Adolescent Marital Expectations and Romantic Experiences: Associations With Perceptions About Parental Conflict and Adolescent Attachment Security

This study tested associations between adolescent perceptions of interparental conflict, adolescent attachment security with parents, and adolescent marital expectations and romantic experiences. Participants were 96 early adolescent females from 2 parent families. Insecurity was examined as a mediator of the association between negative perceptions of parental conflict and romantic outcomes. Results supported the mediation model in which adolescents' negative perceptions of parental conflict was associated with insecure attachment with parents, which was in turn associated with negative marital expectations and romantic experiences. Implications for understanding how parent-adolescent and interparental variables influence adolescent marital expectations and romantic experiences are discussed.

Human rights in Vancouver: do injection drug users have a friend in city hall?

In april 2003, the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) initiated a crackdown in the city's Downtown Eastside, an area frequented by drug users and the site of one of the developed world's worst AIDS epidemics. Human Rights Watch (HRW) visited the city and issued a report documenting first-hand accounts of unnecessary use of force by police officers and other human rights abuses. In this article, HRW staffers Joanne Csete and Jonathan Cohen describe how the initial euphoria that greeted the election of Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell has worn off; how a crackdown that was supposed to be aimed at drug traffickers had the effect of driving drug users away from health and harm-reduction services; and how both the VPD and city tried to discredit the HRW report. Finally, the authors discuss how concerns about the VPD have led to official complaints being filed, and they question whether police forces should be allowed to investigate themselves.     

Federalism and Compounded Representation: Key Concepts and Project Overview

Interested in bringing together federalism and political representationas two distinct areas of research in comparative politics, thisedition of Publius: The Journal of Federalism introduces a collaborativeresearch project that raised questions about the impact of institutionalarrangements on strategies for political representation. Definitionsof the project's two key concepts of federalism and compoundedrepresentation are briefly addressed initially. Summaries arepresented of how these two concepts are empirically appliedin the studies by the five scholars presented in this volume.     

OPINION CONGRUENCE AND THE FORMULATION OF SEISMIC SAFETY POLICIES

This article examines key actors'and citizens'perceptions on several issues involving various actions designed to lessen the effects of a damaging earthquake as well as the degree of concern these groups have over the occurrence of such an event. The relationship discovered between key actors'and the public's attitudes on these issues indicates that several other studies of earthquake policy adoption which suggest that a lack of citizen awareness and support for earthquake policy are the major barriers to adoption may be in error. In fact, it is discovered that in the Central states, it is the public which is concerned and supportive of such policy and the key actors who are more reluctant to endorse such policies.     

How important is participatory constitution-making? Lessons from Timor-Leste and Bougainville

How can fragmented or divided post-conflict societies best be accommodated and adjust to state structures in order to achieve sustainable peace? Reflecting on the contrary experiences of Timor-Leste and Bougainville, an autonomous region of Papua New Guinea, this article argues the answer to this question rests partly on the role that participatory constitution-making can play in state-building, nation-building and peace-building. Constitution-making can play a central role in state-building, because constitutions provide the operating system that establishes state institutions and regulates state power. It can also play a nation-building role by defining the political bond between the people, and a peace-building role by encouraging reconciliation and embedding state institutions in society. This article draws on liberal political theory to argue that public participation in constitution-making can enhance the likelihood that the constitution produces legitimate and effective state institutions, generates a unifying sense of national identity and establishes sustainable peace. It finds that extensive public participation in Bougainville played a positive role by creating a sense of common identity, reconciling many of the most severe societal divisions and creating institutions that are relatively legitimate and effective. In contrast, minimal public participation in Timor-Leste meant that the constitution-making process did not play a positive role; it did not create a unifying national identity, left certain societal divisions unreconciled and exacerbated others, and created institutions that were largely illegitimate and ineffective.     

Legal Compliance in Street‐Level Bureaucracy: A Study of UK Housing Officers

Street‐level bureaucratic theory is now at a fairly mature stage. The focus on street‐level bureaucrats as ultimate policymakers is now as familiar as it is important. Likewise, the parallel sociolegal study of the implementation of public law in public organizations has demonstrated the inevitable gap between law‐in‐the‐books and law‐in‐action. Yet, the success of these advances comes at the potential cost of us losing sight of the importance of law itself. This article analyzes some empirical data on the decision making about one legal concept—vulnerability in UK homelessness law. Our analysis offers two main contributions. First, we argue that, when it comes to the implementation of law, the legal abilities and propensities of the bureaucrats must be taken into account. Bureaucrats' abilities to understand legal materials make a difference to the likelihood of legal compliance. Second, we must also pay attention to the character of the legal provisions. Where a provision is simple, it is more likely to facilitate legal knowledge and demands nothing of bureaucrats in terms of legal competence. Where the provision is also inoffensive and liveable, it is less likely to act as an impediment to legal conscientiousness.     

Out of Many,One? Strasbourg's Ibrahim Decision on Article 6

This case comment considers the European Court of Human Rights decision of Ibrahim v United Kingdom on 13 September 2016. Relying on Salduz v Turkey, the applicants claimed, largely unsuccessfully, that denial of access to a lawyer during police questioning, and subsequent admission into evidence of statements made in the course of that questioning, violated fair trial rights protected by Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The comment suggests that the decision's unusually emphatic statements about Article 6's ‘internal structure’ have consequences for assessing violations in future applications. Further, the decision creates greater room for public interest balancing in Article 6 cases. The decision may thus undermine the Article 6 guarantees.     

Crime Victims’ Perceptions of Police Behavior,Legitimacy, and Cooperation: A Review of the Literature

According to Tyler’s theoretical framework, police officers can motivate cooperation among citizens during direct interactions by using fair procedures and by showing how the police perform their job in combating crime. By conducting a systematic literature review, prior research was examined to see whether perceptions of procedural justice and police performance result in higher levels of perceived legitimacy of the police institution, and in turn whether this perceived legitimacy stimulates cooperative behavior among crime victims specifically. Results of the 15 included studies indicate that partial support for the applicability of this framework on crime victims was found. However, none of the included studies tested all relationships within the framework simultaneously among crime victims; they typically focused only on one of the interrelationships between the frameworks’ key concepts. Implications for future research and police practice are discussed.     

Violent behavior in female inmates: possible predictors

Research findings have been equivocal regarding the relationship between experiencing trauma and exhibiting violent behavior in women. This study seeks to determine predictors of violent behavior in female inmates utilizing various conceptualizations of traumatic experiences. Results indicate a significant univariate relationship between experiencing more frequent physical abuse experiences, both interpersonal and noninterpersonal types of trauma, and both physical and sexual assaults with frequency of engagement in violent behavior. The regression model explained approximately 21.0% of the variance in violent behavior. Furthermore, frequency of physical abuse experiences was a significant predictor of frequency of engagement in violent behavior and explained 12.74% of unique variance. These results suggest that the frequency of physical abuse experiences may serve as a risk factor for women's violent behavior. Although more research is needed, it appears that addressing the potential for violence in women who experience abuse may be an appropriate target of treatment.