Politics of E‐Government: E‐Government and the Political Control of Bureaucracy

This case study reports an innovative e‐government experiment by a local government in Seoul, South Korea—Gangnam‐gu. A new local political leadership in Gangnam made strategic use of e‐government applications to exert greater political control over the local civil service bureaucracy. The authors find that e‐government applications possess political properties that can be applied effectively by the political leadership as instruments to improve control over the government bureaucracy as well as to enhance essential government accountability and transparency. The political circumstances underlying e‐government development as well as its impact on local government are reported, along with key variables associated with this innovation and directions for future research.     

Clarifying the characteristics of youth who have engaged in appetitive violence

Appetitive violence is a form of proactive violence; its purpose is to generate or maintain a positive emotional state and, possibly, to strengthen social bonds. Portrayals of an increasing frequency of youth acts of appetitive violence have contributed to a perception that aggressive delinquents are callous and predatory. However, the characteristics of these youth and the nature of their violent behaviour have not been elucidated. This study compared demographic and psychological characteristics of 143 young violent offenders according to whether or not they had a history of appetitive violence. It was hypothesised that youth with a history of appetitive violence would score higher on a measure of psychopathy and that their violence would be perpetrated within the context of a group assault. Results revealed that acts of appetitive violence were perpetrated exclusively by males and were more likely to occur when co-offenders were present. Psychopathy did not differentiate the youth. These results suggest that appetitive violence perpetrated by young offenders is the product of social factors rather than individual psychopathology.     

The USPTO economics research agenda

This article outlines the creation of the Chief Economist’s Office at the US Patent and Trademark Office in March, 2010, and the publication of the Office’s first economics research agenda. In describing the elements of the research agenda—the role of intellectual property (IP) in economic growth, performance, and employment; IP and technology standards; the economics of trademarks; the economics of United States Patent and Trademark Office initiatives; and IP and the markets for technology—we both review the state of knowledge and outline ongoing initiatives and future possibilities. The article also suggests opportunities for ongoing public–private research collaboration on these issues, particularly between government and academic researchers.     

DAMNED IF YOU DO AND DAMNED IF YOU DON'T

In contemporary Western societies women are often thought to have overcome inequality, become autonomous and resistant to social pressures, and in so doing gained the freedoms to make their own choices. However, this ‘post-feminist sensibility’ can arguably be seen as a double-bind as some types of ‘choices’ cannot always be recognised as freely chosen if they are taken as an indication of failing to resist social (appearance) pressures. We argue that one such example is the ‘choice’ to have cosmetic breast surgery, a practice that has received both criticism and celebration from different feminist angles. In this paper we analyse how women who have had breast augmentation are constructed by readers of an internet blog in which they are largely vilified and pathologised for not valuing their ‘natural’ (yet ‘deficient’) breasts. We demonstrate how the same discursive constructions that appear to value women's ‘natural’ bodies simultaneously (re)produce the conditions in which women may feel the need to have breast augmentation.     

Substance Use as a Longitudinal Predictor of the Perpetration of Teen Dating Violence

The prevention of teen dating violence is a major public health priority. However, the dearth of longitudinal studies makes it difficult to develop programs that effectively target salient risk factors. Using a school-based sample of ethnically diverse adolescents, this longitudinal study examined whether substance use (alcohol, marijuana, and hard drugs) and exposure to parental violence predicted the perpetration of physical dating violence over time. 1,042 9th and 10th grade high schools students were recruited and assessed in the spring of 2010, and 93 % of the original sample completed the 1-year follow-up in the spring of 2011. Participants who had begun dating at the initial assessment and who self-identified as African American (n = 263; 32 %), Caucasian (n = 272; 33 %), or Hispanic (n = 293; 35 %) were included in the current analyses (n = 828; 55 % female). Slightly more than half of the adolescents who perpetrated dating violence at baseline reported past year dating violence at follow-up, relative to only 11 % of adolescents who did not report perpetrating dating violence at baseline. Structural equation modeling revealed that the use of alcohol and hard drugs at baseline predicted the future perpetration of physical dating violence, even after accounting for the effects of baseline dating violence and exposure to interparental violence. Despite differences in the prevalence of key variables between males and females, the longitudinal associations did not vary by gender. With respect to race, exposure to mother-to-father violence predicted the perpetration of dating violence among Caucasian adolescents. Findings from the current study indicate that targeting substance use, and potentially youth from violent households, may be viable approaches to preventing the perpetration of teen dating violence.