Comparing the Effects of Treatment on Female Juvenile Gang and Non-Gang Members

Abstract

Most research indicates that males comprise the greatest proportion of gang members. Since the 1990s, however, there has been an increasing interest in female gangs and gang members. The current study builds on this research interest by examining differences between female gang members and non-gang members who participated in a juvenile probation program designed to identify and intervene with youth considered to be high risk for subsequent criminal and delinquent activity. The results of a logistic regression analysis revealed that two factors significantly influenced a female offender's likelihood of being rearrested: she did not complete the program, and she did not live with her natural parent(s). We conclude that the significant results do support findings from previous research in this area; we also discuss possible explanations as to why other factors were not significantly related to rearrests.     

Seasons of labor:

This article examines the place of occupational pluralism in the adaptive family economy of rural shipyard workers in nineteenth-century Weymouth, Nova Scotia. The concept of the adaptive family economy emphasizes that families attempt to maximize economic well-being by diversifying the employment opportunities of family members. For most shipyard workers, shipbuilding was a part-time activity that complemented seasonal farming and lumbering activities. The role of space, land ownership, and the characteristics of workers reveal certain economic and sociocultural features that are associated with pluralism, including larger family size, the use of land for farming and security of food production, and the importance of job location for participation in pluralist activities. These features stand more clearly revealed by examining them within the larger economic and cultural context of shipbuilding, farming, and lumbering in the Confederation era.     

The HOPE VI Program: What about the residents?

Abstract

During the 1990s, the federal government dramatically changed its policy on housing the poor. Under the HOPE VI (Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere) Program, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development intended to address the concentration of troubled low‐income households in public housing by moving away from its reliance on project‐based assistance and promoting instead the construction of mixed‐income housing and the use of housing subsidies.

This article presents important evidence from two systematic, multicity studies on how the original residents of HOPE VI developments have been affected by this radical new approach to public housing. While many residents have clearly benefited, the findings raise critical questions about whether the transformation of public housing will achieve its potential as a powerful force for improving the lives of low‐income families.     

'Fundamentalism', modernity and the new Jacobins

This paper offers an interpretaion of 'Islamic fundamentalism', especially the Iranian Revolution, in the context of sociological debates about 'modernity'. The problematic nature of both these terms is acknowledge. It criticizes explanations of 'fundamentalism' that begin from the assumption of a dichotomy between fundamentalism and modernity, arguing instead for a more nuanced understanding of both Islamic revivalism and the modern. The paper begins by offering a model of modernity as a set of bi-modal tensions within which Islamic 'fundamentalism' could be understood as a form of modernist revolutionary populism. This argument is then developed through a comparison betwen the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the Jacobin phase of the French Revolution. It argues that there are parallels between the idea of Islamic revolution and the Jacobin revolutionary imagination, which demonstrate with some observations on Islam, and the closure of the Jacobin revolutionary project.     

The Gautreaux Legacy: What Might Mixed‐Income and Dispersal Strategies Mean for the Poorest Public Housing Tenants?

Abstract

The current transformation of public and assisted housing reflects the legacy of the Gautreaux case, which created the first mobility and scattered‐site programs. Mixed‐income and dispersal strategies now dominate federal housing policy, although their focus has shifted. Drawing on evidence from two preliminary studies of public housing transformation in Chicago, we argue that these new strategies seem to offer benefits for distressed public housing communities but also involve risks for the most vulnerable current tenants. Increased screening and/or the need to compete with private market tenants may force these families out of the assisted housing market.

Addressing the complex needs of the most troubled public housing tenants will call for a more comprehensive solution. The intent of the Gautreaux case was to increase opportunity and enhance quality of life for public housing tenants; policy makers should take steps to ensure that current programs reflect these fundamental goals.     

External Validity in Policy Evaluations That Choose Sites Purposively

Evaluations of the impact of social programs are often carried out in multiple sites, such as school districts, housing authorities, local TANF offices, or One‐Stop Career Centers. Most evaluations select sites purposively following a process that is nonrandom. Unfortunately, purposive site selection can produce a sample of sites that is not representative of the population of interest for the program. In this paper, we propose a conceptual model of purposive site selection. We begin with the proposition that a purposive sample of sites can usefully be conceptualized as a random sample of sites from some well‐defined population, for which the sampling probabilities are unknown and vary across sites. This proposition allows us to derive a formal, yet intuitive, mathematical expression for the bias in the pooled impact estimate when sites are selected purposively. This formula helps us to better understand the consequences of selecting sites purposively, and the factors that contribute to the bias. Additional research is needed to obtain evidence on how large the bias tends to be in actual studies that select sites purposively, and to develop methods to increase the external validity of these studies. © 2012 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

Followership： The Forgotten Kingmaker for Effective Leadership

Extensive studies have been carried out and theories expounded on leadership, yet no agreement has been reached on both definition and standards of leadership. The researcher takes the view that all the effort put on the study of leadership should have been directed toward the study of＂followership＂. The characteristics and types of followers are central to the success of any leadership in the particular environment. In this study, followership is classified as voluntary and not coerced. The leadership would therefore depend on the nature of the followers and their expectations, meaning that followers predetermine the nature of leadership. Critical to this is the nature of the power used by the leader in relation to the power of the followers. A continuum of followership is constructed along the extremes of transactional and transformational leadership styles. The continuum is a useful tool and model for effective leadership, effective leadership is therefore dependent on the level of the maturity of the followers and the agreeableness and congruency between the leader and the followers. The article concludes that effectiveness of leadership is a direct result of the willingness of the followers to be led in that particular fashion. Broadly speaking, effective leadership styles are customised to meet the followers＇ demands and expectations.     

Increasing jurors' participation in trials

A field experiment is reported that examines the advantages and disadvantages of two juror participation procedures: Allowing jurors to take notes during the trial, and allowing jurors to direct questions to witnesses. The presence or absence of both procedures was randomly assigned to 34 civil and 33 criminal trials in Wisconsin circuit courts. Following the trials, questinnaires were administered to judges, lawyers, and jurors. Overall, no evidence is found to support the hypotheses that juror notetaking would serve as a useful memory aid, would assist the jury with recall of the judge's instructions, or would increase the jurors' confidence in their verdict. The hypothesis that juror notetaking would increase juror satisfaction with the trial was supported. None of the findings supported the conclusion that juror notetaking was distracting, that notetakers were overly influential during the deliberations, that the jurors' notes were inaccurate, that the notes favored the plaintiff, or that the notes heightened juror disagreement about the trial evidence. It was hypothesized, but not found, that allowing juror questions of witnesses would uncover important issues in the trial and would increase the jurors' satisfaction with the trial procedure. However, juror questions did serve to alleviate juror doubts about the trial testimony, and provided the lawyers with feedback about the jurors' perception of the trial. No evidence was found to support the expectations that juror questions would slow the trial, would upset the lawyers' strategy, or that the question-asking procedure would be a nuisance to the courtroom staff. Furthermore, the lawyers did not appear overly reluctant to object to inappropriate questions from jurors, and jurors did not report being embarassed or angry when their questions were objected to.Dispute Resolution Research Center, Northwestern University     

Stone v. Powell: The impact on state appellate court judges' perceptions

This study addresses the question of whether the United States Supreme Court decision of Stone v. Powell, 428 U.S. 465 (1976), has had a significant impact on the highest level state appellate courts. The study centered around a survey sent to every member of the highest appellate court hearing criminal appeals in each of the fifty states. The major finding of the research was that Stone v. Powell can be viewed along two dimensions: a narrow, substantive dimension applying the case as a Fourth Amendment exclusionary rule decision, or a broader, policy dimension of judicial federalism. It appears that, for the most part, state supreme courts have chosen to apply Stone v. Powell along the narrow, substantive dimension. Thus, state supreme courts have not assumed the position of equal partners with the federal courts in assuring adequate and appropriate disposition of federal claims.