Polymorphism of four X-chromosomal STRs: DXS7423, DXS7424, DXS8378 and DXS6809 in a North Italian population sample and their use in kinship testing

The present study analyses three tetranucleotide (DXS7423, DXS8378, DXS6809) and one trinucleotide (DXS7424) X-linked STRs loci in a population sample of North Italy to evaluate their efficiency in forensic applications. The four loci were also used to solve a case of deficiency paternity, in which the question was to establish whether two women were half sisters.     

Senate voting patterns on the 1991 extension of the fast-track trade procedures: Prelude to NAFTA

In 1991 then-President George Bush requested an extension of fast-track procedures from Congress for the primary purpose of negotiating a North American Free Trade Agreement. This paper uses an econometric model to test the importance of three themes related to NAFTA that surfaced during Senate debates over whether to approve the request, that of employment effects, environmental effects and the impact on immigration from Mexico. The empirical results show that expected job gains and losses were significant in explaining Senate voting patterns on fast-track extension. Immigration was found to be somewhat important, but environmental issues were not found to statistically significant. In addition, the impact of organized labor and political ideology as proxied by political party were found to be important factors that shaped Senate voting patterns on fast-track.     

Media habits of media tycoons

Leo Bogart is author of Preserving the Press, The Age of Televisionand other books on the media. This essay is adapted from a book he is completing on the subject of commercial culture.     

Of Normal Human Sympathies and Clear Consciences: Comments on Hyman Gross’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">Crime and Punishment: A Concise Moral Critique</Emphasis>

Contemporary criminal justice systems are extraordinarily unfair. Focusing on Hyman Gross’s Crimes and Punishment: A Concise Moral Critique, however, I identify ways in which scholarly criticisms of these criminal justice systems tend to miss their target. In particular, I argue against the assumption that in order to criticize these criminal justice systems we need to cast doubt on the very practice of blaming people and on the notion of desert, or that we need to reject wholesale retributive rationales for punishment. Quite the contrary: an important reason why contemporary criminal justice systems are unfair is that they punish many people undeservedly.     

It’s the economy, and then some: modeling the presidential vote with state panel data

Using data for the 50 US states for presidential elections from 1972 to 2004 two theories for determining state voting outcomes are considered jointly: the ‘economy matters’ and ‘home grown-ness’ theories. Fixed-effects regressions show that measures of the ‘economy matters’ (real income, unemployment and a proxy for inflation) have the predicted effects on state voting patterns for presidential elections. The home grown theory receives mixed support. There is weak evidence that incumbent-party candidates garner greater support in their home states. There is strong support, however, for the proposition that incumbent-party candidates fare worse in the home state of rival-party candidates.