Negative Life Events and Maladaptive Behaviors Among Filipino Adolescents: an Empirical Test of the General Strain Theory

Agnew’s general strain theory has been widely tested in other countries and has received general support from most studies. To date, however, there has been limited empirical test of the theory in the Philippines. Thus, this study aims to test the core theoretical propositions of the theory that link negative life events (strains) to negative emotions that in turn encourage maladaptive behaviors or criminal coping. The study uses the Global School-based Student Health Survey (2011) data on a nationally representative sample of 5920 secondary Filipino students. In general, the results support the general strain theory: negative life events (e.g., violent experiences, discrimination, sexual harassment victimization) encourage maladaptive behaviors (i.e., suicidality, substance use, and truancy), and this link is somewhat mediated or attenuated by depression. Further, conditioning factors such as parental care and supervision, social support, and engagement in physical activities moderate the effects of negative life events and depression on maladaptive behaviors. Contrary to the theory, however, some conditioning factors intensify the effects of strain on truancy. Overall, the current findings support the theory but call for further research and theory building—delinquent acts are diverse behaviors, and thus, each may require a crime-specific model of the general strain theory.     

The law and the sublime: Rethinking the self and its boundaries

Christine Battersby has argued that it is Kant (and not Descartes) who provides the paradigm model of what it is to be a self in modernity. The Kantian self is established in opposition to its other. The body is commonly envisaged as a container, with selfhood as something that is defended against the outside. In contrast, she proposes a feminist reworking of such a model of selfhood, applicable to both men and women, in which the self and other emerge over time through patterns of relationality. This paper introduces Battersby’s work by focusing upon her early analysis of Kantian aesthetics, in particular the sublime. The aim is to draw out some of the legal and political implications of her work, particularly with regard to the common law’s developing conception of privacy. This is carried out by distinguishing her ontological position from the psychology of Carol Gilligan and then by considering the overlapping concerns of Jennifer Nedelsky in the area of legal theory.

Further Validation of the Test of Memory Malingering (TOMM) Trial 1 Performance Validity Index: Examination of False Positives and Convergent Validity

Assessment of performance validity is an essential part of a neuropsychological evaluation, with the inclusion of two or more performance validity tests (PVTs) becoming routine practice. Considering the time to administer multiple tests, there has been some support for use of the Test of Memory Malingering (TOMM) Trial 1 (T1) as an independent, “one and done” PVT. Notably, cutoffs for TOMM T1 need further validation, with an emphasis on minimizing false-positive classifications among those with bona fide cognitive impairment. In a clinically referred sample of 127 veterans, this study examined the role of cognitive impairment in TOMM performance and the utility of a TOMM T1 as an independent PVT. Examinees were administered the TOMM and three additional PVTs as part of a comprehensive neuropsychological battery. Sixty-eight percent of examinees were classified valid (35% of valid examinees were cognitively impaired). TOMM T1?≤?40 had excellent observed sensitivity (83%) and specificity (93%) overall, with minimal false-positive classification. TOMM T1 was also significantly correlated and concordant with other memory-based PVTs. Given score ranges and failure rates for TOMM T1?≤?40 among those with neurological/neurocognitive conditions, scores in the 37–40 range may merit administration of additional TOMM trials to maximize accuracy in identifying valid-cognitively impaired versus noncredible performance. Otherwise, an abbreviated TOMM administration (i.e., only T1) using a cutoff of ≤?40—in conjunction with one or more additional PVTs—may be sufficient for detecting noncredible/invalid test performance in the absence of known or suspected neurological/neurocognitive disorders.     

Public Participation and Public Service Modernization: Learning from New Labor?

The public participation agenda is a significant element of public service reform in Europe and beyond. This article examines how citizen participation in local public services was conce ived and enacted under successive New Labor governments in the UK during the period 1997–2010. It is suggested that the emphasis on public participation was central to the ethos of New Labor. This accounts for the persistence of the participation agenda even in the face of scant empirical evidence that specific engagement and empowerment initiatives were successful. Significantly, there was no single New Labor participation narrative. There were instead several distinct strands, drawing variously from the Party's received traditions of State welfarism, corporatist central-local relations, municipal socialism, Blairite managerialism, and, lastly, mutual cooperativism. The article assesses the legacy of New Labor and public participation in the UK before drawing wider conclusions relating to international experience.     

The Impact Imprisonment has on Women's Health and Health Care from the Perspective of Female Inmates in Kansas

This multimethod study, conducted at the Topeka Correctional Facility during the summers of 2001, 2002, and 2003, investigated the impact of imprisonment on women's health and health care. The researcher hypothesized that 3 independent constructs—(a) extended strain, (b) level of health care received either before or during incarceration, and (c) detrimental social structural influences—could predict the health status of female inmates prior to and during incarceration. Multiple regression analyses conducted on 1 survey sample of 120 inmates revealed that only health care prior to incarceration and extended strain contributed significantly to explaining the inmates' self-perceived health status prior to and during incarceration. When life history interviews with 22 inmates were examined to determine inmates' perceptions of their health status and the health care they had received, prior to and during their imprisonment, qualitative results revealed inmates expressed dissatisfaction with the quality of health care received in prison, as well as the manner in which it was administered.     

Book reviews

Slums of Hope: shanty towns of the Third World. Peter Lloyd, Harmondsworth, England: Penguin. 1979. 246 pp. £1.25 pb.

Agrarian Revolution: social movements and export agriculture in the underdeveloped world. Jeffery M Paige, London: Collier Macmillan. 1978. 435pp. £5.25 pb.

Population and Development: high and low fertility in poorer countries. Edited by Geoffrey Hawthorn, London: Frank Cass. 1978. 210pp. £11.00.

Theory of International Politics. Kenneth N Waltz, Reading: Addison‐Wesley. 1979.304 pp. £2.50.

The Commonwealth Office 1925–68. Joe Garner, London: Heinemann. 1978. 478 pp. £19.50.

Commodity Conflict: the political economy of international commodity negotiations. L N Rangarajan, London: Croom Helm. 1978. 390 pp. £12.95.

Global Fracture: the new international economic order. Michael Hudson, New York: Harper &; Row. 1977. 296 pp. £12.50

The Evolution of the International Economic Order. W Arthur Lewis, Princeton University Press. 1978. 81 pp. £5.00

The Newly Industrialising Countries and the Adjustment Problem. Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London: FCO. 1979. 96 pp.

Nuclear Weapons and World Politics: alternatives for the future. David C Gombert et al, New York: McGraw Hill. 1977. 370 pp. £5.20 pb.

Poverty, Wealth of Mankind. Albert T Tévoèdjrè, Oxford: Pergamon. 1979. 200 pp. £10.00. £5.00 pb.

Hosts and Guests: an anthropology of tourism. Edited by Valene L Smith, Oxford: Blackwell. 1978. 254 pp. £8.00.

Taxation and Economic Development: twelve critical studies. Edited by J F J Toye, London: Frank Cass. 1978. 299pp. £11.50.

The OPEC Market to 1985. Farid Abolfathi et al. Lexington, Massachusetts: Lexington Books (distributed in the UK by Teakfield). 1977. 406 pp. £15.00.

Mosquitoes, Malaria and Man: a history of the hostilities since 1880. Gordon Harrison, London: John Murray. 1978. 314pp. £8.50.

Minerals in African Undervelopment. S A Ochola, London: Bogle‐L'Ouverture. 1975. 148 pp. £5.00. £1.50 pb.

Mineral Economics and Basic Industries in Asia. K P Wang and E Chin, Boulder, Colorado: Westview (distributed in the UK by Ernest Benn). 1978. 358 pp. £16.10.

International Resource Flows. Edited by G and L A Garvey, Lexington, Massachusetts: D C Heath (distributed in the UK by Teakfield). 1977. 202 pp. £13.75.

How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. Walter Rodney, London: Bogle‐L'Ouverture Publications. 1972. 316 pp. £0.65 pb.

Britain, the EEC and the Developing World. Matthew McQueen, London: Heinemann Educational. 1977. 115 pp. £1.25 pb.

African History. P Curtin, S Feierman, L Thompson, and J Vansina, London: Longman. 1978. 612pp. £9.75.

African Historical Studies. E A Ayandele, London: Frank Cass. 1979. 314pp. £12.00.

Nigerian Historical Studies. E A Ayandele, London: Frank Cass. 1979. 305pp. £12.00.

West African Resistance: the military response to colonial occupation. Edited by Michael Crowder, London: Hutchinson. 1978. 314pp. £3.75.

The Population of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Simeon Ominde, Nairobi, Kenya: Heinemann Educational. 1975. 124 pp. £2.50

The Widening Gulf: Asian nationalism and American policy. Selig S Harrison, New York: The Free Press. 1978. 468 pp. $15.95.

US Strategy in the Indian Ocean: the international response. Monoranjan Bezboruah, London: Praeger. 1977. 268 pp. £12.50.

Zionism and the Palestinians. Simha Flapan, London: Croom Helm. 1979. 361 pp. £11.95.

The Trading World of Asia and the English East India Company 1660–1760. K N Chaudhuri, Cambridge University Press. 1978. 629 pp. £37.50.

A Shaft of Sunlight. Philip Mason, New Delhi: Vikas. 1978. 240 pp.

Bhutan: the dragon kingdom in crisis. Nari Rustomji, Delhi: Oxford University Press. 1978. 150pp. £4.50.

Sons of the Soil: migration and ethnic conflict in India. Myron Weiner, Princeton University Press. 1978. 383 pp.

Energy and Economic Development in India. R K Pachauri, New York: Praeger. 1977. 185 pp. £14.00.

Frogs in a Well: Indian women in purdah. Patricia Jeffery, London: Zed Press. 1979. 187 pp. £7.50. £2.95 pb.

Land and Power in South America. Sven Lindqvist, Harmondsworth, England: Penguin. 1978. 333 pp. £2.25 pb.     

A real-time multiplex SNP melting assay to discriminate individuals

A method that quickly and inexpensively differentiates crime scene samples from multiple donors would expedite casework analysis by allowing the selection of probative items requiring comprehensive testing. This new method need not be perfectly definitive nor give a complete 13 locus short tandem repeat (STR) profile; it simply must be able to differentiate between most victim and suspect samples. We describe the development of multiplex, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), fluorescence resonance energy transfer-based real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays to fulfill this need. Dual probes, one fluorescently labeled and the other labeled with a quencher, are monitored during a melt analysis to reveal an increase in fluorescence, which allows the assessment of the two SNP alleles. Two alternate 6-plex assays (with and without gender determination) have been developed for the six-color RG6000 real-time instrument (Corbett Robotics, Inc.) and one seven SNP plus gender assay (performed as two 4-plex assays, one with gender the other without) have been developed for use in four/five color real-time instruments. This technique can discriminate between 95% and 99% of samples from different individuals. This assay is fast (approximately 2 h), much less expensive than STR analysis, and uses a real-time PCR instrument which is found in most forensic and molecular biology labs.