporated into research on distributive justice; second, we examine the ways which the etic and emic perspectives are employed in two empirical studies on justice perception in Israel; and, finally, we suggest possible ways in which an extended emic perspective can be further incorporated in the study of distributive justice. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Social Justice Conference, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany, March 2005.