The calculation of DNA match probabilities in mixed race populations

A coherent method is offered to estimate likelihood ratios for DNA match probabilities from mixed racial populations that avoids the approach of reporting separate estimates for each race. The method is demonstrated for some cases involving profiles derived from several individuals and incorporates a correction for 'subpopulation' effects.     

From Contest to Content: The Impact of Public Journalism on New Zealand Election Campaign Coverage

Supporters of public journalism hope to reengage citizens with politics and overcome the shortcomings of contemporary political journalism. However, there has been little systematic study of how public journalism differs from mainstream journalism. During the 1996 general election campaign in New Zealand, the first under proportional representation, three newspapers, conscious of the challenges imposed by electoral changes, experimented with public journalism coverage. This presented an opportunity to study how coverage as a whole differed from coverage of the previous elections and what specific changes were the result of public journalism initiatives. The researchers analyzed 1,938 stories from a 12-day sample of the New Zealand general election campaign coverage in 1993 and 1996. A total of seven metropolitan and provincial papers were included. The results showed public journalism articles covered proportionally more policy issues and concentrated less on personality than conventional campaign stories. Public journalism stories also were less negative and more neutral in tone and were more inclined to be ''soft'' news, reflecting a tendency to cover issues rather than events. Public journalism articles also were less likely than conventional coverage to cover the campaign from a ''horse race'' angle. The findings provide support for the utility of public journalism in campaign reporting.     

Attitudes Towards Severity of Punishment: A Conjoint Analytic Approach

Past research suggests that attitudes towards severity of punishment are affected by crime‐specific factors. The impact of such factors has usually been investigated by between‐subjects designs. The studies reported in this paper, however, are based on within‐subjects designs, using conjoint analysis for data collection and analysis. Study 1 employs a rape scenario for investigating the impact of the victim–offender relationship and of two victim characteristics – provocative behavior and intoxication. Study 2 uses a theft and an assault scenario for analyzing the influence of several offender and crime characteristics on sanctioning: offender's age, readiness to confess, previous convictions, and severity of the offense. Results from both studies are reported and discussed in terms of utility values. These values represent the importance placed on the case characteristics focused upon. In addition to the general evaluation of case characteristics, inter‐individual differences are analyzed by means of hierarchical cluster analysis. Advantages of the conjoint analytic approach over conventional research methods on sanctioning behavior are discussed.     

Poor relief and families in nineteenth-century Ireland and Italy

This article examines the extent to which poor relief supported families and households in two contrasting European (and predominantly Roman Catholic) countries, Ireland and Italy, over the long nineteenth century. The main focus of the article is on the poor law in Ireland and the extent to which it provided support to families and households. While nuclear and extended families dominated household structures in late nineteenth-century Ireland (at least in rural areas), we show that by 1900, the majority of persons supported in workhouses were single. However, outdoor relief also formed an important part of the Irish poor law system and data on the household composition of persons supported is not available from official sources. Drawing on a data-matching exercise for one poor law union, this article suggests that the household structure of persons on outdoor relief may have been more complex than the official data would indicate and, in contrast to indoor relief, much more representative of overall household structures. In order to put these findings in context we compare the Irish approach with that adopted in Italy.     

‘Unhomely moments’: Civilising domestic worlds in colonial Australia

This article explores the multiple connections between the colonisation of Australia in the nineteenth century and the formation of domestic worlds as the site for ‘civilising’ children. The affective bonds of family were often regarded as an indispensable element in the nurture and training of children, but where the bonds of ‘natural affection’ seemed to pose an obstacle to the civilising project, they were ruthlessly severed.     

Immigration,intermarriage and the changing face of Europe in the post war period

In this article we compare the propensity to intermarry of various migrant groups and their children who settled in Germany, France, England, Belgium and the Netherlands in the post-war period, using a wide range of available statistical data. We try to explain different intermarriage patterns within the framework of Alba and Nee's assimilation theory and pay special attention to the role of religion, colour and colonial background. We therefore compare colonial with non colonial migrants and within these categories between groups with ‘European’ (Christian) and non-European (Islam, Hinduism) religions. First of all, religion appears to be an important variable. Migrants whose faith has no tradition in Western Europe intermarry at a much lower rate than those whose religious backgrounds correspond with those that are common in the country of settlement. The rate of ethnic endogamous marriages in Western Europe are highest in Hindu and Muslim communities, often regardless if they came as guest workers or colonial migrants. Whereas differences in religion diminish the propensity to intermarry, colour or ‘racial’ differences on the other hand seem to be less important. This is largely explained by the pre-migration socialisation. Furthermore, the paper argues that the attention to institutions, as rightly advocated by Richard Alba and Victor Nee, needs a more refined and layered elaboration. Institutions, often as barriers to intermarriage, do not only emanate from the receiving society, but also—be it less formalized—within migrant communities. Especially religions and family systems, but also organized nationalist feelings, can have a profound influence on how migrants think about endogamy. Finally, strong pressures to assimilate, often through institutionalized forms of discrimination and stigmatization, not only produce isolation and frustrate assimilation (with resulting low intermarriage rates), but can also stimulate assimilation by 'passing' mechanisms. These factors, together with a more comparative perspective, are not completely ignored in the new assimilation theory, but—as this study of Western European intermarriage patterns stresses—deserve to be included more systematically in historical and social scientist analyses.     

论受贿罪中的“为他人谋取利益”

"为他人谋取利益"旨在说明国家工作人员收受的财物与其职务之间具有对价关系;"为他人谋取利益"中的"他人"包括行贿人、行贿人所指示的第三人以及单位,"利益"包含正当利益与不正当利益;将"为他人谋取利益"限定为客观上实施了谋取利益的具体职务行为或者解释为主观要件要素,不具有合理性;"为他人谋取利益"的最低要求是许诺为他人谋取利益;事先没有约定,在为他人谋取利益之后收受作为职务行为的不正当报酬的财物的,成立受贿罪;"为他人谋取利益"的行为构成其他犯罪的,除刑法有特别规定的以外,应当与受贿罪实行并罚。     

解读《治安管理处罚法》中的暂缓执行拘留

暂缓执行拘留是附有条件的暂时不执行拘留,是全面按期履行治安管理处罚决定的例外。《治安管理处罚法》对暂缓执行拘留规定了必须具备的条件,其实施也要按照严格的程序来进行。     

王国礼仪公共性的扩展——简论古代华夏族群的形成途径

古代华夏融合由夏商周三代王国政治推动完成,这一点已为学界公认。但华夏融合的具体途径是什么,仍有待深入研究。三代王国皆耗费大量物资建设象征权力的王国礼仪,王国礼仪为王族独占,但在长期发展中也形成某种公共性,即由各姓族集团贵族分享,可以在前后不同王族之间传递,由之而渐成跨越姓族藩篱的文化圈,此文化圈便是春秋“诸夏”认同的基础。古代华夏融合不同于现代民族认同,后者是社会全体成员参与的过程,前者主要是社会上层贵族参与的过程。     

Groups and Deliberation

We present a group‐based approach to the study of deliberation. Deliberation occurs in groups, yet many studies of deliberation do not take the group as a unit of analysis. We argue that group composition and the attendant social dynamics to which they give rise are an important aspect of deliberation. We offer several examples of ways to study these effects, including the interaction of gender composition and the group's decision rule in the context of an experimental study of decisions about justice, the effect of racial composition in simulated juries, and the effect of ideological composition in local meetings. We examine the consequences of these factors on a variety of outcomes, including individuals' private opinion, individuals' behaviour, and group decisions. In conclusion we discuss the implications that group effects have for empirical and normative theories of deliberation.