Factor similarity of the Conflict Tactics Scales across samples,spouses, and sites: Issues and implications

Wide variations in prevalence estimates of marital aggression point to the absence of a uniform and adequate definition of marital aggression. To focus on the construct validity of Straus' (1979) Conflict Tactics Scales, the most frequently used measure of marital aggression, two studies were conducted. Based on responses to the Conflict Tactics Scales, two consistent factors (viz. Physical and Psychological Aggression) emerged in separate samples of 187 couples seeking therapy for marital problems, and 398 nonclinic couples in beginning marriages. The factor structure was consistent across clinic and nonclinic samples, sex, geographical sites, time, and socioeconomic status. Implications for the measurement of interspousal physical aggression are raised (e.g., mild, moderate, and severe aggression load on the same factor) and appropriate directions for further research on the construct validity of the Conflict Tactics Scales are suggested (e.g., conducting similar factor analyses on aggressive couples).     

Evidence that "vaginal peptidase" is a bacterial gene product

A peptidase has been described in vaginal samples, termed "vaginal peptidase." This enzyme has been proposed as a tissue specific marker for vaginal debris. We have explored the presence of this enzyme in vaginal swabs from alleged sexual assault victims and volunteer donors as well as bacterial cultures. These studies reveal that "vaginal peptidase" is composed of a family of peptidase isozymes that originate from several bacterial species. The characterization of "vaginal peptidase" as a tissue specific marker for vaginal debris is premature.     

How Their Laws Affect our Laws: Mechanisms of Immigration Policy Diffusion in the Americas, 1790–2010

Why do laws become similar across countries? Is the adoption of similar laws and policies due to factors operating independently within each country? Do countries develop similar rules in response to similar challenges? Or is the similarity of laws and policies due to the interdependent responses that scholars have referred to as processes of policy convergence, transfer, and diffusion? We draw on an analysis of immigration and nationality laws of 22 countries throughout the Western Hemisphere from 1790 to 2010, and of seven case studies of national and international policymaking, to show that policies are often interdependent, even in the domain of immigration law, which scholars have presumed to be relatively immune to external influence. We argue that specific mechanisms of diffusion explain the rise of racist immigration policies in the Americas, their subsequent decline, and the rise of an anti‐discriminatory norm for policies. Most striking among our findings is that at key junctures after 1940, weaker countries effectively advanced an anti‐discriminatory policy agenda against the desires of world powers. We identify the conditions under which weaker countries were able to reach their goals despite opposition from world powers.     

The Managerial Ombudsman

This article identifies a major development in the role and practice of the ombudsman. It argues that the New Public Management practices that have transformed public administration in the last 30 years have led to a more managerial approach to the ombudsman's work. The article's argument is developed through analysis of an empirical case study of the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman, which illustrates how the aims and techniques of managerialism have been deployed in the ombudsman context. The article evaluates the significance of these developments for the ombudsman institution and for the wider justice system. It examines the risks and opportunities inherent in this turn to managerialism and whether it represents a departure from the ombudsman's mission or a necessary adaptation to a changed world of public administration. In identifying the rise of the ‘managerial ombudsman’, the article provides a new framework for conceptualising developments in the modern ombudsman institution.