West African Voices

A new literary programme has been started in the West AfricanService of the B.B.C., and this article is a reprint of oneof the talks. The Ibo speaker was formerly in the Customs, andqualified as a barrister last November: he is also the authorof numerous poems in English, and of a novel, The Prince ofUtete. The other two are schoolmasters working as Assistantsat the School of Oriental and African Studies. For technicalreasons, the orthography is not quite complete.     

Politics, culture, and political crime: Covariates of abortion clinic attacks in the United States

This study examined crime and violence against abortion clinics, testing elements of several theories that may help explain the variation of such attacks. The study theoretically and methodologically improved upon the prior research on abortion-related crime and violence. Theoretically, it investigated previously unexamined hypotheses from the social movement literature that may be relevant to this type of behavior. Methodologically, it used more careful measures for several variables, employed unique and heretofore ignored data bases, and examined hundreds of criminal acts across several types of crime (e.g., violence, vandalism, and harassment) directed at abortion clinics. Employing robust logistic regression and correcting for clustering of clinics by state, the study investigated the cross-sectional effects of state-level cultural and structural characteristics on anti-abortion crimes against clinics and staff. Results indicated that some crimes against clinics are more likely in areas where female empowerment is weaker, female victimization is more tolerated, and the anti-abortion movement has failed to reduce abortions.     

"生态文化"与生态保护——以湖州市安吉县为例

新农村建设,是一项系统工程,需要考虑的方面很多。新农村建设的成效,既受到宏观经济形势的影响,又受到微观机制的制约。如何协调好各种因素,将是新农村建设的关键。本刊上期刊登的参加婺源研讨会的专家文章,主要从宏观角度探求新农村建设的路径;本期刊发另外5位与会专家的文章,从土地、管理、人力资源、立法等微观角度,分析新农村建设的具体措施。我们殷切地期待读者的反响。——主持人:叶祝弟     

JUVENILITY AND PUNISHMENT: SENTENCING JUVENILES IN ADULT CRIMINAL COURT*

The study outlined in this article addressed a key limitation of prior research on the punishment of juveniles transferred to adult court by employing propensity score matching techniques to create more comparable samples of juvenile and young adult offenders. Using recent data from the Maryland State Commission on Criminal Sentencing Policy, it tested competing theoretical propositions about the salience of juvenile status in adult court. Findings indicate that even after rigorous statistical matching procedures, juvenile offenders are punished more severely than their young adult counterparts. We found no evidence that this “juvenile penalty” is exacerbated by an offender's race or gender, but it does vary starkly across offense type and mode of transfer, being driven primarily by drug crimes and discretionary waivers. The import of these findings is discussed as they relate to the future of juvenile justice policy regarding the continued use of juvenile transfer to adult court.     

科学社会主义要与科学生态观相结合

任何一个社会都是生产力与生产关系的结合,生产力体现的是人与自然的关系,而生产关系则体现人与人之间在社会生产中的关系。科学社会主义应包含这两种关系的和谐。马克思主义经典作家的著述中把科学社会主义的人与人之间的那部分关系,即阶级关系,诠释得很透彻,而在另一方面,即人与自然的和谐上,有所欠缺。在当今世界建立科学社会主义和谐社会的背景下,我们必须将科学社会主义与科学的自然生态观结合起来,达到社会与生态相协调,人与自然相协调。     

PROBATION AND PAROLE: PUBLIC RISK AND THE FUTURE OF INCARCERATION ALTERNATIVES*

Jail and prison populations in the United States have continued to grow unabated during the past two decades but crime rates have not declined. Partly in response to the pressures caused by burgeoning correctional populations, the use of alternatives to incarceration has expanded. An ongoing debate centers on the effectiveness of these alternatives. Many criminal justice professionals and some researchers question whether such alternatives seriously restrict the criminal justice system 's ability to incapacitate the active offender. This study deals specifically with two alternatives to incarceration: probation and parole. We examine offender recidivism for a sample of probationers and parolees active in New Orleans, Louisiana, and offer a new approach to addressing the effectiveness issue. Past research has evaluated the effectiveness of alternatives by examining failure rates of diverted offenders. High failure rates, we argue, do not necessarily imply a significant loss of the incapacitative effects of imprisonment. We suggest that a more appropriate measure of the loss of incapacitative effect is the proportion of all offenses committed by persons on probation or parole. Our results suggest that such losses are surprisingly low. The policy implications of our findings are discussed.     

Lingual markings of anterior teeth as seen in human bite marks

A review of the available literature does not reveal a plausible explanation as to why the incisal edges of maxillary anterior teeth do not always mark clearly. Generally, the mandibular incisal edges do mark with some consistency. This paper demonstrates through test bites on skin that the answer lies in the position of the mandible.