The CROSON decision and the demise of set-ASIDES: a national survey

This research examines the policy response to City of Richmond v. J.A. Croson Company and explores the impact of the decision on minority business enterprises (MBEs) one year after the decision was handed down. This is done by focusing on dollars spent on MBEs and on how localities differ based on region and percent minority population. For most of the cities studied, dollars spent on minority business enterprises had not declined one year after Croson. Various means of securing spending such as the disparity study and race/gender neutral goal progams explain why such is the case. The need for further study is cited in order to determine the impact of multi-year contracts and to see if race and gender neutral goal programs are as effective as “set-asides” in targeting minority as well as non-minority small businesses.     

A love of justice: the legal and political thought of William Godwin

William Godwin was one of the most highly regarded of late English Enlightenment radicals. Yet today, he remains one of the least appreciated, and least understood. The purpose of this article is to present a broad introduction to Godwin's legal and political thought, focusing both on his various political essays and novels, as well as his more renowned Enquiry Concerning Political Justice. It will be suggested, in conclusion, that the ‘species of anarchly’ which Godwin espoused resonates very particularly with contemporary debates surrounding the shape of a distinctive postmodern legal humanism.     

Evolutionary behavioural science and crime: Aetiological and intervention implications

In this paper, we argue that evolutionary behavioural science can be fruitfully applied to the explanation of criminal behaviour and subsequent interventions with offenders based on this understanding. First, we provide a brief overview of evolutionary theory and the three main approaches applied to the social and behavioural sciences, human behavioural ecology, evolutionary psychology, and gene‐culture co‐evolution theory. Second, we examine two examples of crimes that have been approached from an evolutionary standpoint, psychopathy, and rape. Third, we discuss four implications of adopting an evolutionary behavioural perspective for therapeutic and prevention work with offenders.     

Can we distinguish juvenile violent sex offenders, violent non-sex offenders, and versatile violent sex offenders based on childhood risk factors?

Understanding the developmental precursors of juvenile violent sex offending can contribute to the promotion of effective early intervention and prevention programs for high-risk children and youth. However, there is currently a lack of research on the early characteristics of adolescents who commit violent sex offenses. Drawing on the literature regarding the generalist and specialist positions of criminal behavior, the aim of the present study was to compare childhood risk factors for three groups of juvenile offenders: (a) pure sex offenders (PSO; n = 28); (b) violent non-sex offenders (VNSO; n = 172); and (c) versatile violent sex offenders (VVSO; n = 24). Nineteen risk factors comprising four life domains (individual, family, peer, and school) were identified from a file review. Three hierarchical logistic regression analyses examined associations between risk factors and offender groups. The results reflected the underlying heterogeneity of the sample, offering support for both the specialist and generalist positions of criminal behavior. PSOs differed from VNSOs on the basis of higher odds for precocious sexual behavior. Second, VVSOs differed from VNSOs on the basis of higher odds for precocious sexual behavior, criminal family members, and an adolescent mother, as well as lower odds for poor school behavior. Third, PSOs were marginally more likely to have engaged in early overt antisocial behavior compared with VVSOs. Fourth, many of the childhood risk factors examined were not associated with any offender group. In conclusion, VVSOs appeared to differ on the greatest number of risk factors from VNSOs, suggesting that VVSOs share a more similar developmental pathway with PSOs. The prevention and future research implications of these findings are discussed.     

Disputes, Democracies, and Dependencies: A Reexamination of the Kantian Peace

Militarized interstate disputes are widely thought to be less likely among democratic countries that have high levels of trade and extensive participation in international organizations. We reexamine this broad finding of the Kantian peace literature in the context of a model that incorporates the high degree of dependency among countries. Based on in-sample statistical tests, as well as out-of-sample, predictive cross-validation, we find that results frequently cited in the literature are plagued by overfitting and cannot be characterized as identifying the underlying structure through which international conflict is influenced by democracy, trade, and international governmental organizations. We conclude that much of the statistical association typically reported in this literature apparently stems from three components: (1) geographical proximity, (2) dependence among militarized interstate disputes with the same initiator or target, and (3) the higher-order dependencies in these dyadic data. Once these are incorporated, covariates associated with the Kantian peace tripod lose most of their statistical power. We do find that higher levels of joint democracy are associated with lower probabilities of militarized interstate dispute involvement. We find that despite high statistical significance and putative substantive importance, none of the variables representing the Kantian tripod is associated with any substantial degree of predictive power.     

Accurate STR allele designations at the FGA and vWA loci despite primer site polymorphisms

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based STR DNA typing systems are used extensively in the field of human identification. Under optimal PCR conditions, the amplicon yield from both alleles of an STR locus is expected to be approximately equivalent. However, it is reasonable to expect that rare genomic sequence polymorphisms will co-localize with well-designed primer sets and induce allele imbalance or "dropouts". Two samples were identified in the course of genotyping thousands of individuals with AmpF/STR Profiler Plus that showed strong disparity in amplitude peak height of heterozygous peaks at the loci vWA and FGA. These samples were reamplified at reduced annealing temperature in an attempt to balance the peak heights. Nucleotide sequencing documented polymorphisms at the PCR primer binding sites of the affected alleles. The results indicate that reducing the annealing temperature to improve primer-binding efficiency at the mismatch and employing an alternative multiplex enhanced the data from both samples. Reducing annealing temperatures could provide a simple general solution to improving data quality for samples where polymorphisms are suspected to cause allele imbalance. Finally, we report on additional polymorphisms surrounding the vWA locus in a genetically diverse population.     

Modeling Dependencies in International Relations Networks

Michael D. Ward Department of Political Science, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195 e-mail: isere{at}msn.com Despite the desire to focus on the interconnected nature ofpolitics and economics at the global scale, most empirical studiesin the field of international relations assume not only thatthe major actors are sovereign, but also that their relationshipsare portrayed in data that are modeled as independent phenomena.In contrast, this article illustrates the use of linear andbilinear random–effects models to represent statisticaldependencies that often characterize dyadic data such as internationalrelations. In particular, we show how to estimate models fordyadic data that simultaneously take into account: (a) regressorvariables, (b) correlation of actions having the same actor,(c) correlation of actions having the same target, (d) correlationof actions between a pair of actors (i.e., reciprocity of actions),and (e) third-order dependencies, such as transitivity, clustering,and balance. We apply this new approach to the political relationsamong a wide range of political actors in Central Asia overthe period 1989–1999, illustrating the presence and strengthof second- and third-order statistical dependencies in thesedata.