Sustainability and peace building: a key challenge

The overarching challenge facing the growing number of international peace-building interventions is to achieve sustainable peace. This paper illustrates this proposition through a brief investigation of the situation in Timor-Leste as the UN mission withdraws at the five-year state-building mark, and in Haiti as a ninth UN mission is established. Adopting the view that participatory democratic governance will best ensure long-term peace, the paper maintains that to build sustainable peace requires transformation on three interrelated fronts: (a) transformation of the society from one that resorts to violence to one that resorts to political means to resolve conflict, requiring that the elite negotiate and that there should be widespread social dialogue and reconciliation; (b) reform of the governance framework to seek to ensure both that a negotiated governance arrangement between parties prevents future conflict and the adoption of basic democratic governance; and (c) the creation of meaningful institutions that will be sustainable after the mission leaves. These institutions cannot be imposed from outside, but must be bodies that re able to perform their core function and are committed to doing so.     

Complete mitochondrial genome sequences for 265 African American and U.S. “Hispanic” individuals

Entire mitochondrial genome (mtGenome) sequences of 265 unrelated African American and U.S. “Hispanic” individuals were generated.     

RECONCILING PARENTS' AND CHILDREN'S INTERESTS IN RELOCATION In Whose Best Interest?

When a family comes before the court, whose interests are really served? Can the court's representatives act in the best interests of the children while respecting the rights of parents? When a case is sent to a court‐connected evaluator, how does the evaluator balance the tensions and varying perspectives inherent in this work? Within the bounds of advocacy and legal ethics, how does the attorney balance the demands and rights of the client while guiding the parent to consider the needs of the children? How do judges frame the dilemmas before them and consider the work of the evaluator? This article addresses these questions in a multidisciplinary fashion, using a hypothetical case as a guide.     

Social disorganization perceptions, fear of gang crime, and behavioral precautions among Whites, Latinos, and Vietnamese

Gangs were an important media and policy topic during the 1990s, but few studies focused on fear of gangs specifically. Even fewer studies examined ethnic differences in perceptions of community problems, fear, and behavioral precautions due to gangs. Using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) techniques, this article examines differences among Whites, Latinos, and Vietnamese in perceptions of community disorder and diversity, perceived risk and fear of gang crime, and resulting behavioral precautions. Results indicated that Vietnamese were most concerned about community problems and felt most at risk and afraid of gang crimes. Latinos also felt more concerned and more at risk and afraid than Whites did. Most people in all three groups practiced avoidance behaviors to avoid gang crime, but few turned to weapons for protection. Results confirmed that minorities were more afraid and point to the importance of focusing limited policy resources on populations most affected by gangs.     

In praise of joan robinson: Economics as social control

He specializes in the history of economic thought, methodology, law and economics, and related areas. His principal current research centers on the use of the concept of the “invisible hand” and on the fundamentals of the economic role of government.     

The relationship between childhood sexual abuse and adult mental health among undergraduates: victim gender doesn't matter

A large body of research has documented the harmful effects of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) on adult mental health among females, but less work has examined this issue among males. This study examined whether gender moderated the relationship between CSA and adult mental health among a mixed-gender sample of 406 undergraduates. A Pearson chi-square test indicated that a significantly greater proportion of females (41.6%) than males (30.7%) reported a history of CSA. ANCOVAs tested whether gender, CSA status, and their interaction were related to adult mental health symptomatology as measured by Brief Symptom Inventory gender-normed t scores. Participants with a history of CSA reported significantly higher levels of global mental health problems, hostility, paranoid ideation, and psychoticism. The gender by CSA status interaction was not significant for any scale, indicating that the harmful effects of CSA on adult mental health did not vary by gender.