Assessing Americans' Opinions About the News Media's Fairness in 1996 and 1998

This article reports an analysis of Americans' opinions about the news media's fairness in covering public affairs. The data come from the 1996 and 1998 National Election Studies, which contained variables tapping exposure to and opinions about the news media, as well as key political dispositions?partisanship, ideology, and opinion about presidential and congressional job performance?and a plethora of demographic variables. The data show that people who adhere to traditional moral codes and are misanthropic tend not to trust the news media to cover politics fairly. In a presidential election year, opinion about the president's job performance affects perceptions of the press's fairness. In an off-year election, however, opinion about the president's job performance is replaced by opinion about how the Congress has been doing its job. In addition, perception of how the media covered the Lewinsky scandal also influenced opinion about the press's fairness in general.     

Capital Offenders in Texas Prisons: Rates, Correlates, and an Actuarial Analysis of Violent Misconduct

This study analyzed the records of 136 recently incarcerated capital murder offenders in the initial phase (M = 2.37 years, range = 6-40 months) of their life sentences in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Prevalence rates of institutional violence were inversely related to severity: potentially violent misconduct (36.8%), assaultive violations (14%), serious assaults (5.1%), and homicides (0%). Consistent with prior studies, factors correlated with assaultive misconduct included age (inversely), prior prison confinement, and concurrent robbery or burglary in the capital offense. A simplified Burgess scale entitled the Risk Assessment Scale for Prison-Capital (RASP-Cap) was moderately successful in identifying varying levels of improbability of committing violence-related misconduct however defined (AUC = .715-.766).     

Youth offending and youth transitions: the power of capital in influencing change

Neither the literature on offending nor that on desistance adequately explains the short-term nature of youth offending, young people’s propensity to desist from offending as they reach early adulthood and the importance of youth transitions in helping or hindering young people’s access to legitimate and conventional opportunities and responsibilities. It is suggested in this article that the three phases of offending—onset, maintenance and desistance—run parallel courses with the three phases of youth transitions—childhood, youth and adulthood and that both these processes are influenced by discrepancies in levels of capital for young people at each stage. In a recent Scottish study of desistance, Bourdieu’s concepts of capital are used to demonstrate the commonalities between youth offending and youth transitions and to better understand young people’s search for integration and recognition—whether this be through offending or conventionality. The article concludes that the concepts of capital and youth transitions could both be employed more usefully in the field of criminology to explain the transient nature of offending in youth and the greater likelihood of desistance once legitimate and sustainable opportunities are found to spend as well as to accumulate capital in early adulthood.

《使民主运转起来》的研究方法分析

罗伯特·帕特南等人于1993出版的《使民主运转起来》是最近十余年来政治文化研究领域少有的经典之作。他们的研究不仅打开了公民社会与社会资本研究的大门,开拓了制度绩效研究的新思路,而且将阿尔蒙德开创的政治文化实证研究方法推到了一个新高度。尽管帕特南等人的研究方法也受到了一些批评,但他们的研究思路和方法无疑具有重要的启发价值,因而有必要对其进行地系统地分析和评估。     

基于货币错配的中国资本外逃研究

近几年涌入中国的热钱大量增加,然而,对发展中国家而言,热钱的大量涌入也许是下一轮大规模资本外逃的序幕,而货币错配引起的大量资本突然外逃,是近几年持续发生的金融危机的重要原因之一.文章利用1986-2005年的统计数据对中国货币错配与资本外逃的关系进行实证分析,结果显示:货币错配与资本外逃之间存在着显著的正相关关系,中国的货币错配促进了资本外逃,是资本外逃的重要原因之一.     

浅析企业的财务管理目标与资本结构优化

企业财务管理目标应为企业价值最大化。而企业的财务管理目标与资本结构有着直接的关系。要合理地确定企业的资本结构,必须综合分析经济周期、市场竞争环境、行业、施工项目效益等相关影响因素。     

川岛浪速与晚清警政建设

晚清创设的中国近代警察制度多仿效日本。日本人川岛浪速创办的京师警务学堂是中国最早的警察教育机构,他的"上庆亲王书"提出了近代中国警政建设比较完整的方案。     

《巴黎手稿》中精神生产思想的当代论域与实践路向

作为马克思唯物史观生成的出发点,《巴黎手稿》基于特定历史条件下的经济事实,分析"非物质生产领域中资本主义的表现",在生产资料所有制层面揭示精神生产的主体性本质和历史性特点,批判了资本主义条件下的劳动异化和精神生产主体性消解现象,明确私人财产占有制度是问题的根源,从而为彰显主体性的社会主义精神生产实践指明了制度建设的基本...     

民营资本主动融资方式阻碍因素的初步分析

中央政府各部门近年来出台了一系列"引入民间资本进入基础设施领域"特许经营政策法规,来推动新一轮的基础设施建设的浪潮。虽然PFI方式(主要是BOT模式)有很多的优点,然而其运作结果和过程都存在着颇多争议的问题。对若干阻碍PFI的因素进行比较分析,确定其重要性程度,以期对今后政府出台相关保证PFI运作的政策起到一定的借鉴作用。从国内对PFI和民间资本在基础设施建设的有关文献中识别出23个阻碍因素,这23个因素按归属划分为现存体制、政府行为和企业素质三个方面,并通过问卷调查和运用数理统计方法得出":缺乏权益保障"和"阻碍融资渠道的畅通"是两个最关键的风险因素;被调查者的工作性质,如政府部门或民营企业,对阻碍因素的关键性程度没有产生明显差别的影响。     

Systematic review of religious affiliations and beliefs as correlates of public attitudes toward capital punishment

Religious reasons are frequently described as considerations that shape support for or opposition to capital punishment; however, there are many inconsistencies in the literature. This study represents a systematic review of the extant research on religious affiliations and beliefs as correlates of public attitudes toward capital punishment. Searches conducted in five databases identified 33 articles, representing 97,570 respondents. Results revealed that people belonging to Protestant affiliations and with negative images of God were more likely to support capital punishment. People possessing positive images of God and with strong beliefs in compassion were less likely to support capital punishment. The religious correlates commonly assessed in the extant literature, such as fundamentalism, are not significant correlates of attitudes toward capital punishment. Findings also revealed that the predominance of research examined Christian religious affiliations, to the exclusion of other common affiliations, such as Buddhist or Islamic affiliations. Taken together, findings suggest that compared to affiliations, religious beliefs better explain attitudes toward capital punishment. Further research is needed to investigate the ways religious correlates influence death qualified jury selection and capital sentencing decisions. An increased understanding of the nuanced relationship between religion and capital punishment attitudes can better inform capital punishment policy and practice.