Impact of higher alcohol prices on alcohol-related attitudes and perceptions of suburban,middle-class youth

This study investigated the potential effects of alcohol price increases on alcohol-related attitudes and perceptions of youth. Data were collected through a survey of high school students conducted after the federal excise taxes on alcohol beverages were increased in January 1991. Survey data lend support to previous research showing that higher alcohol prices contribute to lower alcohol consumption by youth, as well as to a decrease in related problems such as driving while intoxicated. Survey data also suggest that a price of around $7.50 for a six-pack of beer or a four-pack of wine coolers would discourage purchases by youth. Further studies are called for to substantiate and to expand on these findings with more diverse adolescent populations.Received M.P.H. in health education from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Research interests are alcohol-impaired driving, alcohol taxation, and other alcohol policy issues. To whom correspondence should be addressed.Received Ph.D. in social psychology from Syracuse University. Research interests are impaired driving, adolescent risk taking, substance abuse, and health threat perception.Received M.S. in counseling from Bowie State University. Research interests are alcohol and drug abuse prevention, history of alcohol and drug abuse, and alcohol-impaired driving.The opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the organizations with which they are affiliated. Computer time for this research was supported through funds from the Computer Science Center at the University of Maryland at College Park.     

A survey of parent attitudes and practices regarding underage drinking

A random telephone survey of attitudes toward underage drinking was conducted in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area. The results revealed that alcohol use, especially alcohol-impaired driving, among youth were seen as serious problems by a majority (>80%) of the respondents. Strong support (>80%) was detected for imposing suffer penalties on bars and restaurants that sell alcohol to minors, older peers who purchase alcohol for minors, and driver's license restrictions for minors who possess and use alcohol. Over 50% favored stiffer penalties for parents who provide alcohol to minors. Respondents who were parents of teenage children were more likely to believe their teen's friends drink and drive (37%) than they were to believe their own teen drives drunk (10%). These parents were also unlikely to believe their teen had ever come home intoxicated (19%) despite the fact that almost 60% believed their teen has been to parties where there is drinking. These findings, and others from this survey, indicate that parents (especially whites) are unaware of the nature of teen drinking and are reluctant to accept the fact that their teens are involved with alcohol and high-risk alcohol-related behaviors. The implications of these findings for prevention programs are discussed.This investigation was supported by a research grant to the senior author from the Washington Regional Alcohol Program, and was conducted using the facilities of the Interdisciplinary Health Research Laboratory of the College of Health and Human Performance at the University of Maryland at College Park. Computer time for the statistical analyses was supported in full by the Computer Science Center, University of Maryland.Received Ph.D. in social psychology from Syracuse University. Research interests: impaired driving, adolescent risk taking, substance abuse, and health threat perception.Received Ph.D. in health education from University of Maryland. Research interests: alcohol and drug issues among youth.Received M.Ed, in health education from University of Virginia. Research interests: substance abuse, impaired driving, and adolescent risk behavior.Received M.Ed, in counseling psychology from Temple University. Research Interests: health behavior, smoking cessation and relapse.     

China’s rise as a strategic challenge and opportunity: India’s China discourse and strategy

The simultaneous rise of China and India is one of the most important developments in contemporary world politics. Given their steadily growing power and aspirations and China’s more assertive posture in Asia, the management of China’s rise is one of the major challenges for India’s foreign policy. However, India is often said to have no guiding strategic framework for its China policy, which is seen as incoherent and reactive. This article, by contrast, shows that India has an evolving China strategy and that the alleged inconsistencies in India’s China policy are rather the result of an ambivalent image of China. Drawing on constructivism and discourse analysis, the article identifies the dominant perception of China in India’s foreign policy discourse and the resulting foreign policy strategy. In a next step, the article analyzes the China policy of the Congress-led UPA Government and investigates whether it conforms to the strategic policy frame of the dominant China discourse.     

Arbeit und Organisation in der funktional differenzierten Gesellschaft

This article identifies central dimensions of the concept of labor and integrates this concept into a systems-theoretical framework. It proposes to describe labor as the inclusion of persons in the performance of organizations. We demonstrate that by using this reconceptualization it becomes possible to situate the concept of labor within organizational theory and theories of society. Furthermore, empirical sketches of labor in firms and schools show how this reconceptualization of labor fosters our understanding of work in contemporary societies.     

The New Zealand Family Group Conference Confidentiality Protections: Lessons Learned and an Application in U.S. Child Welfare Systems

With the adoption of statutes, policies and administrative guidance since the late 1980s, statutory child welfare agencies around the world have been implementing practice approaches to resolving and addressing child abuse and neglect concerns that involve extended family systems in decision making and planning. One such approach is the family group conference (FGC), enshrined in New Zealand law. This article provides a historical context and describes numerous provisions of the family group conference that protect participants and the proceedings. It then describes applications of FGC‐like approaches in the United States where practice models and policies—not laws—guide the implementation of such approaches.     

What a Feminist Curiosity Contributes to the Study of Development

This essay explores the various ways that women and gender have been included in international development thinking and practice by tracing the origins of the field of gender and development alongside its central debates, concepts, and accomplishments. This overview demonstrates that feminists have expanded the scope of development research and practice to include issues previously ignored but now recognized as central to development, and have provided more nuanced accounts of development by probing the underlying assumptions of development policy. In so doing, it argues, feminists have exposed the gendered nature of transnational flows and transformations, and have tracked their effects down to the level of diverse women and men’s daily lives. Drawing on the contributions in this special issue, this essay then highlights the multiple advantages of applying what Cynthia Enloe labeled a “feminist curiosity” to the study of development. By refusing to take the current state of affairs as natural or given, and refusing to accept as trivial women’s diverse lives and experiences, the papers in this special issue go beyond highlighting how international development efforts differentially affect women and men to demonstrating how women, men, and gender ideologies in particular places—whether development agencies, academic institutions, or local communities—critically shape international development itself.     

Linking informal social control and restorative justice: moving social disorganization theory beyond community policing

Much of what is at the heart of social disorganization theory’s approach to neighborhood crime prevention has been ignored in favor of policies that are more closely associated with deterrence and rational choice theories. Specifically, ideas of informal social control and collective efficacy have often been translated into policies of community surveillance and the reporting of suspicious behaviors to the police. While these policies may make neighborhoods less attractive to offenders because they create higher certainty levels of recognition, and subsequently arrest, social disorganization theory, at its heart, suggests crime prevention policies of a very different nature: policies that are more closely associated with restorative justice, re‐integrative shaming and peacemaking criminology. These associations are highlighted and provide a conceptual model for a community crime prevention program that is more consistent with the underlying nature of social disorganization theory.