Half the Spectrum: A Title IX Approach to Broadcast Ownership Regulation

In theory, the electromagnetic spectrum belongs to everyone. In practice, stations owned by men hold approximately 90% of the licenses to broadcast on the public spectrum in the United States. In order to address this problem, federal legislation should be adopted that mimics the framework of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 by prohibiting broadcast media companies from discriminating based on gender. Instead of the federal funds received by colleges and universities, the federal benefits here are the potentially lucrative broadcast licenses select radio and television stations receive. Under the proposed legislation, broadcasters would be required to establish gender parity within their organizations or risk losing their license to operate on the public spectrum.     

Measuring Partisan Bias in Single‐Member District Electoral Systems

In recent decades, the literature has coalesced around either symmetry or responsiveness as measures of partisan bias in single‐member district systems. I argue neither accurately captures the traditional idea of an “efficient” gerrymander, where one party claims more seats without more votes. I suggest a better measure of efficiency and then use this new measure to reconsider a classic study of partisan gerrymandering. Contrary to the original study findings, I show that the effects of party control on bias are small and decay rapidly, suggesting that redistricting is at best a blunt tool for promoting partisan interests.     

The challenges of prisoner reentry faced by Native American returning offenders

This article examines the economic, social, and cultural challenges American Indian¹1. We recognize there are no universally accepted or accurate labels for the Indigenous Peoples of North America. Although individual tribal names are preferred, we have chosen to use the term American Indian or Native American to represent the collective population that is present within this study.View all notes inmates face as they reintegrate back into a rural reservation community. Utilizing surveys, focus groups, and in-depth interviews with a variety of stakeholder groups, including community corrections, law enforcement, treatment providers, and tribal leaders, this research explores the reentry challenges faced by Native American returning offenders. Findings indicated that although similarities exist with other reentry populations, especially other minority groups, several unique challenges appear. The possible policy implications of these findings for the reentry process are also discussed.     

Food crises, food regimes and food movements: rumblings of reform or tides of transformation?

This article addresses the potential for food movements to bring about substantive changes to the current global food system. After describing the current corporate food regime, we apply Karl Polanyi's 'double-movement' thesis on capitalism to explain the regime's trends of neoliberalism and reform. Using the global food crisis as a point of departure, we introduce a comparative analytical framework for different political and social trends within the corporate food regime and global food movements, characterizing them as 'Neoliberal', 'Reformist', 'Progressive', and 'Radical', respectively, and describe each trend based on its discourse, model, and key actors, approach to the food crisis, and key documents. After a discussion of class, political permeability, and tensions within the food movements, we suggest that the current food crisis offers opportunities for strategic alliances between Progressive and Radical trends within the food movement. We conclude that while the food crisis has brought a retrenchment of neoliberalization and weak calls for reform, the worldwide growth of food movements directly and indirectly challenge the legitimacy and hegemony of the corporate food regime. Regime change will require sustained pressure from a strong global food movement, built on durable alliances between Progressive and Radical trends.     

Assessing the Violent Offending and Violent Victimization Overlap Among Discharged Psychiatric Patients

Prior studies have documented linkages between mental disorder and both offending and victimization. However, few studies have examined the violent offending–violent victimization overlap among mentally disordered individuals and none have examined the factors that are jointly related to their covariation. Here, we assess this overlap during the first ten weeks following hospital discharge among a large sample of psychiatric patients from three large cities. Findings indicate that: (1) violent offending and violent victimization show substantial covariation; (2) although each of the two outcomes were predicted by a few unique risk factors, several risk factors were similarly predictive of both outcomes; and (3) even after adjusting for demographic, clinical, and social risk factors, the correlation between violent offending and violent victimization remained robust. Implications for theory, research, and policy are highlighted.     

Informational externalities and settlements in mass tort litigations

This paper elaborates on a basic model of mass tort litigation, highlighting the existence of positive informational externalities afforded by the discovery process (as a general technology of production of evidences) in order to study when a class action is formed, or when a sequence of individual trials is more likely. We illustrate the argument that when several plaintiffs file individually a lawsuit against the same tortfeasor, the resolution of the various cases through repeated trials produces positive informational externalities. When class actions are forbidden, these externalities only benefit to the later plaintiffs (through precedents, jurisprudence...). When they are allowed, the first filer may have an incentive to initiate a class action as far as it enables him to benefit from these externalities, through the sharing of information with later filers. We provide sufficient conditions under which a class action is formed, assuming a perfect discovery process. We also show that when contingent fees are used to reward attorneys’ services, plaintiffs become neutral to the arrival of new information on their case.     

Alternative fuels in fire debris analysis: biodiesel basics

Alternative fuels are becoming more prominent on the market today and, soon, fire debris analysts will start seeing them in liquid samples or in fire debris samples. Biodiesel fuel is one of the most common alternative fuels and is now readily available in many parts of the United States and around the world. This article introduces biodiesel to fire debris analysts. Biodiesel fuel is manufactured from vegetable oils and/or animal oils/fats. It is composed of fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) and is sold pure or as a blend with diesel fuel. When present in fire debris samples, it is recommended to extract the debris using passive headspace concentration on activated charcoal, possibly followed by a solvent extraction. The gas chromatographic analysis of the extract is first carried out with the same program as for regular ignitable liquid residues, and second with a program adapted to the analysis of FAMEs.     

Cleaning up your act: Forensic awareness as a detection avoidance strategy

Purpose

Although rational choice researchers has investigated how offenders successfully commit certain crimes, there is a lack of research looking at the factors explaining the use - or not - of certain detection avoidance strategies. This study introduces the concept of “forensic awareness” as a detection avoidance strategy, and proposes to examine the effect of disinhibitors, target selection behaviors, and acts that may potentially leave evidence at the crime scene on its use.

Methods

Factors influencing forensic awareness are tested using logistic regression models on a sample of 222 rape events collected from offenders incarcerated in Canada.

Results

Offenders exhibit less forensic awareness when under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol. However, offenders who show some form of target selection are more likely to take forensic precautions. Finally, offenders who break and enter in the victim's residence, and undertake specific sexual acts during the crime are also more likely to exhibit forensic awareness.

Conclusion

Despite the increasing use and knowledge of forensic evidence by law enforcement, offenders are inconsistent in their forensic awareness and they direct most of their efforts toward protecting their identity, neglecting to either destroy or clean up DNA that could be recovered at the crime scene.     

Interracial contact and fear of crime

Despite a large literature on public views about crime, the racialization of crime, and the contact hypothesis, surprisingly little is known about how interracial friendships may influence Whites’ fear of crime. At the same time, and perhaps because no counterpart stereotype to that of “Blacks as criminals” exists, there has been little exploration of how such contact may influence Blacks’ fear of crime. To address these research gaps, this study built on prior theory and research and used data from an ABC News and Washington Post poll to test competing hypotheses about the effect of interracial contact on Whites’ and Blacks’ fear of crime, respectively. The analyses revealed that close interracial friendships are associated with increased fear of crime among Whites, decreased fear of crime among lower-income Blacks, and increased fear among higher-income Blacks. The implications for theory and research are discussed.