The Effect of Maternal Victimization on Children: A Cross-Informant Study

The impact of maternal victimization on the behavioral, social, emotional, and cognitive development in a group of 206 low-income, predominantly African American children from inner city, pediatric primary health care clinics was explored using mother, teacher, and self-report data. Results revealed that mothers with a victimization history reported more externalizing and internalizing behaviors in their children, compared to mothers who had not been victimized. Maternal victimization history was not related to teachers' ratings of children's behavior, child reports of social competence and depression, or standardized assessments of cognitive development. The relation between mothers' history of victimization and their reports of internalizing and externalizing behavior problems in their children was mediated by pathways through maternal depression and disciplinary practices (verbal aggression). These findings provide evidence for the link between maternal victimization and children's behavior problems. Treatment for victimized mothers that reduces their depressive symptoms and promotes adaptive parenting practices may lead to fewer behavior problems in their children.     

Courting the President: How Circuit Court Judges Alter Their Behavior for Promotion to the Supreme Court

We examine whether circuit court judges sacrifice policy purity for career goals. We compare the behavior of contender judges–those most likely to be elevated to the Supreme Court–during vacancy periods with their behavior outside vacancy periods. We also examine the behavior of noncontender judges during those same times. The data show that during vacancy periods, contender judges are more likely to vote consistently with the president's preferences, to rule in favor of the United States, and to write dissenting opinions. Noncontender judges fail to evidence such behavior. These findings provide empirical support for the argument that federal judges adapt their behavior to specific audiences, and provide new avenues for research into judges' goals and the role of audiences in judicial decision making.     

The intersubjective space–time of a Zulu choir/HIV support group in global perspective

This article draws from anthropology, conversation analysis, ethnomusicology, semiotics, and phenomenology, using the concept of intersubjectivity to model how the micro-organization of musical communication can be integral in social processes of support, identity maintenance, and activism amid structural inequality. This is based on ethnographic fieldwork in Durban, South Africa, with a Zulu gospel choir that functioned as a support group, activist organization, and performance troupe. Three distinct aspects (or levels) of intersubjectivity are discussed. The organization of these levels in music making is outlined through fine-grained discussion of how people with HIV coordinate bodies and voices in space as they make music together for each other and for international audiences. This article contributes to the further development of a musical semiotics, discussing how overlapping conceptualizations of intersubjectivity in multiple disciplines may be synthesized to analyze the performance of coordinated sonic action.     

The Olympic Games,human rights and democratisation: Lessons from Seoul and implications for Beijing

The experience of the Seoul Olympics in 1988 has led major games boosters to boldly assert their liberalising potential, especially in the context of the Beijing Games of 2008. This paper examines whether in the post-Cold War and post-9/11 eras, there is a sound basis for such arguments. It begins by re-examining the lessons of the Seoul Olympics to clarify the Games' contribution to the democratisation of Korea, as catalyst though not cause. It then assesses the applicability of the lessons of Seoul to Beijing given the different contexts of their 'Olympic journeys'. Finally, based on this comparison it considers the ways in which the 2008 Games may affect prospects for human rights improvements and political liberalisation in the People's Republic of China. While the outcomes of this process are likely to be quite different from the western-style liberal democratisation that occurred in South Korea, the process of engagement between 21st Century China and 21st Century Olympism holds the possibility of stimulating a fruitful, dialogic, and progressive exchange on rights issues.