Democracy,Law, Compliance

Professors Schauer and McAdams both seek a more or less sweepingly general theory of why we obey the law. But we should split, not lump. There are different reasons different actors in different social settings obey different laws–not only, but not least, out of regard for democratic decision making.     

Budgeting in Slovenia During the Democratic Transition

Slovenia represents an interesting and important case in the study of comparative budgeting in post-socialist countries during democratization and economic reform. Compared to Hungary and other nations in the region, Slovenia has had more budget stability and has maintained fiscal balances through shared political norms and strong ministerial guardianship. Political culture, institutional capacity, and the nature of governing coalitions all affected budget outcomes. In general, Slovenia has moved more quickly to reform its budgetary institutions and processes but still faces a range of difficult budget issues and choices.     

A new perspective for delinquency: culture conflict measured by seriousness perceptions

Numerous theories have attempted to analyze and understand the factors and etiology of juvenile delinquency. The present study is the first to suggest the use of Sellin's "culture conflict" theory as a possible cultural explanation for the phenomenon of juvenile delinquency. According to Sellin, crime in many instances is a product of culture conflict between the values and norms of a certain subculture in a given society and those of the general culture. Following Sellin's rationale, this study argues that youths constitute a social subculture with certain values, norms, and stances toward the criminal law that is not necessarily concordant with the moral values and formal norms of the general culture of adults, who determine the content of the criminal law. These assertions are analyzed via a crime seriousness study, in which adult and teenage respondents from a national (Israeli) sample were asked to evaluate the seriousness of various criminal offenses committed by adolescents. Generally, significant differences were found between the seriousness and punishment values given by the adult and juvenile respondents to violent offenses (high) and self-use of illegal drugs (low), with adult respondents providing significantly higher seriousness values and punishment options for them. Moreover, in a regression analysis, the variable of respondents' age was found as decisive in understanding both dependent variables. The implications of these findings are discussed in this study.     

Is there a distinct profile of police officers accused of violence? The Israeli case

In recent years, the Israeli National Police has come under attack for excessive use of physical force. This article focuses on the organizational characteristics of police officers suspected of committing offenses involving the illegal use of force. A random sample of 612 official files opened, investigated, and completed between 1993 and 1998 was examined. The findings show that there are no salient differences between the proportion of the suspect police officers serving at the different geographic police districts in the sample and their proportion in the total police force in recent years. Complaints tend to be submitted against police officers in operational and investigative functions, especially against those of middle and low ranks. Regarding the files' characteristics, many significant differences are found between files opened against regular police (RP) officers (who fulfill traditional police functions) and those opened against officers of the Border Police (BP, who fulfill mainly internal security-related tasks among the Arab population). These differences are mainly explained by factors related to organizational features of the BP.     

Public perceptions of crime seriousness in Israel:: native-born versus new immigrants

The broad consensus generally found with regard to public perceptions of crime seriousness has been shown to reflect “consistency” in relative rankings rather than “absolute agreement” in ratings among sample groups. The present study compared the crime seriousness perceptions of native-born Israelis with those of two groups of new immigrants (one from the former Soviet Union and the other from Ethiopia). Questionnaires including 30 different criminal offenses for evaluation were distributed by means of face-to-face interviews to a representative sample of the Israeli adult population. As expected, the three groups provided very similar rankings of offenses but much less absolute agreement (ratings). It is suggested that the significant gaps in the perceptions of the groups stem from “culture conflict” (Culture Conflict and Crime, Social Science Research Council, New York, 1938), that is, differences in the social and cultural norms of the immigrants’ countries of origin and those prevailing in the absorbing society.