Humanitarian Assistance and Changing Notions of State Sovereignty

Netherlands International Law Review -     

Polarization and Policy: The Politics of Public‐Sector Pensions

For decades, America's state and local governments have promised their workers increasingly generous pensions but failed to fully fund them, producing a fiscal problem of staggering proportions. In this article, we examine the politics of public pensions. While mainstream theoretical ideas in the American politics literature would suggest the pension issue should be polarized, with Democrats pushing for generous pensions over Republican resistance, we develop an argument—rooted in more traditional theoretical work by Schattschneider, Lowi, Wilson, and others—implying that both parties should be expected to support generous pensions during normal times and that only after the onset of the Great Recession, which expanded the scope of conflict, should the parties begin to diverge. Using a new data set of state legislators' votes on hundreds of pension bills passed between 1999 and 2011, we carry out an empirical analysis that supports these expectations.     

The Impact of Child Abuse Severity on Adult Attachment Anxiety and Avoidance in College Women: The Role of Emotion Dysregulation

Recent evidence suggests a significant and unique effect of child abuse experiences on attachment-related anxiety and avoidance in adult romantic relationships, although mechanisms underlying this relationship have yet to be identified. The current study examined the relation between three forms of child abuse (sexual, physical, and psychological) severity, emotion dysregulation, and attachment-related anxiety and avoidance among 830 college women. Results indicated that emotion dysregulation significantly mediated the relationship between child abuse severity and attachment-related anxiety and avoidance. Future directions for research and implications for intervention are discussed.     

The legal and administrative processes in adoption: views and experiences of newly formed adoptive families

The early stages of adoptive placements are important in achieving successful long-term outcomes for adopted children and their families. This paper reports on findings from the Wales Adoption Study, in which adoptive parents shared their views and experiences of the legal and administrative processes in obtaining an adoption order. Parents described a range of difficulties that added to anxieties and delays. These arose mainly through poor communication about the steps in the legal process and avoidable administrative errors or oversights. Some parents also experienced lack of information and support regarding agreed contact arrangements and work with their child to help them make sense of their adoptive status.     

Administrative justice in Wales: a new egalitarianism?

Administrative justice systems are under a variety of pressures, in particular austerity-inspired civil justice reform. I argue that such pressures do not necessitate the decline of administrative justice, and that a developing Welsh model has cross-jurisdictional appeal, especially to legal orders currently lacking a relevant organisational centre and joined-up approach. I examine the efficacy of existing conceptions of administrative justice and delineate a developing Welsh approach grounded in egalitarian principles. The nascent Welsh model emphasises reforming administrative justice hierarchies so that they work harmoniously with regulatory and value-promoting parts of the system, focusing on user perspectives and tackling the risks of less transparent forms of bureaucratic decision-making.     

Collaborative Leadership in the Arts as a Unique Form of Dual Leadership

This article examines dual leadership in Australian performing arts companies, reflected in the respective roles of artistic directors and general managers. Our findings challenge assumptions underpinning much of the literature on dual leadership; in particular, the assumption that conflict is inevitable between the two leaders. In our research, we identified dual leadership relationships that might more accurately be described as instances of collaborative leadership. We suggest that one explanation for this presence of collaborative leadership may be that the study found similarities in both leaders’ passion for the arts, often reflected in a shared background in an arts practice.     

The effect of the presence and seating position of an interpreter on eliciting information and cues to deceit

The present experiment examined how the seating position of an interpreter during investigative interviews affects information elicitation and cues to deceit. A total of 60 native English speakers were interviewed in English and 200 non-native English speakers were interviewed in English (a non-native language) or through an interpreter who either sat next to the interviewer, behind the interviewee or interpreted via the telephone. Interviewees either lied or told the truth about a mock security meeting they watched. Interviewees who spoke in their native language provided more detail than interviewees who spoke in their native language through an interpreter or in a non-native language (English) without an interpreter. The latter groups did not differ. Additionally, the amount of detail differentiated truth tellers from liars in all conditions and interviewees found the presence of an interpreter to be a largely positive experience. The interpreter’s seating position had no effect on the findings.     

Mutual Best Friendship Involvement, Best Friends�� Rejection Sensitivity, and Psychological Maladaptation

Rejection sensitivity (RS) refers to the tendency to anxiously expect, readily perceive, and overreact to experiences of possible rejection. RS is a clear risk factor for psychological maladaptation during early adolescence. However, there is growing evidence of significant heterogeneity in the psychological correlates of RS. To investigate when RS poses the greatest psychological risk during early adolescence, this study examines mutual best friendship involvement (or lack thereof) and the best friends?? RS as potential moderators of the associations between RS and psychological difficulties. Participants were 150 7th grade students (58 boys; M age = 13.05 years) who nominated their best friends, and reported on their RS, social anxiety, and self-esteem. Results from a series of hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that mutual best friendship involvement and best friends?? RS were both significant moderators when fear of negative evaluation (a type of social anxiety) served as the dependent variable. The association between RS and fear of negative evaluation was stronger for adolescents without mutual best friends than adolescents with mutual best friends. In addition, the association between RS and fear of negative evaluation was the strongest for adolescents whose best friends were highly rejection sensitive (relative to adolescents whose best friends were moderately or low in RS). Findings highlight the importance of considering best friendships in studies of RS and strongly suggest that, although having mutual best friendships may be protective for rejection sensitive adolescents, having a rejection sensitive best friend may exacerbate difficulties. The significance of friends in the lives of rejection sensitive adolescents is discussed as well as possible applied implications of the findings and study limitations.     

After 30 Years,What Do We Know about What Jurors Know? A Meta-Analytic Review of Lay Knowledge Regarding Eyewitness Factors

Surveys typically characterize lay knowledge of eyewitness factors as low and highly variable. However, there are notable differences across methodologies, samples, and individual factors. To examine these differences systematically, we took a meta-analytic approach to reviewing the findings of 23 surveys assessing lay knowledge of eyewitness issues. Our analyses examined the beliefs of 4,669 respondents. Overall, respondents correctly agreed with survey items approximately two-thirds of the time. Results revealed significant differences in performance as a function of variable type, question format, and over time. We found few differences as a function of sample type, publication status, or jurisdiction. Although performance varied, a majority of lay respondents achieved “correct” consensus for as many as 11 of the 16 items included in this review.