Dealing with the fall-Out: Identifying and addressing the role that relationship strain plays in the lives of girls in the juvenile justice system

Much research has found that girls and boys process strain differently. The purpose of this article, however, is to argue that a particular form of strain—relationship strain—explains why girls commit delinquency. The concept of relationship strain comes from combining key elements of feminist theories with Agnew's (1992) conception of strain which results when there is a presentation of negative or painful stimuli, or a loss of positive valued stimuli. To test our assertion, we examined data from 27 focus groups with delinquent girls, incarcerated women that were system-involved as adolescents and juvenile justice professionals that work with girls. We were interested in knowing what the participants believed got girls into trouble and whether there would be commonalties among their answers. Additionally, we wanted to know if their responses would be related to strain. A quasi-grounded theory approach was used to analyze the data. Findings indicated a great deal of congruency among groups. Nearly everything the focus group participants identified as leading girls into trouble (e.g., abuse and neglect, boyfriends, and fighting) was related to strain and boiled down to one thing—relationships. We concluded that it is likely the attempt to cope with relationship strain that leads to delinquency.     

Human Dignity in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and its Interpretation Before the European Court of Justice

This article argues that the EU Charter’s dignity provisions must be given a specific, expansive European meaning that underpins the importance the EU places on fundamental rights protection as a principle EU value. To this end, the article examines the EU Charter provisions on dignity and critically analyses the case law before the EU Charter had full legal effect and after it did. It finishes with looking at three areas in which the potential for an expansive interpretation of dignity could help bring the EU closer to its people and fully respect and protect dignity: asylum, criminal justice and sexual orientation.     

Coping with Interparental Verbal Conflict by Children Exposed to Spouse Abuse and Children from Nonviolent Homes

Children are distressed by parental conflict, but the influence of the conflict topic has rarely been studied, especially in relation to children's history of witnessing domestic conflict. Responses to three conflict topics (money, child-related, political candidate) were examined in two groups of 5 1/2-through 12-year-olds: 40 children who have witnessed spouse abuse and 72 children from nonviolent homes. Children listened to taped scenarios (with accompanying drawings) of two parents engaged in one friendly and three angry interactions. Children reported their feelings, intensity of feelings, and coping strategies. Children's emotional responses varied from sadness, to anger, to guilt depending on their age and the conflict topic. Primary control strategies for coping with family conflict (e.g., direct intervention) were favored for all. Boys from violent homes responded to certain simulated conflicts with more intense anger and sadness than other children. Results emphasized children's sensitivity to different conflict topics and advance understanding of relations between a history of witnessing spouse abuse and child outcomes.     

Dollars and democracy in Hong Kong: Understanding the logic of Chinese policy

Recent disputes between China and Great Britain over political reform and airport financing in Hong Kong have helped clarify the logic of Chinese policy toward the territory. Despite appearances to the contrary, the disputes are only partly about democracy and money. For the PRC, they are fundamentally about creating the conditions for the Chinese government to exercise sovereignty after 1997 and about the fear that Great Britain will do anything possible to complicate China’s establishment of authority over the territory. This article thus rejects as inadequate several conventional explanations for China’s Hong Kong policy. Its conclusions hold significant implications for Hong Kong’s future and for our understanding of China’s foreign policy calculations elsewhere.     

Public Procurement Law, Public Bodies, and the General Interest: Perspectives from Higher Education

Abstract This article examines the interaction of EC public procurement law with the legislative framework governing higher education in England and Wales. It focuses on the impact of this interaction on changing status of higher education institutions, organisations that are at the margins of the much‐discussed public–private divide in law. The Higher Education Act 2004 is viewed as a driver of potential change in status, and a distinction is drawn between mechanisms which appear to support the introduction of change and those that instead introduce fluctuation and lead to concerns for legal certainty at the margins of public law. The study thus also has wider relevance where public‐sector reform is premised upon organisational forms with hybrid or ambiguous status.     

States and Common Pool Resources

The neo-institutionalist theory on the management of common pool resources by states in terms of international regimes is based on dubious assumptions about states as players. If one starts from alternative assumptions about interaction between asymmetrical players and the advantages of opportunistic behaviour, then it is easier to account for the collective action difficulties in a regime such as the Helsinki Commission (HELCOM), which handles the environmental problems in the Baltic Sea region.     

Museum Outreach Programs to Promote Community Engagement in Local Environmental Issues

Ideas of ‘community’ and ‘community voice’ have been mobilised in collaborative programs developed between the National Museum of Australia and the Murray‐Darling Basin Commission since 1992. This collaboration is set within a broader context of changing ideas and practice around governance, community and environmental issues. The recent Murray‐Darling Outreach Project (MDOP), a series of museum outreach projects with regional communities aiming to increase community engagement in local environmental issues in the Murray‐Darling Basin, is specifically examined. Evaluation research on the MDOP found that the approach to program development significantly shaped the types of voices, range of issues presented and the nature of the communicative forums established. The potential impacts on online audiences are discussed along with broader implications for government agencies involved in community partnerships.