THE IMPACT OF ECONOMIC CONDITIONS ON ROBBERY AND PROPERTY CRIME: THE ROLE OF CONSUMER SENTIMENT*

Despite its long history in criminology, research on the relationship between macroeconomic conditions and rates of common crime remains limited. That is in part because many analysts doubt that any systematic relationship exists and in part because of disagreement with regard to the validity of the indicators typically used to measure economic conditions. We argue in this article that good theoretical reasons exist to expect macroeconomic effects on crime rates, but many theories imply that collective perceptions of economic hardship should have effects on crime that are independent of those of more “objective” economic indicators. To evaluate this argument, we examine the relationships between the Index of Consumer Sentiment and regional robbery, burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle theft rates in the United States between 1970 and 2003, which was a period of large swings in both consumer sentiment and instrumental crime. Controlling for several factors thought to influence temporal variation in crime rates, we find that consumer sentiment had significant effects on robbery and property crime rates over the period that were largely independent of the effects of unemployment and economic growth. We also find that consumer sentiment accounted for a sizable fraction of the crime decline during the 1990s and yields reasonably accurate predictions of changes in the four offenses in 2004 and in two of the four offenses in 2005. We conclude that the effects of collective economic perceptions should become an important focus of future research on crime trends.     

论消费信用卡透支风险的法律监管制度建设

消费信用卡给发卡行带来新的利润增长点的同时 ,也对其造成一定的风险。风险背后的深层原因是制度的缺陷。我国信用卡业务的制度缺陷主要体现在银行对持卡人拖欠透支款缺乏有效催款措施、健全的个人信用制度、信用卡担保保证制度以及完善、统一的消费信贷法规。要改变这一现状 ,促进信用卡的健康发展 ,我国应在上述几个方面加强建设步伐 ,逐步建立一个有法可依的消费信贷法律制度体系。     

Multiculturalism,Institutional Law,and Imaginary Justice

Following Le Pen's relative successin the French presidential vote and the BritishNational Party's historic return in our own2002 local elections, the article considers theprospects for the production of morecommunicative race relations in contemporaryBritain. To this end we reassess the media'streatment of the Stephen Lawrence case andexplore the political logic of the Macphersonreport, the policy document which followed theapparent miscarriage of justice that allowedLawrence's alleged killers to walk free. Interms of our analysis of the media we areconcerned to show how the real of Britain'sordinary racism was hidden behind an ideologyof multiculturalism that scapegoated singularindividuals to cover for the structuralinequalities of wider society. The article aimsto show how the media upheld the notion ofobjective justice that institutional law wasapparently unable to secure.But while the media supported the ideology ofthe law, its exposure of the failings ofinstitutional law also led to calls for legalreform to guarantee the realisation ofinstitutional justice. Although we accept thatthe attempt to achieve legal totality isimpossible, our argument is that the critiqueof legal objectivity, which takes in subjectiverights claims, may present the possibility forthe realisation of a novel, inclusive, model ofrace relations. That is to say that althoughthe media supports the ideology of the law, thefact that this support requires a critique ofpractical law forces the law to modernisearound the idealistic demands of its ownideological structure. Akin toDouzinas,¹ who has argued for theendless expansion of rights as post-modernutopianism, we believe that this process ofmodernisation, which is arranged to maintainthe status quo through minimal reform, is thecondition of possibility of a more inclusivesystem of race relations.     

周予同主编《中国历史文选》校注商略

周予同先生主编的《中国历史选》在各高校历史系中已使用多年，但在校注方面还存在诸多问题，如古今地名对照多有差错，标点亦有误点，少量字还存在讹误，许多清代人物的资料出处亦与事实不符，本对书中的有关问题予以考证。     

论休谟对康德的影响

从康德哲学的思想来源看,休谟对康德哲学的产生起了至关重要的作用。休谟哲学是康德哲学的出发点,休谟的因果经验是康德哲学的星星之火,休谟哲学的提示打破了康德的教条主义迷梦,使康德走向批判哲学的成功之路。     

‘A MAD age’: Heibon Punch,student protest,the media and consumer society in Cold War Japan

Abstract

In the 1960s, Heibon Punch became one of the most popular weekly magazines in Japan. It was the first weekly magazine aimed at young men and I examine here a selection of articles from the late 1960s, a period of violent student protests and international uncertainty, to argue that the importance of Heibon Punch can be found in the creation of a commodified urban, male subjectivity. In the pages of Heibon Punch, the counter-cultures that were emerging along with the protest movements taking to the streets of the major cities, became firmly embedded within the ideological state promotion of a consumer culture. The government's explicit connection of national development to domestic consumption after the ANPO protests was tied to American military and economic power, and was simply one more assault on popular sovereignty. In the pages of Heibon Punch, the political nature of the social and economic transformations wrought by high-speed economic growth was effaced by the relentless consumerisation of individual subjectivity. I place the magazine, its editorial stance and mediatisation of subjectivity, within the broader emergence of an urban, middle-class culture of consumption that served to blur the contours of individual male subjectivity, and was, in many ways, a precursor of neo-liberal subjectivities that emerged full-blown both politically and economically in the 1970s and 1980s. By pressing its readers to decide for themselves how to negotiate the identities, ideas, and goods on offer in its pages, Heibon Punch shifted the focus of political subjectivity from the established social and political system to the core of the individual subject.     

The internal consumer response process: Towards an integrated conceptual model

Abstract

Most existing consumer response models explain consumer response processes in a simplistic linear and sequential manner (Strong 1925; Lavidge & Steiner 1961; Rogers 1962; McGuire 1978; Ray 1973; Smith & Swinyard 1982; Vaughn 1980; Petty & Cacioppo 1983; Preston 1982; Moriarty, Mitchell and Wells 2008), ignoring variables or factors which could alter the response process order. Although various theorists criticised existing consumer response models mainly because of this (Belch & Belch 2001; Hanekom 2006; Hanekom, Barker & Angelopulo 2007; Moriarty et al. 2008; Del Barrio-Garcia & Luque-Martinez 2003; Mortimer 2002; Wu [sa]; Bendixen 1993; Wilmshurst 1985), no efforts have been made to develop a conceptual model to address these limitations. The main objective of this article is, therefore, to develop an integrated conceptual model for the internal consumer response process through a comprehensive qualitative literature review and theoretical analysis of existing advertising response models. This model integrates existing and original consumer response levels and phases, and appends specific variables to each response level that influence the manner in which consumers internally proceed through the diverse response processes. Furthermore, the proposed model will allow the execution of more specific objectives which include (a) to propose a paradigm shift from advertising consumer response models to integrated marketing communication response models; (b) to systematise existing consumer response models by arranging them into three proposed paradigms, based on their focal aim; and (c) to develop an integrated marketing communication internal consumer response model, depicting eight internal consumer response levels, consisting of diverse internal consumer response phases.     

我国金融消费者权益行政法保护主体制度研究——现状分析与完善建议

在当代公共行政发展的趋势下,我国金融消费者权益行政法保护主体分为监管部门和社会组织两类。在对金融消费者权益提供保护的实践中存在监管部门之间协同合作机制缺失、行业协会等社会组织权威性缺失问题,建议通过完善联席会议制度加强监管部门的协同合作,通过立法赋予行业协会等市场组织更大的独立性与权威性,从而构建多元化的金融消费者权益行政法保护主体。     

Adapting Techniques of Studio Critique for Arts Management Pedagogy

Many students in the field of arts management have a background as practicing artists. In that light, it seems promising to explore fine arts pedagogies for the delivery of elements of arts management curricula. Studio critiques are a central pedagogic tool in arts education, allowing for systemic self-reflexivity that emerges from a shared interest in the terms of the conversation itself—critique as a creative technique. Since 2009, the Department of Arts Administration and Policy at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago has integrated critique. Feedback from the first generations of students is assessed in this article.