Developmental trends of delinquent attitudes and behaviors: replications and synthesis across domains, time, and samples

Inconsistent findings of attitude-behavior relations are commonly attributed to uncontrolled domain, time, or situational factors. Without integrative work, studies accounting for these factors may further complicate research by introducing potentially numerous third variables and render a coherent understanding of the attitude-behavior relationship even more difficult to achieve. In this paper, a developmental perspective is taken and the attitude-behavior relationship in delinquency is examined using three modes of investigation: multivariate patterns of attitude-behavior associations, their mutual predictability, and their developmental trajectories. Three grade cohorts of public school boys (n=1517 of the first, seventh, and tenth grades, initially) were followed over a period of 4 years, with an average age span of 7–16 years. Correspondence analyses suggested that adolescent boys with a tolerant attitude toward theft or violence were more deviant than those who had actual behavior of theft or violence. Stronger attitude effect on subsequent behavior, relative to behavior effect on subsequent attitudes, was found among boys aged 10–12 years. While mean scores of tolerant attitudes to serious theft and violence increased linearly with their behavior counterparts between 6 and 17 years of age, ages 11 and 14 were two turning points at which most delinquent attitudes and behaviors escalated at a higher speed. In general, delinquent attitudes and behaviors were related to each other in various patterns, and age was a defining factor that provided much of the explanation for the inconsistencies in research findings.     

Alternate Paths to Power? Women's Political Representation in Nicaragua

Political alternate positions (otherwise known as substitutes) can have important effects on women's abilities to enter politics. Using the case of Nicaragua, this study assesses whether these alternate positions are being used to increase women's political representation or as a tool to undermine women's advancement into positions of power. By examining patterns of women's representation as candidates in the 1996, 2001, and 2006 elections for the National Assembly and as elected officeholders (as both alternates for those assembly members and titleholders), the article analyzes how various political parties are utilizing these alternate positions. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, this study finds no evidence that these alternate positions are used to undermine women's political progress.     

Revitalization of waqf administration ＆ family waqf law

Historically speaking, the institution of waqf played an incredible role in providing all the basic and fundamental services to Muslim societies in terms of providing education, goon health care, basic infrastructures, employment opportunities, enhanced the commercial and business activities, food for the hunger, sheltered for the poor and the needy, besides supporting the agricultural and industrial sectors. Nevertheless, its role has been deteriorated since the end of the 19th century up to the present as the governments in different Muslim countries centralized its administration and abolished family waqf. The main objective of this paper is to revitalize the administration and the law of waqf in order to meet the basic and the essential services which are needed in Muslim societies and without any cost to the government.     

European Reactions to the 2008 Georgian–Russian War: Assessing the Impact of Gas Dependence

Western observers and policymakers have voiced anxiety about Europe’s increasing dependence on Russian natural gas fueling Russian imperial ambitions. In 2008, speculation appeared to become reality, as war broke out between Russia and its post-Soviet, but Western-leaning neighbor, Georgia. But did a country’s dependence on Russian natural gas influence its politicians’ responses to the Georgian–Russian war? An analysis of the voting behavior in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe provides insight into conventional claims that a reliance on Russian energy dampens the willingness of European states to publicly criticize Russia.     

Substance use and its relationship to conduct problems and delinquency in young boys

The paper presents lifetime and six-month prevalence of substance use by 1st, 4th, and 7th graders (N=2573). Smoking and alcohol consumption was surprisingly high even for 1st graders. The use of developmentally more advanced substances, such as marijuana, was associated with the use of substances that typically emerge earlier, such as beer. Significantly more of the multiple substance users in the 1st and 4th grade were already engaged in a variety of conduct problems and delinquent acts than were either single users or nonusers. The findings show that substance use, even at Grades 1 and 4, is an indicator of boys who commit a wide variety of problem behaviors. For the 7th graders, the use of marijuana was especially associated with the commission of more serious delinquent acts. Multiple substance use reported by the 7th graders also signified a higher frequency and volume of use. The results of the study are related to a developmental conceptualization of conduct problems, delinquency and substance use.Research interests: antisocial behavior and substance use.Research interests: the development of antisocial behavior and substance use; familial processes leading to deviant behavior; the prediction of delinquency.Research interests: development of concealing antisocial behaviors and processes that affect such development.     

A Multidimensional View of Legal Cynicism: Perceptions of the Police Among Anti‐harassment Teams in Egypt

In Egypt in 2012, several anti‐harassment groups were established to respond to an increase in sexual violence in public spaces and to the failure of the state to tackle the issue. Anti‐harassment groups organized patrol‐type intervention teams that operated during demonstrations or public celebrations to stop sexual assaults. This article examines how activists perceived the police in five anti‐harassment groups between 2012 and 2014, and the role these perceptions played in groups' decisions about cooperating with the police, and on‐the‐ground strategies of action. I argue for a multidimensional view of legal cynicism that conceptualizes legal cynicism as composed of three dimensions: legitimacy (a sense that law enforcement agencies are not entitled to be deferred to and obeyed), protection (a perception that the law fails to protect rights and provide public safety), and threat (a perception that the law represents a threat). This approach helps uncover the various meanings that legal cynicism takes for different actors in different contexts, and how actors justify their strategies of action based on their specific perceptions of the police's legitimacy, protective role, and threat.