One step up, two steps back: The progression of perceptions of women's work in prisons and jails

The corrections workplace has undergone tremendous change during the past quarter century. Judicial intervention, public and media attention, and “get tough on crime” initiatives have all led to a variety of changes. Opportunities to work in corrections, in all positions, have increased dramatically. In an effort to determine how correctional staff today regard the presence and capabilities of women in the work environment, questions were specifically developed that addressed this issue and included in a more broadly conceived questionnaire administered to correctional staff in several prisons and jails in a western state. In this article, findings are reported regarding the gender-related items. It was found that, while jail and prison staffs generally shared similar views regarding most gender-related issues, there were some significant differences between both male and female respondents and those with prior military experience on the items regarding the competency of female staff.     

Analyzing Multiple-Item Measures of Crime and Deviance II: Tobit Regression Analysis of Transformed Scores

The purpose of this article is to inform criminological researchers about tobit regression, an alternative regression model that deserves more attention in this field. Tobit regression is intended for continuous data that are censored, or bounded at a limiting value. The tobit model may be a particularly good match to measures of self-reported offending, provided they have been transformed to reduce skewness. We present empirical analyses that evaluate the match of self-report measures to the assumptions of ordinary least square (OLS) and tobit regression models and that assess the consequences of any violations of assumptions. The analyses use a fourteen-item, self-report measure of delinquency from the Monitoring the Future study, a national survey of high school seniors. These analyses provide clear evidence that (1) transformations to reduce skewness improve the match of OLS to the data but still leave considerable discrepancies, and (2) the tobit model is well suited to the transformed measure. We conclude by assessing the purposes for which tobit offers greater and smaller advantages over OLS regression.     

Additional variability at the D12S391 STR locus in an Austrian population sample: sequencing data and allele distribution

The highly polymorphic STR locus D12S391 was investigated in an Austrian population sample (N=150) by PCR-amplification, comparative detection on native and denaturing polyacrylamide gels and solid phase single stranded sequencing of three size variant alleles and several additional alleles. A total of 15 alleles, distinguishable by size under denaturing conditions, could be detected. No deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium were observed in the population investigated (P=0.52). Sequencing of size variants designated 17.3 and 18.3 showed an incomplete (GAT) repeat unit at position two of the tandem region. Additional new sequence variants due to varying compositions of the number of (AGAT) and (AGAC) repeats could be identified. Due to distinct electrophoretical mobilities of alleles of the same size but different sequence structures, denaturing detection conditions should be employed when the aim is standardization.     

The role of popular mobilizations in the struggle for the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

In spite of the best efforts of Canada's first ministers, the debate leading up to the enactment of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms was characterized by the mobilization of several demanding factors of the Canadian populace. The Hays-Joyal hearings on the Constitution provided a formal setting for popular participation, and in fact drew submissions from a variety of special interest groups. Significantly, the minimal class representation in both the formal and informal processes of Charter construction was in stark contrast to the militant interventions of women's and Native's lobbies. In spite of the resistance of the politicians, and in spite of internal weaknesses, these movements were able to impose some elements of their collective demands on the otherwise limited vision of rights in Canada. Their voices were in fact heard over the din of federal-provincial squabbling.This article is a revised version of a Chapter from the author's Doctoral Dissertation, entitledCanada's Passive Revolution: The Charter and Hegemonic Politics, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, August 1992.