Gender differences in patterns of adolescent sexual behavior

The findings of a questionnaire survey of sexual attitudes and behavior of a large nationwide sample of Israeli adolescents (N=5410) show clear gender differences in patterns of sexual behavior even among kibbutz adolescents who express very permissive attitudes toward premarital coitus and live under conditions which provide easy access to potential sexual partners. Permissive conditions increase rates of coitus among female adolescents, but this sexual experience occurs within the framework of an emotionally involving relationship. Kibbutz girls who report coital rates equal to those of kibbutz and nonkibbutz boys (about 40%) have their first coital relationship with a steady boyfriend with whom they are in love and continue having sexual relations with the same partner. This pattern is similar to that of nonkibbutz females, who report much lower rates of coitus (14%). Males do not necessarily have sexual relations in the context of an emotional relationship. The findings are interpreted in terms of pattern of sex-role socialization.This study was supported by the Israel Center for Demographic Studies and by the Ministry of Health.Research interests are socialization, parent-child interaction, and cross-cultural research.Presently working on Ph.D. in public health at University of California, Berkeley.Research interests are child development and personality.Research interests are clinical obstetrics and gynecology, contraception, sex education, and family planning.Research interests are chronic disease epidemiology and research methodology.     

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Scientific management of science?

A framework is advanced for allocating research resources, based on the value of the information that proposed projects are expected to produce. As an organizing device, the framework uses integrated assessments, showing the relationships between the predictors of outcomes arising in important decisions (e.g., interest rates, mortality rates, crop yields, crime probabilities). Proposed projects are evaluated in terms of their ability to sharpen estimates either of those variables or of the relationships among them. This approach is intended to allow diverse forms of science to show their potential impacts – while encouraging them to integrate their work. Where suitable estimates are available, the expected value of the information from alternative studies can be computed and compared. However, even at a qualitative level, formal analyses can improve the efficiency and integration of research programs.     

Vacuum collection of gunpowder residues from clothing worn by shooting suspects, and their analysis by GC/TEA, IMS, and GC/MS

Experiments were conducted to collect gunpowder (propellant) residues from shooters' clothing by vacuum and to analyze them by gas chromatography/thermal energy analyzer (GC/TEA), ion mobility spectrometry (IMS), and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The residues were collected on fiberglass and Teflon filters using the portable vacuum sampler, all supplied with the IMS instrument. Several solvents were examined for the extraction of the propellant components from the filters. The extracts were centrifuged and/or filtered, concentrated by evaporation, and analyzed without any additional clean-up procedure. Based on the results of the study, an operational method for analysis of gunpowder residues was introduced into casework without changing the present operational technique for gunshot (primer) residue (GSR) analysis on clothing implemented by the Israel Police. In the modified method, the clothing is first sampled by double-side adhesive-coated aluminum stubs (the tape-lift method) for GSR analysis (the existing method), followed by vacuum collection for propellant residue examination. The issue of interpretation of the analytical results is discussed.     

Mega Donors’ Perspectives on Philanthropy and Government Relations in Israel

Philanthropists’ involvement in the development and implementation of social policies is a growing yet understudied phenomena. Captured in the model of alternative politics, in which self-provision of public services emerges when citizens face the failure of private and public mechanisms, not only in terms of obtaining sufficiently high-quality services, but also in terms of utilizing political channels to influence public policy, and poses major challenges to the political system. This dynamic of welfare states in recent decades is contested, since while it provides new streams of funding and innovative and professional capacities, it also has potential negative repercussions to democratic processes, equity and universalism of social policies. In-depth interviews with fourteen Israeli mega donors are used to show how mega donors promote relations between philanthropy and government in Israel that are based on voluntary cooptation in which the government regulates the philanthropic activity in Israel. By voluntarily granting the government a mandate to regulate philanthropic activity, the mega donors lead philanthropy into a situation in which philanthropy’s autonomy may be jeopardized and its agendas may be subordinated to the priorities, preferences and business-minded worldview of the ruling elite - the political elite (government) and the business elites (mega donors).     

Delegation of Clinical Authority,Administrative Culture and Policy Adoption: A Comparative Analysis

Numerous countries have adopted reforms that allow medical personnel other than physicians to engage in tasks that traditionally were exclusively performed by physicians. This policy is controversial because it challenges the medical profession’s traditional boundaries. This study is an exercise in comparative policy research based on the experience of 18 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries. It evaluates the contribution of different structural factors – socioeconomic, cultural, and institutional – to policy adoption. Based on both quantitative analysis and an examination of how delegation unfolded in Israel, the role of administrative culture is highlighted: a category that combines cultural legacies and institutional properties in explaining policy adoption. It is argued that because, in entrepreneurial administrative cultures, administrators are more likely to possess a managerial mindset than in Rechtsstaat cultures, and also have more institutional leeway for action, delegation is more likely to be adopted in the former.     

Non‐fiction reviews

Behind the Wall: a journey through China by Colin Thubron, London: Penguin. 1988. 308pp. £4.99pb

Riding the Iron Rooster: by train through China by Paul Theroux, London: Penguin. 1989. 512pp. £4.99pb

Lords of Poverty: the free‐wheeling lifestyles, power, prestige and corruption of the multi‐billion dollar aid business by Graham Hancock, London: Macmillan. 1989. 234pp. £14.95hb

Does Aid Work in India? by Michael Lipton and John Toye, London: Routledge. 1989. 276pp. £35.00hb

The Fortunate Isles: a study in African transformation by Basil Davidson, London: Hutchinson. 1989. 221pp. £7.95pb

Modernising Super‐Exploitation: restructuring South African agriculture. Tessa Marcus, London: Zed. 1989. 207pp. £32.95hb/£12.95pb

Facing the Storm: portraits of black lives in rural South Africa by Tim Keegan, London: Zed. 1988. 170pp. £22.95hb/£6.95pb

Banking on Apartheid: the financial links report. Intergovernmental Group of Commonwealth Ministers, London: James Currey. 1989. 94pp. £4.95pb

South Africa: the sanctions mission by James Mutambirwa, London: Zed. 1989. 135pp. £6.95pb

Sanctions against Apartheid. Edited by Mark Orkin, London: Catholic Institute for International Relations. 1989. 328pp. £4.95pb

South Africa: the sanctions report. Intergovernmental Group of Commonwealth Ministers, London: Penguin. 1989. 273pp. £4.99pb

Contemporary West African States. Donal B Cruise O'Brien, John Dunn and Richard Rathbone, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. £30.00hb/£9.95pb

Power, Class and Foreign Capital in Egypt: the rise of the new bourgeoisie. Malak Zaalouk, London: Zed. 1989. 178pp. £29.95hb/£8.95pb

Pity the Nation: Lebanon at war by Robert Fisk, London: André Deutsch. 1990. 662pp. £17.95hb

Colombia: inside the labyrinth by Jenny Pearce, London: Latin American Bureau. 1990. 312pp. £18.99hb/£8.99pb

The Brazilian Economy: growth and development (third edition) by Werner Baer, New York: Praeger. 1989. 432pp. £47.30hb/£17.50pb

Samora Machel: a biography by Iain Christie, London: Zed Press. 1989. 181pp. £26.95hb/£7.95pb

A Future Preserved: international assistance to refugees by Zefime Zarjevski, Oxford: Pergamon. 1988. 326pp. £42.00hb

Third World Television Access to US Media: distributing television programs from developing countries in US television, new electronic and nontheatrical markets by Claus Mueller New York: Friedrich Naumann Foundation. 1989. 125pp

Power, the Press and the Technology of Freedom by Leonard R Sussman, New York: Freedom House. 1989. 496 pp. $24.95hb

Security and Economy in the Third World by Nicole Ball, London: Adamantine Press. 1988. 432pp. £32.50hb