Law and Human Behavior: Reflecting Back and Looking Forward

Law and Human Behavior -     

Career-marriage orientations in college youth: An analysis of perceived personal consequences and normative pressures

The present research was designed to examine factors associated with career and marriage orientations in male and female college students. The first phase of the research identified qualitatively different factors associated with variations in life structure. Respondents completed an open-ended questionnaire which elicited the perceived consequences and normative pressures concerning three life structure alternatives: (a) emphasizing career, (b) emphasizing marriage, and (c) placing equal emphasis on career and mariage. A set of 24 concerns was identified, and sex differences on several of these dimensions were noted. In general, the data were consistent with previous analyses of value structures in adults. The second phase of the research used a quantitative approach to examine the three life structure alternatives. Males and females did not differ in the relative emphasis they intended to give to career and marriage. However, sex differences in the perceived consequences of the life structure alternatives were noted.This research was conducted while the first author was a National Research Service Award (NIMH) trainee, Grant No. 1 T32 MH14593. A modified version of this paper was presented at the 87th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, New York, september 1979.Current research interest is psychosocial development during the adult years.Received Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, 1976. Current research interest is attitude theory and measurement.     

Comparison of adolescents' perceptions and behaviors in single- and two-parent families

This study investigated the self-concepts, school achievement, occupational aspirations, vocational maturity, and perceptions of parents of children from two-parent and single-parent homes. The sample contained 559 children, 19% from single-parent homes. A multivariateF indicated children from two-parent homes had significantly higher school grades and occupational aspirations. There were also significant differences in children's perceptions of relationships with fathers, but not with mothers. It was argued that family structure has an impact on adolescents' perceptions and behaviors.Received his Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Current research interests include the impact of family structure on the family and related issues.Received his Ph.D. from the Ohio State University. Current research interests include family research.     

Methods for Understanding and Analyzing NIBRS Data

The National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) is an incident-basedcrime reporting program for local, state, and federal law enforcementagencies. Within each criminal incident, NIBRS captures information onoffenses, victims, offenders, property, and persons arrested, as well asinformation about the incident itself. The ability to link and analyze thisdetailed information is a significant improvement to the existing UniformCrime Reporting (UCR) summary reporting system. As one might expect,however, this increase in crime data significantly complicates the life ofthe data analyst, particularly when cross tabulating the NIBRS data. To dealwith the complexity of NIBRS data, one must understand its structure. Thisarticle provides an overview of the NIBRS structure and methods formaneuvering within it to present and interpret correctly cross tabulationsof the NIBRS data.     

Policy divergence in multicandidate probabilistic spatial voting

Existing models of multicandidate spatial competition with probabilistic voting typically predict a high degree of policy convergence, yet in actual elections candidates advocate quite divergent sets of policies. What accounts for this disparity between theory and empirical observation? I introduce two variations on the basic probabilistic vote model which may account for candidate policy divergence: 1) a model which incorporates candidate-specific variables, so that candidates may enjoy nonpolicy-related electoral advantages (or disadvantages); 2) a model which allows nonzero correlations between the random terms associated with voters' candidate utilities, thereby capturing situations where voters view two or more candidates as similar on nonpolicy grounds. I report candidate equilibrium analyses for each model, which show far greater policy divergence than exists under the standard probabilistic vote model. I then analyze the strategic logic which underlies these results.

     

Another death due to ingestion of Nicotiana glauca

Deaths attributed to ingestion of Nicotiana glauca are extremely rare. We report here a case where a 43-year-old man was found dead after apparently drinking a water extract of Nicotiana glauca. The primary alkaloid in the plant is anabasine. Toxicological analysis by capillary gas chromatography showed the deceased had a blood anabasine concentration of 2.2 mg/L. Clinically, the features of poisoning are nicotine-like and if death occurs it results from respiratory paralysis. The case further supports the view that, in the human, anabasine is considerably more toxic than nicotine.     

Toward an understanding of the perception of hiv/aids-related risk among prison officers

One consequence of the drug war has been the incarceration of many offenders who pose a health risk to staff. This article presents an analytical framework to examine the factors that influence staffs' perceptions of the threat of infection. Four risk domains influence an officer's self-rated threat of exposure: (1) psychosocial factors, (2) HIV/AIDS-related knowledge, (3) perception of risk in the prison environment, and (4) risk reduction efforts. Officers with lower levels of education, those who worked with medium and maximum custody inmates, and those who had more high-risk encounters with inmates rated their chances for infection as high. Findings are discussed in light of their practical and theoretical applications.