The Effects of Majoring in Political Science on Political Efficacy

This study tests, and finds support, for the hypotheses that a student who majors in political science will have stronger feelings of political competence and will be more willing to engage in hypothetical political actions than two peer groups: (a) those who major in other fields and (b) those who show an interest in politics but have not studied it. In a study of 1,083 undergraduates at two different universities, we find that senior political science majors have higher feelings of internal political efficacy than comparison groups and are more willing than their peers or than interested freshmen to say that they would engage in meaningful political action, especially joining organized groups.     

Arid Climate Adipocere—The Importance of Microenvironment

Skeletal remains were retrieved from a cave in an arid desert environment. The submitted material consisted of dried grass, soil, and malodorous skeletal remains wrapped in leather. After examination, it was revealed that the smell had not been due to recent decomposition but to adipocere. The cause of death was listed as “undetermined” and a suggested date of death as “unknown.” Although adipocere usually requires a damp environment or submersion in water to develop, this case provides further evidence for the rare possibility of adipocere formation in an otherwise very dry environment. Wrapping of the body in leather material had produced an impermeable barrier which had sequestrated and preserved bodily fluids allowing anaerobic decay with fat hydrolysis and adipocere formation. Microenvironments may have potentially significant and quite idiosyncratic effects on decompositional processes which may initially confuse investigations.     

Three-Dimensional Analysis of Cartridge Case Double-Casts

Due to the shot-to-shot variability in tool mark reproduction on fired cartridge cases, a method of replication is needed for the creation of training and testing sets. Double-casting is one method that has been used for this application, but the accuracy and variability of this method needs to be characterized. Three firearms were used to fire 25 cartridges each to create the master cartridge cases. The double-casting method consists of creating a silicone mold of the master cartridge case. A plastic resin mix is then poured into the mold to create the double-cast reproduction. Fifteen double-casts of each of the 75 fired cartridge cases were created across different silicone molds to analyze within- and between-mold variability. The master cartridge cases and double-casts were scanned with a confocal microscope (Sensofar® S neox) to create three-dimensional representations of the surfaces. Two similarity metrics were used for the objective comparison of the double-casts to their master cartridge cases: the areal correlation coefficient (ACCF_MAX) and the number of congruent matching cells (CMC). The ACCF_MAX and CMC data, along with visual examinations, showed that the double-casting method produces accurate reproductions. Within-mold variability was found to be minimal, and between-mold variability was low. These results illustrate that double-casting can be applied for training and testing purposes.     

Concurrent Trajectories of Change in Adolescent and Maternal Depressive Symptoms in the TORDIA Study

Depression has a heightened prevalence in adolescence, with approximately 15 % of adolescents experiencing a major depressive episode by age 18. Depression in adolescence also poses a risk for future distress and impairment. Despite treatment advances, many adolescents relapse after initial remission. Family context may be an important factor in the developmental trajectory of adolescent depression, and thus in enhancing treatment. This study examined concurrent change over time in adolescent and maternal depressive symptoms in the context of the Treatment of Resistant Depression in Adolescents study. Participants were 334 adolescents (mean age: 16; SD: 1.6; 70 % female, 84 % Caucasian), and their mothers (n = 241). All adolescents were clinically depressed when they entered the study and had received previous selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) treatment. Adolescents received acute treatment for 12 weeks and additional treatment for 12 more weeks. Adolescent depression and suicidal ideation were assessed at 0, 6, 12, 24, 48 and 72 weeks, while maternal depressive symptoms were assessed at 0, 12, 24, 48 and 72 weeks. Latent basis growth curve analyses showed a significant correlation over 72 weeks between trajectories of maternal and adolescent depressive symptoms, supporting the hypothesis of concurrent patterns of change in these variables. The trajectories were correlated more strongly in a subsample that included only dyads in which mothers reported at least one depressive symptom at baseline. Results did not show a correlation between trajectories of maternal depressive symptoms and adolescent suicidal ideation. These findings suggest that adolescent and maternal depressive symptoms change in tandem, and that treatment for adolescent depression can benefit the wider family system. Notably, most mothers in this sample had subclinical depressive symptoms. Future research might explore these trajectories in dyads with more severely depressed mothers.     

‘Peasantry’ as an economic category

This paper is concerned to challenge the category ‘peasantry’ as defining a distinct and general type of economy. It is divided into three sections: i. an examination of the work of Lenin and Kautsky on capitalism in agriculture which shows that they investigated economies in which peasant production was important without using such a concept; ii. it is argued that no rigorous concept of a ‘peasant’ mode or ‘peasant’ relations of production can be constructed which has the general applicability of the common‐sense notion of ‘peasantry'; iii. the treatment of ‘peasant’ economy in non‐Marxist literature is considered.     

Behind Harold's Bloomsday Book: Gothic Secrets in Literary History

Harold Bloom's influential theory of literary influence has been widely regarded as utterly patriarchal, and yet some feminist critics have adapted rather than attacked it. The theory argues that a great poem aggressively rewrites and thereby conceals its precursor in order to appear as completely original. Bloom's theory of precursors invites in its turn an application of itself to itself, and his Anxiety of Influence seems to trail several possible antecedents, such as Shakespeare and Freud. A more powerful precursor, however, is a novel written by a woman: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein . Just as Bloom's theory postulates only fathers replicating themselves through generational struggle and identification, so Mary Shelley's Gothic shocker represses the mother as both a source and an object of desire. What Bloom's theory thus represses behind its model of masculine sublime poets is a feminine Gothic novel. There is, however, a crucial difference: whereas Shelley's novel is profoundly critical of Victor Frankenstein's paternal shortcomings, such overweening Gothic masculinity provides the very basis of Bloom's Anxiety of Influence (1973), conceived as it is in the immediate post-Vietnam era. Such strong revision notwithstanding, behind the strong critic who re-asserts American masculinity after Vietnam stands the madman in the laboratory, and behind him stands the repressed mother, otherwise known to literary history as the Madwoman in the Attic. What she reveals is that literary history is Gothic rather than sublime, and that it will not ultimately cover and compensate for the worst creation of men: war itself. Even the enquiring spirit of the New Historicism emerges as a function of this Gothic exposure.     

Understanding commenter influence during agency rule development

We provide the first empirical assessment of commenter influence during the rule development stage of administrative rulemaking. We argue that public com‐menters play a critical agenda‐setting role during rule development. To test this proposition, we analyze data from 36 Department of Transportation rules and almost 500 comments. Each of these rules began with an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking—a procedure that allows us to track the formal participation of interested parties during rule development. Our analyses are supplemented by face‐to‐face interviews with agency officials. We find a strong agenda‐setting role for early commenters—both in terms of affecting the content of future regulations and in thwarting unwanted regulations. We conclude that “early‐bird” com‐menters are well positioned to frame public policy debates as rules move through the regulatory process. © 2009 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

Reimagining Sutherland 80 years after white‐collar crime*

Eighty years ago, Edwin H. Sutherland conceptualized and defined white‐collar crime. In this article, I engage retrospectively with Sutherland's ideas and work to emphasize important aspects that continue to guide research today; to note where he was prescient as well as shortsighted. I center this discussion around “corporate crime” or crimes by business. Four main themes are discussed: 1) law and official responses to corporate offending—the data problem, 2) corporate crime and the life cycle of organizations, 3) psychological and trait‐based explanations, and 4) consequences of definitional ambiguity.