The DutchAlgemene Rekenkamer and its role in light of contemporary theory

European Journal of Law and Economics - In this article I try to find answers for three questions: Which functions are exercised by the Court of Audit in the Netherlands, and what kinds of...     

Preadolescent peer friendships: A critical contribution to adult social relatedness?

The primary aim of this paper is to review the literature on preadolescent friendships in order to examine the relationship between preadolescent friendships and social support in adulthood. Social supports are important to health, both directly and as a stress buffer. Few studies, however, have specifically examined adult social supports from the perspective of their developmental precursors and critical developmental periods. Some data indicate that the preadolescent period may be of particular importance to the development of adult social skills and ties. Observational and empirical studies of preadolescent peer relationships, and in particular best friendships, suggest unique and critical contributions to adult social relatedness. Present research is suggestive but is insufficient to validate preadolescence as a critical period in adult social relatedness. Our review has implications for better understanding the mechanisms by which preadolescent friendships effect adult social support—an important mediator of the effects of stress on health. Further longitudinal study is needed.Received Ph.D. from University of Maryland. Research interests are social supports and psychological responses to trauma and disaster.Received M.D. from Yale University. Research interests are social supports and traumatic stress.     

The use of either the nose or outer ear as a means of determining the postmortem period of a human corpse.

Presented in this paper are the initial results involving the use of the nose or outer ear as temperature measurement sites to determine the postmortem period of the human corpse. Simple mathematical models for both sites are developed based on cooling curves of five corpses. Analysis of errors between actual and calculated postmortem intervals suggest that in its present form, the described methods would not be suitable for use in accurately determining the time since death of human corpses.     

WINNING COALITIONS AND ETHNO-REGIONAL POLITICS: THE FAILURE OF THE OPPOSITION IN THE 1990 AND 1995 ELECTIONS IN COTE D'IVOIRE

Why is that former dominant or single party regimes, especiallythose in Africa, have generally survived and even emerged strengthenedafter the introduction of multi-party competitive elections?In Côte d'lvoire since 1990 the ruling party has beenable to win elections by using incumbency to present itselfas the organization most likely to be capable of putting togethera winning coalition. In a society segmented by a multiplicityof cultural and religious divisions and where political poweris a zero-sum game, the logic of democratic representation meansthat no group can afford to be excluded. Yet in the 1990 and1995 Ivorian elections .the opposition attacked die ethnic characterof the government and deliberately mobilized ethnic minorities,regional and religious (Islamic) sentiments. They thereforefailed to escape, in electoral terms, from their extremely localizedstrongholds. Their attempt to mobilize around an anti-foreignerplatform in 1990 rebounded in 1995 when the government itselftook over their ‘ultra-nationalist’ stance by excludingnon-Ivorians from the elections. The consequent exclusion ofthe opposition's favoured Presidential candidate and the failureof the opposition alliance to agree on a non-northern, non-Islamicalternative candidate led to a violent boycott and the eventualcollapse of the opposition alliance.     

Examining the empirical relationship between prison crowding and inmate misconduct: A meta-analysis of conflicting research results

Incarceration rates in the United States dramatically increased over the past several decades. This trend has drawn significant academic attention to prison overcrowding and its potential effect on inmate misconduct. The empirical relationship between inmate misconduct and overcrowding, however, is less than clear. To be sure, studies indicating positive, negative, and null relationships can all be found in the literature. The current research subjects this body of literature to a meta-analysis in an effort to: (1) clarify the direction and strength of the relationship between overcrowding and rates of prison misconduct across all studies, and (2) to uncover the degree to which variation in research outcomes can be attributed to methodological differences across studies. Results indicate that prison crowding has little substantive impact on inmate misconduct. Implications of the findings are discussed in detail.