List of referees: 1995–1996

List of referees: 1995–1996     

Getting a Job is Only Half the Battle: Maternal Job Loss and Child Classroom Behavior in Low-Income Families

This study uses data from an experimental employment program and instrumental variables (IV) estimation to examine the effects of maternal job loss on child classroom behavior. Random assignment to the treatment at one of three program sites is an exogenous predictor of employment patterns. Cross-site variation in treatment-control differences is used to identify the effects of employment levels and transitions. Under certain assumptions, this method controls for unobserved correlates of job loss and child well-being, as well as measurement error and simultaneity. IV estimates suggest that maternal job loss sharply increases problem behavior but has neutral effects on positive social behavior. Current employment programs concentrate primarily on job entry, but these findings point to the importance of promoting job stability for workers and their children.     

Sociodemographic and diagnostic characteristics of homicidal and nonhomicidal sexual offenders

The aims of this study were to compare the prevalence of psychiatric disorders and "psychopathy" in homicidal and nonhomicidal sexual offenders and to investigate the specificity of previous studies on psychiatric morbidity of a sample of sexual murderers. Information from court reports of 166 homicidal and 56 nonhomicidal sex offenders was evaluated using standardized instruments (SCID-II, PCL-R) and classification systems (DSM-IV). Sexual murderers were diagnosed more often with a personality disorder (80.1% vs. 50%; p < 0.001), especially schizoid personality disorder (16.3% vs. 5.4%; p < 0.05), as well as with sexual sadism (36.7% vs. 8.9%; p < 0.001) and sexual dysfunctions (21.7% vs. 7.1%; p < 0.05). Additionally, they had more often used alcohol during the offense (63.2% vs. 41%; p < 0.05). The results indicate that sexual murderers have more and a greater variety of psychiatric disorders when compared to nonhomicidal sex offenders.     

Communication,Politics, and the Notions of Martin Spencer

This essay calls attention to the work of sociologist Martin Spencer, who once offered an uncommon understanding of political communications in the United States. According to Spencer, public discourse not only propels action but constitutes action in and of itself on occasion. This means that political rhetoric can have both an injunctive effect on political actors and can also stand as a kind of completed “action” in its own right. The importance of these principles is examined here, and some of their implications are delineated.     

Islamism and Democracy in the Modern Maghreb

The literature on state autonomy has typically argued that the developmental state's weakness is accounted for by the relatively greater power of societal forces. The postulation of conflict between the state's purposes and partisan societal forces has been unable to shed much light on the enduring nature of the state-society duality. The literature on communitarianism has drawn attention to the multi-layered identities which underlie developing country politics and has underlined the efficacy of developmental action at the level of non-state actors. This article suggests that the community perspective can contribute towards a richer understanding of the state-society relationship than has been possible within the neo-statist paradigm. Without substituting community for the state, we need to modify at a broadly theoretical level the kind of macro-perspective, typical in comparative developmental studies, which adopts the physical boundaries of the state and its self-given developmental idiom, as the discipline's own conceptual boundaries.     

The dual and the exchange‐constrained economy

Nelson's model of the exchange‐constrained economy is compared with Eckaus's model of the dual economy. The purpose of this comparison is to illustrate the similarity of the models in explaining unemployment of one factor as the result of the composition of demand and the scarcity of a second factor. Both authors agree to this point. However, Nelson emphasises that unemployment arises from price rigidity while Eckaus maintains that technological limits of substitution are also important. Policy implications differ depending on whether Nelson's or Eckaus's assumptions are accepted. Currie has suggested that the redistribution of income may reduce unemployment in both circumstances.