Are the Benefits of Economic Resources for Socioemotional Functioning Shared across Racial/Ethnic Groups?

Growth in economic disparities, economic segregation, and racial/ethnic diversity have occurred in tandem in the U.S., leading to essential questions concerning whether the benefits of economic resources are shared across diverse groups. Analyzing a sample of eighth grade early adolescents (age 14 years) drawn from the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998–1999 (N?=?7625; 59% White, 12% Black, 19% Hispanic, 7% Asian, 2% Native American, and 2% multiracial; 47% female), lagged regression models assessed links between family, neighborhood, and school income and adolescent emotional and behavioral functioning. The results found that family income was associated with heightened emotional and behavioral functioning, and school income with improved behavioral functioning for White adolescents, whereas no benefits emerged for Black or Hispanic youth. In contrast, mixed associations emerged between income and early adolescent functioning for Asian and American Indian youth, with predominantly negative links appearing for multiracial youth. These patterns highlight diversity in the potential benefits and costs of economic resources, and suggest the need to better specify mechanisms through which economic disparities affect youth from varied backgrounds.     

The Popularity Costs of Economic Crisis under Electoral Authoritarianism: Evidence from Russia

While a large literature recognizes that economic crises threaten the stability of electoral autocracies, we know relatively little about how citizens form economic perceptions and how they attribute blame for worsening conditions in these regimes. To gain traction on these questions, I exploit subnational variation in economic performance across Russia's regions during a recent downturn, combining regionally representative surveys of more than 67,000 voting‐age respondents with data on growth and unemployment. Contrary to conventional wisdom that citizens are passive consumers of propaganda, I show that they extract objective economic information from personal experience and local conditions. Moreover, I find that they give greater weight to this information where regional party dominance makes economic performance a clearer indicator of the ruling party's competence and when they believe the media are biased. These results suggest limits on illiberal regimes' ability to exploit informational asymmetries to bolster popular support during economic downturns.     

Finger in the Dyke or the Floodgates Stemmed? Sections 29–40 of the Employment Act 2002

This article considers Sections 29–40 of the Employment Act 2002 in the context of post-War developments in labour relations culminating in the National Industrial Relations Court. It considers the development of Employment Tribunal which rather than being the last resort intended by the legislators, has become the first resort of complainants, often for trivial matters by employees; or by employers taking an extremely broad view of Gross Misconduct by employees. Due to the volume of cases and the shortage of Chairs, cases are constantly delayed and postponed. The article posits that these are the principle reason behind the framing of Sections 29–40 of the Employment Act 2002 which introduced a new Section 9(1)(a) into the Employment Tribunals Act 1995. This has given the Chair of an Employment Tribunal the authority to strike out a weak case at a Pre-Hearing Review that will strike the case out once and for all at this juncture. The aim is to encourage employers to have proper procedures and for employees to follow them. This article suggests that in fact the reforms will have the opposite effect; that they have introduced another layer of legal complexity which will further increase the number of cases brought before the Employment Tribunal.     

Treating alcohol-related violence: a feasibility study of a randomized controlled trial in prisons

Purpose: There is a lack of good-quality outcome evaluations of interventions for offenders whose crimes are alcohol-related. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are considered gold standard in treatment evaluations. Here, we report on a feasibility study for an RCT of an alcohol-related violence intervention, Control of Violence for Angry, Impulsive Drinkers (COVAID). Method: 115 adult male prisoners were randomly allocated to COVAID plus treatment as usual (TAU) or TAU only. Results: Most participants (84%) found COVAID useful. Reconviction data at six months were accessed for 109 (95%) participants. There were no differences between the two groups on violent reconvictions or all reconvictions at the six-month period, but at 17?months the COVAID group had 13% fewer people reconvicted for violence, and 20% fewer had reconvictions for any offence. Conclusion: The results indicate that an RCT is feasible and provides parameters for designing a full RCT. Differences in reconviction between groups favoured COVAID and were clinically important.     

An Empirical Validation Study of Popular Survey Methodologies for Sensitive Questions

When studying sensitive issues, including corruption, prejudice, and sexual behavior, researchers have increasingly relied upon indirect questioning techniques to mitigate such known problems of direct survey questions as underreporting and nonresponse. However, there have been surprisingly few empirical validation studies of these indirect techniques because the information required to verify the resulting estimates is often difficult to access. This article reports findings from the first comprehensive validation study of indirect methods. We estimate whether people voted for an anti‐abortion referendum held during the 2011 Mississippi General Election using direct questioning and three popular indirect methods: list experiment, endorsement experiment, and randomized response. We then validate these estimates against the official election outcome. While direct questioning leads to significant underestimation of sensitive votes against the referendum, indirect survey techniques yield estimates much closer to the actual vote count, with endorsement experiment and randomized response yielding the least bias.     

Taming the tigers? Reforming the security sector in Southeast Asia

Abstract

Despite global trends towards military reform characterized by processes of professionalization and democratization, militaries in Southeast Asia have continued to play prominent roles in domestic politics since 11 September. This suggests that wider patterns of global military reform have not had as great an impact on the control, capacity and cooperative functions of armed forces in Southeast Asia as they may have elsewhere. In order to explore why the security sector reform agenda has had so little impact in the region, we investigate recent patterns of civil–military relations in Southeast Asia by focusing on the experiences of four of the region's militaries: Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia. We argue that the security sector reform agenda is informed by a predominantly North American approach to civil–military relations based on a number of core assumptions that do not reflect Southeast Asian experiences. Hence, we ask whether the reform agenda itself could be modified to better suit the Southeast Asian context. We suggest that although the regional military sector has not reformed along a ‘Western’ path it is nonetheless possible to see other types of, and potential for, reform.     

SMS. OMG! LOL! TTYL: TRANSLATING THE LAW TO ACCOMMODATE TODAY'S TEENS AND THE EVOLUTION FROM TEXTING TO SEXTING

Around the country some teenagers are using their cell phones to distribute nude or seminude pictures of themselves through text messages. An alarming number of these teenagers who are caught possessing or distributing the pictures face criminal charges as a child pornographer. Some face the possibility of jail time; others must register as a sex offender. Such harsh punishments are the product of laws that have not caught up with technology's advancements. This Note suggests that child pornography laws be restructured to include a category for juvenile “sexters” so these teenagers are not prosecuted as adults or forced to register as sex offenders. The laws should recognize different categories of sexters and provide rehabilitation programs suited to respond to the level of risk each sexter presents.     

Fiat Iustitia,Ruat Coeli?: The Misuse of Computers Act 1990

Conclusion It is considered, then, that wereCox v. Riley to come before the courts today, liability would arise under the offences of strict liability created by the Misuse of Computers Act 1990; as well as under the Criminal Damage Act 1971. Moreover, our sceptical layman, it is thought, would not be able to feel uneasy at the outcome, if the above arguments are correct. It is beyond doubt that the Act of 1990 was enacted to curb, insofar as is possible, the computer hacker and that still more insidious threat, the progenitor of computer viruses. It is interesting, too, that the act of a disaffected and possibly alienated employee, as presumably the act of the defendant in the case was, would now fall within the compass of that Act. The law would be applied; Justice would be done and seen to be done; and, dare it be said, Justice would be felt to have been done.