When random assignment fails: Some lessons from the Minneapolis Spouse Abuse Experiment

In this paper, we consider what may be done when researchers anticipate that in the implementation of field experiments, random assignment to experimental and control groups is likely to be flawed. We then reanalyze data from the Minneapolis Spouse Abuse Experiment in a manner that explicitly models violations of random assignment. As anticipated, we find far larger treatment effects than previously reported. The techniques developed should be useful in a wide variety of settings when random assignment is implemented imperfectly.     

Varieties of women's studies

The distinction between ‘autonomous’ Women's Studies programs and ‘integrationist’ projects as adumbrated by Bowles and Duelli Klein is a false one; in fact, this is all part of the same work. Several factors (funding sources, publicity, terminology, administrators' attitudes and the relationship of curriculum change programs to the disciplines) have made it seem as though these are different kinds of work. This paper argues that we should try to see our varied efforts as complementary and some of our differences as due to necessary strategic choices.     

Random assignment without tears: how to stop worrying and love the Cambridge randomizer

Objectives  

This note describes a low-cost online portal called “the Cambridge Randomizer”, which enables treatment providers to conduct random assignment themselves, while the researcher still maintains control over the entire process and the integrity of the allocation process.     

Retrieving administrative data to assess long-term outcomes: a case study of the 23-year follow-up of the Milwaukee domestic violence experiment

Objectives

To describe how social scientists, criminal justice practitioners, and administrative agencies collected administrative data to follow-up a criminological experiment after two decades. To make recommendations that will guide similar long-term follow-ups.

Methods

A case study approach describes the processes of and sociological benefits to collecting administrative data to assess criminal justice and life-course outcomes.

Results

While maintaining experimental integrity, we developed, executed, and verified processes to retrieve arrest, mortality, and residential data for the experimental subjects, which enabled us to complete the longest ever follow-up of a criminal justice experiment.

Conclusions

When experiments have policy implications, administrative data may be preferable to survey data for assessing primary effects. Successful social science research can be conducted in conjunction with multiple administrative agencies.

     

Linking parental incarceration and family dynamics associated with intergenerational transmission: A life‐course perspective*

Children experiencing parental incarceration face numerous additional disadvantages, but researchers have often relied on these other co‐occurring factors primarily as controls. In this article, we focus on the intimate links between crime and incarceration, as well as on the broader family context within which parental incarceration often unfolds. Thus, parents’ drug use and criminal behavior that precedes and may follow incarceration periods may be ongoing stressors that directly affect child well‐being. We also use our analyses to foreground mechanisms associated with social learning theories, including observations and communications that increase the child's risk for criminal involvement and other problem outcomes. These related family experiences often channel the child's own developing network ties (peers, romantic partners) that then serve as proximal influences. We explore these processes by drawing on qualitative and quantitative data from a study of the lives of a sample of respondents followed from adolescence to young adulthood, as well as on records searches of parents’ incarceration histories. Through our analyses, we find evidence that 1) some effects attributed to parental incarceration likely connect to unmeasured features of the broader family context, and b) together parental incarceration and the broader climate often constitute a tightly coupled package of family‐related risks linked to intergenerational continuities in criminal behavior and other forms of social disadvantage.     

Validity of Demirjian and Willems methods for dental age estimation for Malaysian children aged 5–15 years old

BackgroundOne of the most commonly used method for dental age assessment is the method reported by Demirjian and coworkers in 1973. It was later modified by Willems and coworkers whereby they “performed a weighted ANOVA” in order to adapt the scoring system.AimTo evaluate the applicability of Demirjian and Willems methods for dental age estimation for Malaysian children and to correlate the accuracy of the findings with the chronology of tooth development of premolars and second molars.Materials and methodsA total of 991 dental panoramic radiographs of 5–15-year-old Malaysian children were included in the study. The mean Demirjian and Willems estimated ages were compared to the mean chronological age.ResultsThe mean chronological age of the sample was 10.1 ± 2.8 and 9.9 ± 3.0 years for males and females respectively. Using the Demirjian method, the mean estimated dental age was 10.8 ± 2.9 years for males and 10.5 ± 2.9 years for females. For Willems method, the mean estimated age was 10.3 ± 2.8 years males and 10.0 ± 3.0 years respectively.ConclusionsWillems method was more applicable for estimating dental age for Malaysian children. Overestimation in Demirjian method could be due to advanced development of second bicuspids and molars.     

iFairness – Constructing fairness in IT (and other areas of) law through intra- and interdisciplinarity

As information and communication technologies have gradually invaded every aspect of our daily lives, the body of law that we call IT law has not only expanded, but it also pushes traditional areas of law to become more tech-savvy. This article makes a plea for a more intra- and interdisciplinary approach towards developing the future IT law, on the one hand, and towards educating the future IT lawyer, on the other hand. It substantiates the need for lawyers from different fields and non-lawyers to engage in a constructive dialogue when determining, interpreting and enforcing fairness standards in contemporary and future IT law, and outlines directions for integrating such dialogue in university curricula.     

Policing Domestic Violence 1967–2017

The U.S. President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice under President Johnson in 1967 called for a program of research that would support evidence‐based tracking, targeting, and testing of policing domestic “disputes.” During the past 50 years, the amount of research on domestic violence has grown. The findings from targeting studies reveal a steep pyramid from many low‐harm cases at the base rising to a tiny fraction that are lethal. The findings from testing studies reveal that arrests reduce reoffending among employed persons in the short run while increasing recidivism among unemployed suspects. Arrests in one experiment increased all‐cause mortality of victims over 23 years. The findings from tracking research reveal wide variance across police agencies in implementing mandatory arrest. Since the Crime Commission, however, mandatory arrest laws were also enacted in 28 states in the 1980s, with uneven enforcement for misdemeanor domestic abuse. New research is needed to test the effectiveness of other domestic violence interventions, including restorative justice, as well as follow‐up studies of previous research sites.