The new outlawry and Foucault’s Panoptic nightmare

Michel Foucault seized upon Bentham’s “Panopticon” prison design as a metaphor to illustrate the mechanisms of social control in post-industrial society. In our recent rush to invent alternatives to incarceration, we have created a new and burgeoning class of outlaws, persons for whom privacy is not a legally cognizable right. Combined with Supreme Court decisions finding surveillance of even innocent citizens to be constitutionally benign, our well-intentioned efforts to reduce prison populations are close to bringing Foucault’s metaphor to literal reality.     

Perceived Support and Internalizing Symptoms in African American Adolescents: Self-Esteem and Ethnic Identity as Mediators

Existing research leaves a gap in explaining why African American adolescents do not exhibit more anxiety and depression than other youth, at the same time that they experience more contextual risk factors. The current study examined the roles of social support as well as possible mediators self-esteem and ethnic identity (sense of belonging to one’s ethnic group) in reducing internalizing symptoms in 227 African American adolescents (mean age = 12.55). Structural equation models indicated that self-esteem and ethnic identity partially mediated the relation between social support and depression. For depression, ethnic identity accounted for more of the social support effect for males, whereas self-esteem had more impact for females. The mediation model for anxiety was supported in females, with self-esteem more important than ethnic identity. The results suggest that ethnic identity and self-esteem function as important links in how social support reduces internalizing symptoms in African American youth. Assistant Professor, Clinical Psychology, Loyola University Chicago. Received Ph.D. in Psychology from The University of Memphis. Current interests include coping and resilience in African American youth and the role of family characteristics in children and adolescents’ stress and coping processes. Teaching Associate, School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University. Received Ph.D. in Psychology from University of Rhode Island. Research interests include ethnic identity in African American youth and the effects of exposure to violence on well-being. Assistant Professor, Human Development and Social Policy, Northwestern University. Received Ph.D. in Psychology from University of California, Riverside. Primary research examines the nature and effects of socialization, father’s involvement, and how they interact with gender, race, and SES to impact youths’ academic and social development. Professor, Clinical and Developmental Psychology, Loyola University Chicago. Received Ph.D. in Human Development from the University of Chicago. Current research interests include the developmental stage of adolescence with a focus on the daily experience of urban African American young adolescents and how this relates to their psycho- social well being. Dr. Richards served as a Predoctoral Adolescent Fellow (1979–1981) and Postdoctoral Adolescent Fellow (1984–1985) at the Clinical Research Training Program in Adolescence in Chicago, IL, which was co-directed by Dr. Daniel Offer., Loyola University Chicago, 6525 N. Sheridan Rd., Chicago, IL, 60626 USA Visiting Professor, Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs; President, University of Minnesota and Global Philanthropy Alliance. Received Ph.D. in Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistical Analysis from the University of Chicago. Research interest is in adolescent development. Dr. Petersen served as Coordinator of the Clinical Research Training Program in Adolescence (1978–1982) and Associate Director (1976–80) and Director (1980–82) of the Laboratory for the Study of Adolescence at Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center (Chicago, IL) where Dr. Daniel Offer served as Director of the Department of Psychiatry. Dr. Petersen and Dr. Offer collaborated on numerous research papers while working together at Michael Reese Hospital., University of Minnesota and Global Philanthropy Alliance USA     

Foreign Policy Analysis: British and American Orientations and Methodologies

This paper is concerned with examining the extent to which there is a geographical divide in the academic study of foreign policy analysis. Accepting that there are diverse approaches to that study in the academic communities of the United States and the United Kingdom, this paper argues that it is possible to distinguish between two ideal-types, each exemplified in one of the two communities. This paper outlines these–an American approach based on a desire to construct general theories of foreign policy behaviour, and a British approach which stresses the need for casestudies and eschews the possibility of general theory. The reasons for the development of these two approaches are then discussed, linking the study of foreign policy to the wider political arena, and the general academic orientation of the two countries. Finally, it assesses the possibility of arriving at a synthesis of the two approaches.     

Forensic comparison of soils by bacterial community DNA profiling

This preliminary investigation has shown that a soil microbial community DNA profile can be obtained from the small sample of soil recovered from the sole of a shoe, and from soil stains on clothing. We have also shown that these profiles are representative of the site of collection and therefore could potentially be used as associative evidence to prove a link between suspects and crime scenes. Soil community profiles were obtained using the T-RFLP fingerprinting method that uses fluorescent primer technology and semi-automated analysis techniques similar to those used in human DNA profiling in forensic laboratories.