Support for Current Sex Offender Management Policies: A National Survey of the Perceptions of Professionals

Utilizing a sample gathered from two professional organizations, this study compared the perceptions held by criminal justice professionals and clinical specialists toward current sex offender management policies. In addition to controlling for demographic variables, consideration was given to the roles of belief in the cause of sex offending and punishment philosophy, both largely absent from the literature on sex offender policy perceptions, as influencing factors of policy support. Results indicate low levels of support for current policies across professional groups, however, criminal justice professionals are significantly more likely to support current policies than clinical specialists. Furthermore, belief that sex offending is caused by a lack of virtue, holding a traditional punishment philosophy, and being a parent were associated with increased support for current policies. The implications of these findings for the management of sex offenders are discussed.     

Book reviews

This paper analyzes recent free trade arrangements from a positive political economy perspective. In contrast to most other literature which fails to take into account geographical factors it is argued here that proximity and transportation costs play an important role in trade arrangements. Another important also largely neglected factor is the degree of social cohesion in terms of labor standards among potential trading partners. A political support maximizing government will consider these factors when balancing political support from free traders and protectionists.     

Integrating Immigrants: Morality and Loyalty in US Naturalization Practice

The issues of how to integrate immigrants and ensure the integrity of citizenship have become passionate topics of public discourse and policy debate in recent years in a number of immigrant receiving countries. Behind these debates are often unarticulated questions about how to ensure loyalty to the state and to particular conceptions of national identity among prospective citizens. These issues have been explicitly debated in the United States since the enactment of the first naturalization law in 1790, which requires that immigrants who wish to become citizens demonstrate their good moral character and attachment to the country. This article explores the ways that these morality and loyalty requirements have historically been applied and institutionalized in US naturalization practice, particularly through government sponsored immigrant education programs. It does so first through a discussion of the interpretation of these laws, and then through a case study of the original 1914 Bureau of Naturalization initiative that resulted in the incorporation of these laws into naturalization testing and citizenship education for immigrants. It concludes with a discussion of the implications of this history for current debates in both the United States and elsewhere on immigrant integration.     

What judges maximize:toward an economic psychology of the judicial utility function

Posner proposes that federal appellate judges' income from judicial work and moonlighting is maximized within the constraint of time spent on leisure: he argues that judges' voting behavior be conceptualized as consumption, and that judges avoid the hard work and hassle involved in writing opinions. I propose that the terms entering the judicial utility function be simplified to judicial and non-judicial income, and consumption, some of which is enjoyed during leisure time but a proportion of which is enjoyed in working time (voting, reputation, avoidance of criticism, etc.) Moreover, the extent to which a judge experiences judicial work as laborious and hassling depends upon his cognitive style: adaptors and innovators are expected to conceptualize and experience the detailed work of opinion writing in different ways and thus to have distinct preferences for competing sources of utility. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Towards Institutional Symbiosis: Business and the United Nations in Environmental Governance

This article analyses the potentially symbiotic role of business and the United Nations (UN) in global environmental governance. Contending that a stronger and more coherent UN in the realm of the environment is in the interest of the business community, we focus on three main issues: what the UN needs to become stronger in environmental affairs; what business could provide on this behalf; and how business could benefit from a strengthened UN. We consider the current structural dilemmas of the UN environmental system, including concerns about institutional multiplicity and how these may affect business engagement. After reflecting on perceived and actual challenges and opportunities for business participation, we conclude with three substantive solutions towards more efficient collaboration. These solutions centre on the continuation of an interactive database begun by the Global Environmental Governance Project, a joint initiative of the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and the College of William and Mary.