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     

Global economic resilience: Analyzing the diverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the US,Pakistan, and the world

The economic development of a state can be accurately characterized as the measurable changes in macroeconomic indicators that result in an increase in the overall production or output over a specific timeframe, in comparison to the previous period. Several key macroeconomic factors contribute to the advancement of economic growth. These factors include the industrial production, unemployment rate, business Confidence Index, government budget deficit, and the labor force participation rate. The study employed secondary data from January 2016 to August 2023, with a monthly frequency, to estimate the coefficients. The data encompassed the United States, Pakistan, and the rest of the world. The empirical findings indicate that there exists a negative relationship between equality and economic growth in the United States, Pakistan, and other countries worldwide. The findings demonstrate that the global pandemic has had a notable impact on the industrial production of the World, the United States, and Pakistan, with an initial increase followed by a gradual decline. The unemployment rates in the United States, Pakistan, and the rest of the world have experienced a substantial decline. Simultaneously, the rate of unemployment has witnessed a notable increase, resulting in significant and adverse effects on the respective economies. The decrease in the Business Confidence Index can be attributed to heightened levels of uncertainty, which in turn have had a detrimental impact on the gross domestic product of the United States, Pakistan, and other countries worldwide. The reduction in imports has resulted in a decrease in the government budget deficit, which has had a notable impact on the economy.     

Macroeconomic Development and Civil Litigation

This paper contributes to the explanation of the tremendous rise in civil litigation activity in Austria over the last four decades by analysing the influence of macroeconomic conditions on civil litigation. We find that the number of transactions per individual—proxied by the level of real per capita GDP—positively influences the amount of litigation per capita. Inertia in litigious behavior reinforces effects. In the short run, however, we observe a countercyclical pattern of litigious activity. Cointegration analysis confirms the short run negative association, and a long run cointegrating relationship between GDP and civil litigation. Several robustness tests corroborate our results. Rent-seeking interpretations, and possible detrimental effects on the long run growth prospects cannot be excluded.     

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.     

Why New Labour Wants the Euro

This article argues that membership of the single European currency would provide New Labour with a means of enhancing its rules-based and depoliticised approach to macroeconomic policy management. The move would enable the government to strengthen its anti-inflationary credibility and to impose further competitive discipline on business and labour, while at the same time also enabling it to increase its governing autonomy by placing core areas of economic policy outside the sphere of democratic control. Despite these advantages, however, formidable obstacles, most notably a high level of public antipathy towards the project, mean that New Labour's euro-vision is unlikely to be realised.