The legal status of juveniles in Cameroon

This paper examines the legal status of juveniles in Cameroon. It defines a juvenile as a “human being below the age of eighteen years unless, under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier” (Article 1 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)). It treats the historical development of the rights of children and discusses their protection under the Cameroon Penal Code (CPC), the Civil Status Registration Ordinance (CSRO), Family Law (FL) and International Instruments (II) ratified by the country. Existing gaps in the protective measures are indicated and recommendations provided.     

Juvenile delinquency as reflected by offenders of the borstal institute of Cameroon

This paper will describe the governmental structure of Papua New Guinea and the justice system. It identifies justice policy in relation to devolution and the involvement of the community in the justice system. After pointing out that in colonial times judicial powers were exercised at the village level it notes that the introduction of a Village Court system in 1975 and the commencement of Probation in 1985 have both served as a means of introducing custom into the legal system and into the justice system. Probation and Village Courts are discussed and constraints in their operation and development are identified. Other functions of the Probation Service which assist in giving the community a voice in sentencing and in the supervision of offenders are described. The paper concludes that although there has been no formal devolution policy until recently, the desirability of involving the community in the maintenance of law and order has been recognised, primarily through Village Courts and Probation. The fact that Provincial Governments have no law and order powers is identified as a factor marginalising Provincial Governments from the justice system and to that extent, the community within the Province. The paper suggests that policy makers need to address the position of the Provincial Governments within the justice system. Institutional devolution has been limited and there is scope for more to be done but adequate resources must be made available. Gender bias in the Village Court and within Probation as well as the attitude of the lower courts towards Probation are noted as constraints generally.     

Heroin, crack, and AIDS: examining social change within Honolulu, Hawaii's street sex trade

The intent of the research was to conduct a replication study of a previous investigation in order to permit a comparative analysis of some aspects that might permeate overtime from the street sex trade of Honolulu, Hawaii. The design comprised the elements of a (1) longitudinal design, (2) a snowball sampling technique, (3) a survey instrument and (4) ethnographic and field data collection. Data comparison utilized survey interviews obtained from a population immersed in the street sex trade at the same location but from two different points in time. Both studies used Likert scale and semantic differential tests to target the prostitutes' attitudes toward the law, experiences with local social service agencies, and other aspects of the streetwalkers' personal lives. Details included the use of drugs and alcohol, fear of sexually transmitted infections, and experiences with crime and victimization. Increases in highest educational level completed were noted, but decreases in the completion of high school were more significant. Self reported use of narcotics was relatively consistent across the two studies, but an overall decrease in frequency of use was found. The current subjects rated HIV and AIDS their number one personal concern; whereas in 1974, the most commonly chosen concern was being arrested. None of the 1992 subjects reported that they had contracted HIV or the AIDS virus and stated that they preliminary depended on regular military clients for their income. The overall analysis of both samples yielded the epidemiological themes of (1) drug addition, (2) sexual exploitation, and (3) sexually transmitted infections among those within the street sex trade even though the time periods between them had spanned almost over twenty years. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

NOTES ON A CANADIAN MASS MEDIA POLICY

So we may usefully add a new dramatic factor to public education—an uplifting factor which associates knowledge with pride and private effort with a sense of public purpose. We can widen the horizons of the schoolroom and give to every individual, each in his place and work, a living conception of the community which he has the privilege to serve. We can take his imagination beyond the boundaries of his community to discover the destiny of his country. We can light up his life with a sense of active citizenship. We can give him a sense of greater reality in the present and a vision of the future.¹     

Do constitutions matter? Evidence from a natural experiment at the municipality level

This paper asks if it does matter for taxes and government spending whether the mayor is elected (and recalled) by direct election or by the municipal council. It thus contributes to the economic literature on the impact of constitutions on economic outcomes. The effects are identified based on reforms of the municipal constitutions that were exogenous from the point of view of the municipalities in content and timing: each year, quasi-randomly selected groups of municipalities introduced the new constitution. This setup helps overcome endogeneity and identification issues that are common to many studies in the field using country level data. Using a new panel dataset of the 686 municipalities in three German states, this paper shows that direct mayoral election and recall through referendum only (as opposed to election and recall through the municipal council) reduce tax rates and increases spending on government employees.     

Inequality and Economic Growth: The Empirical Relationship Reconsidered in the Light of Comparable Data

Almost all the recent empirical work on the relationship between income inequality and economic growth has used inequality data that are not consistently measured. This article argues that this is inappropriate and shows that the significant negative correlation often found between income inequality and growth across countries may not be robust when income inequality is measured in a consistent manner. However, evidence is found of a significant negative correlation between consistently measured inequality of expenditure data and economic growth for a sample of developing countries.