Youth Supplying Tobacco to Other Minors: Evaluating Individual and Town-Level Correlates

The present study employed multilevel random-effects regression analyses to model individual and community correlates of youth supplying tobacco to other minors. Data from 8486 youth in 40 Midwestern junior high and high schools were examined. Results indicate community support for tobacco-possession laws was associated with lower likelihood of youth supplying tobacco to minors. Individual attitudes supporting tobacco possession laws were also associated with lower likelihood of supplying tobacco. Recent smoking, using a social source or purchasing tobacco in the past month, successfully purchasing tobacco during the last attempt to buy it, and having friends who use tobacco were associated with an increased likelihood of supplying tobacco to minors. Results also suggest that purchasing tobacco in the past month or being successful during the last attempt to buy it dramatically increase the odds of supplying tobacco among Never and Past Smokers. Implications of these findings are presented.

Is There a “Singles Tax”? The Relative Income Tax Treatment of Single Households

The existence of a "marriage tax," in which many married couples pay more taxes when married than their combined taxes as single individuals, is well known. However, largely lost in the attention devoted to married taxpayers is the treatment of single taxpayers. This article examines the relative tax treatment of single and married taxpayers. Various types of representative taxpayers are constructed, and the difference in income taxes paid by single taxpayers and married taxpayers is calculated. These calculations show that there is a "singles tax"; that is, a single individual typically pays a greater income tax liability than a married couple with identical income, especially when the main transfer programs are considered.     

Narcissistic Features in Young Adolescents: Relations to Aggression and Internalizing Symptoms

Recent research and theory suggest narcissistic features contribute to aggression in adults. The present study examined the association of narcissistic features with aggression and internalizing symptoms in 233 students of 5th–8th grade at three inner-city schools. A factor analysis of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory in this sample revealed three factors: Adaptive Narcissism, Exploitativeness, and Exhibitionism. Regression analyses were used to predict the association of these three narcissistic features with self-, teacher-, and peer-reported aggression and self-reported internalizing symptoms. Results indicate narcissistic exploitativeness positively predicted self-reported proactive aggression, and narcissistic exhibitionism positively predicted internalizing symptoms. Narcissism and self-esteem interacted to predict teacher-reported aggression and self-reported internalizing symptoms. Results are discussed in the context of existing theories of narcissism, threatened egotism, and self-perception bias.     

Globalization, secessionism, and autonomy

This paper analyzes the relationship between the persistence and growth of secessionist parties in democratic countries and economic globalization, controlling for political and economic factors. The implications of secessionist persistence for decentralization are also examined. The paper finds that globalization is positively related to secessionist vote growth, while there is some evidence that economic conditions also impact secessionist parties in systematic ways. Secessionist support is also substantially affected by policy changes. Central governments have offered autonomy more often to regions with secessionist parties than to regions without such parties, though often the offers take the form of symmetrical countrywide decentralization.     

Procedural Contexts, Party Strategy, and Conditional Party Voting in the U.S. House of Representatives, 1971–2000

In this article, we provide a critical review of the evidence and arguments about party polarization in the House of Representatives during the late 20th century. We show that inferences about party polarization are significantly affected by voting reform in the early 1970s. We observe that a decomposed roll-call record alters our view of the timing of changes in party polarization and therefore requires that we reconsider explanations of the trend. We revisit explanations of party polarization and establish a strong case for placing substantial emphasis on party strategies in explanations of party polarization in floor behavior during the 1980s and 1990s.     

Casino-related deaths in Atlantic City, New Jersey 1982-1986

The first legalized casino-hotel opened in Atlantic City, New Jersey in 1978. Annually, more than 30 million people visit the "Gambling Capitol of the East Coast." As a result of this growing influx of people, the Atlantic County Medical Examiner's Office began compiling statistics in 1982 of casino-related deaths. Data on 398 casino-related deaths occurring in 1982-1986 were collected and analyzed: 83% of the total number of fatalities were sudden cardiac deaths. Most of the victims were elderly white retired men who had previously diagnosed medical conditions. Many of the victims' underlying medical problems are of a type known to be associated with compulsive gambling. The majority of deaths occurred during the afternoon hours on weekends in October, January, and May. Of the victims, 86% were from New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. For Atlantic City, a gambling community known to have a relatively high rate of crime and drug-trafficking, only 1% of all deaths were homicides. We speculate that the stress of gambling activities may induce sudden cardiac death. We therefore recommend that communities planning to legalize casino gambling mandate that gambling establishments provide emergency health care services for their patrons.     

Reexamining efficient rent-seeking in laboratory markets

Given Millner and Pratt's (1989) finding of behavior inconsistent with theory, we reexamine efficient rent-seeking in experimental markets. We show that (a) when r = 3, no Nash equilibrium exists and therefore behavior has no theoretical benchmark to judge consistency, and (b) when r = 1, with a new experimental design utilizing an explicit expected payoff matrix, rent-seeking behavior is consistent with both Nash equilibrium and dissipation hypotheses.The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of The John A. Walker College of Business, Appalachian State University. Cliff Nowell provided generous advice. John Willingham supplied valuable research assistance. Michael Pratt and Gordon Tullock provided helpful comments on an earlier version of the paper.     

Border Security Technologies: Local and Regional Implications

The Bush administration's “Smart Border” accords with Mexico and Canada present a number of important implications for North America's border communities and regions. As part of the plans, new security technologies have emerged as the preferred policy solution to the difficult problem of screening for weapons and terrorist incursions into the United States through its international boundaries while maintaining flows of goods and individuals, key drivers of globalization and hallmarks of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) era. These new technological systems have various capabilities, ranging from prescreening cargo to identifying problematic travelers to detecting nuclear material in trucks. Deploying these systems in border communities, however, invokes a range of important economic, social, and political challenges, all of which are under examination in this work. Using a risk‐centered approach to United States border security, this article explores several technologically oriented border control systems: screening, biometrics, and information technology. The research is based on regional field research and a public policy analysis method that uses Birkland's “focusing event” framework, a model that provides insights into the postcrisis policy formation process. The article concludes by offering an initial appraisal of these policies within the context of risk, interdependent border communities, and an open democratic society.     

Competitive-share group formation in rent-seeking contests

We examine the possibility of forming a competitive-share group in rent-seeking contests. The competitive-share group has the following characteristics: (a) the group is treated as a single player competing with the nonmembers to win the rent, (b) the members choose their outlays noncooperatively, and (c) the members compete to take larger shares of the rent. We show that the competitive-share group is always formed voluntarily. One important consequence of such group formation is that rent dissipation is less relative to individual rent seeking — in other words, the social cost associated with rent seeking is less.     

Domestic Homicide: Neuropsychological Profiles of Murderers Who Kill Family Members and Intimate Partners

Domestic homicide is the most extreme form of domestic violence and one of the most common types of homicide. The objective was to examine differences between spontaneous domestic homicide and nondomestic homicide offenders regarding demographics, psychiatric history, crime characteristics, and neuropsychological status, utilizing neuropsychological test data from forensic examinations of 153 murderers. Using standard crime classification criteria, 33% committed spontaneous domestic homicides (SDH) and 61% committed nondomestic homicides (NDH). SDH offenders were more likely to manifest psychotic disorders, but less likely to be diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder or to have prior felony convictions. SDH offenders manifested significantly worse neuropsychological impairments than NDH offenders. The mean number of victims was lower for the SDH than the NDH group and only 14% of SDH offenders used a firearm, whereas 59% of NDH offenders used a firearm. These findings corroborate the notion that spontaneous domestic homicide may represent a discernible criminological phenotype.