Time-Varying Risk Factors for Reassault Among Batterer Program Participants

This study uses longitudinal data to identify risk markers for reassault among batterer program participants. Data are from 308 men and their partners collected at five, 3-month intervals. Time-varying situational and behavioral risk factors, as well as time-invariant individual characteristics, are examined. The most influential risk markers, in terms of relative risk and level of statistical significance, were time-varying: 2 measures of the man's drunkenness during the follow-up interval in which the reassault occurred (OR: 3.5-16.3; p > .0005). Other included time-varying batterer characteristics had no significant effect on reassault. Two significant time-invariant batterer risk factors were (1) severe psychopathology and (2) a history of non-domestic-violence arrest, both measured at intake. Results suggest that batterers' drinking behavior after program intake may provide an important and easily observed marker for risk of reassault and that prediction of reassault with individual risk factors at program intake remains problematical.     

Entrepreneurship, Secrecy, and Productivity: A Comparison of Clinical and Non-Clinical Life Sciences Faculty

This paper addresses research in the life sciences, responsible for significant national expenditures for scientific investigations funded by both the federal government and industry. Our investigation examines faculty members' involvement with industry in entrepreneurial ways that is, involved in translating their research into potentially marketable knowledge or products. First, this study examines whether there are differences in entrepreneurial behaviour between clinical and non-clinical faculty in the life sciences with industry relationships, and, second, to discover any linkage between entrepreneurship and secrecy or productivity in different ways for clinical and non-clinical faculty. The study is based on survey responses of a national sample of 4,000 clinical and non-clinical life sciences faculty in 49 U.S. research universities. The results show non-clinical faculty as more involved at the back end. The more entrepreneurial end of commercialization while clinical faculty are involved at the back end. The more entrepreneurial faculty (non-clinical) are more likely to be secretive about their research. Clinical faculty are less likely to have been denied access to research results or products. Entrepreneurial faculty are not less productive in their faculty roles. This investigation is preliminary in that it addresses one large area of academic research but excludes fields with longer historical relationships with industry.     

Personality characteristics of black youth: A cross-cultural investigation

The view that black youth frequently manifest disordered personalities and negative self-concepts is examined through a comparison of the responses of black and white female adolescents from differing cultural and social class backgrounds to an Adjective Check List. While dissimilar from white female adolescents in many important respects, black subjects scored high on indices of personal adjustment and did not describe themselves in negatively valued terms. In fact, black girls from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, who are generally portrayed as particularly prone to pathology and negative self-evaluations, describe themselves in more favorable terms than black and white subjects from middle class backgrounds. Moreover, U.S. and Jamaican black subjects describe themselves in surprisingly similar fashion, and differ in similar respects from their white American counterparts, thereby providing some evidence for the impact of a common cultural heritage on black personality cross-nationally.This study was supported by NIMH Grant RO1 MH26104.Received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. Current interests are cross-cultural research and psychotherapy research, especially the impact of race on psychotherapy process and outcome.     

B. reviews and notes of recent bibliographies

i. Oman and Southeastern Arabia: A Bibliographic Survey. By Michael Owen Shannon. Boston, Mass., G.K.Hall & Co., 1978. pp.xvi, 165. $18.00.

ii. Türk Dili ve Edebiyati Ansiklopedisi: Devirler/Isimler/ Eserler/Terimler. Istanbul, Dergah Yayinlari, 1977. TL600 (for 2 vols.).

iii. Arab‐Israeli conflict: a historical, political, social and military bibliography. By Ronald M.De Vore. Oxford, Clio Press, 1976, pp.273. £10.45.

Conflict in the Middle East from October 1973 to July 1976: a selected bibliography. By Michael Rubner. Los Angeles, Center for the Study of Armament and Disarmament, California State University, 1977. pp.83. $3.00.

The Palestine Question: a select bibliography. Compiled from the holdings of the Dag Hammarskj?ld Library, United Nations. New York, United Nations, 1976. pp.63. £3.25 (Distributed in the U.K. by H.M.S.O.).

iv. Middle East Contemporary Survey: Volume I 1976–77.

Edited by Colin Legum. Tel Aviv, Shiloah Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, University of Tel Aviv, and New York and London, Holmes and Meier, 1978. pp.xxiv, 684. £32.50.

v. The Modern Middle East: A Guide to Research Tools in the Social Sciences. By Reeva S.Simon. Boulder, Colorado, Westview Press, 1978. pp.xv, 283. £6.10.

vi. Gustav Meisels, Reference Literature to Arabic Studies, a bibliographical guide. Tel Aviv, University Publishing Projects Ltd., 1978. pp.xiv + 251.

vii. Saudi Arabia (World Bibliographical Series Vol.5).

Compiled by Frank A.Clements. Oxford and Santa Barbara, Clio Press, 1979. pp.xiv, 195. £16.75.

viii. The Records of the British Residency and Agencies in the Persian Gulf. IOR R/15. (India Office Records: Guides to Archive Groups). By Penelope Tuson. London, India Office Library and Records, 1979. pp.xix, 188. Pl.6. Index. £21.95.

ix. Modern Syria: An Introduction to the Literature. Compiled by C.H.Bleaney. Durham University, Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies (Occasional Papers Series, no.6). 1979. £4.00.

x. The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition: Encyclopédie de 1'Islam. Nouvelle édition. Index to Volumes/aux [sic: read ‘des‘] Tomes I‐III. Compiled by/Établi par H.& J.D. Pearson. Edited by/Publié par E.van Donzel. Leiden, Brill/Paris, G.P.Maisonneuve & Larose S.A., 1979. pp.viii, 195. 60 guilders.     

Urban Change and Policing: Mass Private Property Re-considered

This article examines a key explanation for the growth of private policing in North America and Western Europe - the influential mass private property thesis (Shearing and Stenning 1981). The discussion of private policing in Western Europe still tends to be heavily influenced by theories developed in the North American context, theories which may be problematic in the contrasting legal, social and economic contexts of Western European nations. The development of more Eurocentric theories has to date been inhibited by the relative paucity of empirical data on the rise of private policing in European countries. Recent research in Britain (Jones and Newburn 1998b) has begun to address this problem, and to map out some important contrasts with the North American experience. By considering these contrasts, it is possible to identify some key areas for future research on private policing in European countries and thus provide a more contextually-grounded series of explanations for what is happening to policing.Joseph Rowntree Foundation Professor of Urban Social Policy     

The dilemmas of incrementalism: logical and political constraints in the design of health insurance reforms.

Health care reform became a premier issue on the U.S. policy agenda in the 1990s. While the comprehensive proposal put forth by President Clinton failed, states and the federal government successfully pursued a variety of lesser initiatives. This article focuses on a set of reforms intended to make private health insurance more accessible and affordable to individuals and workers in small firms. It outlines the key arguments made by experts to justify stronger regulation of health insurance and the options and difficult tradeoffs that must be considered in policy design. It then examines the scope and strength of legislation adopted by 45 states and the federal government from 1990 to 1996. The substantial variation in state policies demonstrates that even though insurance market reform was the one issue that commanded nearly universal support in the health care debate, few design features were universally accepted by those who crafted the reforms. The article concludes by assessing the pattern of state and federal action. The reforms represent some progress on nominal access to insurance but little progress on the affordability of insurance for individuals and small groups. Few of the reforms present a serious challenge to existing practices and interests of the insurance industry. This pattern of policy design reflects the logical and political constraints of incrementalism. In a system where insurance coverage is voluntary, changes to increase access for one group tend to increase costs and thereby decrease access for another segment of the population. In addition, because incremental reforms will not attract sustained attention and support from the general public, it is politically difficult to impose substantial new regulation on a powerful industry.     

The Welsh Devolution Referendum

This article seeks to place the 1997 referendum on the Labour government's plans to establish an elected Welsh Assembly into the context of the debate on devolution as it has developed in Wales since 1979, when broadly similar proposals were overwhelmingly rejected by the Welsh electorate. The authors argue that given the belated decision to hold the referendum, the particular difficulties created by the Welsh political landscape, and the fact that there was no real attempt to develop a broad-based consensus behind the proposals before the 1997 general election, the fact that the proposals were finally approved – albeit by the narrowest of margins – represents a substantial achievement for the pro-devolutionists.     

Ethics and Public Sector Management: The Western Australian Experience

This paper considers two specific difficulties in developing a code of ethics for the public sector, the contested nature of the values to be expressed in a code of ethics and the organisational demands of a corporate managerialist framework which uses performance indicators. Using the example of the Western Australian public sector code of ethics, the authors conclude that a good strategy for developing a public sector code of ethics will recognise contestability, demonstrate philosophical integrity in the code, mesh the code with identified performance indicators and provide whistleblower protection. The strategy described provides a sufficient framework for any public sector bureaucracy to develop a justifiable code of ethics for use by public sector employees.