The Effect of School Dropout on Verbal Ability in Adulthood: A Propensity Score Matching Approach

Compared to high school graduates, adolescents who drop out of school are more likely to have a range of negative outcomes, including lower verbal capacities; however, the true nature of this association is not well-understood. Dropping out of school could have an important effect on reducing verbal skills, or the link between dropping out of school and diminished verbal skills could be a spurious association that is the result of unmeasured confounding variables. The current study tested these two competing perspectives by using propensity-score-matching (PSM) to unpack the association between school dropout and verbal skills among 7,317 respondents from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (51% female, 49% male; 62% Caucasian, 38% minority). The results of the PSM models indicated a small yet meaningful statistically significant effect of dropout on verbal skills in adulthood even after taking into account a range of confounders. We conclude by discussing the implications of our results.     

Federal Criminal Careers: an Empirical Examination of the Post-Conviction Risk Assessment (PCRA)

The criminal career paradigm is a major research area but has largely overlooked federal offenders and federal data. Drawing on a population of federal supervised release clients in the Midwestern United States, the current study examined the predictive validity of the federal Post-Conviction Risk Assessment (PCRA) and its subscales for their association with six parameters of the criminal career. Poisson, negative binomial, and logistic regression models showed that PCRA Risk was significantly associated with annual offending rate (lambda), chronicity, prison misconduct, noncompliance on supervised release, having a warrant requested on supervised release, and career criminal status. Various PCRA subscales also were significantly associated with criminal career outcomes especially for current community supervision outcomes. These effects withstood confounding effects for age, sex, race, age of arrest onset, federal criminal history rank, and total prison exposure. The study supported basic criminal career findings using federal data and showed that a standard risk assessment actuarial in the federal system has utility as an indicator of the criminal career.     

The value of manufacturing extension programs in America

This article reviews the importance of manufacturing to the U.S. economy, presents indicators of performance for the U.S. manufacturing sector, examines the lagging performance of small and midsize manufacturing establishments, and supports manufacturing extension initiatives as a means for improving small firm performance and spurring U.S. economic growth. Dan Luria of the Industrial Technology Institute, Jack Russell of the Modernization Forum, Carol Lessure of the Modernization Forum and Chris Heye of Nexus Associates contributed to the development of this paper.     

The imprisoned nonviolent drug offender: Specialized martyr or versatile career criminal?

Some observers oppose imprisoning nonviolent drug offenders because they view incarceration as costly and such persons as generally benign. The careercriminal literature has established that perpetrators, including drug violators, commit an array of offenses. The current study merges these debates using a sample of 500 arrested adults selected from an urban jail in the western United States. Drug offenders amassed a much more extensive arrest history than other suspects net the effects of age, race, sex, prison history, and arrest onset. Drug offenders are quite versatile and do not conform to the image of specialized violators who are nominally criminal.     

Psychopathy among condemned capital murderers

Psychopathy is an important forensic mental health construct. Despite this importance, the research base of psychopathy among individuals convicted of capital murder is limited. Archival data were collected from a sample of 636 persons convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in the State of California. Psychopathy was assessed using the Psychopathy Checklist – Revised (PCL-R) instrument. Data on criminal careers and other behavioral disorders were also extracted. The sample mean PCL-R total score was 23.31 (SD = 9.92) and one-third of individuals in this sample were considered clinically psychopathic with PCL-R total scores of 30 or greater. Factor analytic examination yielded support for four facets: affective, interpersonal, lifestyle, and antisocial. Criterion validity findings revealed positive correlations of psychopathy scores with Antisocial Personality Disorder (ρ = 0.72), Conduct Disorder (ρ = 0.46), sexual sadism (ρ = 0.24), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ρ = 0.20), ADHD (ρ = 0.15), arrest charges (r = 0.56), prison sentences (r = 0.53), and age of arrest onset (r = −0.57). Individuals convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death reflect heterogeneity in psychopathy with some individuals exhibiting pronounced psychopathic features.     

Referendums on Membership and European Integration 1972–2015

There are many myths about referendums. The most common one is that voters are inherently sceptical and tend to vote no when given the opportunity. This article analyses some of the commonly held ‘truths’ about referendums on EU matters. Based on a statistical analysis of all forty‐three EU‐related referendums since 1972, it shows that governments tend to lose referendums if they have been in office for a long time, that emotive words on the ballot paper are correlated with a high yes vote and that a high turnout is correlated with a vote against European integration, but campaign spending is inconsequential. Based solely on statistical evidence from the previous forty‐three referendums, the opponents of EU membership will win the Brexit referendum.     

Multiple murder and criminal careers: A latent class analysis of multiple homicide offenders

PurposeTo construct an empirically rigorous typology of multiple homicide offenders (MHOs).MethodThe current study conducted latent class analysis of the official records of 160 MHOs sampled from eight states to evaluate their criminal careers.ResultsA 3-class solution best fit the data (?2LL = ?1123.61, Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) = 2648.15, df = 81, L² = 1179.77). Class 1 (n = 64, class assignment probability = .999) was the low-offending group marked by little criminal record and delayed arrest onset. Class 2 (n = 51, class assignment probability = .957) was the severe group that represents the most violent and habitual criminals. Class 3 (n = 45, class assignment probability = .959) was the moderate group whose offending careers were similar to Class 2.ConclusionA sustained criminal career with involvement in versatile forms of crime was observed for two of three classes of MHOs. Linkages to extant typologies and recommendations for additional research that incorporates clinical constructs are proffered.     

Uneven and combined confusion: on the geopolitical origins of capitalism and the rise of the west

This article offers a critique of Alexander Anievas and Kerem Ni?ancio?lu’s How the West came to rule: the geopolitical origins of capitalism. We argue that while all historiography features a number of silences, shortcomings or omissions, the omissions in How the West came to rule lead to a mistaken view of the emergence of capitalism. There are two main issues to be confronted. First, we argue that Anievas and Ni?ancio?lu have an inadequate and misleading understanding of “capital” and “capitalism” that tilts them towards a theoretical stance that comes very close to arguing that everything caused capitalism while at the same time having no clear and convincing definition of “capital” or “capitalism”. Second, there are at least three omissions—particular to England/Britain within a geopolitical context—that should be discussed in any attempt to explain the development of capitalism: the financial revolution and the Bank of England; the transition to coal energy; and the capitalization of state power as it relates to war, colonialism and slavery. We conclude by calling for a connected-histories approach within the framework of capital as power.