Parent-adolescent separation: The role of parental divorce

Previous research has identified Emotional Separation and Personal Control as two sets of home leaving indicators that are associated, respectively with relatively troubled and relatively untroubled parent-adolescent separation. As expected, among late adolescent males, parental divorce was highly related to endorsement of Emotional Separation as an important composite indicator of having left home. For females, being a firstborn was associated with endorsing Personal Control as an important composite indicator of home-leaving. Findings were interpreted as supporting previous research which has indicated that males experience more adjustment problems after parental divorce than females.Received Ph.D. from Michigan State University. Current research interests are parent-adolescent separation and perceptions of loneliness.Received Ph.D. from Michigan State University. Current research interests are adolescent-parent separation and evaluation research.     

Feminists and femininity: A case-study of WSPU propaganda and local response at a Scottish by-election

This article examines the attitudes towards femininity expressed by the WSPU speakers at the 1907 Aberdeen by-election and the response these attitudes elicited from Aberdonians. Although the evidence suggests that a majority of the local population accepted the WSPU's demand for votes (for tax-paying women only) on the grounds of equality, the WSPU felt a need to emphasize the expediency of its proposal. In order to argue that such an extension of the franchise would benefit all women WSPU speakers emphasized the priority of sex over all other social divisions but deliberately accepted the specific differences assumed in popular concepts of ‘femininity’ rather than drawing attention to the male ideology and social institutions in which such definitions originated. Some of the imputed feminine attributes which led Aberdeen men and women of all classes to accept the popular stereotype of domestic woman are examined, as are the difficulties the WSPU encountered because its campaigning activities clashed with its own concept of woman, a difficulty shared by other women's association in Aberdeen.     

From trust on intimacy: A new inventory for examining erikson's stages of psychosocial development

A new inventory for examining the first six of Erikson's psychosocial stages is described. The self-report questionnaire, developed in a pilot study of 97 adolescents and tested in a study of 622 adolescents, has 12 items for each subscale. Measures of reliability and validity are reported. It is concluded that the Erikson Psychosocial Stage Inventory (EPSI) is a useful measure for researchers interested in development from early adolescence and in mapping changes as a function of life events.This research was supported by a grant from the Education Research and Development Committee.Received Ph.D. from University of Melbourne. Current research interests are adolescent adjustment, ethnicity, and sex-role psychology.Received Ph.D. from University of Melbourne. Current research interests are effects of unemployment and adolescent adjustment.Received Ph.D. from Florida State University. Current research interests are sex-role psychology and adolescence.     

Civil liability of private security: Enforcer of moral obligations to right legal wrongs

The private security industry in the United States now has approximately twice as many personnel as does the public police. Private Security personnel have authority over the liberty, and sometimes the lives, of customers and employees. Often they exercise this awesome responsibility with little if any background and training. In most instances private security personnel are not considered law officers or peace officers and are, therefore, not bound by the same rules and regulations that apply to public police. More and more frequently, untrained or minimally trained, and basically unqualified security officers are taking actions against customers and employees which are excessive and unreasonable. Without the Constitutional protections which would be available if the act were committed by a public police officer, the only recourse for a private individual against reckless and wanton conduct on the part of private security personnel is a civil action, seeking compensation for the inconvenience caused or injuries received. The courts have found that companies and their security personnel have an obligation to be reasonable in their investigations of suspected criminal violations by employees and customers. Failure to conduct a proper and reasonable investigation will open the individual directing the investigation, and the company authorizing it, to liabililty for the injury their improper actions have caused. Civil liability suits have become the moral enforcer for improper and excessive conduct by private security personnel.     

Entrapped on the Web? Applying the Entrapment Defense to Cases Involving Online Sting Operations

Many law enforcement agencies are currently responding to the problem of online crime by establishing proactive investigative units that track criminals on the Internet. Not only do these specialized teams face problems in the area of emerging technology, they are also faced with handling emerging legal issues. The current research examined the issue of the entrapment defense, and how previously established physical realm doctrine could be applied to the investigation of online crimes such as child pornography. Relying on previous case law it would appear that entrapment claims related to online sting operations involve consideration of: a) did the law enforcement officer continuously contact the suspect with the intention of trying to convince the individual to engage in a particular type of behavior, b) how long was the relationship between the undercover officer and the suspect, and c) how much, if any, reluctance to commit the criminal act did the suspect provide evidence of?     

Toxicology and Circumstances of Completed Suicide by Means Other than Overdose*

Abstract: To determine the prevalence and circumstances of psychoactive substances amongst nonoverdose completed suicide, 1436 consecutive cases autopsied at the NSW Department of Forensic Medicine over the period 1/1/1997–12/31/2006 were analyzed. Substances were detected in 67.2% of cases, and illicit drugs in 20.1%. Alcohol was present in 40.6% of cases. Males were more likely to be positive for alcohol, cannabis, and psychostimulants, and females for pharmaceuticals. Illicits were associated with younger age. Alcohol was most prominent amongst toxicity cases, as were opioids, psychostimulants amongst gunshot cases, and pharmaceuticals amongst drownings. Cases in which drug and alcohol histories were noted were more likely to have a substance detected. Alcohol was more common where a suicide note was left and where relationship problems were involved. Pharmaceuticals were more common where a previous attempt was noted. Licit and illicit substances are strongly associated with suicide, even when the method does not involve drug overdose.     

Buddhism,Mindfulness, and Transformative Politics

This article examines whether the American cultural phenomena of the practice of Buddhism or the Buddhism-derived technique of mindfulness are likely to be helpful to the political left. It summarizes the central teachings of the ancient Buddhist texts, with particular focus on the issues of mindfulness and politics. It also reviews the political history of Buddhist countries. The author argues that although modern Buddhism has shed its historical embrace of absolutist monarchy in favor of republicanism, and although there is some ideological overlap between Buddhism and the American Left, Buddhism in America is too small a movement for it to be of much significance for progressive politics. Mindfulness appears to be capable of becoming a much larger phenomenon, but its separation from its Buddhist origins makes it also unlikely to be strategically important for the Left.     

From Reflection to Refraction: Rethinking Paradigms of Cultural Interaction and Identity in Peru and Mexico

This article explores the construction and reworking of paradigms of culture contact and identity by social scientists and cultural critics in response to contradictory sociocultural experiences of modernity in Peru and Mexico. It seeks to do so in the context of calls made by the Peruvian critic Antonio Cornejo Polar for greater historicism and critical thinking about these, and the concern that this appeal has since generated in the field of Latin American Cultural Studies. Focusing first on the postcolonial, ideologically driven model of 'mestizaje', the article then traces continuities and discontinuities between it and latter–day thinking about cultural pluralism.