THE ROLE OF TURNING POINTS IN ESTABLISHING BASELINE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PEOPLE IN DEVELOPMENTAL AND LIFE‐COURSE CRIMINOLOGY

Turning points, between‐person differences, and within‐person changes have all been linked to desistance from crime. Nevertheless, the means through which between‐person differences are frequently captured in life‐course criminology makes them intertwined with, and perhaps confounded by, turning points in life. We propose that a new way of capturing the between‐person effect—the baseline between‐person difference—could benefit theoretically informed tests of developmental and life‐course issues in criminology. Because they occur at one time point immediately preceding a turning point in life, we demonstrate that baseline between‐person differences establish meaningful theoretical connections to behavior and the way people change over time. By using panel data from the Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative, we estimate models capturing within‐person change and baseline between‐person differences in social bonds (family support) and differential association (peer criminality) at the time of release from prison. The results demonstrate that baseline levels of family support protect people from postrelease substance use but not from crime. Baseline between‐person differences and within‐person changes in peer criminality, however, are robustly related to crime and substance use. Collectively, baseline between‐person differences seem critical for behavior and within‐person change over time, and the results carry implications for reentry‐based policy as well as for theory testing in developmental criminology more broadly.     

DXAGE: A New Method for Age at Death Estimation Based on Femoral Bone Mineral Density and Artificial Neural Networks

Age at death estimation in adult skeletons is hampered, among others, by the unremarkable correlation of bone estimators with chronological age, implementation of inappropriate statistical techniques, observer error, and skeletal incompleteness or destruction. Therefore, it is beneficial to consider alternative methods to assess age at death in adult skeletons. The decrease in bone mineral density with age was explored to generate a method to assess age at death in human remains. A connectionist computational approach, artificial neural networks, was employed to model femur densitometry data gathered in 100 female individuals from the Coimbra Identified Skeletal Collection. Bone mineral density declines consistently with age and the method performs appropriately, with mean absolute differences between known and predicted age ranging from 9.19 to 13.49 years. The proposed method—DXAGE—was implemented online to streamline age estimation. This preliminary study highlights the value of densitometry to assess age at death in human remains.     

坚持“三个代表”重要思想推进高校团的建设

“三个代表”重要思想,不仅是全面加强党的建设的伟大纲领,也为共青团的建设指明了方向。我们要按照“三个代表”的要求全面加强团的建设,为共青团在各项工作中更好地贯彻落实“三个代表”的要求提供坚实的组织保障。高校共青团必须按照“党建带团建”的要求,坚持“三个代表”的方向,全面加强自身建设,使大学生团员始终成为广大青年的先进代表,团干部始终成为广大团员的先进代表,共青团始终成为青年组织的核心。     

浅谈文化差异与英语学习

语言是文化的载体 ,具有鲜明的民族性。不同的文化之间自然会呈现不同的文化形态。这种文化形态差异反映到语言层面上 ,则表现为语言差异。尤其是词语文化和话语文化 ,英语和汉语在解释具体内容时具有显著的差异。     

专业英语学生英语学习中的僵化现象

在英语学习过程中,僵化现象是一个极其普遍的问题,多年来已经成为困扰我国外语教育与学习的一个难点。为克服这一僵化现象,我们利用调查问卷的形式,对大学专业英语教学停滞不前的现状进行分析释因,得出帮助学生克服僵化、提高教学效果的方法,以及就如何缓解僵化现象提出教改措施。     

关于外语学习最佳年龄的研究

关于外语学习的最佳年龄 ,国外不同学者提出了不同的理论 ,包括临界期假说 ,非临界期假说和敏感期假说。我国学者也开展了一系列的研究 ,认为外语学习的起始年龄并不是决定外语学习能否成功的关键因素。事实上 ,不同年龄段的外语学习者有各自的优势 ,外语教学工作者应根据不同年龄的学生选用恰当的教材和教学方法 ,只有这样 ,才可以使外语学习者在相对较短的时间内掌握一门外语。     

谈21世纪高校教师的素质

高等教育是学校教育全过程的最高层次 ,教师素质的高低对能否培养出合格人才起决定性作用 ,因此 ,提高教师素质 ,加强教师队伍建设 ,对发展我国的高等教育事业 ,具有不可估量的深远意义。     

Cooperative learning vs Confucian heritage culture's collectivism: confrontation to reveal some cultural conflicts and mismatch

Asian countries with Confucian heritage culture (CHC) such as China, Vietnam, Singapore, Korea and Japan have been proven to share characteristics of a collectivist society. Researchers agree that this collectivist mentality strongly supports cooperation that CHC's learners/workers best perform in groups. However, little is known about the other side of the coin. Whilst applying a method born in one culture to another, cultural differences have been forgotten. The so-called global application has led to a situation in which a Western model is forced to launch in a completely new and different context. This new context and the existing cultural values are not always incorporated into the implementation of a Western concept of cooperative learning. Consequently, it does not necessarily follow that all forms of cooperative learning will surely succeed within a CHC environment. As a result of ignoring, stereotyping and underestimating cultural and educational characteristics, in CHC countries, the implementation of constructivism and one of its applications—cooperative learning—has ended up in failures, suspicion or resistance. The authors would like to question (1) the fixed assumption that “group-work surely works in CHC countries” and (2) the domination of developmentalism in education nowadays and its mismatch with cultural assets. With this paper, the authors contribute to the recent call for culturally appropriate pedagogy.

Cutting the Grass: A Reexamination of the Link between Marital Attachment,Delinquent Peers and Desistance from Marijuana Use

Recent work indicates that marriage contributes to desistance from crime. However, two prominent interpretations of this relationship have been offered. The first, rooted in informal control theory, suggests that the marriage effect is a direct result of social bonds that tend to accompany matrimony. The second contends that the effect is indirect and due to the impact of marriage on patterns of delinquent peer association. Using data from waves 5 and 6 of the National Youth Survey, this study re-analyzes these interpretations by examining the relationship between marital attachment, delinquent peer association and desistance from marijuana use. Although change in delinquent peer association is a powerful predictor of marijuana desistance, findings are also consistent with the control theory interpretation of the marriage effect. Implications and limitations of the current study are noted.A previous version of this paper was presented at the 2000 meeting of the American Society of Criminology in San Francisco, CA.     

民族地方立法研究三题

概念、表现形式(名称)、生命力依托是民族地方立法研究中的基本问题。从规范意义上说,调整民族关系的法律,可称之为民族法,而民族法的制定活动则为民族立法,民族自治地方制定规范性文件的活动统称为民族地方立法为宜。为规范民族地方法文件的表现形式,一般不应当使用“变通”和“补充”字样来命名法文件。从长远看,以避免概念含义的模糊。民族地方立法的生命力以妥当选择立法项目、注重立法民主、突出立法内容的特定性为依托。