Packing Heat in the Classroom: Public Support for “Armed Teacher” Policy

ABSTRACT

Recently, states have enacted teacher-carry laws. While controversial, little scholarship has tapped public attitudes toward such reforms. Because public opinion shapes policy, the public is an important stakeholder in this debate. Thus, we investigated three questions. First, how supportive is the public of arming teachers? Second, what demographic and social divides exist, if any, for reform approval? Finally, do crime-related perceptions, concerning views about public safety, and criminogenic influences shape policy preferences? We test these questions using a 2018 poll of Virginia residents (N = 521). Overall, approval for teacher-carry is split. Crime-related perceptions mediate some of the initial social and demographic divides in opinion but other correlates, such as parental status, remain salient predictors of views. Implications are discussed.     

Offsetting Uncertainty: Reassurance with Two-Sided Incomplete Information

Conventional models of bargaining and reassurance under incomplete information assume that actors' behavioral signals are objectively cooperative or noncooperative. Even if actors are uncertain of each other's preferences, they know what types of actions the other will view as cooperative. Yet on many real-world issues, cooperation is subjective, and what constitutes a cooperative action is conditional on the receiver's preferences. We present a formal model showing that in these cases, two-sided incomplete information actually incentivizes honest behavior and facilitates credible signaling. Because uncertain senders do not know whether a particular action will be interpreted as cooperative, they have little incentive to misrepresent, and instead honestly pursue their true goals. Thus, where cooperation is subjective, mutual uncertainty is “offsetting,” such that credible signals allow actors to quickly and accurately update their beliefs. We illustrate this logic through a case study of the Sino–Soviet split, and highlight the model's implications for contemporary U.S.–China relations.     

Fighting antisemitism with numbers in early twentieth-century Britain

ABSTRACT

In the 1920s and 1930s, the Jewish Health Organization of Great Britain (JHOGB) and its president, Redcliffe Nathan Salaman, championed the collection and analysis of demographic data about the Anglo-Jewish community as a way to counter rising antisemitism. In this article, Endelman discusses the belief in the ability of statistical research to undermine lies and distortions about the Jews of Britain that rested on untested Enlightenment assumptions about human nature and the sources of human behaviours and sentiments. While the JHOGB’s faith in statistical research as a bulwark of counter-propaganda never faltered, and while it obtained funding for a handful of projects, it failed to convince the leaders of Anglo-Jewry of the necessity to create and support a permanent statistical bureau. With the onset of the Second World War, the organization ceased its work, as more pressing communal priorities, especially caring for refugees from Nazism, rose to the fore.     

Planfeststellung und Plangenehmigung im Wasserhaushaltsrecht

Natur und Recht - Nachdem in NuR (2022, Heft 2, S. 77ff.) die Reichweite des wasserhaushaltsrechtlichen Planfeststellungsvorbehalts sowie Fragen der Verfahrenswahl erörtert wurden, behandeln...