An Alu-based, MGB Eclipse real-time PCR method for quantitation of human DNA in forensic samples

The forensic community needs quick, reliable methods to quantitate human DNA in crime scene samples to replace the laborious and imprecise slot blot method. A real-time PCR based method has the possibility of allowing development of a faster and more quantitative assay. Alu sequences are primate-specific and are found in many copies in the human genome, making these sequences an excellent target or marker for human DNA. This paper describes the development of a real-time Alu sequence-based assay using MGB Eclipse primers and probes. The advantages of this assay are simplicity, speed, less hands-on-time and automated quantitation, as well as a large dynamic range (128 ng/microL to 0.5 pg/microL).     

Feminist legal theory and practice: rethinking the relationship

This article aims to contribute to the question of how to conceptualise the relationship between theory and practice in feminist scholarship in law. It looks in detail at the implications of different issues raised in a recent debate between Anne Bottomley and Ngaire Naffine on the existence of a “legal feminist orthodoxy”. I critique the dominance of ethics over politics and join Bottomley in her attack upon “the ethics of respect for the other”, albeit from a different position. I then look at the ways in which the problem of “essentialism” is being rethought from a feminist perspective.     

Comparative Compliance: Digital Piracy,Deterrence, Social Norms,and Duty in China and the United States

The study of compliance has been predominantly Western, and we do not know whether existing theories and findings also apply elsewhere. As a first venture in developing a comparative view on compliance, this study seeks to gain a comparative understanding of compliance decision making among Chinese and American students. It studies their decisions in response to two scenarios that offer an opportunity to use pirated online content. It tests how their decisions are shaped by subjective deterrence, social norms, and perceived duty to obey the law, comparing a control group with a group who received an explicit deterrence message from a strong campaign targeting the use of pirated digital content. The results indicate that, regardless of the explicit enforcement context, Chinese students' inclination to engage in digital piracy hinges chiefly on the perceived behavior and approval of others. This stands in contrast to US students. Within an explicit enforcement context, both social norms and perceived enforcement affect US students' decision making, whereas when there is no explicit enforcement context, both social norms and perceived duty to obey the law affect decision making. This study thus provides a warning that compliance theories and findings may not generalize well beyond the Western context. This necessitates the development of comparative compliance studies and more cross‐national replication.     

The Role of Immigration: Race/Ethnicity and San Diego Homicides Since 1970

Objectives

The temporal variation in homicide is examined by studying trends in race/ethnic specific killings (e.g. Blacks, Latinos and Whites). Two substantively important issues are also addressed—a closer examination of the role community heterogeneity plays in homicide levels and the treatment of immigration as an endogenous social process.

Methods

Data are reported homicides in the city of San Diego, California over the period 1960–2010. The address of each killing is geocoded into 341 census tracts.

Results

We find that neighborhoods experiencing increases in the foreign-born population tend to be less violent. White and Latino homicide victimization was reduced significantly as a product of increases in the neighborhood concentration of foreign-born individuals. Supplementary analyses did not find empirical evidence that the influx of foreign-born individuals could (or should) be considered a disruptive social process. Over the past five decennial census periods, the exponential increase in immigration in this border city is not associated with an increase in homicide victimization.

Conclusions

When examined through a wider temporal lens than is typically employed, and accounting for the endogeneity of immigrant residential settlement, we find no support for the claims that immigration is a crime generating social process.

     

Labeling effects of initial juvenile justice system processing decision on youth interpersonal ties*

The juvenile justice system can process youth in myriad ways. Youth who are formally processed, relative to being informally processed, may experience more public and harsh sanctions that label youth more negatively as “deviant.” Drawing on labeling theory, the current study evaluates the relative effect of formal justice system processing on the interpersonal dynamics of youth peer networks. Using data from the Crossroads Study, a multisite longitudinal sample of first-time adolescent offenders, the current study applies augmented inverse probability weighting and generalized mixed-effects models to estimate the effects of formal processing on friendship selection processes of homophily and withdrawal and considers whether these effects vary by race and ethnicity. Consistent with expectations of homophily, formally processed youth acquire more new deviant peers and fewer nondeviant peers during the 3 years after their initial processing decision compared with informally processed youth. The findings suggest no differences exist across processing types in withdrawal from friends. These effects were consistent across racial and ethnic groups. Ultimately, this study explores the dynamic interpersonal mechanisms associated with labeling theory and offers additional insight into the negative effects of formal processing.     

Asymmetrical information in the provision of human services: an empirical investigation of contract failure theory

In this article, we empirically investigate the validity of the contract failure arguments as applied to a segment of the child care industry. However, prior research has focused upon actual quality differences between nonprofit and for-profit providers whereas the theory is concerned with consumers' perceptions of quality differences. In the current study, we examine both consumers′ perceptions and actual performance in testing the theory. In general, the data provide support for contract failure.     

Common cents: situating money in time and place

This article addresses the issue of how the market and the non-market are to be understood especially by concentrating on the theory of money. For mainstream economics, the market is simply an institution facilitating exchange, money being the key instrument for alleviating the inefficiencies of barter. In contrast, recent work in other social sciences, such as that by Zelizer, distinguishes among markets, and various roles of money, depending on cultural and social content. While being sympathetic to such an approach, we claim that the commodity is a better analytical starting point than the market. Based on Marx's work, we then show what commodities have in common and establish a common essence for money as generalized purchasing power. This is a peculiarly bland essence that allows money to undertake the variety of social roles identified by Zelizer.     

Marx’s rent theory revisited? Landed property,nature and value

Abstract

Drawing upon recent interpretation of Marx’s newly published papers, a debate published in the journal 40 years ago over Marx’s theory of rent is revisited, for reassessment as such and to consider its relevance for the analysis of contemporary issues.     

Book reviews

Foreign Policy Making in Developing States: a comparative approach. Edited by Christopher Clapham, Farnborough (UK): Saxon House. 1978. 148 pp. £8.50.

Tariff Protection and Growth in Developing Countries. Mona Fouad Attia, Rotterdam: Rotterdam University Press. 1976. 251 pp.

Exports of Manufactures from Developing Countries. A H M Mahfuzur Rahman, Rotterdam: Centre for Development Planning, Rotterdam University Press. 1973. 140 pp.

Policy Reform in Developing Countries. Bela Balassa, Oxford: Pergamon Press. 1977. 176 pp. £9.00. £5.95 pb.

Nuclear Proliferation and the Near‐Nuclear Countries. Edited by Onkar Marwah & Ann Schultz, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Ballinger. 1975. 350 pp £11.60. (Distributed in UK by John Wiley)

Sociology and Development. Edited by E de Kadt and G Williams, London: Tavistock Publications Ltd. 1974. (Reprinted 1976). 374 pp. £4.25.

An Introduction to the Sociology of Rural Development. Norman Long, London: Methuen &Co Ltd. 1977. 221 pp. £3.25 pb.

Growing out of Poverty. Elizabeth Stamp, Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1977. 165 pp. £4.25.

The United Nations System: coordinating its economic and social work. Martin Hill, Cambridge University Press. 1978. 252 pp. £13.50.

The United Nations in Bangladesh. Thomas W Oliver, Princeton University Press. 1978. 231 pp. US$20.

International Money: issues and analysis. Andrew Crockett, London: Thomas Nelson & Sons. 1978. 250 pp. £3.95 pb.

The Failure of World Monetary Reform 1971–74. John Williamson, London: Thomas Nelson & Sons. 1977. 221 pp. £3.25.

The International Monetary Tangle: myths and realities. Guillaume Guindey, Oxford: Blackwells. 1977. 121 pp. £7.85.

Research and Development Abroad by US Multinationals. Robert Ronstadt, New York: Praeger. 1977. 150 pp. £11.25.

International Migration and Dependence. Stephen Adler, Farnborough (UK): Saxon House. 1977. 235 pp. £8.50.

The Seventh Enemy: the human factor in the global crisis. Ronald Higgins, London: Hodder and Stoughton. 1978. 303 pp. £5.95.

The Disintegrating West. Mary Kaldor, London: Allen Lane‐Penguin Books Ltd. 1978. 219 pp. £5.50.

The Changing Face of the Third World: regional and national studies. Edited by Josef Nyilas, Budapest: Department of World Economy, Karl Marx University of Economic. Sciences. 1978. 431 pp.

Interdependent Development. Harold Brookfield, London: Methuen. 1977. 233 pp. £3.30.

Oil Companies in the International System. Louis Turner, London: George Allen &Unwin. 1978. 222 pp. £8.50.

Venezuela's Oil. Romullo Betancourt, London: George Allen & Unwin. 1978. 275 pp. £3.95.

Namibia Old and New. Gerhard Tötemeyer, London: C Hurst & Company Ltd. 1978. 257 pp. £9.50.

Buying Time in South Africa. CIS Anti‐Report No. 21, London: Counter Information Services. 1978. 56 pp. £0.95 pb.

Revolutionary Pressures in Africa. Claude Ake, London: Zed Press Ltd. 1978. 109 pp. £6.50.

The Guerilla Reader: a historical anthology. Edited by Walter Laqueur, London: Wildwood House. 1978. 246 pp. £5.95.

Negotiating Third World Mineral Agreements: promises as prologue. David N Smith and Louis T Wells Jr., Cambridge, Massachusetts: Ballinger Publishing Company. 1975. 266 pp. £10.80. (Distributed in the UK by John Wiley)

Economic Growth and Distribution in China. Nicholas R Lardy, Cambridge University Press. 1978. 244 pp. £12.

The Peasant and the Raj: studies in agrarian society and peasant rebellion in colonial India. Eric Stokes, Cambridge University Press. 1978. 308 pp. £12.50.

Women of the World: illusion and reality. Urmila Phadnis and Indira Malani, New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House. 1978. 283 pp.

Message from the Village. Perdita Huston, New York: Epoch B Foundation. 1978. 120 pp. US $3.95.

Living Black. Kevin Gilbert, London: Allen Lane ‐ the Penguin Press. 1977. 305 pp. £7.00.

The Economics of the Arab World. Yusif A Sayigh, London: Croom Helm. 1978. 726 pp. £35.

The Determinants of Arab Economic Development. Yusif A Sayigh, London: Croom Helm. 1978. 181 pp. £12.95.

The Arabs’ New Frontier. Robert Stephens, London: Temple Smith (second revised edition). 1976. 279 pp. £5.50.

Emergency in Perspective; reprieve and challenge. Sachchidanand Sinha, London: Books from India Ltd. 1977. 122 pp. £3.75.

Inside India Today. Dilip Hiro, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. 1976. (reprinted 1978) 293 pp. £3.95 pb.

The Essential JP: the philosophy and prison diary of Jayaprakash Narayan. Edited by Satish Kumar, Dorchester (UK): Prism Press. 1978. 153 pp. £4.95.

Women of Vietnam. Arlene Eisen Bergman, San Francisco: People's Press. 1975 (revised edition). 255 pp. £2.95.. (Distributed in the UK by Zed Press)

Land and Labour in Latin America. Edited by Kenneth Duncan and Ian Rutledge with the collaboration of Colin Harding Cambridge Latin American Studies, Cambridge University Press. 1977. 535 pp. £17.50.

Secession: the legitimacy of self‐determination. Lee C Buchheit, New Haven: Yale University Press. 1978. 260 pp. £12.60.