Anthropological stranger: the intellectual trajectory of Hortense Powdermaker

This article investigates the life and works of Hortense Powdermaker (1896-1970). In contradistinction to the intellectual climate of her times, Powdermaker's intellectual trajectory can be characterised as eclectic, dynamic and forward thinking. Spanning nearly four decades, Powdermaker's academic career was dedicated to developing a distinct ‘anthropological vision’. Yet, although she conducted studies of culture and society that transcended structures of orthodoxy and charted alternative theoretical and methodological terrain, in turn establishing herself as a pioneer of contemporary anthropological thought, Powdermaker's work has failed to gain incorporation into wider disciplinary research agendas. Set within a sociology-of-intellectuals framework, it is argued that Powdermaker occupies a peripheral position in the history of anthropology – a position which does not adequately reflect the significance of her work – and that Powdermaker's greatest intellectual contribution was her innovative epistemology and sophisticated ‘anthropological vision’. Nonetheless, as a result of the powerful traditions and orthodox schools of thought which reigned supreme in mid-century anthropology and sociology, she was unable to exert any enduring influence on British or American social thought.     

NEW FEDERALISM, OLD REMEDIES, AND CORRECTIONS POLICYMAKING

Corrections litigation is changing, but new case law does not authorize a wholesale cutback of prisoner constitutional rights. Supreme Court cases urge a return to traditional compensatory damages as the remedy for unconstitutional acts and conditions. Monitoring of state correctional performance by federal courts is disfavored. The author believes that basic rights of prisoners will remain protected, but that systematic planning and exemplary programs will erode. Under the money damages model, legal reform should thus urge waiver of the state sovereign immunity provided by the Eleventh Amendment.     

Legal outcomes and legal agents

Although a number of theories of law stress the importance of examining the characteristics of deviance processing agents for understanding criminal sanctioning, empirical studies have generally neglected these variables. Using data from a sample of convicted felons, this study looks at (1) both the additive and interactive effect of the probation officer's gender on sentencing recommendations accorded male and female offenders and (2) whether the social and political context, measured by the time span 1965–1980, alters any noted dyadic effects. The results indicate that both male and female officers recommend that female offenders receive the less severe sentences. Moreover, the context in which these recommendations are made has almost no appreciable effect. The implications of the findings for both the available theoretical frameworks and policy considerations are discussed.     

Responses to Financial Crises: An Evolutionary Perspective

As the world currently faces the ever-deepening sub-prime crisis, we are reminded that the process of globalisation can cause significant disruptions in global markets and political systems. This article focuses on the evolution of financial crisis responses to gain a better understanding of the dynamics affecting current responses. By using a focused comparison of case studies it argues that the development of crisis response and the dominance of the current multilateral actors is a result of an evolutionary process. This process privileges learning and innovation within a complex political economic system. The crises of each era, born of many of the same problems, generate a variety of responding actors, a few of which are adopted. These actors help to address the immediate problems and even work well for a while. Eventually, they are overwhelmed by the tendency of financial interactions to grow. Another set of crises generates another round of actors and mechanisms. As time goes on, crisis response requires more formal institutions that can deal with more complex systems. The article concludes that response actors are becoming more public, multilateral and global in scope. Understanding this pattern of response should help to shed light on the potential for reform of the financial architecture and help to explain the dominance of multilateralism as a crisis response.     

Total and Marginal Cost Analysis for a High School Based Bystander Intervention

Costs of providing the Green Dot bystander-based intervention, shown to be effective in the reduction of sexual violence among Kentucky high school students, were estimated based on data from a large cluster-randomized clinical trial. Rape Crisis Center Educators were trained to provide Green Dot curriculum to students. Implementing Green Dot in schools (N = 13) randomized to the intervention, over five years, cost $1.6 M and included start-up ($58 K) and ongoing implementation ($1.55 M). Costs for adding a school ($25,510) were calculated based on the final year, where no start-up costs were incurred. Knowing the $25,510 cost estimate for adding Green Dot may be particularly useful for high school administrators or school boards when they were making economic decisions based on strong evidence of program effectiveness to reduce violence.     

Are Peripapillary Intrascleral Hemorrhages Pathognomonic for Abusive Head Trauma?*

Abstract: The American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Child Abuse and Neglect, Section on Ophthalmology, acknowledges that searching for retinal hemorrhages (RHs) in infants only in cases of suspected of abuse creates selection bias. However, they also recommend that postmortem eye removal might not be indicated “in children who have clearly died from witnessed severe accidental head trauma or otherwise readily diagnosed systemic medical conditions.” Although infrequently described in the child abuse literature, peripapillary intrascleral hemorrhages (bleeding in the sclera at the optic nerve insertion)—putatively from severe repetitive acceleration/deceleration forces with or without blunt head trauma—have been considered essentially pathognomonic for abusive head trauma (shaken baby syndrome). We present two neonates who sustained accidental, severe in utero head injuries and had associated extensive RHs and optic nerve sheath hemorrhages with peripapillary intrascleral hemorrhages detected at autopsy. Neither neonate had a documented clinical fundal examination in the intensive care unit.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Familias con Voz</Emphasis>: Community Survey Results from an Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) Prevention Project with Migrant Workers

The Migrant Clinicians Network’s Familias con Voz (Families with a Voice) project aims to train migrant men and women to become intimate partner violence (IPV) peer educators in their communities. In preparation for implementing educational activities, a community survey was conducted with 298 participants in three Texas border counties. Verbal abuse, such as name calling, was the most frequent type of violence reported. Men perceived anger as a cause of partner violence significantly more than women. Only 22% of respondents reported knowing of a shelter they could turn to for help. Surprisingly, a majority of participants cited “seeking help from the police” when asked about ways to decrease partner violence. Survey results offer insight into developing effective intervention programs by capturing the intended audiences’ beliefs and attitudes. Additionally, survey results reveal possible strategies for how to tackle IPV in U.S.-Mexico border migrant farmworker communities.

Keeping the aspidistra flying: thatcherite privatization and the creation of the enterprise culture

This article examines the role of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's pnvatization policy in the present Conservative government's effort to establish an “enterprise culture.” The Thatcher government has maintained that the policy would make substantial contributions to altering the anti-business values and behaviors of the English, often characterized as the “British disease” by: (1) permanently altering the boundaries of the public and private in favor of the latter; (2) widening the number I of shareholders in the society; and (3) promoting competition. A look at the results of privatization to date, as well as projections for the future, reveals that the policy has thus far been most successful with respect to the first of these aims and more successful with respect to the second than third goal. The article maintains that privatization appears to be making a significant contribution to achieving a free enterprise society, but that the policy is not in and of itself enough to bring about the transformation that the Thatcher government desires.