The creative use of the ADHD diagnosis in probationers' self-narratives

Drawing upon a narrative criminological theoretical framework, this article explores how probationers use the ADHD diagnosis in self-narratives. Eleven in-depth interviews with probationers diagnosed with ADHD were carried out, while the interviewees were under the supervision of the Danish Probation Service. The analysis of the empirical material shows that the ADHD diagnosis provides a context for their life that helps make sense of and explain their past. Although their self-narratives are in a sense personal stories, they relate ADHD as a neurobiological disorder to their criminal past, using the available cultural narratives (Loseke, D. R. (2007). The study of identity as cultural, institutional, organizational, and personal narratives: Theoretical and empirical integrations. The Sociological Quarterly, 48, 661–688). Three types of co-existing self-narratives were identified: (1) ‘ADHD as my biological destiny’, (2) ‘It should have been discovered earlier in my life’ and (3) ‘I would not have been without ADHD’. As the probationers articulated all three narratives, the particular role of ADHD in the individual self-narratives was ambiguous. The probationers stated that they would not have missed the wild experiences of ‘living on the edge’, while at the same time describing ADHD as a determining factor for their life paths as criminals. Accordingly the probationers tended to explain not the individual offences, but their lives as criminals. Following this, the final section discusses whether their use of ADHD leads to crime-reducing ‘narratives of desistance’ or whether they instead represent crime-increasing ‘neutralization narratives’ (Maruna, S. (2001). Making good: How ex-convicts reform and reclaim their lives. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association; Maruna, S., & Copes, H. (2005). What have we learned from five decades of neutralization research? Crime and Justice, 32, 221–320).     

The Role of Ethnicity in a Local Drug Dealer Network

This article analyses the role of ethnicity in a heroin dealer and consumer network of young men of Chilean descent in Norrköping, Sweden. At the end of the 1990s the young men became involved in the network through contact with a large‐scale dealer who was also of Chilean descent. They worked as street dealers for the top dealer; many of them also began using heroin and eventually developed an addiction. Through over 100 qualitative interviews with 17 of these young men, the article examines identity construction and the competencies they developed on the street that facilitated their eventual work as dealers, as well as the social relations and contacts within the dealer network that played a role in their becoming dealers and users. The findings reveal that due to their perceived experience of being subordinated in society, they became involved in heroin as a means of gaining self‐respect, dignity, and wealth. Arriving at a view of ethnicity as something that is constructed rather than fixed and intrinsic, the findings point to how ethnicity, through the young men's development of and participation in the street culture, merges with aspects of identity including social class and gender, as well as with aspects of ethnicities from other parts of the world. On the whole, the findings suggest that ethnicity as a concept of analysis within drug cultures is less fruitful when separated from other aspects of identity, such as social class and gender.     

英国检察官审前会见证人制度研究

为防止检察官在审前训练、指导证人作证和污染证据,英格兰和威尔士的法律传统禁止检察官在审前会见证人.2003年开始,检察官审前会见证人的制度（PTWI）在英格兰和威尔士经历了从试点到全面推行的变革过程.为此,英国修改了《皇家检察官守则》的相关内容,制定了审前会见的《实务守则》和《工作指南》.而同为普通法系的我国香港地区对要不要引入检察官审前证人会见制度进行了审慎的研究,最终决定维持现行做法.英国这一制度探索展现了“检察官基于案件证据资料做出公诉决定”这一过程的复杂性,我国应从制度上规范检察官审前会见证人,科学评估证人证言可靠性,促进审查起诉制度精细化发展.     

Mail vs. telephone surveys of criminal justice attitudes: A comparative analysis

This study compares results from surveys using two modes of administration. A subset of questions from the 1992Texas Crime Poll, a statewide poll conducted annually by mail, was replicated in telephone interviews using the Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing System. The phone survey yielded better participation rates but less complete responses to individual attitude questions than did the mail poll. As expected, the mail survey was less expensive but less efficient than the automated phone survey. The central finding was that all but one of the responses to five attitude questions difered significantly across the surveys. The samples differed in their demographic composition, but this did not explain differences in the substantive findings from the mail and phone surveys. The discussion considers alternative explanations for differences in the findings from the two surveys and suggests direction for further comparative research.     

Survey questions about party competence: Insights from cognitive interviews

Voter assessments of party competence have become a key explanation of electoral decision-making. However, there are at least three important aspects to understanding responses to questions on issue-specific party competence: comprehension difficulties; a lack of well-formed attitudes and relevant information; and the use of response heuristics. We used 20 cognitive interviews carried out in Austria in 2011 to test competence questions. The interviews show us how respondents explain their responses. We find evidence that many people (1) may hold only weak opinions and have little information on issue-specific party competence and (2) may make use of distinct but related concepts, particularly salience and position, when answering questions about competence. We provide recommendations for researchers and survey designers based on our findings.     

基于竞选广告的民进党特性及沿革分析（1996-2012）

在台湾政治格局中，民进党扮演了一个重要的角色。在近30年的发展中，该党凸显了一些特点，而这些特点随着社会和两岸局势的发展又有所改变。本研究以1996年至2012年五届台湾地区领导人选举中332则民进党的报纸竞选广告为研究对象，通过内容分析勾勒了一幅民进党竞选策略的画面。在此基础上，作者赴台与13名在不同领域与台湾政界有关联的人士进行深度访谈，以解释内容、分析结论，探析民进党的特征和变化，以及隐藏于变化背后的原因。本文结论在一定程度上印证了前人研究，同时对该党未来的变化也提出可能性展望。     

The Meaning of the Cut: A Phenomenological Inquiry into Prisoner Self-injury

Self-injurious behaviors (SIBs) represent a significant threat to the morbidity and mortality of vulnerable prisoners, and are now a ubiquitous aspect of the correctional system. Currently, correctional staff receive little specific training or appropriate guidance from national standards to respond to this dangerous behavior. To date, the overwhelming majority of empirical research on self-injury in prison has relied upon the viewpoint of academicians and/or correctional staff. This select viewpoint has reduced the perspective of the self-injuring prisoner to a passive role. In response, we utilized a qualitative methodology to access the perspectives of 20 highly recidivistic self-injuring inmates housed in three South Carolina prison. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was employed to identify fundamental themes underlying SIBs. Findings indicate that the meaning of self-injury is rooted in traumatic family milieus with the behavior becoming a fixed coping mechanism over time. Respondents perceived stress and control as dominant themes, though mental illness, physiological responses, and negative emotional states were also important. While desistance from self-injury appears unlikely, key policy solutions are presented in accordance with these inmate perspectives. This phenomenological inquiry suggests that efforts to understand these inmate “accounts” and personal history serve as a potentially efficacious means of understanding SIBs occurring in prison.     

“I was a homo thug,now I'm just homo”: Gay gang members’ desistance and persistence

In a growing body of research, the methods of and motivations for gang desistance are being investigated, spurred in part by concerns about the long-term negative effects of gang membership. Despite recent calls for scholarship that is more inclusive of LGBTQ populations and attentive to issues of sexual identity, however, most gang research remains overwhelmingly heteronormative. In this study, I use in-depth interviews with 48 self-identified gay male gang members to explore how and why they have desisted from or persisted in their gangs, as well as explore how desistance or persistence has affected their self-perceptions, lives, and activities. Because not all have left their gangs, I examine the markers in young men's narratives that signal shifts away from—but sometimes also toward—their gangs, as well as their zigzagging paths out of gang involvement. As gang structure and composition hold importance for their members’ experiences, I use a comparative approach by contrasting men in predominantly straight gangs with those in gay gangs. Set within a heterosexist cultural context, the structure of the gang combines with individual shifts in identity to encourage pathways out of straight gangs and pathways into continued involvement with gay gangs.     

Compromising the public good? Civil society as beneficiary of gambling revenue

Profits from legal gambling are often channelled to good causes. This system embeds the predicament of whether citizens’ potentially problematic gambling activities should be a source of funding for the public good. In this article, this dilemma is unfolded by the receivers of public grants that stem from gambling revenues. A total of twenty-three representatives of Civil Society Organizations were interviewed as beneficiaries of the Finnish state-owned gambling monopolies. The article illustrates explicit dependencies and hidden ethical dilemmas, suggesting that CSOs may have limited possibilities of making ethically consistent decisions in view of the origin of their funding.