Effects of face-to-face restorative justice on victims of crime in four randomized,controlled trials

The growing use of restorative justice provides a major opportunity for experimental criminology and evidence-based policy. Face-to-face meetings led by police officers between crime victims and their offenders are predicted to reduce the harm to victims caused by the crime. This prediction is derived not only from the social movement for restorative justice, but also from the microsociology of interaction rituals (Collins, 2004). Four randomized, controlled trials of this hypothesis in London and Canberra, with point estimates disaggregated by gender, tested the prediction with measures of both successful interaction ritual (apologies received and their perceived sincerity) and the hypothesized benefits of the ritual (on forgiveness of, and reduced desire for violent revenge against, offenders, and victim self-blame for the crime). The meta-analyses of the eight point estimates suggest success (as victims define it) of restorative justice as an interaction ritual, and as a policy for reducing harm to victims.     

Urban and rural differences in the relationship between substance use and violence

This article examines the relationship between substance use and violence across rural-urban and Appalachian places of residence. The data come from a larger study on the health service use of 637 men who have a history of chronic substance abuse and who were incarcerated in four Kentucky prisons. The findings generally support previous research on substance use and violence but do not support Fischer's (1995) subculture theory of urbanism. Contrary to expectations, the population size of the prisoners' residence was not significantly associated with the prisoners' levels of violent victimization, violence toward others, violence toward intimate partners, or overall violence in the year prior to incarceration. Appalachian residency was also not associated with violence. Recognizing that the effect of substance use on violence perpetrated against others does not vary significantly by urban or rural residence may be helpful for designing violence prevention programs and planning law enforcement efforts.     

Fatal bupivacaine intoxication following unusual erotic practices

A fatal drug overdose is described which involved unusual erotic practices. A 54-year-old male was discovered supine on the floor surrounded by sexual paraphernalia, syringes, and medications including three empty bottles of bupivacaine. Acute and chronic injection sites of the external genitalia with contusions, scarring, focal necrosis, and calcification were present at autopsy. Toxicology revealed femoral blood, heart blood, and vitreous bupivacaine concentrations of 3.8, 2.8 and 1.3 mg/L, respectively. The urine bupivacaine concentration was 11.4 mg/L. The cause of death was attributed to bupivacaine intoxication and the manner of death was accidental.     

HAVA and the States

Two major events—the 2000 vote counting crisis in Floridaand passage of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) in October 2002—spawneda wave of federal, state, and local policy innovation and policyimplementation. The major effect of the Florida crisis was anationwide effort to analyze information on elections and todebate policy solutions. Subsequently, HAVA, the first majorelection law in U.S. history that includes federal funds forelection equipment and operations, had a more substantial effecton policy innovation and implementation. Both before and afterHAVA, election law changes have been affected by partisan considerations,policy analyses, and entrepreneurial leadership. Thus far, HAVAhas positively affected election administration, though administrativepractices and their effectiveness vary across and within thestates.     

The Northern League: the Self–representation of Industrial Districts in their Search for Regional Power

The 1996 political elections have confirmed the electoral importance and stability of the Northern League in the North–east of Italy. The party's strongholds are located in 'industrial districts', specific socio–economic areas where local communities and small and medium businesses merge. This paper argues that the resilience and indeed increasing success of the League in these northern areas since its appearance in the 1980s can be explained largely on the basis of their industrial need to move towards a regional representation and organisation, capable of providing the services required by an increasingly competitive market.     

The Deductibility of State and Local Taxes

President Reagan's tax reform proposals of May 1985 recommendedeliminating the deduction of state and local taxes in computingfederal taxable income. Arguments for and against deductibilityappeal to equity for taxpayers facing levies from multiple governmentsand to concern for the roles and responsibilities of governmentsin a federal system. Intense criticism and lobbying againstthe president's proposal was spearheaded by New York. The debatewas soon recast to emphasize the impact of change on other states,especially in the Northeast and Midwest, and the potential widespreadnegative effects on government services, especially education.The broadened base of opposition to change was sufficient tosustain deductibility in the bill passed by the House of Representativesin December 1985, illustrating that a cohesive lobbying effortinvoking the concept of federalism as a partnership can be fashionedby appealing to states on the basis of the negative consequencesof change.     

Reviews

Harry Eckstein, Frederic J. Fleron, Erik P. Hoffmann & William M. Reisinger with Richard Ahl, Russell Bova & Philip G. Roeder, Can Democracy Take Root in Post‐Soviet Russia? Explorations in State‐Society Relations. Lanham: Rowan & Littlefield Publishers, 1998, xi + 418 pp., $64.00 h/b, $21.95 p/b.

Barnett R. Rubin & Jack Snyder (eds), Post‐Soviet Political Order. Conflict and State Building, London: Routledge, 1998, xi + 201 pp., £15.99.

Ben Fowkes (ed.), Russia and Chechnia: The Permanent Crisis. Essays on Russo‐Chechen Relations. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1998, viii+ 188 pp., £42.50.

Anatol Lieven, Chechnya: Tombstone of Russian Power. London: Yale University Press, 1998, xii + 436 pp., £25.00.

Sebastian Smith, Allah's Mountains: Politics and War in the Russian Caucasus. London: I. B. Tauris, 1998, x + 288 pp., £19.95.

Taras Kuzio, Ukraine: Nation and State Building. London: Routledge, 1998, xiv + 298 pp., £50.00.

Lutz Hoffmann & Axel Siedenberg (eds), Aufbruch in die Marktwirtschaft. Reformen in der Ukraine von innen betrachtet. Frankfurt/New York: Campus Verlag, 1997, 296 pp.

OECD, OECD Economic Surveys. Russian Federation 1997. Paris: Centre for Co‐operation with the Economies in Transition and OECD, 1997, x + 275 pp.

Arista Maria Cirtautas, The Polish Solidarity Movement. Revolution, Democracy and Natural Rights. London: Routledge, 1997, xii + 324 pp., £50.00.

David Stark & Laszlo Bruszt, Postsocialist Pathways: Transforming Politics and Property in East Central Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998, xi + 284 pp., £15.95.

Jon Elster, Claus Offe & Ulrich K. Preuss with Frank Boenker, Ulrike Goetting & Friedbert W. Rueb, Institutional Design in Post‐Communist Societies, Rebuilding the Ship at Sea. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998, xii + 350 pp., £14.95.

Daniel Vaughan‐Whitehead (ed.), Paying the Price. The Wage Crisis in Central and Eastern Europe. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1998, xxviii + 418 pp., £55.00.

David Clapham, József Hegedüs, Keith Kintrea & Iván Tosics with Helen Kay (eds), Housing Privatization in Eastern Europe. London: Greenwood Press, 1996, xiii + 205 pp., £42.50.

Fergus Carr (ed.), Europe: The Cold Divide. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1998, xii + 208 pp., £42.50.

Ian Anthony (ed.), Russia and the Arms Trade. Oxford, Oxford University Press and Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, 1998, xiv + 304 pp., £35.00.

Hannes Adomeit, Imperial Overstretch: Germany in Soviet Policy from Stalin to Gorbachev. Baden‐Baden: Nomos, 609 pp., DM69.00.

Yongjin Zhang & Rouben Azizian (eds), Ethnic Challenges Beyond Borders: Chinese and Russian Perspectives of the Central Asian Conundrum. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1998, xii + 240 pp., £42.50.

R. J. Crampton, Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century—and After. Second Edition. London: Routledge, 1997, xx + 526 pp., £50.00.

Richard & Ben Crampton, Atlas of Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century. London: Routledge, 1997, xv + 297 pp., £16.99.

Jeffrey L. Roberg, Soviet Science Under Control: The Struggle for Influence. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1998, xii + 169 pp., £42.50.

Vincent Barnett, Kondratiev and the Dynamics of Economic Development. Long Cycles and Industrial Growth in Historical Context. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1998, xiv + 251 pp., £50.00.

Ronald Kowalski, The Russian Revolution 1917–1921. London: Routledge, 1997, xv + 269 pp., £13.99.

Arto Luukkanen, The Religious Policy of the Stalinist State. A Case Study: The Central Standing Commission on Religious Questions, 1929–1938. Helsinki: SHS, 1997, 214 pp.

J. Otto Pohl, The Stalinist Penal System: A Statistical History of Soviet Repression and Terror, 1930–1953. London: Macfarland, 1997, ix + 165 pp. £31.50.

Judith Pallot, Transforming Peasants: Society, State and the Peasantry, 1861–1930. Selected Papers from the Fifth World Congress of Central and East European Studies, Warsaw, 1995. Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1998, xix + 264 pp., £45.00.

Amy C. Singleton, No Place Like Home. The Literary Artist and Russia's Search for Cultural Identity. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997, x + 193 pp, $17.95.

Stephen C. Hutchings. Russian Modernism: The Transfiguration of the Everyday. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997, xiii + 295 pp., £40.00.