Public confidence in the police: tests of instrumental and expressive models in a developing country city

This paper examines the effect of instrumental and expressive concerns on public confidence in the police in three different residential areas in Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana’s third largest city. The study was important because of the knowledge vacuum that existed in regard to the empirical validity of the instrumental and expressive theoretical framework within the Ghanaian context. Data for the study was drawn from a baseline survey conducted in three residential areas in the Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis. The findings revealed that instrumental factors played a more significant role in influencing confidence in the police in the Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis compared to expressive factors. More importantly, instrumental factors played a more significant role in influencing confidence in the police at Anaji compared to the other two residential areas used in the study. The paper recommends that there should be more investment in police infrastructure and services to enhance police effectiveness and efficiency. Additionally, the authors also suggest that interventions aimed at improving security at the community level should be guided by periodic safety audits since this will provide a better understanding of the criminogenic problems within these residential settlements.     

HOW COLLECTIVE IS COLLECTIVE EFFICACY? THE IMPORTANCE OF CONSENSUS IN JUDGMENTS ABOUT COMMUNITY COHESION AND WILLINGNESS TO INTERVENE

Existing studies have generally measured collective efficacy by combining survey respondents’ ratings of their local area into an overall summary for each neighborhood. Naturally, this approach results in a substantive focus on the variation in average levels of collective efficacy between neighborhoods. In this article, we focus on the variation in consensus of collective efficacy judgments. To account for differential consensus among neighborhoods, we use a mixed‐effects location‐scale model, with variability in the consensus of judgments treated as an additional neighborhood‐level random effect. Our results show that neighborhoods in London differ, not just in their average levels of collective efficacy but also in the extent to which residents agree with one another in their assessments. In accord with findings for U.S. cities, our results show that consensus in collective efficacy assessments is affected by the ethnic composition of neighborhoods. Additionally, we show that heterogeneity in collective efficacy assessments is consequential, with higher levels of criminal victimization, worry about crime, and risk avoidance behavior in areas where collective efficacy consensus is low.     

预期违约与不安抗辩权比较研究--兼评我国《合同法》第68、69、94和108条的立法缺失

英美法系的预期违约制度与大陆法系的不安抗辩权制度都是为了防止一方当事人先期违约而设立的,两种制度在各自法系的实践中都取得了相应的司法实效。但现在看来,预期违约制度相对来说比不安抗辩权制度更为完善。我国《合同法》同时规定两种制度,这种立法例的成败得失值得研究。将两种功能相同的制度规定在同一部法律中,显得重叠与矛盾,故建议修改现行《合同法》,废除不完善的不安抗辩权制度,只规定预期违约制度为宜,实现合同法的效益、安全、公平的价值。     

Competence, Self-esteem, and Coping Efficacy as Mediators of Ecological Risk and Depressive Symptoms in Urban African American and European American Youth

Structural equation modeling was used to test [Sandler, American Journal of Community Psychology 29: 19–61.] a theoretical model of risk and resilience in an urban sample of African American and European American adolescents. The aims of the present study were to examine whether self-system processes (i.e., competence, self-esteem, and coping efficacy) mediated the relations between ecological risk and depressive symptoms and to determine if pathways varied across ethnic/racial groups. Results implicate self-esteem as a putative mediator of the impact of ecological risk on depressive symptoms for both African American and European American youth. In addition, coping efficacy was a mediator of the link between ecological risk and depressive symptoms for African American youth, but not for European American youth. The evidence supporting competence as a significant mediator of the relation between ecological risk and depressive symptoms was less compelling. Findings suggest substantial similarities in the pathways between ecological risk and depressive symptoms across African American and European American youth.

论法律实效的评判

无论立法者还是社会公众都非常关心,法律在运行中的实效如何?准确评判法律实效是一个非常重要的理论问题和实践课题.作者认为,在评判法律实效时,我们必须首先准确地把握法律实效的科学内涵,在此基础上遵循恰当的评判方法,采取科学的评判标准,方能客观公正地展示取得的成绩、查找尚存的问题、揭示形成的原因,达到促进实效的改善、构建良好的法律秩序和加速法治进程之目的.     

监狱工作社会化的法学与实践思索

按照现代法学理论,今日之刑罚执行已不应再仅是纯粹地对罪犯实施惩罚,而是要在惩罚基础上,通过各种行刑矫正措施的落实,"将罪犯改造成为守法公民",使其能顺利地以健全健康的人格回归社会。监狱工作社会化,将通过重整司法资源和社会资源配置,全面发挥刑罚特殊预防和一般预防之功效,实现罪犯经过改造由犯罪人向社会人转化的刑罚执行终极目标,它既是对传统行刑方式的一种更新改革,也是监狱工作法制化、科学化的表现形式和重要体现。     

试论苏、黄等词的同体异用现象

词发展到北宋中期,苏轼及其弟子对词诸方面进行了新的诠释,其突出点是表现在词的同体异用,主要点是对词之传统性的反动,有意识地破坏词体的固有特点,更多的是引导词体对诗体的认同.以诗为词,古今均有探讨,多是从创作手法、艺术风格、文体递变等处比照分析,在词的文本方面用功甚深.而词的同体异用现象的产生,是与苏、黄等人对词体定位、有意识地引导和创作分不开的,是他们促使词体的雅化和开放,以及回避诗歌创作诸种因素合成作用的结果,具有一定的时效性.     

Local Government Size and Political Efficacy: Do Citizen Panels Make a Difference?

Democratic theorists typically suggest that citizens served by small local governments have high levels of political efficacy. However, it is conceivable that large governments can overcome the burden of bigness by introducing structures that involve citizens more closely in decision-making. This paper analyses whether jurisdiction size influences political efficacy in Welsh local government, and whether the presence of a citizen panel makes a difference to the size-efficacy relationship. Multi-level analyses suggest that size is negatively associated with internal and external political efficacy, but that the use of citizen panels bolsters the external efficacy of citizens served by larger local government.     

The relationship between disorder,perceived risk,and collective efficacy: a look into the indirect pathways of the broken windows thesis

The broken windows thesis suggests that disorder is a key part of a cycle of community decline that leaves neighborhoods vulnerable to crime. Some recent research has challenged this thesis by finding limited support for a direct relationship between disorder and crime. However, others argued that such studies ignore the indirect pathways posited in the thesis. The current study sheds light on this debate by examining the relationships between disorder, fear of crime, and collective efficacy and finds support for the relationships suggested by the broken windows model. However, the findings also suggest that the model is overly simplistic and needs to consider other mediating factors in addition to fear. Additionally, the findings show that perceptions of disorder may have different impacts for residents of an area vs. people who work at a business in the area. Implications for theory and policy are discussed.     

Interactions of News Frames and Incivility in the Political Blogosphere: Examining Perceptual Outcomes

The anonymity and flexibility of the online world allows the free expression of views. This same anonymity and unconstrained expression can initiate uncivil debate. The political blogosphere is thus replete with uncivil discussions and becomes an apt context to examine the influence of incivility on news frames. Moreover, although there is an increasingly growing literature on framing, few have examined framing effects in the contemporary media landscape. Thus, the present study brings in literature from incivility and framing effects to examine the influence of incivility on news frames for perceptual outcomes. The study uses an experiment embedded in a Web survey. Findings show that incivility increases the credibility of a news article while decreasing political trust and political efficacy. Further, results demonstrate the interactions of incivility and news frames. For instance, news credibility is increased only in the value framed condition. And a combination of strategic frames and incivility results in the least political trust and external efficacy. Implications are discussed.

[Supplementary material is available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Political Communication for the following free supplemental resource(s): stimulus material for the experiment.]