How to Develop More Effective Policies Against Crime: Some Reflections on Drugs and Crime Research in an International Context

This paper offers some reflections on how to develop more effective policies against crime, drawing on more than 10 years of research experience on the international drug problem. The paper begins by trying to illustrate the so-called justice gap in the world, and explain why an institution such as the United Nations has a comparative advantage in closing that gap. It then details four lessons that the author has learnt from his own personal experience as head of research in the United Nations International Drug Control Programme, now called the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime: (i) measure, count, and keep counting; (ii) publish or perish, either in inter-governmental default, or in public hysteria; (iii) limit the dangers of committing the euphemistic fallacy; and (iv) divorce research and policy, because research is policy-dependent; make research policy-relevant, and re-marry it to policy. Finally, the paper tries to show how these lessons can be applied in related areas and used as good practice in research on crime.     

从阶级到阶层—-一种公共语境转换的解说

当代中国在公共语境领域发生了从阶级到阶层的话语转换,这种转换可以从社会分层理论的两个重要理论源头--马克思的阶级理论和马克斯@韦伯的社会分层理论各自所蕴涵的语境逻辑和当代中国整体性社会诉求中得到解释.马克思的阶级理论是一种关涉政治革命的宏观历史理论,与试图保持价值中立的关涉合法性论证的马克斯@韦伯的社会分层理论具有极为相殊的语境逻辑.新中国成立后,由于对革命时代阶级斗争理论的"路径依赖"以及对马克思阶级理论的语境误读,导致阶级和阶级斗争话语泛化.改革开放后公共话语发生的从阶级到阶层的转换是对中国社会整体性诉求的恰当回应,但这种转换并不表明马克思的阶级理论应当退出公共语境.     

Family Structure, Community Context, and Adolescent Problem Behaviors

A number of models have been proposed to explain the relationship between family structure and adolescent problem behaviors, including several that consider parent-child relations, family income, stress, and residential mobility. However, studies have not explored whether the different types of communities within which families reside affect the association between family structure and problem behaviors. A community context model also suggests that the relationship between family structure and problem behaviors may be conditioned by community characteristics. The results of a multilevel regression model that used data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS; n = 10,286) indicated that adolescents from homes with a recently divorced mother, a mother and stepfather, a single mother, or a single father reported more problem behaviors regardless of the community context. Moreover, adolescents living in communities with a high proportion of impoverished residents, female headed households, or jobless males reported more problem behaviors irrespective of family structure.

是"愚民"还是"民本"--《论语》一则略考

按传统方式理解《论语·泰伯》中的“民可使由之 ,不可使知之”这句话 ,可解释为统治者当时推行的愚民政策 ,但从诠释学的角度来看 ,这种解释无法与《论语》文本背景融合。若将这句话点断为“民可使 ,由之 ;不可使 ,知之” ,译为 :“民众若能得到很好的管理 ,就继续使用这种方法 ;如果没有得到有效的管理 ,作为统治者就要观察了解这一现象背后的原因 ,找到解决问题的有效办法” ,则与此话相关的困惑就能迎刃而解。     

语境在话语分析中的作用

语境是一个极为综合复杂而重要的语言学概念.本文在进一步理解语境和话语分析等语言学概念的基础上,把语境分为上下文语境、情景语境和文化语境,并探讨这三种语境在话语分析中的作用.由此可见:话语分析是一定语境下的话语分析,语境的理解和把握有助于话语分析.     

语境的释义功能与翻译中词义的确定

语境是语用学的重要理论之一 ,它是理解语言必不可少的因素 ,语境对语言具有释义功能 ,翻译过程中确定词义依赖于语境的释义功能 ,在翻译中确定词义应考虑文本语境中的语言知识、背景知识、情景知识或相互知识等因素     

Cohousing For Whom? Survey Evidence to Support the Diffusion of Socially and Spatially Integrated Housing in the United States

Cohousing is a resident-led neighborhood development model that clusters private dwelling units around collectively owned and managed spaces, with potential to address long-term social and environmental challenges in American metropolitan regions. To date, however, the cohousing model has been slow to diffuse beyond a demographically narrow following. This limited following may signal to policymakers that cohousing is an unappealing housing model, and therefore an impractical policy objective. Drawing from a survey of 1,000 American residents, the results of a multivariate regression model suggest that (a) many of the characteristics of the current resident population of cohousing in the United States have no statistical association with the individuals who indicate interest in cohousing nationwide; (b) other characteristics serve as better predictors of interest in cohousing; and therefore (c) the slow diffusion of cohousing is likely the consequence of inaccessibility rather than low appeal. Overcoming these challenges demands shifts in policy.     

The What,Where, and When of Place-Based Housing Policy’s Neighborhood Effects

Ever-scarce affordable housing production resources, in addition to their primary function of providing housing for those in need, are increasingly enlisted for the dual goals of strengthening distressed communities and increasing access to higher opportunity neighborhoods. Information on spillovers can inform investment decisions over time and across communities. We leverage recent, high-quality research on neighborhood effects of Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) production, synthesizing evidence according to neighborhood context. We also summarize the evidence on project features moderating impacts of publicly subsidized, place-based rental housing, in general. We conclude that context matters. Producing LIHTC housing in distressed neighborhoods positively impacts the surrounding neighborhood—in terms of modest property value gains and increased safety. By contrast, higher opportunity neighborhoods experience small property value reductions, and no impacts on crime. Big questions remain, however, about impact heterogeneity—via tenant mix, property design, and ongoing property management, as examples—with the scarcity of systematic data representing one of the field’s largest constraints.     

Biopower and geopolitics as Russia’s neighborhood strategies: reconnecting people or reaggregating lands?

In this article, we address geopolitics and biopower as two different yet mutually correlative discursive strategies of sovereign power in Russia. We challenge the dominant realist approaches to Russia’s neighborhood policy by introducing the concept of biopolitics as its key element, which makes analysis of political relations in the post-Soviet area more nuanced and variegated. More specifically, we address an important distinction between geopolitical control over territories and management of population as two of Russia’s strategies in its “near abroad.”     

Local labour market competition and radical right voting: Evidence from France

How do the economic effects of immigration affect radical right support? The evidence in support of the labour market competition theory — which posits that the economic threat posed by immigration to jobs and wages leads to radical right voting — has been mixed. On the one hand, individual-level surveys underreport economic drivers because of social desirability bias. On the other hand, contextual studies show contradictory findings due to an over-reliance on units of analysis that are too aggregated to meaningfully capture the competitive threat posed by immigrants. This paper identifies the influence of labour market competition on radical right voting at a local level in contexts where native workers are directly affected by the arrival of immigrants who have similar or higher skillsets. Using an original longitudinal dataset of fine-grained municipal electoral, demographic and economic data from France over the 2002–2017 period, the paper provides empirical evidence of local contextual influences of economic competition between natives and immigrants of any skillset. Under local conditions of material deprivation, measured by the local unemployment rate, the effect of labour market competition on municipalities’ radical right vote share is amplified. Moreover, higher radical right support is observed in municipalities with a higher share of any one of the following groups: low-skilled natives, medium-skilled immigrants or high-skilled immigrants. This supports the hypothesis that immigrants with higher qualifications are compelled to accept lower-skilled jobs, and are thus perceived as a competitive threat to low-skilled natives. By reconciling radical right contextual studies and research on the political economy of immigration policies, this paper highlights the importance of a local analysis in detecting the effect of labour market competition on radical right support. This paper also explains why some local areas are more prone to radical right support than others over time.