THE LOCAL ELECTIONS IN KWAZULU-NATAL: 26 JUNE 1996

The transformation of local government is an essential partof democratization in South Africa. The difficulties of restructuringagainst a background of exclusion, inequality and conflict aresharpened and complicated in KwaZulu-Natal by the conflict betweenthe ANC and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP). The thrice-postponedlocal elections, which finally took place in June 1996 (sevenmonths later than most of the rest of the country) representedthe first major test of party strength in the province sincethe disputed general election of April 1994. The principal result of the election was that the IFP remainedthe majority party in KwaZulu-Natal, but with a severe lossof support in the urban areas, which was compensated for byan even bigger turn-out in its rural strongholds. The balanceof power revealed by the local election results will be influentialin determining the course of the peace process, through whichthe ANC and the WP are addressing their differences. As SouthAfrica's parties move from the era of negotiation and constitution-makingand look forward to the 1999 general election, the results ofthe KwaZulu-Natal local elections will also provide some cluesas to the prospects of party realignment.     

ETHNIC THREAT AND SOCIAL CONTROL: EXAMINING PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR JUDICIAL USE OF ETHNICITY IN PUNISHMENT*

Research on social inequality in punishment has focused for a long time on the complex relationship among race, ethnicity, and criminal sentencing, with a particular interest in the theoretical importance that group threat plays in the exercise of social control in society. Prior research typically relies on aggregate measures of group threat and focuses on racial rather than on ethnic group composition. The current study uses data from a nationally representative sample of U.S. residents to investigate the influence of more proximate and diverse measures of ethnic group threat, examining public support for the judicial use of ethnic considerations in sentencing. Findings indicate that both aggregate and perceptual measures of threat influence popular support for ethnic disparity in punishment and that individual perceptions of criminal and economic threat are particularly important. Moreover, we find that perceived threat is conditioned by aggregate group threat contexts. Findings are discussed in relation to the growing Hispanic population in the rapidly changing demographic structure of U.S. society.     

CONTEXTUAL DISPARITIES IN GUIDELINES DEPARTURES: COURTROOM SOCIAL CONTEXTS,GUIDELINES COMPLIANCE,AND EXTRALEGAL DISPARITIES IN CRIMINAL SENTENCING1

This study examines the theoretical and empirical linkages between criminal court social contexts and the judicial use of sentences that deviate from the recommendations of sentencing guidelines. Individual sentencing data from the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing (PCS) are combined with county‐level measures of social context to examine predictions about the role courtroom characteristics play in judicial departures. Results from hierarchical analyses suggest that the likelihood of departure varies significantly across courts, even after accounting for variations in individual case characteristics. Several measures of courtroom social context—including the size of the court, its caseload pressure and the overall guidelines compliance rate—are significantly related to the individual likelihood of receiving a departure sentence. Moreover, the social context of the court also conditions the influence of various individual‐level sentencing considerations. Findings are discussed in relation to contemporary theoretical perspectives on courtroom decision making and future directions for research on contextual disparities in criminal sentencing are suggested.     

SENTENCING IN CONTEXT: A MULTILEVEL ANALYSIS

Criminal sentencing is, along with arresting and prosecuting, among the most important of formal social control decisions. In this study we use hierarchical modeling to test hypotheses about contextual level influences and cross level interaction effects on local court decisions. Most of the explanatory "action," our analysis shows, is at the individual case level in criminal sentencing. We also find evidence that local contextual features–such as court organizational culture, court caseload pressure, and racial and ethnic composition–affect sentencing outcomes, either directly or in interaction with individual factors. We conclude by discussing theoretical implications of our findings, and how our study points out some dilemmas among civil rights, local autonomy and organizational realities of criminal courts.     

SENTENCING HOMICIDE OFFENDERS IN THE NETHERLANDS: OFFENDER,VICTIM, AND SITUATIONAL INFLUENCES IN CRIMINAL PUNISHMENT*

Empirical investigations of criminal sentencing represent a vast research enterprise in criminology. However, this research has been restricted almost exclusively to U.S. contexts, and often it suffers from key data limitations. As such, an examination of more detailed international sentencing data provides an important opportunity to assess the generalizability of contemporary research and theorizing on criminal punishment in the United States. The current study investigates little-researched questions about the influence of prosecutorial sentencing recommendations, victim/offender relationships, and extralegal disparities in sentencing by analyzing unique data on the punishment of homicide offenders in the Netherlands. The results indicate that offender, victim, and situational offense characteristics all exert important independent effects at sentencing and that prosecutorial recommendations exert powerful influences over judicial sentences. The article concludes with a discussion of future directions for comparative sentencing research across international contexts.     

Perfect Political Storm

After months of battering by allegations of cronyism and sustained hostile media from London's only paid for newspaper, Ken Livingstone's election campaign turned into the perfect political campaign. His third term bid to be Mayor of London wrecked on the high seas of democracy as the government grappled with economic gloom, a credit crunch and its lowest poll rating     

FAMILY STRUCTURE AND DELINQUENCY: GENERAL PATTERNS AND GENDER DIFFERENCES

In a sample of over 700 high-school sophomores, a jive-category measure of family structure is found to be not related to either frequency or seriousness of self-reported illegal behavior, except for unusually high delinquent behavior by boys from mother/stepfather homes. On the other hand, family structure does show an overall association with self-reported trouble with police, school, and juvenile court officials. Specifically, while boys (not girls) with stepfathers admit the most delinquent acts, controlling for the amount of admitted delinquency shows that officials are more likely to respond to the misbehavior of children (especially girls) from mother-only families. None of these findings are accounted for by race, social class, the quality of parent-child relationships, or the quality of school experiences.