Employment,age, race,and crime: A labor theoretic investigation

The fundamental objective of this paper has been to reinvestigate the relationship between employment and crime, while taking account of deterrence, age and race effects. The data, a sample of Brooklyn arrestees, was collected by the Vera Institute of Justice simply to explore, with individual data, the relationship between employment and crime. In this research, a labor theoretic formulation is used incorporating a model that views the problem as one of rational choice between legitimate work and participation in crime. Factors affecting the diminution of crime participation with age are investigated. Changes at age 18 in economic opportunities and in deterrence effects from moving from juvenile to adult status are found to have a significant impact on crime participation. The results are important because they tend to confirm with official crime report data, results found in earlier studies using self-report data, i.e., (1) when the process is appropriately modeled, previous contacts with police are found to cause some experimenters with crime to become desisters, (2) prior work experience and economic opportunities tend to reinforce this tendency to desist, (3) even though blacks are found to have a greater prevalence of involvement in crime, when the data are standardized for all of the aforementioned factors and educational attainment, there is no significant difference between blacks and whites in their tendency to recidivate.     

Hazardous waste,distributional conflict,and a trilogy of failures

Environmentally dangerous but profitable hazardous waste disposal is an instance of market failure. Tort law has failed as a social mechanism to sanction powerful corporations for such crimes against the environment. The federal Superfund hazardous waste cleanup program, a regulatory system created to fill this void, is also marked by failure. This article makes the case that the inability to resolve Superfund-engendered distributional conflicts has precluded the efficient and equitable outcomes that characterize a socially beneficial market, tort, or regulatory response. A political economy of regulation that links conflict, conflict resolution, and Superfund failure is examined.     

Lessons from history: Origins of the federal laboratory consortium for technology transfer

Editor’s Note: The Federal Laboratory Consortium today consists of over 600 member research laboratories and centers from 16 federal departments and agencies. The FLC brings these laboratories together with potential users of government-developed technologies in the private sector and state and local governments. The FLC also develops and tests transfer mechanisms, addresses barriers to the transfer process, provides training, highlights grass-roots transfer efforts and focuses on national initiatives where technology transfer has a role. The author played a pivotal role in establishing the Consortium and managing the network during its early years.     

Gender differences in adolescent interpersonal identity formation

Gender differences in adolescent interpersonal identity formation were investigated in 41 male and 42 female high school juniors and seniors. Subjects were interviewed and assessed on progress toward interpersonal identity achievement in friendship and dating relationships. Differential patterns of correlation for each sex were examined for measures of vocational identity, psychological masculinity and femininity, and achievement motivation. Results indicated that young women were significantly more identity achieved than men in the friendship domain; no differences emerged in the dating domain. The processes of interpersonal and vocational identity formation appeared to be more interrelated for females than males. For both young men and women, expressive attributes of psychological femininity were positively related to interpersonal identity exploration. Different gender achievement orientations were revealed by positive correlations between several interpersonal identity ratings and mastery for males and lack of correlation between interpersonal identity and mastery for females. In addition, commitment to a conception regarding friendships was positively correlated with competitiveness for males and negatively correlated with competitiveness for females. Results are discussed in terms of Gilligan's (1982) theoretical work, which contrasts achievement of identity through separateness and autonomy with achievement of identity through connectedness and relationships.Doctoral candidate in counseling psychology, with special interest in sex roles and adult development.Received Ph.D. in child psychology from the University of Minnesota. Main interest is the influence of the family on adolescent personality development, especially identity and vocational interests.