Governance in the European union

Governance in the EU. Edited by GARY MARKS, FRITZ W.SCHARPF, PHILIPPE C. SCHMITTER and WOLFGANG STREECK. London: Sage, 1996. Pp.192, biblio, index. £37.50 (cloth); £12.95 (paper). ISBN 0–7619–5134–2 and ‐5135–0.

Elitism, Populism, and European Politics, Edited by JACK HAYWARD. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996. Pp.265, index. £35 (cloth). ISBN 0–19–828035–1.

Adjusting to Europe. The Impact of the EU on National Institutions and Policies. Edited by Y. MÉNY, PIERRE MULLER and JEAN‐LOUIS QUERMONNE. London and NY: Routledge, 1996. Pp.181, index. £40 (cloth); £13.99 (paper). ISBN 0–415–14410–8 and ‐14409–4.

Cohesion Policy and European Integration: Building Multi‐Level Governance. Edited by LIESBET HOOGHE. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996. Pp.458, biblio., index. £40 (cloth). ISBN 0–19–828064–5.

The European Union and Members States. Towards Institutional Fusion? Edited by DIETRICH ROMETSCH and WOLFGANG WESSELS. Manchester and NY: Manchester University Press, 1996. Pp.382, index. £45 (cloth). ISBN 0–7190–4809–5.

The Impact of European Integration. Political, Sociological and Economic Changes. Edited by GEORGE A. KOURVETARIS and ANDREAS MOSCHONAS. Westport and London: Praeger, 1996. Pp.335, index, annotated biblio. £51.95 (cloth). ISBN 0–275–94952–4.

European Welfare Policy. Squaring the Welfare Circle. Edited by VIC GEORGE and PETER TAYLOR‐GOOBY. Pp.224, tables, index. Macmillan, 1996. £11.99 (paper). ISBN 0–333–60917–4.

European Integration and Disintegration. East and West. Edited by ROBERT BIDELEUX and RICHARD TAYLOR. London and NY: Routledge, 1996. Pp.298, index. £45 (cloth); £13.99 (paper). ISBN 0–415–13740–3 and ‐13741–1.

The European Union: How Democratic Is It? Edited by SVEIN ANDERSEN and KJELL A.ELIASSEN, London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi: Sage, 1996. Pp.295, biblio, index. £13.95 (paper). ISBN 0–7‐619–5113‐X.

Democracy, Sovereignty and the European Union. By MICHAEL NEWMAN. London: Hurst, 1996. Pp.236. £30 (cloth); £10.95 (paper). ISBN 1–85065–256–2 and 255–4.     

DANGER ZONES OF CORRUPTION: HOW MANAGEMENT OF THE MINISTERIAL BUREAUCRACY AFFECTS CORRUPTION RISKS IN POLAND

This article examines the relationship between management of the ministerial bureaucracy and the risk of high‐level corruption in Poland. Four danger zones of corruption in the ministerial bureaucracy are distinguished, comprising the personalisation of appointments, the emergence of multiple dependencies, the screening capacity of the personnel system and the incentive of bureaucrats to develop a reputation of honesty and competence. Empirically, the article investigates the case of Poland from 1997 until 2007 and sets the findings in a comparative East Central European perspective. The article shows that corruption risks in the ministerial bureaucracy increased in most but not all danger zones after 2001 and, in particular, during the period of the centre‐right governments that were in office between 2005 and 2007. The increase in corruption risks is reflected in Poland's deteriorating corruption record during the same period. The conclusion discusses the findings with regard to alternative causes of corruption and the relationship between civil service professionalisation and corruption in other East Central European countries. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Robberies in Prague

This paper is concerned with the issue of robberies in the Czech Republic, primarily in the capital city, Prague. Statistics show that there has been a sharp rise in the number of robberies recorded in the Czech Republic following the political upheavals of 1989. In spite of this, current Czech criminology does not give proper attention to this kind of criminal activity. For this reason, the authors will attempt not only to summarise research efforts hitherto undertaken in this field and place them in a wider international context, but also to offer basic and criminologically relevant data on offenders, victims and some other significant factors, making use of official crime statistics as well as special police statistical records, including data obtained through the authors' own analysis of a sample of court files.     

Immigration and National Security

The greatest threat to U.S. homeland security comes from illegals who enter the country through its porous borders in order to attack. The tide of illegal immigration must be stemmed in order to secure the United States against terrorism. It is all too easy for illegal immigrants to slip in beneath the radar, eschewing the legalization process and never being detected and deported. And as long as the benefits of illegally immigrating outweigh the costs, the influx will continue. Legal immigration itself needs reform, too; particularly the visa-waiver program and the rules governing dual citizenship, which pose further security challenges. Federal government officials must overcome their fear of alienating ethnic voters and American business, enhance border security, and reform the nation's immigration policies.     

Trading Signs: Semiotic Practices in Law and Medicine

Lawyers write, blog and are otherwise producers of words; they structure public life through legal discourse and integrate all issues that reinforce legal reasoning. Even if one is inclined not to justify the power of their words in the context of a democratic theory, one is hardly able to challenge its public acceptance. But semiotic analyses harden the question whether these emperors wear nothing but robes. That attitude intensifies where medicine becomes increasingly relevant for legal discourse, as becomes clear where for instance US political viewpoints bring bioethical issues to the Courts. One major theme in today’s medicine pertains to identity in its psychological, philosophical and social dimensions. Identity thus becomes a groundbreaking semiotic issue in law and medicine; both discourses are particular important to the otherness of the other. A US criminal law case interests here (Harrington v. State of Iowa, 2003; cited as: 659N.W.2d 509). The case is decided with “information about what the person has stored in his brain”. A chain of signs is involved: from “brain-function” to “brain-storage” via “brain-scan” to “brain-fingerprint”, for which the case became famous. A long series of signs and meanings belong here to intertwined discourses. Central is a particular sign in each discourse: “brain” means brain scan, and “fingerprint” means law! The two display trading mechanisms, which determine the otherness of the other and the self! The chain of signs in the Harrington case shows inter-disciplinarity in law and inter-discursivity among law and medicine. The trading itself underlines the semiotic dimensions in cyberspace, in particular the semiotics of the virtual (Hayles, Kurzweil) and their effects on legal discourse.     

Reference ballistic imaging database performance

Ballistic imaging databases allow law enforcement to link recovered cartridge cases to other crime scenes and to firearms. The success of these databases has led many to propose that all firearms in circulation be entered into a reference ballistic image database (RBID). To assess the performance of an RBID, we fired 4200 cartridge cases from 600 9 mm Para Sig Sauer model P226 series pistols. Each pistol fired two Remington cartridges, one of which was imaged in the RBID, and five additional cartridges, consisting of Federal, Speer, Winchester, Wolf, and CCI brands. Randomly selected samples from the second series of Remington cartridge cases and from the five additional brands were then correlated against the RBID. Of the 32 cartridges of the same make correlated against the RBID, 72% ranked in the top 10 positions. Likewise, of the 160 cartridges of the five different brands correlated against the database, 21% ranked in the top 10 positions. Generally, the ranking position increased as the size of the RBID increased. We obtained similar results when we expanded the RBID to include firearms with the same class characteristics for breech face marks, firing pin impressions, and extractor marks. The results of our six queries against the RBID indicate that a reference ballistics image database of new guns is currently fraught with too many difficulties to be an effective and efficient law enforcement tool.     

Behavior Problems in Sexually Abused Children of Depressed Versus Nondepressed Mothers

Children's psychological adjustment following stressors, such as sexual abuse, is impacted by environmental variables. One such factor is parental support, which can be hampered when a caregiver suffers from psychopathology. The purpose of this study was to determine whether maternal depression would impact the children's adjustment to sexual abuse. It was hypothesized that depressed mothers would report more behavior difficulties for their sexually abused children than nondepressed mothers. Participants were 58 children (and their mothers) who were referred for trauma symptoms related to sexual abuse. Mothers completed the Beck Depression Inventory as a measure of their depression and rated their children's behaviors on the Revised Behavior Problem Checklist. The children completed the Children's Depression Inventory and the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale. Results revealed that depressed mothers reported more conduct problems, inattention/immaturity, and psychotic behavior than nondepressed mothers. Differences were not observed for mothers' report of depressive or anxious behaviors across groups. The children of depressed mothers reported increased levels of depression, but not anxiety, when compared to children of nondepressed mothers. Although both groups of mothers reported symptoms to be clinically significant, the children did not endorse their symptoms in clinically significant ranges.