Ethnicity and Violent Crime: The Ethnic Structure of Networks of Youths Suspected of Violent Offences in Stockholm

This study employs network analysis in order to study patterns of co-offending among youths suspected of violent offences in Stockholm. The study's objective is to examine the ethnic structure of relations among persons suspected of committing violent offences together. The Swedish media have presented information suggesting that violent conflicts between Swedish youths and youths with an immigrant background, based on ethnic conflicts between these groups, are common. The study also discusses the relevance of this image. The study's findings show that violent offences committed by youths in Stockholm are of an ethnically heterogeneous character. At the same time there is a tendency for marginalized and segregated ethnic groups to join together to some extent. The findings may be interpreted as indicating that youth violence in Stockholm today is characterized by ethnic diversity, but that increased ethnic segregation may lead to an increase in the level of ethnically related violent crime. Apparently there is a perception that ethnic conflicts do occur, which persists despite the fact that such conflicts are not common. It is of concern that the occurrence of such perceptions, not least in the Swedish media, may lead to an increase in the level of conflicts of this kind.1 ¹The author would like to thank David Shannon for his translation of the text.      

Holding Out for Concession: The Quest for Gain in the Negotiation of International Agreements

This study examines partition's success in ending old and preventing new ethnic conflicts. Opponents of partition often claim that partition only invites (further) conflict by its inability to divide existing multiethnic countries in ways satisfying to all concerned ethnic groups. In contrast, proponents of partition argue that partition is the only ethnic conflict solution that provides ethnic separation, an element that is key if conflict prevention is of concern. By separating the belligerent groups, partition provides safety and a decrease in the need for interaction between groups that do not get along. When domestic and international violence is considered, partition's consequences largely depend on the timing of partition. In cases of partitions resulting from ethnic secessionist conflicts, there is a widespread continuation of serious domestic conflict but its frequency does decrease significantly, to a level that can be considered "normal." Internationally, dyads made up of violently partitioned countries avoid militarized conflict in more than one-third of the cases. In cases of peaceful (i.e., preventative) ethnic partitions, domestic conflict starts up in about half of the cases, but despite the significant increase in its frequency, the frequency remains "normal." Internationally, dyads made up of peacefully partitioned countries avoid militarized conflict almost completely. Accordingly, peaceful ethnic partitions produce dyads that are significantly less likely to engage in militarized conflicts and wars than dyads emerging from violent ethnic partitions. Contrary to some expectations, partitions do not create overwhelmingly nondemocratic countries; however, in cases of violent ethnic secessions, democratic institutions do not exhibit significant pacifying effect on subsequent domestic conflict. Important caveats notwithstanding, the overall results indicate that peaceful ethnic partitions have conflict management potential.     

Effect of Psychopathy, Abuse, and Ethnicity on Juvenile Probation Officers’ Decision-Making and Supervision Strategies

Probation officers exercise substantial discretion in their daily work with troubled and troubling juvenile offenders. In this experiment, we examine the effect of psychopathic features, child abuse, and ethnicity on 204 officers’ expectancies of, recommendations for, and approach to supervising, juvenile offenders. The results indicate that officers (a) have decision-making and supervision approaches that are affected by a youth’s psychopathic traits and history of child abuse—but not ethnicity; (b) view both abused youth and psychopathic youth as highly challenging cases on a path toward adult criminality; and (c) have greater hope and sympathy for abused youth than psychopathic youth. For abused youth, officers are likely to recommend psychological services and “go the extra mile” by providing greater support, referrals, and networking than is typical for their caseload. For psychopathic youth, officers expect poor treatment outcomes and are” extra strict,” enforcing rules that typically are not enforced for others on their caseload.     

Ethnicity and electoral fraud in Britain

Several reports have highlighted that, within Britain, allegations of electoral fraud tend to be more common in areas with large Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities. However, the extent of this association has not yet been quantified. Using data at the local authority level, this paper shows that percentage Pakistani and Bangladeshi (logged) is a robust predictor of two measures of electoral fraud allegations: one based on designations by the Electoral Commission, and one based on police enquiries. Indeed, the association persists after controlling for other minority shares, demographic characteristics, socio-economic deprivation, and anti-immigration attitudes. I interpret this finding with reference to the growing literature on consanguinity (cousin marriage) and corruption. Rates of cousin marriage tend to be high in countries such as Pakistan and Bangladesh, which may have fostered norms of nepotism and in-group favoritism that persist over time. To bolster my interpretation, I use individual level survey data to show that, within Europe, migrants from countries with high rates of cousin marriage are more likely to say that family should be one's main priority in life, and are less likely to say it is wrong for a public official to request a bribe.     

关于扶南主体民族族属的再考察

扶南是公元初兴起于今天柬埔寨这片土地上的一个古国,但是,对扶南的主体民族到底是什么民族,学术界一直有不同的看法。本文通过考证后认为,扶南的主体民族就是早期的高棉人中的一支。     

Crime and mental disorders among native Dutch and ethnic minority juvenile defendants in the Netherlands

We examined the prevalence of mental disorders and the recommendations regarding criminal responsibility and treatment in pre-trial mental health evaluations requested by Dutch juvenile courts for youths between the ages of 12 to 17. Youths of native Dutch (n = 2694) and of ethnic minority background (n = 1393) were compared. The prevalence of mental disorders was similar for both groups (76.8% versus 74.4%). Criminal responsibility in native Dutch youth was more often considered ‘diminished’ or ‘strongly diminished’ than in ethnic minority youth. Admission to a juvenile institution was more often recommended for ethnic minority juveniles than for native Dutch juveniles. It remains unclear from our data whether these differences reflect a false stereotype of ethnic minority populations as being more dangerous and threatening.     

The Ethnicity of Adolescent Research

The study of adolescence may have come of age, but it remains debatable whether research appropriately considers the ethnic diversity of adolescence. Given a heightened interest in supporting a more inclusive approach to adolescent research, this study takes stock of how seriously we actually are pursuing a more inclusive study of adolescence. To do so, this study examines the extent to which six leading journals dedicated to the study of adolescence publish articles that include ethnic participants, report the nature of that inclusion, and present findings that consider the ethnic dimensions of their samples. Although results reveal some diversity among journals, trends do emerge. For example, the study of adolescence is quite international: overall, more than 40% of 1283 empirical articles (published from 2000 to and including 2006) report findings from non-U.S. samples. If we remove international studies from our analyses, we find that the vast majority of studies (93%) describe the ethnic composition of their samples. That finding diverges considerably from reports from other fields of research. Also unlike other fields of research, studies from journals on adolescence do tend to include ethnic groups. The majority (68%) of articles actually do not have samples with a majority of participants from European American groups. Over 40% of articles present empirical analyses relating to identified ethnic groups, and at least 19% present findings that focus on one ethnic group (rather than comparing one to another). We do, however, find relatively ignored groups (such as Native and Asian Americans) and a tendency to lump diverse groups into five dominant ethnic groups or into “other” groups. We place these findings in the context of research on adolescence and explore their significance. Roger J.R. Levesque is Professor of Criminal Justice, Indiana University. He is Editor of the Journal of Youth and Adolescence.     

Inferring ethnicity using 15 autosomal STR loci—Comparisons among populations of similar and distinctly different physical traits

The forensic utility of short tandem repeat (STR) polymorphisms for ethnic inference (EI) has recently received limited attention from the research community. The large volume of population specific STR data available from public literature affords us the opportunity to assess the reliability of EIs based on STR profiles, and present significant results. We applied a binary Bayesian approach using 15 autosomal STR loci from computer-simulated and real STR profiles of Han Chinese, Japanese, Korean, American Caucasian, and a South Asian Indian aboriginal tribal group called Lodha. A correct classification rate of ≥90% was achieved via simulation for each East Asian group (Han Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) when paired with the American Caucasian or the tribal Indian group. Similar result was obtained between the Caucasian and the Indian group, while the correct classification rates among the three East Asian groups were much lower (70%). Results based on real profiles closely matched those achieved via simulation, establishing the credibility of our classifier performance metrics. This study shows that binary Bayesian classifier performed best for ethnic groups with distinctly different physical traits. This observation might be due to accidental differences caused by bottlenecks, genetic drift, etc. However, it could also be taken as an indication that STRs, commonly referred to as “junk” DNA, may have an effect on phenotype, a possibility that warrants further research.     

扶南民族族属探讨

扶南国是古代中南半岛上的一个强国,有着五六百年历史.但是,对其主体民族是什么民族,至今尚无一致的看法.本文以宋书记载"赤土国,扶南之别种也"为主要论据,认为扶南的统治阶层是马来民族.     

Identity Formation in Early and Middle Adolescents From Various Ethnic Groups: From Three Dimensions to Five Statuses

We used three identity processes (i.e., commitment, in-depth exploration, and reconsideration of commitment) from a recently developed model of identity formation to derive empirically identity statuses in a sample of 1952 early and middle adolescents. By means of cluster analysis, we identified five statuses: achievement, foreclosure, moratorium, searching moratorium, and diffusion. Specifically, we found an intra-status differentiation within moratorium, unraveling the positive and negative facets of this status documented in prior literature. The five clusters could be meaningfully distinguished on a number of variables, such as personality features, psychosocial problems, and parental relationships. These findings indicated that a valid distinction in identity statuses could be made in early and middle adolescence. Finally, age and ethnic background strongly affected the distribution of the participants among the five identity statuses. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.