The Attitudes Towards Dating Violence Scales: Development and Initial Validation

This study describes the development and validation of three Attitudes Towards Male Dating Violence (AMDV) Scales and three Attitudes Towards Female Dating Violence (AFDV) Scales. These scales measure attitudes toward use of psychological, physical, and sexual dating violence, respectively, by boys and by girls. Eight hundred twenty-three students from grades 7, 9, and 11 participated in the validation study. All six scales have good internal consistencies. As predicted, students were more accepting of girls' use of violence than of boys' use of violence, and boys were more accepting of violence than were girls. The six scales were positively correlated with traditional attitudes toward gender roles and with each other, providing evidence for their construct validity. Higher scores on the AMDV Scales were related to boys' past use of violence in dating relationships and to their having aggressive friends, supporting their criterion-related validity. Higher scores on the AFDV Scales were associated with girls' past use of dating violence but not with their having aggressive friends, providing partial support for their criterion-related validity. Singly or in combination, the Attitudes Towards Dating Violence Scales can be used to increase our understanding of the development and maintenance of violence-supportive attitudes in adolescents of all ages.     

Public Health and the Regulatory State

Public health has moved from the public good component of health to everything related to health and, then, to everything related to society. If we take public health in its wide, total, social sense, it presumably explains or justifies much of the regulatory state. Virtually all state activities contribute directly or indirectly to some citizens’ “physical, mental and social well-being” (as the World Health Organization’s definition says). Public health requires social engineering, which cannot be achieved without controlling the lifestyles that the Philosopher King doesn’t like. Controlling lifestyles cannot be done without regulating the businesses that would allow people to satisfy their sinful preferences, and without preventing these people from circumventing the controls through black markets or other violations of government regulation.     

La politique québécoise de desengorgement des urgences

Sommaire: Depuis le milieu des années 70, au Québec, l'engorgement des services d'urgence est un problème qui refait surface de facon épisodique. En 1986, le gou-vernement québécois adopte un vaste plan visant à corriger la situation. En 1990, l'échec relatif de cette politique mène à I'adoption d'une nouvelle politique qui sera elle-même modifiée en 1993. Dans cet article, nous examinons les processus récur-rents d'émergence, de formulation et de mise en euvre de la politique québécoise de désengorgement des services d'urgence. Nous recourons, pour ce faire, à une version étendue du modèle proposé par Kingdon pour expliquer la mise à I'ordre du jour de certains problèmes publics par le gouvernement. Nous soutenons que le prolonge-ment donné au modèle de Kingdon permet de rendre compte des différentes phases de réalisation de la politique. Abstract: In the Province of Quebec, the overcrowding of hospital emergency wards has been a problem since the mid-seventies. In 1986, the Quebec government adopted a vast plan to correct the situation. The relative failure of the plan led to the adoption of a new policy in 1990, later modified in 1993. In this paper, we study the recurring emergence, formulation and implementation of Quebec policy towards emergency ward overcrowding. This study is based on an extended version of the model put forward by Kingdon to explain how some public problems appear on a government agenda while others are left aside. We contend that Kingdon's extended model is helpful to further our understanding of the policy process towards emergency wards in Quebec.     

Motor vehicle collisions and their demographics: a 5-year retrospective study of the Hamilton-Wentworth Niagara region

This retrospective study examined population demographics associated with motor vehicle collision (MVC) fatalities over a 5-year period in the Hamilton-Wentworth Niagara region. Variables were drawn from the five factors proposed by Fierro (1) for investigating deaths caused by transportation: human, chemical, environmental, vehicular, and highway. Factors analyzed included age, gender, position to the vehicle, site(s) of injury, toxicology, environmental contributors, and vehicular findings. From 1999 to 2004, there were 321 MVC fatalities that primarily involved males 20 to 29 years of age and commonly drivers or pedestrians. Cars and trucks were the most frequent vehicles. Fatalities occurred most often on local and regional roads on Fridays and Sundays between 6 pm and 6 am. Mechanical failure and weather conditions were not significant contributors. Toxicological analyses (275/321) were performed on the majority of the study population. Ethanol was present in isolation and with other substances, especially cannabis, mostly in male drivers 20-59 years of age.     

The Two Browns: Policy Implementation and the Retrenchment of Brown v. Board of Education

The colorblind individualism that pervades American politics and society keeps schools segregated although Americans support integrated public education. While the 1954 US Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education has never been overruled, later cases and policies have encouraged its retrenchment. We argue in this multi-disciplinary review of published literature that there are two different versions of Brown—the iconic, pro-integration symbol supported by most Americans, and a formal, juridical requirement that permits continued school segregation. The formal, juridical Brown is supported by the implementation of multiple educational policies, particularly neighborhood schools, magnet schools, and charter schools, all built on the firm belief that there is no violation of Brown. Rather than promoting a vision of Brown that champions a strong integration goal, these policies bolster the second interpretation of Brown: one that allows segregation to occur, so long as it is not outwardly deliberate.     

Michel Crozier et L'analyse stratégique du phénomène bureaucratique

Nous proposons d'appeler système bureaucratique d'organisation tout système d'organisation dans lequel le circuit erreurs‐informations‐corrections fonctionne mat et où il ne peut y avoir, de ce fait, correction et réadaptation rapide des programmes d'action, en fonction des erreurs commises. Le phéornène bureaucratique. Essai sur les tendances bureaucratiq ues des systèmes d'organisation modernes et sur leurs relations en France avec le système social et culturel. Par mictjel crozier. Poris: Éditions du Seuil, 1963. Pp. 413.     

Vers une redéfinition de la politique d'achat du Québec

Sommaire: Les marchés publics constituent pour le Gouvernement du Québec un précieux instrument de développement socio-éonomique et un puissant levier dans la réalisation de certains objectifs bien particuliers. Aussi, afin de stimuler et de favoriser le développement de l'économie québécoise, la politique d'achat du Gouvernement du Québec révèle plusieurs mesures préférentielles. Elle tente explicitement de maximiser l'utilisation de produits québécois, de canaliser une part substantielle des achats publics vers les entreprises québécoises. Cette politique d'achat préférentielle a été récemment raffermie et ce, malgré le mouvement international de plus en plus vigoureux visant l'élimination des obstacles à la libre circulation des biens et services. Toutefois, au niveau interprovincial, ce même Gouvernement, dans une volonté d'emboîter le pas et de s'aligner sur l'actuelle tendance à la libéralisation des échanges commerciaux, a spontanément souscrit à l'Accord intergouvernemental sur les marchés du secteur public qui prône l'abolition des barrières au commerce interprovincial. Le Gouvernement du Québec doit désormais tenter de concilier l'existence des principes et objectifs de ces deux textes conflictuels. La présente étude offre une vision globale, suggère un survol de la politique d'achat du Gouvernement du Québec et de son champ d'application, dam le contexte de la libéralisation des échanges commerciaux interprovinciaux. Elle souligne que l'Accord ne sonne pas le glas de la politique d'achat du Québec mais en implique une sérieuse et profonde remise en cause. En effet, la politique d'achat devra nécessairement débouher sur une façon originale d'utiliser les marchés publics tout en s'insérant dans le cadre de l'Accord. Abstract: For the Government of Quebec, public contracts are an invaluable tool for socio-economic development and a powerful lever for the achievement of some quite specific objectives. In order to stimulate and promote the development of the Quebec economy, the purchasing policy of the provincial government involves several preferential measures. It explicitly attempts to maximize the use of Quebec products, and to channel a substantial portion of public purchases to Quebec firms. This preferential purchasing policy has been strengthened recently, in spite of the growing international movement towards eliminating impediments to the free trade of goods and services. However, at the interprovincial level, in order to fall in step and align itself with the present trend towards freer trade, the Government of Quebec spontaneously subscribed to the Intergovernmental Accord on Public Sector Contracts, promoting the elimination of interprovincial trade barriers. The Government of Quebec must now aim to reconcile the principles and objectives of these two conflicting approaches. This study provides an overview and suggests a survey of the provincial government's purchasing policy and its field of application, within the context of the liberalization of interprovincial trade. It stresses that the accord does not negate Quebec's purchasing policy, although it does involve a thorough review of it. Indeed, the purchasing policy must necessarily lead to an original way of using public contracts while still staying within the bounds of the accord.