Psychometric validation of the Brief Symptom Inventory 25 Forensic (BSI-25-F)

The Brief Symptom Inventory 25 Forensic (BSI-25-F) is a screening instrument for measuring the psychophysical distress of prisoners and forensic patients. The aim of the study was to validate the instrument. For this purpose, 165 forensic patients, 312 general psychiatric patients, and 1359 people from the general population completed the BSI-25-F. In addition, the data of the long-term prisoners who were studied when the instrument was originally developed were used for comparison. The item analyses revealed acceptable to very good item characteristics within the target samples of the prisoners and the forensic patients for the majority of the items. Reliability tests also showed acceptable to good values for the target samples. The differential validity but not the factorial validity could be proved. To conclude, the new BSI-25-F represents an economic, practicable, and reliable screening instrument for identifying prisoners who are in a need of treatment.     

Auswirkungen des Emissionshandels auf die Praxis

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Endowments: Stable Largesse or Distortion of the Polity?

As ever more private resources are held in foundations and nonprofit organizations' endowment funds, more scholars and practitioners are demanding that these assets be put to good use immediately. Those favoring the preservation of capital—primarily representing private foundations—sound unnecessarily cautious. This article examines endowment conservation from a variety of critical angles, finding strong rationales for both conserving and liquidating endowments. Policy responses to the buildup of endowment assets include requiring a faster payout or regulating the amount and type of administrative expenses included in annual payout. This article reviews the relationship of the business cycle and wealth distribution to annual giving. The most prudent course, in view of the cyclical nature of giving as well as the substantial generational wealth currently held by elders, appears to be to conserve significant assets now in order to establish a stable flow of future social benefits.     

Women's participation in democratic innovation apparatuses: the case of the autonomous region of the Basque country,Spain

Since 1990, many democratic regimes have seen an increasing number of democratic innovation apparatuses that have been the subject of many of the reflections of democratic theory. Furthermore, the notion of participation has been a priority since the early stages of the institutionalisation of gender studies. Many analyses of the presence and the voice of women in representative spaces and in social movements have been made. However, both areas of study seem to have developed in parallel, giving rise to a knowledge gap when it comes to the participation of women in public affairs by the democratic innovation apparatuses. This article is situated at the intersection of those areas. It analyses the relationship between women's participation and the extension of the public sphere in terms of obstacles. Based on the analysis of the participatory biographies of 42 women and six men who participate in 15 democratic innovation apparatuses implemented between 1978 and 2014 in the Autonomous Region of the Basque Country (Spain), five discussion groups and two direct observations, the obstacles met by the women when carrying out their participatory project in those governance apparatuses are identified. The article concludes by highlighting the currency of the public versus private and reason versus emotion categories to explain the objectivized and incorporated structure of the obstacles. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Universitäre Leistungsbewertungen als Bedrohung der akademischen Identität? Ein subjektorientierter Blick auf die Beurteilung und Kontrolle wissenschaftlicher Leistungen im Zeichen von New Public Management

It’s been argued that the implementation of new performance measurement systems in universities profoundly affect university professors’ occupational life. Even though they’re members of a profession whose self-conception is likely to conflict with organizational attempts to evaluate their research and teaching performances, professors are nowadays expected to provide an account of their performance and to adhere to new evaluation criteria. The study examines the presumed tensions based on qualitative interviews conducted with concerned professors. The study, thus, demonstrates the conflicts between new performance management measures and academic identity concepts. Similarly, it shows the limits of new performance management measures as criteria for capturing professorial accomplishments and success. However, as the analyzed material implies, these conflicts and limits are somewhat ambivalent and anything but unidimensional. In fact, a complex and to some extent contradictory picture emerges, given that ambiguous and sometimes positive perceptions of new performance management co-exist with clearly dismissive responses. Hence, performance measurement practices are not per se perceived as a threat to academic identity.     

Trading amnesty for impunity in Timor-Leste

In 1999, the United Nations made a strong stand against impunity for human rights crimes by prohibiting the inclusion of blanket amnesties in peace agreements. This article examines the impact of the UN’s anti-amnesty policy on one of the first states to be affected by it, Timor-Leste. It argues that even in the absence of an amnesty, more than 15 years after independence impunity still reigns in Timor-Leste, due a lack of judicial capacity, political interference, the persistent belief that amnesties facilitate reconciliation, and an unwillingness on the part of the international community to adequately fund the justice process. That is, this article argues that the UN has oversold its position on amnesties, and that although its anti-amnesty policy is taking hold, in the case of Timor-Leste at least, justice seems as elusive as ever.     

Most-favored-nation clauses in commercial contracts: legal and economic analysis and proposal for a guideline

The prevalent use of “most favored nation” (MFN) clauses in commercial agreements has garnered significant attention in the economics and legal literature and by practitioners and enforcement agencies. From an antitrust standpoint, there is a strong consensus that while MFN provisions can lead to procompetitive outcomes or at least play a competitively neutral role, they may also result in competitive harm and a loss of consumer welfare. Therefore, US and EU enforcement agencies and courts have held that MFNs should be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, considering the specific characteristics of both the contractual provision and the industry. While a case-by-case approach is valid, it is not ideal from a variety of standpoints: that of the competition authorities seeking to make best use of their limited resources and that of practitioners seeking to advise their clients. Accordingly, published guidelines on the use of MFNs, containing presumptions and safe harbors, would be both efficient and useful. The paper argues that it would increase the efficiency and accuracy of antitrust enforcement if one of the leading competition authorities issued MFN guidelines. The paper suggests a set of presumptions and safe harbors that should be included in any such guidelines.     

Market-Oriented Urban Planning – Constraining Citizen Participation

Urban planning in Norway can be characterised as market oriented, with responsibilities for the formulation of planning largely delegated to private developers. Even though the principle of citizen participation has a strong and longstanding tradition in Norway, the market-oriented practices challenge the ability of citizens to influence their spatial surroundings. Based on broad surveys and qualitative case studies, this article maps the attitudes of developers, councillors and planners towards citizen participation and studies the strategies of local community associations. Our analysis shows that developers value citizen participation to a much lesser degree than councillors and planners, which can explain the lack of participatory channels in early phases. Official avenues for participation occur later, primarily through hearings. Local associations find this to be too late, characterising urban planning as a path dependent process; as a consequence, local associations attempt to influence planning processes in a more informal way by contacting councillors directly.     

Three Modes of Thinking and Policy Orientation of Cultural Security

Three types of relations are entangled nowadays in dealing with issues concerning national cultural security on both the theoretical and practical levels: (1) the relation between one’s own culture and that of other ethnic groups; (2) the relation between advanced and underdeveloped parts of culture; (3) the relation between one’s ethnic culture and so-called foreign advanced culture as related to the previous two. Accordingly, three modes of thinking are likely adopted in handling issues concerning national cultural security: to antagonize one’s own culture with that of other ethnic groups, that is, taking the “me or you” attitude; to dualize cultures as the “advanced” and the “underdeveloped”, that is, believing things to be good if not bad, or vice versa; and to assert that the ethnic are the advanced, that is, taking the “only-megood” stance. It is a very demanding job to maintain national culture and to pursue cultural development at the same time. Only when cultures are grouped into those without distinction between the advanced and the underdeveloped and those with such distinction can the relation between the ethnic and the advanced be properly handled. With the former, it is essential to maintain the ethnicity of one’s own culture before the cultural security is safeguarded. With the latter, however, the pursuit of advanced cultures and the advocacy of the advanced part of a particular culture is a key to ensuring and safeguarding the national cultural security. Hence, it is important to enhance the public awareness of cultural security, and more essentially for the government to offer scientifi cally appropriate orientation towards cultural security and to frame related policies.