LEGAL CYNICISM,COLLECTIVE EFFICACY,AND THE ECOLOGY OF ARREST*

Ethnographic evidence reveals that many crimes in poor minority neighborhoods evade criminal justice sanctioning, thus leading to a negative association between the proportion of minority residents in a neighborhood and the arrest rate. To explain this finding, we extend recent theoretical explications of the concept of legal cynicism. Legal cynicism refers to a cultural orientation in which the law and the agents of its enforcement are viewed as illegitimate, unresponsive, and ill equipped to ensure public safety. Crime might flourish in neighborhoods characterized by legal cynicism because individuals who view the law as illegitimate are less likely to comply with it; yet because of legal cynicism, these crimes might go unreported and therefore unsanctioned. This study draws on data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods to test the importance of legal cynicism for understanding geographic variation in the probability of arrest. We find that, in neighborhoods characterized by high levels of legal cynicism, crimes are much less likely to lead to an arrest than in neighborhoods where citizens view the police more favorably. Findings also reveal that residents of highly cynical neighborhoods are less likely to engage in collective efficacy and that collective efficacy mediates the association between legal cynicism and the probability of arrest.     

过硫酸氢钾复合粉的杀菌效果试验

为考察过硫酸氢钾复合粉的体外杀菌活性及有机物、pH值、温度对其杀菌效果的影响,采用悬液定量杀菌试验进行了实验室观察。结果显示,0.312 5～2.5 g/L的过硫酸氢钾复合粉消毒液对大肠杆菌、金黄色葡萄球菌、肺炎克雷伯氏菌、多杀性巴氏杆菌和猪链球菌均有杀灭作用,2.5 g/L过硫酸氢钾复合粉消毒液与试验菌作用5 min,杀菌率均为100%。能量试验结果显示,过硫酸氢钾复合粉对大肠杆菌和金黄色葡萄球菌的最低合格浓度为5 g/L,对多杀性巴氏杆菌和猪链球菌的最低合格浓度为1 g/L;较高温度和酸性环境可以显著增强过硫酸氢钾复合粉的杀菌效果,而高含量的小牛血清可以在一定程度上抑制消毒剂的杀菌活性。结果表明,过硫酸氢钾复合粉具有极强的杀菌效果,提高过硫酸氢钾复合粉的浓度和作用温度、延长作用时间或降低pH值可以增强其杀菌作用。     

An evaluation of the effectiveness of positive behavioural support within a medium secure mental health forensic service

A number of recent influential reports recommend the use of proactive and preventative approaches such as Positive Behavioural Support (PBS) in the management of challenging behaviours. Although evidence supporting the use of PBS is mainly drawn from studies of learning disability and child populations, it is recognised that PBS could have a much wider utility. In this study, PBS was implemented in a medium secure forensic mental health service, a novel context. Impact was evaluated using an adapted version of the Checklist of Challenging Behaviour at baseline and then at 3 monthly intervals for a year. Significant reductions were observed in aggression frequency, management difficulty and severity and other challenging behaviour frequency and management difficulty. Reductions in challenging behaviour were still evident after six months for the full group and twelve months for the sub-group with the exception of other challenging behaviour management difficulty. In contrast, no such significant differences were found for a control group. This study indicated that PBS was an effective intervention in the management of challenging behaviour in this forensic mental health context.     

Public confidence in the police: tests of instrumental and expressive models in a developing country city

This paper examines the effect of instrumental and expressive concerns on public confidence in the police in three different residential areas in Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana’s third largest city. The study was important because of the knowledge vacuum that existed in regard to the empirical validity of the instrumental and expressive theoretical framework within the Ghanaian context. Data for the study was drawn from a baseline survey conducted in three residential areas in the Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis. The findings revealed that instrumental factors played a more significant role in influencing confidence in the police in the Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis compared to expressive factors. More importantly, instrumental factors played a more significant role in influencing confidence in the police at Anaji compared to the other two residential areas used in the study. The paper recommends that there should be more investment in police infrastructure and services to enhance police effectiveness and efficiency. Additionally, the authors also suggest that interventions aimed at improving security at the community level should be guided by periodic safety audits since this will provide a better understanding of the criminogenic problems within these residential settlements.     

HOW COLLECTIVE IS COLLECTIVE EFFICACY? THE IMPORTANCE OF CONSENSUS IN JUDGMENTS ABOUT COMMUNITY COHESION AND WILLINGNESS TO INTERVENE

Existing studies have generally measured collective efficacy by combining survey respondents’ ratings of their local area into an overall summary for each neighborhood. Naturally, this approach results in a substantive focus on the variation in average levels of collective efficacy between neighborhoods. In this article, we focus on the variation in consensus of collective efficacy judgments. To account for differential consensus among neighborhoods, we use a mixed‐effects location‐scale model, with variability in the consensus of judgments treated as an additional neighborhood‐level random effect. Our results show that neighborhoods in London differ, not just in their average levels of collective efficacy but also in the extent to which residents agree with one another in their assessments. In accord with findings for U.S. cities, our results show that consensus in collective efficacy assessments is affected by the ethnic composition of neighborhoods. Additionally, we show that heterogeneity in collective efficacy assessments is consequential, with higher levels of criminal victimization, worry about crime, and risk avoidance behavior in areas where collective efficacy consensus is low.     

Competence, Self-esteem, and Coping Efficacy as Mediators of Ecological Risk and Depressive Symptoms in Urban African American and European American Youth

Structural equation modeling was used to test [Sandler, American Journal of Community Psychology 29: 19–61.] a theoretical model of risk and resilience in an urban sample of African American and European American adolescents. The aims of the present study were to examine whether self-system processes (i.e., competence, self-esteem, and coping efficacy) mediated the relations between ecological risk and depressive symptoms and to determine if pathways varied across ethnic/racial groups. Results implicate self-esteem as a putative mediator of the impact of ecological risk on depressive symptoms for both African American and European American youth. In addition, coping efficacy was a mediator of the link between ecological risk and depressive symptoms for African American youth, but not for European American youth. The evidence supporting competence as a significant mediator of the relation between ecological risk and depressive symptoms was less compelling. Findings suggest substantial similarities in the pathways between ecological risk and depressive symptoms across African American and European American youth.

论法律实效的评判

无论立法者还是社会公众都非常关心,法律在运行中的实效如何?准确评判法律实效是一个非常重要的理论问题和实践课题.作者认为,在评判法律实效时,我们必须首先准确地把握法律实效的科学内涵,在此基础上遵循恰当的评判方法,采取科学的评判标准,方能客观公正地展示取得的成绩、查找尚存的问题、揭示形成的原因,达到促进实效的改善、构建良好的法律秩序和加速法治进程之目的.     

Local Government Size and Political Efficacy: Do Citizen Panels Make a Difference?

Democratic theorists typically suggest that citizens served by small local governments have high levels of political efficacy. However, it is conceivable that large governments can overcome the burden of bigness by introducing structures that involve citizens more closely in decision-making. This paper analyses whether jurisdiction size influences political efficacy in Welsh local government, and whether the presence of a citizen panel makes a difference to the size-efficacy relationship. Multi-level analyses suggest that size is negatively associated with internal and external political efficacy, but that the use of citizen panels bolsters the external efficacy of citizens served by larger local government.     

监狱工作社会化的法学与实践思索

按照现代法学理论,今日之刑罚执行已不应再仅是纯粹地对罪犯实施惩罚,而是要在惩罚基础上,通过各种行刑矫正措施的落实,"将罪犯改造成为守法公民",使其能顺利地以健全健康的人格回归社会。监狱工作社会化,将通过重整司法资源和社会资源配置,全面发挥刑罚特殊预防和一般预防之功效,实现罪犯经过改造由犯罪人向社会人转化的刑罚执行终极目标,它既是对传统行刑方式的一种更新改革,也是监狱工作法制化、科学化的表现形式和重要体现。     

试论苏、黄等词的同体异用现象

词发展到北宋中期,苏轼及其弟子对词诸方面进行了新的诠释,其突出点是表现在词的同体异用,主要点是对词之传统性的反动,有意识地破坏词体的固有特点,更多的是引导词体对诗体的认同.以诗为词,古今均有探讨,多是从创作手法、艺术风格、文体递变等处比照分析,在词的文本方面用功甚深.而词的同体异用现象的产生,是与苏、黄等人对词体定位、有意识地引导和创作分不开的,是他们促使词体的雅化和开放,以及回避诗歌创作诸种因素合成作用的结果,具有一定的时效性.