Temporal Influences of Family Structure and Family Risk Factors on Drug Use Initiation in a Multiethnic Sample of Adolescent Boys

This study examines the effects of family structure and family environments on the initiation of illicit drug use among a sample of U.S.- and foreign-born Hispanic/Latino, African American, and White non-Hispanic adolescent boys (N = 3413). Bivariate and multivariate analyses with longitudinal data, three years, were used to assess transitional/temporal influences of family variables on the initiation of illicit drug use. Findings revealed large differences in family structure among the three race/ethnic groups. African American adolescents report the lowest incidence of illicit drug use initiation, and the weakest effects of family structure and environment on substance use. Cumulative effects of family risk factors were strongly associated with increased probabilities of illicit drug use initiation, but there were temporal as well as race/ethnic variations on these effects. Deteriorating changes in family environments were stronger predictors of the initiation of drug use among Hispanic immigrants than nonimmigrants, and family socioeconomic status was a predictor for immigrant Hispanics only. The relationship between family structure and drug use initiation varied in the context of temporal indicators of family environments, and the accumulation of family risk factors was a stronger predictor of illicit drug initiation than family structure.     

Is Corruption Really Bad for Inequality? Evidence from Latin America

This article presents new evidence on the relationship between corruption and income inequality. Using a panel data methodology, we find that lower corruption is associated with higher income inequality in Latin America. This result is in contrast to other empirical studies but it makes sense in Latin America for a number of reasons. The finding of an inverse relationship between inequality and corruption suggests that institutional reform policies by themselves may be misguided.     

Y chromosome microsatellite genetic variation in two Native American populations from Argentina: Population stratification and mutation data

Two Native American populations from North and northwest regions of Argentina (Toba and Colla) were analyzed for 17 Y chromosome short tandem repeat loci (Y-STRs), namely, DYS19, DYS389I, DYS389II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393, DYS385, DYS437, DYS438, DYS439, DYS448, DYS456, DYS458, DYS635 and GATA H4.1. Over 357 allele transfers, two one-step mutations could be detected at DYS456 and GATA H4.1 loci. A new 16.1 ‘micro-variant’ allele was observed for DYS385, characterized by an insertion at the fifth GAAA repeat. We also observed two alleles at the DYS448 locus in three samples (two from Toba and one from Colla). A total of 34 and 16 different haplotypes were detected for Toba and Colla, respectively, the former with a haplotype diversity value of 0.9769 ± 0.01, whereas 0.9497 ± 0.02 for the latter. Significant population differences were observed between Colla and Toba, at least in part, due to a more prevalent European input in the Colla. In agreement with this observation is the fact that the genetic distances between Colla and Iberian populations are lower than those observed between Iberian and any other Native American population. The results of multiscaling dimensional analysis and genetic distances (Rst) among Native American population samples also reflect this fact. The data show the existence of clear population stratification in the Argentina, a fact that should be taken into account in forensic casework.     

The ‘Butner Study’ Redux: A Report of the Incidence of Hands-on Child Victimization by Child Pornography Offenders

This study compared two groups of child pornography offenders participating in a voluntary treatment program: men whose known sexual offense history at the time of judicial sentencing involved the possession, receipt, or distribution of child abuse images, but did not include any “hands-on” sexual abuse; and men convicted of similar offenses who had documented histories of hands-on sexual offending against at least one child victim. The goal was to determine whether the former group of offenders were “merely” collectors of child pornography at little risk for engaging in hands-on sexual offenses, or if they were contact sex offenders whose criminal sexual behavior involving children, with the exception of Internet crimes, went undetected. Our findings show that the Internet offenders in our sample were significantly more likely than not to have sexually abused a child via a hands-on act. They also indicate that the offenders who abused children were likely to have offended against multiple victims, and that the incidence of “crossover” by gender and age is high.

Cents and sensibility: A case study of corrections reform in Kansas and Michigan

The analytical framework developed by the “new penology” describes the content of corrections reform as relatively homogenous, largely driven by forces internal to corrections departments. This article examines the ongoing process of penal reform in the correctional systems of Kansas and Michigan over the last decade and argues that the new penology's analytical framework has the potential to obscure the relationship between penal practices and their immediate institutional environment. Using case studies of corrections reform in Kansas and Michigan, this article shows that the nature and scope of reforms in both states were determined not just by internal considerations and adaptations, but by a number of forces operating outside the penal bureaucracy including the interests of external actors, economic crises, and high profile events. These external forces both constrained and encouraged correctional reforms and led to evolving reform rationales that often conflicted with the practices of the new penology.     

Party Animals? Extreme Partisan Polarization and Dehumanization

Political Behavior - The affective, identity based, and often negative nature of partisan polarization in the United States has been a subject of much scholarly attention. Applying insights from...     

Varieties of vigilantism: conceptual discord,meaning and strategies

The practice of vigilantism raises a number of broader provocative questions regarding state–society relations. But before pursuing these questions, we must first ask a critical conceptual question: what is vigilantism? In this article, I offer a conceptual analysis of vigilantism to identify and analyse the points of conceptual discord that make vigilantism an essentially contested concept. To address these challenges, I establish the concept’s core definitional dimensions and range of attributes. I then develop a root concept of vigilantism as the collective use or threat of extra-legal violence in response to an alleged criminal act. The root concept better positions researchers to effectively utilise different strategies to amend the concept for varying theoretical and empirical ends, avoid analytical pitfalls that beset existing conceptualisations and pursue promising new research questions.     

The sexual objectification of girls and aggression towards them in gang and non-gang affiliated youth

Sexual objectification is related to various negative attitudes and outcomes, including rape proclivity and reduced moral concern for the objectified, which suggests that objectification has implications for aggression. Our study examined the relationship between objectification and general aggressive behaviour in adolescents, including gang-affiliated youth. We hypothesized that (1) objectification would correlate with aggression towards girls, (2) gang affiliation would correlate with objectification and aggression towards girls, and (3) objectification and gang affiliation would interact such that strongly affiliated participants who objectified girls would be most aggressive towards them. We also hypothesized that sexual objectification would be a significant predictor of aggression above and beyond other factors, such as trait aggression. As predicted, objectification correlated with aggression towards girls and with gang affiliation, which also correlated with aggression. In addition, objectification predicted aggression towards girls, after controlling for other relevant factors. Further, we found an objectification?×?gang affiliation interaction, which differed from our original predictions. Among participants low in gang affiliation, objectification of girls predicted levels of aggression towards them. Among those high in gang affiliation, however, objectification did not predict aggression. We discussed the implications of our findings for general aggression.     

Postmortem vitreous humor beta-hydroxybutyrate: its utility for the postmortem interpretation of diabetes mellitus

Ketoacidotic coma is one of the most serious complications arising from diabetes mellitus, especially type I, and may be the cause of sudden death especially in diabetes type I. Since beta-hydroxybutyrate (beta-OHB) serum concentrations might provide more information on the severity of ketoacidosis, the aim of this study was to evaluate the concentrations of beta-OHB in vitreous humor and its correlation with other biochemical parameters during postmortem examination. We intended to ascertain the sensitivity and the specificity of these markers for diagnosing diabetes mellitus and the presence of ketoacidosis. This study involved 453 cadavers with a mean age of 57.6 years (S.D. 20.7) and a mean postmortem interval of 17.8 h (S.D. 9.6, range 2-61 h). Cases were assigned to two diagnostic groups according to the antemortem diagnosis of diabetes mellitus, based on the patients' medical records. In vitreous humor statistically significant differences were found in biochemical marker concentrations between the two diagnostic groups, the highest values being obtained in the group of subjects with a previous diagnosis of diabetes mellitus. The measurement of beta-OHB in vitreous humor may be a useful alternative to using blood during postmortem analysis. The presence of high levels of beta-OHB may help interpret the cause of death in diabetics when the autopsy result is negative.     

Institutional Context, Cognitive Resources and Party Attachments Across Democracies

e-mail: jdh39{at}columbia.edu e-mail: gck2001{at}columbia.edu e-mail: ell2002{at}columbia.edu This paper develops and tests arguments about how national-levelsocial and institutional factors shape the propensity of individualsto form attachments to political parties. Our tests employ atwo-step estimation procedure that has attractive propertieswhen there is a binary dependent variable in the first stageand when the number of second-level units is relatively small.We find that voters are most likely to form party attachmentswhen group identities are salient and complimentary. We alsofind that institutions that assist voters in retrospectivelyevaluating parties—specifically, strong party disciplineand few parties in government—increase partisanship. Theseinstitutions matter most for those individuals with the fewestcognitive resources, measured here by education.