Familial study of suicidal behavior among adolescents in Slovenia

The number of adolescents who attempt or complete suicide is increasing. Risk factors range from mental disorders, to problems at school, family problems, or difficulties in establishing relationships. A further important, and too often underestimated, risk factor for adolescent suicide is the presence of suicidal behavior in the adolescent's family. We investigated 184 high school adolescents in a region in Slovenia with a high suicide rate (30/100,000/year). They were questioned by means of an anonymous questionnaire about the presence of suicidal behavior in their relatives and about the presence of suicidal thoughts, plans, and acts in themselves. The results revealed that 13% of the adolescents studied had a relative who had attempted suicide and a further 9% of the adolescents had lost a relative due to suicide. About half of all females and almost a third of males had had suicidal thoughts (differences between sexes were statistically significant: chi2 = 6.13; p < .01). Attempted suicide among relatives was positively correlated with the presence of suicidal plans among adolescents (phi = 0.15; p < .05). This correlation proved to be even stronger and statistically more significant in men when we split the sample by gender. All variables (suicidal thoughts, suicidal plans, and suicide attempts) in the adolescent males positively correlated with attempted suicide among their relatives ((phi = 0.28, p < .01; phi) = 0.26, p < .05; phi = 0.34, p < .01; respectively). Our results speak in favor of a higher risk of suicidal behavior among adolescents with suicidal behavior in their families.     

Ethnic Diversity and Democratic Citizenship: Evidence from a Social Laboratory

Will frequent interethnic personal contacts help Western countries overcome the strains associated with migration‐based ethnic diversity? To address this problem, the authors of this article studied a setting – high school – that ‘forces’ individuals to have personal contacts. It is argued that schools are social laboratories from which one can learn about the likely effects of a less‐segregated society. Moreover, this study concerns a European national setting (Sweden), rather than the very special American case. The article also focuses on three interrelated but distinct aspects of democratic citizenship: civic knowledge, institutional trust and interethnic tolerance. To estimate the contextual effects of ethnic diversity, multilevel modeling is used to analyse the 1999/2000 CIVED dataset, which covers 3,000 high school students nested within 94 schools. The authors conclude that interethnic contacts do not have the positive effects assumed in much of the literature, but their findings are less pessimistic than many recent reports of the deteriorating fundamentals of social life.     

Contracting out local road and park services: economic effects and their strategic,contractual and competitive conditions

ABSTRACT

The economic rationale for contracting out local services is increasingly contested by empirical research. This article aims to contribute to this literature, first by scrutinising the economic effects of contracting out in local road and park services and, second, by exploring how characteristics such as markets, contracts, municipal strategies and contracting history influence these outcomes. Drawing on original survey data from Danish municipalities, we find that competitive tendering has on average reduced costs. Further analysis shows that savings are not associated with lower quality, thus indicating that ‘quality shading’ was not taking place. Another finding is that municipalities that repeatedly contract the services experience smaller savings, suggesting that competitive tendering is subject to declining marginal returns. Finally, we find that larger municipalities and those emphasising expenditure cuts realise larger savings, whereas the characteristics of markets and contracts do not seem to explain variations in cost savings.     

Environmental crime and green criminology in South Eastern Europe—practice and research

All contemporary societies are facing environmental crime as one among many modern threats to the environment and human / animal life and this is due to the unlimited exploitation of natural resources and pollution. The aim of the present paper is to describe different responses to environmental crime and the development of green criminology in South Eastern Europe. In this region environmental crime occurs under the influence of social conditions and circumstances in which the environment is used as a source of resources for survival, as well as economic factors which mean the environment is used as a resource for profit. For countries in South Eastern Europe it is typical that environmental criminals change their modus operandi and adapt to new socio-economic circumstances, use different loopholes in legislation and exploit gaps in infrastructure and enforcement leading to committing environmental offences without being processed and punished. In many countries of South Eastern Europe green criminology is still in its nascent stages but is focusing on similar obstacles and challenges to those identified elsewhere, such as multi-disciplinarity, cooperation with the natural sciences, and responding to particularities in the region, such as pollution of marine and coastal ecosystems, hunting tourism, and organized crimes such as timber logging.     

Migration‐based Ethnic Diversity and Social Trust: A Multilevel Analysis of How Country,Neighbourhood and Workplace Diversity Affects Social Trust in 22 Countries

How does ethnic diversity affect social trust? The conflict hypothesis, which predicts a negative effect, and the contact hypothesis, which predicts a positive effect, represent the main competing answers. This article argues that the ‘true’ answer to the question is contingent upon the social units under study and how they interact. More specifically, it is argued that diversity will have a negative effect on social trust when focusing on social units where intergroup contacts are easy to avoid (neighbourhoods broadly defined), whereas diversity will have a positive effect when focusing on social units where intergroup contacts are hard to avoid and are supported by higher authorities (e.g., workplaces). The data substantiating the argument is from the first round of the European Social Survey, covering 30,000 individuals nested within 22 countries, and is analysed by means of multilevel linear regression modeling.     

Predictors of Euroscepticism in six Western Balkan countries

ABSTRACT

Based on a combination of national representative surveys and semi-structured interviews conducted in six Western Balkan countries, the study represents a pioneering attempt at a systematic, comparative analysis of Euroscepticism in the Western Balkans. By employing a theoretical framework that tests the effects of utilitarian, political and cultural factors, the study identifies and interprets the strongest socio-demographical and attitudinal predictors of Euroscepticism. The study demonstrates that all three theoretical models have some explanatory power regarding Eurosceptical attitudes in the Western Balkans, albeit to different degrees. While utilitarian predictors have limited effects, domestic proxies and especially cultural factors such as traditional values, authoritarian orientations and particularly religious affiliation appear as the strongest predictors of Euroscepticism.     

Gendering the vote for populist radical-right parties

ABSTRACT

Why do more men than women vote for populist radical-right (PRR) parties? And do more men than women still vote for the PRR? Can attitudes regarding gender and gender equality explain these differences (if they exist)? These are the questions that Spierings and Zaslove explore in this article. They begin with an analysis of men's and women's voting patterns for PRR parties in seven countries, comparing these results with voting for mainstream (left-wing and right-wing) parties. They then examine the relationship between attitudes and votes for the populist radical right, focusing on economic redistribution, immigration, trust in the European Union, law and order, environmental protection, personal freedom and development, support for gender equality, and homosexuality. They conclude that more men than women do indeed support PRR parties, as many studies have previously demonstrated. However, the difference is often overemphasized in the literature, in part since it is examined in isolation and not compared with voting for (centre-right) mainstream parties. Moreover, the most important reasons that voters support PRR parties seem to be the same for men and for women; both vote for the populist radical right because of their opposition to immigration. In general, there are no consistent cross-country patterns regarding gender attitudes explaining differences between men and women. There are some recurring country-specific findings though. Most notably: first, among women, economic positions seem to matter less; and economically more left-wing (and those with anti-immigrant attitudes) women also vote for the PRR in Belgium, France, Norway and Switzerland; and, second, those who hold authoritarian or nativist views in combination with a strong belief that gays and lesbians should be able to ‘live their lives as they choose’ are disproportionately much more likely to vote for PRR parties in Sweden and Norway. Despite these findings, Spierings and Zaslove argue that the so-called ‘gender gap’ is often overemphasized. In other words, it appears that populist radical-right parties, with respect to sex and gender, are in many ways simply a more radical version of centre-right parties.