The mix that makes unipolarity: hegemonic purpose and international constraints

The nature of a global arena dominated by one great power remains a critical subject for understanding international relations. Brooks and Wohlforth's recent book makes an important contribution by arguing that unipolarity poses few constraints to the hegemon and that the United States today should pursue a policy of primacy. The puzzle is that the United States has mostly resisted a primacy policy since becoming the sole superpower, and when it has done so, has often been less successful than the promise of its power advantage. Explaining this puzzle requires building on ‘the no constraint’ approach to develop a positive theory based on hegemonic purpose, a reformulated notion of constraints, and how purpose and constraints interact to shape outcomes. This reformulation suggests that any American strategy that looks like ‘primacy’ is unlikely to succeed.     

Peer effects in affirmative action: Evidence from law student performance

In the Grutter case, Justice O’Connor suggested that universities could justifiably try to enroll a “critical mass” of minority students. Enroll fewer than that “critical mass,” reason some observers, and minority students will feel too marginalized to perform at their highest levels. In this article, we test whether minority students perform better with other students from their ethnic group in a class or school. To do so, we assemble data on the ethnicity and performance of each student in all classes at two law schools - for three years at one, and for 16 years at the other. Although these schools enrolled a smaller fraction of African-Americans than most law schools, they are located in states with a much smaller fraction of African-Americans than in the United States as a whole. There is also a large amount of variation in the percent African-American across classes. At these schools, we find no consistent evidence that having additional students from one's ethnic group raises a student's performance. Instead, we find some evidence that having additional ethnic peers lowers performance - albeit by a very small amount.     

Callous and unemotional traits and social cognitive processes in a sample of community-based aggressive youth

Psychopathic traits are associated with violent, aggressive behaviors and recidivism in adulthood. To increase positive treatment outcomes, it is arguably beneficial to identify and treat psychopathy as early as possible. Furthermore, because research shows that the effectiveness of behavior modification is likely to be affected by the social information-processing patterns of aggressive children, it is important to understand the relationship between conduct-disordered traits and social cognitions. The results of this study showed that callous/unemotional traits in a community-based sample of behavior-disordered youth (57 male, 19 female; 10-19 years of age; 63% African American) significantly predicted values in obtaining a tangible reward and getting into trouble or being punished. However, callous/unemotional traits, impulsivity/conduct problems, and narcissism failed to predict positive expectations regarding receiving a tangible reward, reducing aversive treatment, and demonstration of dominance. Implications for these results are presented.     

Seasonal and habitat abundance and distribution of some forensically important blow flies (Diptera: Calliphoridae) in Central California

Seasonal and habitat calliphorid abundance and distribution were examined weekly for two years (2001-2003) in Santa Clara County, California, using sentinel traps baited with bovine liver. Of the 34,389 flies examined in three defined habitats (rural, urban, and riparian), 38% of the total catch represented Compsomyiops callipes (Bigot) and 23% represented Phormia regina (Meigen). Other flies collected in this survey included Calliphora vomitoria (Linnaeus), Calliphora latifrons (Hough), Lucilia sericata (Meigen), Lucilia cuprina (Wiedemann), and Lucilia mexicana (Macquart), which is a new record for the area. Multivariate MANOVA and ANOVA (P ≤ 0.05) analysis indicate significant seasonal habitat preference for all fly species examined. This information may be used to identify potentially forensically impo rtant fly species within Santa Clara County, California.     

A framework for estimating probability of a match in forensic bite mark identification

In forensic dentistry, a human expert typically does the comparison and identification based on bite marks. Unlike DNA analysis, however, there is no quantitative basis with which to assign a probability for this given match. This paper proposes a framework for empirically estimating the probability of such a bite mark match and reports on initial experimental results. The methodology involved collection of dental population data (3D dental casts and bite mark images), image analysis for quantitatively measuring the degree of match (based on chamfer distance), and performing a logistic regression analysis using the collected population data to estimate the probability of match from the calculated degree of match. The model correctly predicted 35 of the 42 matches and 585 of the 588 mismatches. The method also has potential for use in other forensic applications in which the assignment of quantitative probabilities is important.     

Fledgling Psychopathic Features and Pathological Delinquency: New Evidence

Fledgling psychopathy is a construct that has proven useful in organizing the nomological network of conduct problems and psychopathology in children and adolescents. Drawing on data from an institutionalized sample of delinquents (n?=?252), the current study compared ADHD, CD, and ADHD+CD youth on psychopathic personality features and their association with pathological delinquency. Youths with ADHD+CD were significantly more psychopathic than their peers. Although callousness, unemotionality, and remorselessness are generally theorized to define the fledgling psychopathic youth, ROC-AUC models found that thrillseeking and impulsiveness were the strongest classification variables for delinquency and violent delinquency at the 90th percentiles. Implications for research and practice with antisocial youth are proffered.     

G.W.F. Hegel on Self‐Determination and Democratic Theory

This article claims that the major alternative models of contemporary democratic theory—the aggregative, deliberative, and agonistic models—are grounded on a norm of self‐determination, but each conceptualizes this self‐determination in a different, and one‐sidedly narrow, way. G.W.F. Hegel provides a conceptual scheme in which to understand the development and synthesize the insights of these three articulations of self‐determination. He also argues that the political embodiment of a complete self‐determination must be founded on economic self‐interest, though a self‐interest expanded to a concern for the common good through the experience of self‐government in one's economic and political associations. Thus, rather than separating economic and political spheres, as contemporary democratic theorists do, Hegel makes a case that modern self‐determination requires a structural harmony between these spheres.     

Scavenging behavior of Lynx rufus on human remains during the winter months of Southeast Texas

Animal-scavenging alterations on human remains can be mistaken as human criminal activity. A 32-day study, documenting animal scavenging on a human cadaver, was conducted at the Southeast Texas Applied Forensic Science facility, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, Texas. A Stealth Cam Rogue IR was positioned near the cadaver to capture scavenging activity. An atypical scavenger, the bobcat, Lynx rufus, was recorded feeding on the cadaver. Scavenging by bobcats on human remains is not a predominant behavior and has minimal documentation. Scavenging behaviors and destruction of body tissues were analyzed. Results show that the bobcat did not feed on areas of the body that it does for other large animal carcasses. Results also show the bobcat feeds similarly during peak and nonpeak hours. Understanding the destruction of human tissue and covering of the body with leaf debris may aid forensic anthropologists and pathologists in differentiating between nefarious human activity and animal scavenging.     

Non-Response Bias with a Web-Based Survey of College Students: Differences from a Classroom Survey About Carrying Concealed Handguns

Internet-based and e-mail surveys represent viable administrative methods for efficiently collecting data. These methods appear to be particularly well-suited for studying college student populations, a group that has gained attention from criminologists interested in testing theories. An important concern with administering surveys with the Internet and via e-mail is that of non-response bias. Despite the appeal of online surveys, nonresponse bias associated with these methods has not been sufficiently investigated. The study described here estimates nonresponse bias associated with a web-administered survey that measured opinions about changing concealed handgun carrying laws on college campuses, items likely to elicit polarizing opinions. Results show important substantive differences between web-administered and in-class versions of the survey. Students who responded to the web survey expressed more extreme opinions and behavioral responses to a proposed policy that would allow concealed handgun carrying on campus. Survey researchers who utilize web-based administrative methods should consider using multiple sources of leverage when soliciting participation and must carefully evaluate sample representativeness.