Advances in Place-Based Methods: Editors’ Introduction

Journal of Quantitative Criminology -     

Yes we can! Valence politics and electoral choice in America, 2008

The claim that the 2008 presidential election was a transformative one is fast becoming part of the conventional wisdom of American politics. Despite the election’s undoubted significance, this paper argues that factors affecting voting decisions were strikingly similar to those operating in many previous presidential elections. Using data from the CCAP six-wave national election survey, we demonstrate that a valence politics model provides a powerful, parsimonious explanation of the ballot decisions Americans made in 2008. As is typical in presidential elections, candidate images had major effects on electoral choice. Controlling for several other relevant factors, racial attitudes were strongly associated with how voters reacted to the candidates. Other models of electoral choice, such as a Downsian issue-proximity model, are also relevant, but their explanatory power is considerably less than that provided by the valence politics model.     

Establishing Tobacco Origin from Pollen Identification: An Approach to Resolving the Debate

Previous research into pollen content of tobacco resulted in a debate. We address this debate and determine that pollen analysis may be able to assist with identifying geographical origin of tobacco. However, the value of any results should be assessed on a case‐by‐case regional basis until sufficient database information is available for an objective interpretation to be undertaken on a global basis. As a first step toward developing comparative data for South America, we analyzed a tobacco sample from Brazil in an effort to identify signature taxa from the state of Minas Gerais. We also assessed the role of honey additives to tobacco to assess this issue. Comparing the data to previously published data, we conclude that pollen signatures can distinguish broad geographic areas. We conclude that this forensic interpretation framework needs to be developed in context of the National Academy of Sciences recommendations for tightening methods in forensic science.     

Differentiating winners: How elections affect satisfaction with democracy

Previous research indicates that supporting a winning party in an election boosts satisfaction with democracy, but does not fully or adequately test the mechanisms behind this relationship. Using original survey data, we make a contribution on three fronts. First, we inquire what winning (or losing) an election really means in terms of the performance of one’s preferred party. Second, we employ panel data, which helps to determine whether an election outcome truly impacts satisfaction levels. Third, we examine the breadth of electoral victory, testing whether the satisfaction boost from a regional victory extends to the national and supranational levels. Findings indicate that the inclusion of one’s selected party in government is the most important factor for satisfaction with democracy, which attests to the importance of policy considerations in engendering satisfaction. In addition, winning a regional election strengthens satisfaction beyond the regional level, which indicates that the mere experience of being a “winner” also works to increase satisfaction.     

Is there a “common law” of responsibility?

Contrary to common expectations and a good deal of legal folk wisdom, several surveys have failed to find group differences in the way people attribute responsibility and assign punishments. These nonfinding, suggest that there is a considerable degree of consensus about how to judge wrongdoing. The nature of this consensus is examined using survey data collected in two Japanese and one American cities. We examine the extent of group differences in the evaluation of inputs (here a set of hypothetical vignettes), decision rules, and punishments. The paper concludes with a discussion of the conceptual, theoretical, and methodological issues raised by these and similar findings of small group differences. Collectively, these three issues define, an agenda for future research on the nature and extent of a common law of responsibility.This is a revised version of a paper presented at the 1986 meeting of the Law and Society Association. The research was supported by seed funds from the Social Science Research Council and from the University of Michigan and by N.S.F. grant No. SOC 77-242918. Japanese data were gathered and analyzed with support from the Nihon Gakujutsu Shinkokai and Mombusho to the Japanese investigators: Yoko Hosoi, Zensuke Ishimura, Nozomu Matsubara, Haruo Nishimura, Nobuho Tomita, and Kazuhiko Tokoro. They have recently published a book on the project. (Ishimura et al., 1986).     

Reviews

Seyla Benhabib, Situating the Self: Gender, Community and Postmodernism in Contemporary Ethics (Polity Press) Cambridge, 1992.

Sneja Gunew and Anna Yeatman (eds), Feminism and the Politics of Difference (Allen & Unwin) Sydney, 1993.

Joyce Trebilcot, Dyke Ideas: Process, Politics, Daily Life (State University of New York Press) New York, 1994.

Paulina Palmer, Contemporary Lesbian Writing: Dreams, Desire, Difference (Open University Press) Buckingham & Philadelphia, 1993.

Catriona Moore, Indecent Exposures: Twenty Years of Australian Feminist Photography (Allen & Unwin) St Leonards, 1994.

Jeanette Hoorn (ed.), Strange Women: Essays in Art and Gender (Melbourne University Press) Melbourne, 1994.

Sharon Ouditt, Fighting Forces, Writing Women: Identity and Ideology in the First World War (Routledge) London, 1994.

Penny Russell (ed.), For Richer, For Poorer: Early Colonial Marriages (Melbourne University Press) Melbourne, 1994.

Jacqueline J. Goodnow and Jennifer M. Bowes, Men, Women and Household Work (Oxford University Press) Melbourne, 1994.

Janeen Baxter, Work at Home: The Domestic Division of Labour (University of Queensland Press) St Lucia, 1993.

Patricia Easteal, Voices of the Survivors (Spinifex Press) North Melbourne, 1994.

Lynette Finch, The Classing Gaze: Sexuality, Class and Surveillance (Allen & Unwin) St. Leonards, 1993.

Renate Howe (ed.), Women and the State: Australian Perspectives, A special edition of Journal of Australian Studies (La Trobe University Press) Bundoora, 1993.

Barbara Einhorn, Cinderella Goes to Market: Citizenship, Gender and Women's Movements in East Central Europe (Verso) London & New York, 1993.

Loulou Brown, Helen Collins, Pat Green, Maggie Humm & Mel Landells (eds), The International Handbook of Women's Studies (Harvester Wheatsheaf) Brighton, 1994.