(MIS)Representing risk: Headline accounts of HIV-related assaults

The news media construct order by defining which events are sig-nificant and interpreting these events for the public. Sometimes, though, the media distort reality. The current study focuses on the media exaggeration of the threat posed by nonsexual HIV-related assaults. Although such assaults are widely perceived as serious threats, the likelihood of HIV being transmitted through a biting, spitting, or needlestick incident is quite small. Based on news accounts culled from 17 of the largest newspapers in the United States, the findings illustrate how headlines rely upon sensational language, negative stereotyping of offenders, and the cloak of “neutral and objective” court decisions to articulate a sense of order and morality while simultaneously exaggerating the threat people with HIV pose to the general public.     

What Difference Does a Robe Make? Comparing Mediators with and without Prior Judicial Experience

This article reports the results of two studies. The first study, based on the responses of attorneys to questions about the reasons for the success of mediators with and without prior judicial experience, shows that the capacity of the mediator to gain the confidence of the disputants was most important for mediators with and without prior judicial experience. Although certain process skills were viewed as important to the success of both former judges and nonjudges, in general, process skills were significantly more important for nonjudges than for former judges. The capacity to provide useful case evaluations, on the other hand, was significantly more important for former judges than for nonjudges. The second study, based upon attorney responses to questions about unsatisfactory mediators, reinforced the conclusions of the first study regarding the importance of confidence-building attributes. For both judges and nonjudges, the mediator's inability to gain the confidence of the parties was a major reason for his or her lack of success.     

Patronage and Rationalization: Reform to Criminal Procedure and the Lower Courts in Chile

This article analyzes how the lower criminal courts in Chile transitioned from an inquisitorial to an adversarial justice system between 2000 and 2005 as part of the Criminal Procedure Reform. Drawing on the frame analysis of the street‐level bureaucracy and judicial ethnography, I examine the transition between two different types of judicial bureaucracy from the perspective of the actors who implemented the reform. The study is based on in‐depth interviews with officials and judges of both inquisitorial and adversarial courts, administrative managers of the new courts, and actors who designed the administrative reorganization of lower criminal courts. The study involved a three‐month, weekly observation in an inquisitorial court in Santiago de Chile. The article emphasizes the specificity of the Chilean judiciary, where both inquisitorial and adversarial criminal courts still coexist.     

Pedagogy of the Logic Model: Teaching Undergraduates to Work Together to Change Their Communities

Undergraduate community psychology courses can empower students to address challenging problems in their local communities. Creating a logic model is an experiential way to learn course concepts by “doing.” Throughout the semester, students work with peers to define a problem, develop an intervention, and plan an evaluation focused on an issue of concern to them. This report provides an overview of how to organize a community psychology course around the creation of a logic model in order for students to develop this applied skill. Two undergraduate student authors report on their experience with the logic model assignment, describing the community problem they chose to address, what they learned from the assignment, what they found challenging, and what they are doing now in their communities based on what they learned.     

Soft Power: A Comparison of Discourse and Practice in Russia and China

This article compares soft power as a normative and operational construct in the Russian and Chinese political context. I examine Russian and Chinese discourse on soft power as well as the efforts of the Kremlin and Beijing to devise programmes for its implementation. I then compare and evaluate the similarities and differences in Russian and Chinese soft power strategy. The similarities between the two states indicate their joint status as authoritarian regimes with a Marxist–Leninist heritage. The differences can be attributed to their vastly disparate economic circumstances, but also to historical, social, and political factors that influence soft power policies.