Crime in Indian country: Another “trail of tears”

This article explores the status of crime among the American Indian population. Quantitative information regarding Indian offenses and arrest is presented and placed into the large spectrum of social problems afflicting Indian society. Some quantitative comparisons are made with a similar study conducted in 1964.Trend analyses were performed, and projections are provided relevant to total, adult, and juvenile Indian arrest; rates of arrest for Total, UCR Part I, and alcohol-related offenses are also given. Indian crime data are compared with those of other ethnic groups. The Indian propensity for arrests involving alcohol-related offenses is discussed in detail.The frequency of crimes on- and off-reservation is analyzed, particularly with respect to violent crimes; data are examined to determine the most frequent types of police contacts that Indian offenders experience.     

Custody Investigations in Divorce Cases

Custody investigations by social workers of the home circumstances of children soon to be the subject of a custody order in a divorce case usually provide psychological and socioeconomic data about the family and other adults interested in the children's welfare. Reports of such investigations are used by judges in arriving at decisions about custody. The author's research has led him to conclude, however, that such institutionalized custody investigations can be defended only if they help spouses to resolve disputes that otherwise would be tried. Further, he suggests that safeguards be instituted to protect spouses from inaccurate and biased reporting.     

Prospect Theory, Rational Choice, and International Relations

A half-decade after the first systematic applications of prospect theory to international relations, scholars continue to debate its potential utility as a theoretical framework. Key questions include the validity of the experimental findings themselves, their relevance for real-world international behavior that involves high-stakes decisions by collective actors in interactive settings, and the conceptual status of prospect theory with respect to rational choice. In this essay I assess theoretical and methodological debates over these issues. I review work in social psychology and experimental economics and conclude that challenges to the external validity of prospect theory-based hypotheses for international behavior are much more serious than challenges to their internal validity. I emphasize the similarities between prospect theory and expected-utility theory, argue that hypotheses regarding loss aversion and the reflection effect are easily subsumed within the latter, and that evidence of framing effects and nonlinear responses to probabilities are more problematic for the theory. I conclude that priorities for future research include the construction of hypotheses on the framing of foreign policy decisions and research designs for testing them; the incorporation of framing, loss aversion, and the reflection effect into theories of collective and interactive decision making; and experimental research that is sensitive to the political and strategic context of foreign policy decision making.