A comparison of mediated and non-mediated juvenile offender cases in California

Juvenile delinquency is a major public concern in the United States, and increasingly in many other industrialized countries. The last few years have seen a decline in officially recorded juvenile delinquency (Snyder, 1997). However, projections are that with the anticipated increase of the U.S. teenage population because of the echo baby boom generation, serious juvenile crime will substantially increase in the next few years (see Fox, 1996).     

Two models of the urban crisis: An analytical essay on banfield and forrester

This essay examines the arguments and evidence used in two recent models of the urban crisis—Edward C. Banfield'sThe Unheavenly City and Jay W. Forrester'sUrban Dynamics. Although Banfield's model is sociological and Forrester's is economic and physical, both imply that not much can be done to alleviate urban problems and that positive programs may make them worse. The authors of this critique contend that the articulation of argument and evidence is inadequate to support the implication. They advocate that promising current programs be refined on the basis of evidence and experience and that policymakers continue to search for efficient new programs through social experiments.     

Opening the Mexican political system: Public opinion and the elections of 1994 and 1997

Over the past decade, the proliferation of election surveys has worked to undergird the electoral system in Mexico and to make electoral fraud more difficult. In the presidential elections of 1994, significant controversies arose as to survey methodologies, but by the congressional elections of 1997 the fierce debates over methodologies had subsided. Substantively, the surveys confirm the accuracy of the vote count in 1998, allow profiles of voters to be constructed for the three most important parties and mark declines in the support of the once dominant Partido Revolucionario Institucional.     

Sensitivity enhancement of ninhydrin-treated latent fingerprints by enzymes and metal salts

Lyophilized Sigma Type III trypsin has been applied to latent prints two weeks to two months old. This trypsin preparation eliminates the background problems that had been encountered with old prints in a previous study. Zinc chloride treatment of latent prints previously exposed to ninhydrin enhances their detectability upon laser examination. However, it has been reported that the zinc chloride reaction occasionally fails to occur. Accordingly, we have investigated the optimization of this reaction. We find that high humidity and elevated temperature, particularly the former, are needed. Cadmium nitrate, although it produces weaker fluorescence than zinc chloride, may at times be useful. Reaction conditions are much the same as those for zinc chloride.     

What Makes Conflict Resolution Possible?

Much of the negotiation literature emphasizes dispute resolution process, seemingly based on the assumption that resolution is indeed possible in a rational environment. The author outlines the history of transformations in social and political thought that have led to this shared assumption. However, the rationality assumption is seriously challenged in the contemporary era by terrorists and others who predicate their actions on a moral certitude that justifies their actions, no matter what the costs. Interveners perhaps should place more emphasis on changing the environment in which disputes occur, so that resolution is at least a possibility.