DEMONSTRATING THE VALIDITY OF TWIN RESEARCH IN CRIMINOLOGY

In a recent article published in Criminology, Burt and Simons ( 2014 ) claimed that the statistical violations of the classical twin design render heritability studies useless. Claiming quantitative genetics is “fatally flawed” and describing the results generated from these models as “preposterous,” Burt and Simons took the unprecedented step to call for abandoning heritability studies and their constituent findings. We show that their call for an “end to heritability studies” was premature, misleading, and entirely without merit. Specifically, we trace the history of behavioral genetics and show that 1) the Burt and Simons critique dates back 40 years and has been subject to a broad array of empirical investigations, 2) the violation of assumptions in twin models does not invalidate their results, and 3) Burt and Simons created a distorted and highly misleading portrait of behavioral genetics and those who use quantitative genetic approaches.     

FEAR OF CRIME IN RESIDENTIAL COMMUNITIES

Three variables were hypothesized to cause a fear of crime and a potential change in behavior. These were: (1) crimes against a person rather than crimes against property; (2) a crime committed in an area frequented rather than a crime occurring in an area one never entered; (3) a recurring crime rather than a crime that occurred once. Two different samples of female subjects (n = 249) were approached at their residences and were asked to read one of a number of fictitious crime stories that the news media supposedly had not reported and to complete two scales measuring: (1) an emotional response to crime and (2) a potential behavioral response to crime. The results indicate that a physical assault produces both more fear and more potential behavioral change than a burglary. A crime that occurs eight times causes people to consider taking precautions in comparison to a crime that occurs once. There is some evidence that a crime in an area one frequents causes more fear than a crime occurring in an area one never enters.     

STRESS IN PRISON STAFF: AN OCCUPATIONAL STUDY*

A survey was conducted into the sources of occupational stress and their effects on levels of health for a group of New Zealand prison staff: Staff were categorized into three groups: Prison Officers. Ranking Prison Officers, and Instructors In addition, a control group of noncommissioned Army personnel was used as a comparison sample. Subjects were administered a job-specific “sources of stress” questionnaire, a life events measure, a personality measure (the Neuroticism Scale Questionnaire), and three health measures-the General Health Questionnaire, a medical visit checklist, and a psychosomatic symptom checklist. Factor analysis of the stress questionnaire revealed six job-specific sources of stress factors These were identified as staff relationships, task pressures, relationships with inmates, promotion, the work environment, and the impact on family life of living in a prison village. Results showed that the levels of stress experienced by staff varied across the three groups. In addition, on the three health measures all staff groups were found to score significantly higher than the control group. Further analysis showed that the variables isolated could be related to a general model of stress.     

THE CHANGING ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF LOCAL AUTHORITY CHIEF OFFICERS

This article argues that recent political change in Britain has brought about a crisis of adjustment for local government chief officers in their relationship with the elected members. Key aspects of this political change are the break-up of the post-war political consensus and the passing of the earlier period of growth. As the ideological distance between the two main parties has widened and the end of growth has intensified conflicts, the professional stance of neutrality towards partisan politics has become more difficult to sustain. So for chief officers the crisis of adjustment has taken the form of a search for new ways of work with the politicians as the earlier, relatively harmonious relationship has passed into history.
Against this background of increased politicization, the impact of current changes on the three aspects of the chief officer role is examined: as professional adviser, as departmental manager and as a 'bureaucratic politician'. Finally, some of the changes that have been proposed to ease this crisis for chief officers are discussed.