Delinquency,unstructured socializing,and social change: The rise and fall of a teen culture of independence

This article delves into the connections between time trends in unstructured socializing and other dramatic changes in adolescence since the 1950s. Osgood et al.’s (1996) individual-level application of routine activity theory proposed that unstructured socializing contributes to crime by exposing people to situations conducive to deviance, and a large body of research supports this idea. Unstructured socializing has proven useful as an explanatory bridge that links crime and deviance to key social factors like age, class, and gender. The present article expands on two recent studies (Baumer et al., 2021; Svensson & Oberwittler, 2021), which showed that changing rates of unstructured socializing help explain time trends in delinquency as well. Based on time trends across many domains of adolescent life, I argue that changes in unstructured socializing were a manifestation of the rise and fall of a teen culture of independence from the 1950s to the 2020s. The effectiveness of unstructured socializing as an explanatory bridge demonstrates the value of focusing on ordinary, everyday activities for tapping into features of life that are consequential and that vary across social conditions.     

South Africa's maritime power in the Indian Ocean Rim∗

The article assesses South Africa's maritime power in the Indian Ocean. It is argued that South Africa needs a credible navy to exercise power and influence in support of foreign policy imperatives in the Indian Ocean. The maritime potential of other states which may have an impact on South Africa's interests is examined, including Australia, Malaysia, India, Pakistan and Kenya and, from outside the region, the United States, the United Kingdom and France. The contrast between the growth and modernisation of other navies and the contraction and ageing of the South African Navy is highlighted. It is concluded that these developments leave South Africa strategically vulnerable.     

>Pedagogy and politics: Origins of the special conference of 1905 on primary education for non‐Russians in the east

Sean R. Roberts, Waiting for Uighurstan. 55 minute video documentary with Companion Study Guide, 1996. Study Guide: xi, 73 pp., 2 maps, works cited, Appendix I: Script to video, Appendix II: Annotated bibliography of suggested readings.

Dennis P. Hupchick and Harold E. Cox, A Concise Historical Atlas of Eastern Europe. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996, viii, 120 pp., 50 maps, index.

Jörg Brechtefeld, Mitteleuropa and German Politics: 1848 to the Present. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996, vii, 195 pp. + maps, index. $49.95.

Seamus Dunn and T. G. Fraser, eds, Europe and Ethnicity: The First World War and Contemporary Ethnic Conflict. London: Routledge, 1996, xii, 218 pp. + index.

Marc A. Weiner, Richard Wagner and the Anti‐Semitic Imagination. Lincoln, NB. &; London: University of Nebraska Press, 1995, 353 pp. + notes, bibliography, index.

Robert B. Pynsent, ed., The Literature of Nationalism. Essays on East European Identity. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996, 282 pp. + index.

Ladislav Holy, The Little Czech Nation and the Great Czech Nation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, x, 226 pp., index.

Jaroslav Krej?í and Pavel Machonin, Czechoslovakia 1918–92: A Laboratory for Social Change. St Antony's series. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996, 244 pp. + notes, bibliography, index. ISBN 0–312–12693‐X (hard). $49.95.

Jan Rychlík, Thomas D. Mazrik and Miroslav Bielik, eds, R. W. Seton‐Watson and His Relations with the Czechs and Slovaks; Documents, 1906–1951, 2 Vols. Ústav T. G. Masaryka and Matica Slovenská, 1995, footnotes, photographs, register of documents, name index, geographic index. Distributed by Interpress, London, England. $50.00.

Peter F. Sugar, Nationality and Society in Habsburg and Ottoman Europe. Aldershot, Hampshire, U.K.: Variorum, 1997, ix + 253 + index.

Eric Roman, Hungary and the Victor Powers: 1945–1950. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996, 172 pp.

Graham Smith, ed., The Baltic States: The National Self‐determination of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996, xx, 214 pp. + maps, tables, index.

V. Stanley Vardys and Judith B. Sedaitis, Lithuania: The Rebel Nation. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997, 222 pp. + maps, illustrations, index. $60.00 ($21.50 pbk).

Moshe Rosman, Founder of Hasidism: A Quest for the Historical Ba'al Shem Tov. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996, xii, 296 pp. + maps, photographs, tables, index.

David R. Marples, Belarus: From Soviet Rule to Nuclear Catastrophe. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996, xxi, 179 pp. + photographs, tables, bibliography, index.

Jeff Chinn and Robert Kaiser, Russians as the New Minority: Ethnicity and Nationalism in the Soviet Successor States. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996, xii, 308 pp. + tables, maps, index.

Leokadia Drobizheva, Rose Gottemoeller, Catherine McArdie Kelleher and Lee Walker, eds, Ethnic Conflict in the Post‐Soviet World: Case Studies and Analysis. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1996, xv, 365 pp.

Kathleen E. Smith, Remembering Stalin's Victims: Popular Memory and the End of the USSR. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996, xv, 220 pp. + photographs, appendix, index.

Peter H. Solomon, Jr, Soviet Criminal Justice Under Stalin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, xvii, 494 pp. + photographs, tables, index.

Stephen White, Russia Goes Dry: Alcohol, State and Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, xiii, 189 pp. + photographs, illustrations, notes, index.

Hafeez Malik, ed., Central Asia: Its Strategic Importance and Future Prospects. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994, xi, 325 pp. + index.     

The Asian Development Bank as a Global Risk Regulator in Myanmar

The Asian Development Bank (adb) is engaged in development projects throughout the Greater Mekong Subregion, although for most of the past two decades it has boycotted Myanmar (Burma) because of donor government sanctions. Despite being criticised for its neoliberal focus and its lack of transparency and accountability, the adb’s operations compare favourably to those of the Myanmar government and many transnational corporations constructing and financing projects there. This article engages with the concept of risk, which increasingly frames how development in fragile states like Myanmar is understood, to critically analyse the adb’s nascent re-engagement in Myanmar according to the risks this poses for five constituencies: the adb itself; donor states; the Myanmar government and military; private capital; and marginalised communities. While deeper engagement in Myanmar poses different risks for each group, critical analysis suggests that the adb must increase the genuine participation of civil society actors in its activities to address the most significant risks of all, those facing marginalised communities.     

Reconciling Expert Advice and Community Opinion in a Local Government Strategic Planning Process

This article proposes that the eventual outcomes of local government strategic policy deliberations can often reflect the interplay between “expert” administrative staff, democratically elected politicians, and the community they jointly serve. A multi-site case study approach, to examine the generation of local government strategy related to a niche economic activity concludes that broadly conceptualized opinion congruence can sometimes be threatened by substantial pockets of stakeholder vested interest. As such, “expert” and “political” opinion reflects a caution based on both historical experience and political expediency; while community opinion displays an optimism based on eager anticipation of an unknown future.     

Book Reviews

Leonard S. Spector and Jacqueline R. Smith, Nuclear Ambitions: The Spread of Nuclear Weapons, 1989–1990 (Boulder: Westview, 1990), 450 pp, $49.95.

David D. Newsom, Ed., The Diplomatic Record 1989–1990 (Boulder: Westview, 1991), 272 pp, $49.95.

Roger Hilsman, American Guerrilla: My War Behind Japanese Lines (Washington, DC: Brassey's, Inc., with the Association of the United States Army Institute of Land Warfare, 1990), 312 pp, $12.95.

Janne E. Nolan, Trappings of Power: Ballistic Missiles in the Third World (Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 1991), 210 pp, $29.95.

Max G. Manwaring, Ed., Uncomfortable Wars: Toward A New Paradigm of Low Intensity Conflict (Boulder: Westview, 1991), 139 pp, $24.95.     

Dual engagement: France and the Persian Gulf

With the end of the Cold War international relations began anew without the bipolar constraints of two ideologically opposed superpowers. The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on 2 August 1990 represented the first challenge to the nascent post‐Cold War Persian Gulf security environment. Within the region, France is once again increasingly active in the economic, political and military fields. The re‐evaluation of Washington's ability to remain engaged at its current levels within the Gulf may be attributed in large part to a growing sensitivity in Riyadh and other Arab capitals to the visible US presence coupled with an American foreign policy which is, at times, inconsistent. The net future effect of contemporary trends may be one in which the Gulf Sheikhdoms welcome French ascendancy and US decline. France has experienced its own foreign policy transformation marked by the leadership of President Chirac. Where President Mitterrand sought the role of power broker in regional affairs, President Chirac seeks increased influence and importance.     

Facial Soft Tissue Depth Statistics and Enhanced Point Estimators for Craniofacial Identification: The Debut of the Shorth and the 75‐Shormax

Several methods that have customarily been used in craniofacial identification to describe facial soft tissue depths (FSTDs) implore improvement. They include the calculation of arithmetic means for skewed data, omission of concern for measurement uncertainty, oversight of effect size, and misuse of statistical significance tests (e.g., p‐values for strength of association). This paper redresses these limitations using FSTDs from 10 prior studies (N = 516). Measurement uncertainty was large (>20% of the FSTD), skewness (≥0.8) existed at 11 of the 23 FSTD landmarks examined, and sex and age each explained <4% of the total FSTD variance (η² calculated as part of MANOVA). These results call for a new and improved conceptualization of FSTDs, which is attained by the replacement of arithmetic means with shorths and 75‐shormaxes. The outcomes of this implementation are dramatic reduction in FSTD complexity; improved data accuracy; and new data‐driven standards for casework application of methods.     

Experiences of engaging in psychotherapeutic interventions for sexual offending behaviours: A meta-synthesis

Abstract

This meta-synthesis explores individuals' experiences of engaging in psychotherapeutic interventions for sexual offending. The findings of ten qualitative studies were integrated and five over-arching concepts emerged: (1) incentives and inhibitions: to engage or not to engage?; (2) help or hindrance: the impact of others in therapy; (3) the abused and the abuser: perspectives for transformation; (4) struggling and striving: dealing with distress and difficulties and (5) what works: inside and outside. A line of argument derived from these concepts is proposed as a framework for understanding sex offenders' experiences of therapy and highlights aspects of treatment programmes that need further exploration or emphasis. Using qualitative accounts can improve the responsiveness of treatment programmes, but such research is currently limited. Future qualitative studies and reviews could help further improve the effectiveness of treatment programmes, and thereby reduce the rate of sexual reoffending.     

Conceptualizing Usage in Voting Behavior for Political Marketing: An Application of Consumer Behavior

Political marketing has borrowed and adapted many terms from mainstream marketing, such as image management (segmentation, targeting, and positioning) and consumer (voter). In marketing, the terms “user” and “usage” have been established, yet their application to political marketing is less clear. This paper analyzes the feasibility and usefulness of usage in the political context. Drawing from the literature on usage, a model is developed and applied to four voting environments: Britain, Australia, Russia, and Belarus. One critical factor that emerges is the concept of choice, whereby the voter may chose to indicate their preference for one party yet be forced to use a different party as chosen by collective choice. Another issue is the potential for habitual voting behavior to limit decision making. It is concluded that usage needs to be contextualized specifically for political marketing.