Positive Administrative Control: Using Social Exchange to Assess Managerial Impacts on Inmate Misconduct

Positive administrative control uses social exchange theory to explain how management impacts institutional rates of inmate disorder. This study proffers that prison managers can use their relationship with staff to influence them to act in accordance with agency desires, which in turn affects institutional disorder rates. Using data from the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the model demonstrates an indirect connection exists between management/staff relationships and disorder. However, two of the scales used to explain positive administrative controls’ sway—the leader-member exchange (LMX) and perceived organizational support (POS)-had opposing effects. Increases in the quality of the leader-member exchange (LMX) was associated with decreases in misconduct rates, while increases in perceived organizational support (POS) was associated with increases in misconduct rates.     

Correction to: Feminist Judgments Projects at the Intersection

Feminist Legal Studies - In the original publication of the article, errors in the production stages resulted in Vanessa Munro being listed as sole author.     

What's Gender Got to Do with It? Incivility in the Federal Courts

The current study examines experiences of interpersonal mistreatment in federal litigation among a random sample of 4,608 practicing attorneys. Using both quantitative and qualitative survey data, we documented the nature and interplay of general incivility, gender-related incivility, and unwanted sexual attention. Nearly 75% of female attorneys had experienced some form of this misconduct in the previous five years, compared to half of male attorneys. An in-depth examination of instigators revealed that not only fellow attorneys but also federal judges, court personnel, marshals, and court security officers instigated the inappropriate behavior. We further found that most attorneys responded to this mistreatment with avoidance and denial; few used or trusted existing reporting mechanisms. The current study surpassed simple prevalence estimates to document effects of interpersonal mistreatment on the professional well-being of targeted attorneys. We discuss implications of these results, drawing on theories of social dominance, sex-role spillover, cognitive stress, organizations, and intervention.     

Perceptions of justice: Clientele evaluations of conflict adjustment by a utility regulatory agency

During the past 15 years social psychological research on justice has evaluated hypotheses about linkages among various personal and institutional attributes and variables like outcome favorability and perceptions of procedural and distributive justice in decision-making contexts. This article reexamines hypotheses and findings about procedural and distributive justice using data from the dispute adjustment process used by a state regulatory agency. This study differs from any previous studies of perceptions of justice in two respects. First, the study employs data about the perceptions ofboth sides of a disputing experience before a public authority. Second, rather than using multiple regression and path analysis as in many past studies, we illustrate the value of hierarchical log-linear analysis as an analytical technique. The data analyzed through loglinear analysis permit us to reconsider previous conclusions about the procedural neutrality and participation in dispute adjustment and the linkage of these concepts to the legitimacy of the political regime.     

Differentiation of bullet type based on the analysis of gunshot residue using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

Porcine tissue samples shot with two different types of bullets, jacketed and nonjacketed, were collected in the fresh state and throughout moderate decomposition. Wound samples were microwave-digested and analyzed using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) to detect all elements present at measurable levels in gunshot residue (GSR). Elements detected included antimony (Sb), barium (Ba), and lead (Pb), which are considered characteristic of GSR, as well as iron (Fe) and copper (Cu). These five elements were used to differentiate shot tissue and unshot tissue, as well as tissue shot by the two different bullet types, both in the fresh state and throughout moderate decomposition. The concentrations of Cu, Sb, and Pb were able to distinguish the two bullet types in fresh tissue samples at the 95% confidence level. Cu and Pb were able to differentiate the bullet types throughout moderate decomposition at the 99% confidence level.     

Social Creativity in Olympic Medal Counts: Observing the Expression of Ethnocentric Fairness

Although fairness rules provide a basis for conflict resolution, social and psychological processes can lead people to use these rules flexibly to allow their own groups to compare favorably relative to other groups. In two studies, we examined the expression of such ethnocentric fairness in the context of the Olympic Games. Participants rated the fairness of different methods of determining relative rankings of countries’ performances. Results showed that participants used fairness rules flexibly in ways likely to enhance the relative standing of their own country. Thus, even in this context of normative intergroup harmony, fairness rules can be a basis for intergroup conflict. We conclude that fairness rules are best understood as dynamic constructions reflecting the realities of social life and identity-related processes involved in negotiating that social life.     

Psychiatrists injured by patient attack.

The seven staff psychiatrists injured by patient attack in a large forensic hospital in five years were compared with the 47 who were not injured by attack. Thirteen percent of the psychiatrists were injured by patient attack (2.6 percent per year); 5.5 injuries per 100 person-years occurred. This rate is comparable to the rate of injury from patient attack noted among ward nursing staff during the same period. Younger psychiatrists, and psychiatrists more recently out of residency, were more likely to be injured. Male psychiatrists were injured at a rate approximately 50 percent higher than female psychiatrists, and graduates of university-affiliated residencies were three times as likely to be injured as graduates of public-sector residencies, though these differences did not reach statistical significance. A slightly higher rate of injury was noted among graduates from non-North American medical schools. Board-certification and length of service in the hospital were not related to being injured.