A Moving Target: Reasons Given by Adolescents for Alcohol and Narcotics Use, 1984 and 1999

Previous studies have investigated adolescents' reasons for alcohol and narcotics use, but have tended to neglect changes in the reasons over time. This study investigates the reasons given by Finnish adolescents for their own alcohol use, and for the use of alcohol and narcotics by others. In 1984, a questionnaire on reasons for alcohol and narcotics use was administered to a sample of adolescents aged 14–16 (N = 396). The questionnaire was administered again to a similar sample (N = 488) in 1999. An increase was found in reasons involving inner subjective experiences, referring to the good feeling and fun resulting from alcohol and narcotics use. In addition, the goals of alcohol consumption were increasingly perceived as drinking to get drunk, and for its own sake. The results suggest that adolescents' attitudes have become more liberal towards alcohol and narcotics use, and that prevention campaigns may be aiming at a moving target of culturally held opinion.     

Aggressive Problem-Solving Strategies,Aggressive Behavior,and Social Acceptance in Early and Late Adolescence

This study examined the relations between aggressive problem-solving strategies and aggressive behavior, and the intervening role of social acceptance in that relation in early and late adolescence. The subjects were 1655 11- and 17-year-old adolescents (863 girls and 792 boys). They completed a questionnaire measuring aggressive problem-solving strategies, while assessments of aggressive behavior and social acceptance were obtained by peer nominations. The results showed that aggressive problem-solving strategies were significantly but not very highly associated with aggressive behavior among both age groups. The role of social acceptance was of high importance, this being the major finding of this study. The aggressive-accepted adolescents underestimated their aggressiveness, i.e., had as low a level of self-rated aggressive strategies as the nonaggressive adolescents. This was particularly true of the late adolescents. The self-rated strategies of the nonaggressive adolescents were not dependent on their level of social acceptance. Finally, some gender differences were found. The findings are discussed in terms of the development of sociability and social knowledge about the self.     

Legislating for corporate criminal liability in Finland: 22-year long debate revisited

The criminal liability of corporations has been the subject of long debates in many countries. This article scrutinizes the 22-year long genesis of corporate criminal liability legislation in Finland. We are interested in unveiling the turns of the law-making process, and in investigating the struggle between various interest groups from a socio-historical perspective. The research data consist of legislative documents such as committee memorandums and written opinions, and the method of inquiry is content analysis. Our study reveals that the core issue of the process became whether jurisprudential principles should be changed in accordance with societal change or whether they are essentially immutable. The Act of Corporate Criminal Liability took effect in 1995, but its coverage was weakened by imposing discretionary sentencing and leaving employment offences outside of its purview. The initial aim and the very justification of the law—to place liability where it belongs—was achieved only in principle. Furthermore, the final outcome of the 1995 law served to actually prevent corporate misconducts from being processed as crimes.     

The electoral consequences of austerity: economic policy voting in Europe in times of crisis

Abstract

Voters typically observe macroeconomic outcomes in order to evaluate government performance. However, during crises, when the clarity of economic responsibility is poor and the economy is in recession, citizens need additional sources of information in order to form a reasoned opinion. Government policy response is one such source. This study shows on a sample of 24 European nations from 2004, 2009 and 2014 that in the post-crisis period, economic policies have emerged as one of the key predictors of vote choice, with government decisions to pursue fiscal austerity leading to significantly lower levels of incumbent support. Furthermore, the paper tests the possibility that the effect of austerity is conditioned by the clarity of responsibility. In multilevel systems, where policies are externally imposed, voters could be expected to hold incumbents less accountable for unpopular measures. The analysis, however, provides no evidence that policy effects depend on the extent to which national governments share policy responsibilities with supranational and intergovernmental institutions. Accountability for policy actions is primarily attributed at the domestic level as voters are able to identify the decisional role of national governments.     

Moral Reasoning and the Use of Procedural Justice Rules in Hypothetical and Real-Life Dilemmas

The use of Leventhal's procedural justice rules in moral judgments was examined (1) in the match examples of the Colby and Kohlberg moral judgment interview manual (Study 1), (2) in hypothetical dilemmas given to a sample of 41 participants in professional ethics classes, and (3) in the real-life moral dilemmas produced by this sample (Study 2). Consistent support was found for the hypothesis that bias suppression is used more frequently at the higher moral reasoning stages. A higher number of justice rules were employed in solving a real-life than hypothetical moral problem, and most procedural justice rules were used more frequently in the real-life dilemma.     

Neo-extractivism and the new Latin American developmentalism: the missing piece of rural transformation

What, if anything, is actually new about political and economic transformation in twenty-first century Latin America? Here we explore how ostensibly ‘new’ policies are being built on two ‘old’ foundations that may be mutually exclusive. These are ‘extractivism’ and ‘developmentalism’, concepts that have been used rather loosely to describe current economic policies. The new developmentalism, however, may not only be contradicted by extractivism; it may be more constrained than its predecessor by fortified capitalist class interests and new global conditions. Moreover, it pays little attention to the employment-generating potential of rural areas or to the agricultural sector.