Ego Identity Status as an Indicator of Peer Court Efficacy

Peer courts are an alternative to juvenile court, intended to provide less stigmatizing and more individually responsive dispositions for first‐time and early youthful offenders. This study examined the potential usefulness of assessing ego identity status for peer courts. Mailed surveys were sent to attendees of seven Utah peer courts who had their cases reviewed between August 1998 and January 1999. Thirty‐seven percent (N = 120) responded. Chi Square analysis showed that ego identity statuses were related to drug use and previous delinquent behavior, but not recidivism. Foreclosed status youths were statistically unlikely to recidivate, use drugs, and reported fewer previous offenses.     

CRIMINAL CHARGE OR PROBATION VIOLATION? PROSECUTORIAL DISCRETION AND IMPLICATIONS FOR RESEARCH IN CRIMINAL COURT PROCESSING*

Feeney et al. (1983) observe that arrests not resulting in convictions may nonetheless receive substantial punishment through reliance on alternative, less formal, means of imposing sanctions. Utilizing a sample of 1427 domestic violence cases supplemented by interviews with prosecutors, we analyze this phenomenon. We conclude that the majority of cases disposed by such means originate as new criminal charges, which are then rejected or dismissed in favor of resolution through use of the prosecutor's power to initiate probation violation hearings. In almost all instances, these cases result in a jail or prison sentence, underlining that outcomes such as “rejection” and “dismissal” are not synonymous with case termination. Failure to appreciate this distinction can lead to serious measurement error.     

MASCULINITY AND DELINQUENCY

A strong positive association between masculinity and delinquency is on important assumption in theories which explain why (1) males are more delinquent than females and (2) females are becoming increasingly delin-quent. Self-report measures obtained from 1002 junior and senior high school students from a large Southeastern city constitute the data for an examination of the first of these relationships. Factor analytic procedures were used to identify the components of masculinity: leadership, aggressive-ness, competitiveness, ambitiousness, and successfulness. Separate models of masculinity, opportunity, attachment to conventional others, and belief in the moral validity of low are constructed for status, property, and aggressive offenses. For females, masculinity has no direct effects on any type of delinquency. For males, masculinity is directly related only to status offenses. The results are inconsistent with analyses of females' delinquency that emphasize their adoption of masculine characteristics.     

"FOR THEIR OWN GOOD": CLASS INTERESTS AND THE CHILD SAVING MOVEMENT IN MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE, 1900–1917

This paper addresses the question of whether the "child saving" movement, a precursor of the modern juvenile justice system. was a benevolent movement to "save" delinquent youths or, as Platt (1977) contends, a class-based movement to extend social control to the children of the poor. Analysis of the child saving movement in Memphis, Tennessee, using historical data, provides support for the thesis advanced by Platt. The evidence collected here strongly suggests that it was the upper-class citizens who were in the forefront of the movement in Memphis. Also, social control was extended over a wide range of behavior (mostly noncriminal) of children and youths, particularly morals offenses and dependency/neglect cases. In Memphis the juvenile justice system was created to control and regulate the children of the poor, not to save them.     

Yellow versus Orange—Never a Fair Fight: An Assessment of Two Contributions to Liberal Politics Separated by Three-quarters of a Century

British Liberals have a thing about colours, especially yellow and orange. Two publications, separated by over seventy years and known by the colour of their respective covers, mark special periods in the history of British liberalism, times when liberals have appeared to be on the comeback trail. The article sets out to make the case that the authors of The Orange Book (published in 2004) have a great deal to learn from their liberal predecessors. Yellow Book liberalism was more radical, better informed and better matched to the most pressing political concerns of its day. It was also more open to arguments and ideas from those who had no particular allegiance to either the Liberal Party or to its political philosophy. Liberals, it is argued, need to be far more concerned about refashioning and revitalising liberalism than about reclaiming or reasserting their exclusive ownership of the fundament of liberal thought.