Delinquency and Crime Among Youths in the Philippines: A Test of Legal Cynicism

The construct of legal cynicism is gaining currency in the United States and other western developed countries in explaining why people break the law. This construct is viable in societies with strong economies and mature political and criminal justice institutions. This paper asks whether the construct of legal cynicism is applicable in societies with differing economic, political and social conditions. Specifically, the paper investigates whether legal cynicism can explain the delinquent behaviors of youths in the Philippines. Despite diligent efforts to duplicate the measures of legal cynicism, the paper finds that this construct is a weak predictor of youth delinquent behaviors. This contradictory finding is explained by looking at the historical and sociopolitical conditions of the country.     

Measuring the economically active population in Mexico in the early 1990s

"This paper refers to problems of definition and measurement of the economically active population in the early nineties in different Mexican sources of information, considering in particular the 1990 Population Census and the 1991 National Survey on Employment. The study analyzes in detail the questions, reference periods, and coding systems of these two and other previous surveys and censuses. Its findings allow us to state that the 1990 Population Census is an adequate source of information for analyzing [the] national full-time salaried work force." (SUMMARY IN ENG)     

Complainants’ Views about Civilian Review of the Police: A Study of the Philippines

In search of effective control of the police, several countries have created civilian review boards. The Philippines recently adopted such an approach by establishing the People’s Law Enforcement Board (PLEB). The board is envisioned to enable citizens to participate in the process of police control. This study examines the perceptions of complainants about the board in a metropolitan area in the Philippines. Using surveys, the study aims to determine the integrity, legitimacy, and efficiency of the board as well as the satisfaction of complainants with the review board. The findings suggest that complainants were highly satisfied with the People’s Law Enforcement Board. Complainants also showed great concern for the legitimacy of the board and the timely resolutions of their cases. In addition, the study confirms previous studies’ findings on the predominant influence of case outcomes on complainants’ satisfaction.

The Design of International Agreements

States entering into international agreements have at theirdisposal several tools to enhance the strength and credibilityof their commitments, including the ability to make the agreementa formal treaty rather than soft law, provide for mandatorydispute resolution procedures, and establish monitoring mechanisms.Each of these strategies – referred to as ‘designelements’ – increases the costs associated withthe violation of an agreement and, therefore, the probabilityof compliance. Yet even a passing familiarity with internationalagreements makes it clear that states routinely fail to includethese design elements in their agreements. This article explainswhy rational states sometimes prefer to draft their agreementsin such a way as to make them less credible and, therefore,more easily violated. In contrast to domestic law, where contractualviolations are sanctioned through zero-sum payments from thebreaching party to the breached-against party, sanctions forviolations of international agreements are not zero-sum. Tothe extent that sanctions exist, they almost always representa net loss to the parties. For example, a reputational lossfelt by the violating party yields little or no offsetting benefitto its counter-party. When entering into an agreement, then,the parties take into account the possibility of a violationand recognize that if it takes place, the net loss to the partieswill be larger if credibility-enhancing measures are in place.In other words, the design elements offer a benefit in the formof greater compliance, but do so by increasing the cost to theparties in the event of a violation. When deciding which designelements to include, the parties must then balance the benefitsof increased compliance against the costs triggered in the eventof a violation.     

Community hierarchy of needs and policing models: toward a new theory of police organizational behavior

This study explains the influences of environmental variables on the emergence of varying policing models. It empirically tests a new perspective on the influences of community variations to police organizational behaviours and practices among local police departments in the U.S. Using the U.S. Census, the Uniform Crime Reports and the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics data, the study tests a perspective suggesting that community hierarchy of needs influences the degree level of the implementation of different models of policing, particularly community policing. The study presents constructs to operationalize hierarchy of needs. Multiple regression analyses were used to examine the relationships of hierarchy of needs, organizational factors, and other control variables to police departments’ pursuit of different policing models. Findings suggest that community hierarchy of needs and organizational factors significantly constrain the departments’ implementation of policing models. Lower hierarchy of needs tends to be associated with pursuit of traditional policing while a community with higher level needs tend to pursue community policing. Similarly, organizational complexities influence the implementation of different policing models.     

Development and regional urbanization in Mexico, 1970-1990

"Here regional urbanization in Mexico is studied as a function of income level and production structures. This general model allows us to identify four characteristics that are inherent to urban development for the 1970-1990 period." (SUMMARY IN ENG)