Moral maturity and behavior: Failure to find a link

The question addressed is whether individuals operating at the Postconventional level of moral reasoning behave appreciatively different from those functioning at lower moral maturity levels. The types of behaviors reported in the literature are classified in five areas: resistance to temptation, resistance to social influence/authority, student activism, prosocial behavior, and antisocial behavior. The data suggest that evidence linking Kohlbergian moral development to differential behaviors is remote. However, the link between moral reasoning and behavior is not positively nonexistent. There remain several factors which probably affect the findings in all five behavioral categories, especially the sparsity of subjects at the principled level and the limited range of behaviors investigated.Received Ph.D. from Kent State University. Current inrerests are primary prevention and adolescent psychopathology.Received Ph.D. from Western Reserve University. Current interest is development of a theory of personality.     

Taking on the World: The International Activities of American State Legislatures

State legislatures in the United States engage in a substantialamount of international activity. In the 2001-2002 legislativesessions, some 886 bills and resolutions with significant internationalimplications were introduced. Approximately 306 of these wereadopted. This level of international activity has increasedsubstantially since 1991, and the substantive focus has changedover time. In addition, about half of all state legislaturesreceived at least one foreign delegation and sent at least onedelegation of members abroad in the last session. As in mostareas of state policy, there is considerable interstate variationin legislatures' international activities. Some states had virtuallyno international legislative activity, whereas others were veryactive. The principal factors explaining this variation werethe degree of state involvement in the international economy,as measured by the level of state exports, and party controlof the legislature.     

Voting on Low-Skill Immigration under Different Pension Regimes

Depending on the design of the domestic pension system and thetype of immigrants, voters will decide differently onimmigration policy. In this paper, we investigate the votingoutcome of three groups of heterogeneous voters (skilledworkers, unskilled workers, and retirees) under Beveridgian orBismarckian pension systems which are either of the fixedcontribution rate or the fixed replacement ratio type. We findthat while the use of a Beveridge or Bismarck system does notchange the results qualitatively, the fixed contribution ratevs. fixed replacement ratio distinction leads to substantialchanges in the optimal choices of different groups.     

Engaging the reluctant taxpayer

Abstract

A commitment to political neutrality means that citizens have a legitimate complaint when the coercive power of the state is used to advance some particular conception of how it is good to live. In this paper I investigate how to address this complaint in the case of public funding for the arts. There are two promising ways to justify public arts spending. First, as Thomas Nagel argues, the arts are a source of intrinsic values and so command our respect. I reject this argument because intrinsic values are not automatically political values. Second, Ronald Dworkin argues that access to the arts is required to fully participate in social life. This argument draws a connection between the arts and citizenship and so fares better in establishing a political justification for the arts. However, Dworkin relies on the special value of high art relative to popular art, which undermines the neutrality of his argument. I show that a justification can be given that does not depend on the high value of the arts. I develop an account that shows how the arts can support just relations between citizens. This account is in keeping with a liberal commitment to neutrality.     

School Engagement Among Youth Entering Probation

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Strong school engagement is crucial for school success among adolescents and particularly important for reducing recidivism. Yet, little is known about school...     

Using the Nondonor Distribution to Improve Communication and Inform Decision Making for Low LRs from Minor Contributors in Mixed DNA Profiles

The reporting of a likelihood ratio (LR) calculated from probabilistic genotyping software has become more popular since 2015 and has allowed for the use of more complex mixtures at court. The meaning of “inconclusive” LRs and how to communicate the significance of low LRs at court is now important. We present a method here using the distribution of LRs obtained from nondonors. The nondonor distribution is useful for examining calibration and discrimination for profiles that have produced LRs less than about 10⁴. In this paper, a range of mixed DNA profiles of varying quantity were constructed and the LR distribution considering the minor contributor for a number of nondonors was compared to the expectation given a calibrated system. It is demonstrated that conditioning genotypes should be used where reasonable given the background information to decrease the rate of nondonor LRs above 1. In all 17 cases examined, the LR for the minor donor was higher than the nondonor LRs, and in 12 of the 17 cases, the 99.9 percentile of the nondonor distribution was lower when appropriate conditioning information was used. The output of the tool is a graph that can show the position of the LR for the person of interest set against the nondonor LR distribution. This may assist communication between scientists and the court.     

Public pensions and return migration

In a median-voter framework with pensions and immigration we show that only few unskilled immigrants are allowed into the country because the unskilled native median voter is concerned with negative effects on his or her wage, but not with the positive effects to other groups in society. When return migration is allowed for, the median voter is more willing to accept immigration because he or she can shift some of the burden to future generations.