Representatives and Represented in England, 1660–89

SUMMARY

This article considers the tensions and ambiguities in the attitudes of members of the English House of Commons towards those they represented. Constitutionally, the Commons assented to laws and taxes in the name of, and on behalf of, the people and presented the nation's grievances to the king. They were thus conscious to some extent of the need to defend the people's interests and to justify their conduct to the electorate and to their neighbours. However, memories of the civil wars made them nervous of popular involvement in politics and strongly resistant to any suggestion that ‘the people’ in whose name they spoke had any right to be consulted on ‘public’ issues, still less to tell them how to act. The latter part of the article explores one aspect of this attitude, the concern to maintain the confidentiality of proceedings in Parliament and to restrict the dissemination of parliamentary news, which meant that only in 1680–81 did the Commons agree to the printing of their ‘votes’.     

Public Safety Outcomes of Virginia's Detention Assessment Instrument

The placement of juveniles in secure detention has been the subject of considerable attention recently. For the past several years, Virginia has been engaged in efforts to improve detention practices at both the state and local levels. One important policy and practice change is the implementation of a standardized, structured decision‐making instrument to guide detention decisions by intake officers of the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ). This report will present a brief background on the Detention Assessment Instrument (DAI); an analysis of the performance of the DAI on key public safety outcomes; and an overview of Virginia's participation in the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI).     

UP IT UP: GENDER AND THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF STREET ROBBERY*

Attempts to understand women's participation in violence have been plagued by a tendency either to overemphasize gender differences or to downplay the significance of gender. The goal of this research is to reconcile these approaches through an examination of the experiences of female and male street robbers in an urban setting. Based on in-depth interviews with active offenders, the study compares women's and men's accounts of why they commit robbery, as well as how gender organizes the commission of the crime. The research suggests that while women and men articulate similar motives for robbery, their enactment of the crime is strikingly different—a reflection, in part, of practical choices women make in the context of a gender-stratified street setting.     

Enduring Continuity and Endless Change in the British Civil Service

The British Civil Service has often been criticised. The most recent censure was from Ed Straw. In 'The dead generalist', an article for the think tank Demos, he attacked the Civil Service for its unchanging nature and its corresponding failure to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century. Jon Davis's article demonstrates that change is a constant for officialdom, that Mr Straw has some of his facts wrong, and that very similar criticism was made nearly half a century ago, though all the while agreeing that all is not well (and possibly can never be perfect) in Whitehall.     

Values and Persuasion During the First Bush-Gore Presidential Debate

Appealing to values is an effective form of argumentation. In our analysis of the Bush-Gore debate, we found that values are fundamental in framing issues; their effectiveness is contingent on the issue context and the predisposition of the audience.­ Thus, merely constructing an appeal to values does not guarantee persuasiveness, as the appeal must be concrete in nature when attempting to move an audience to action. Such an appeal goes beyond creating a link between the value appeal and the issue, as the value appeal and the issue position must resonate with a defined audience. Our results indicate that most undecided voters who made up their minds as a result of the debate chose Gore, while a few chose Bush and some remained undecided. Those who chose Gore were clearly more egalitarian in their orientation than undecided voters who chose Bush or could not decide. Bush's use of individualism did not seem to persuade undecided voters, nor did it seem to have a detrimental impact on support for Gore. For the most part, Bush's support remained constant before and after the debate, at least among this particular audience.     

STRUCTURAL MODELS OF PERSONALITY AND THEIR RELATION TO ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOR: A META‐ANALYTIC REVIEW*

The authors argue that the concept of personality has much to offer the field of criminology. To this end, they used meta‐analytic techniques to examine the relations between antisocial behavior defined relatively broadly and four structural models of personality: Eysenck's PEN model, Tellegen's three‐factor model, Costa and McCrae's five‐factor model (FFM), and Cloninger's seven‐factor temperament and character model. A comprehensive review of the literature yielded 59 studies that provided relevant information. Eight of the dimensions bore moderate relations to antisocial behavior; the dimensions could all be understood as measures of either Agreeableness or Conscientiousness from the FFM. The implications of these findings for future research are considered.