Explaining Official Delinquency: a Spatial Study of Class,Conflict and Control*

The correlation between social class and official delinquency is one of the more stable findings of sociological research. Consensus, conflict and organizational explanations of this correlation are examined with a coordinated set of survey, interview, and official data gathered in the central area of a middle-sized Canadian city. These data make possible the consideration of behavior and official rate-producing processes in a model that lends support to a combination of conflict and organizational perspectives. Consideration is given to the need for additional research using a similar frame-work in other types of community settings.     

Operating Characteristics of a Subset Selection Procedure Applied to a Hybrid Randomized Response Model

The operating characteristics (OCs) of a subset ranking and selection procedure are derived for the hybrid randomized response model developed by Jia and McDonald (2009 Jia, F., McDonald, G. (2009). Analyzing hybrid randomized response data with a binomial selection procedure. Commun. Statist. Theor. Meth. 38:784807.[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). The OCs include the probability of a correct P(CS), the individual selection probability γ_i, and the expected subset size E(S), under the slippage configuration or the equi-spaced configuration. An example comparing failure rates of contraceptive methods is used to illustrate the use of these new results.     

Option pricing for generalized distributions

The Black Scholes formula has been widely used to price financial instruments. The derivation of this formula is based on the assumption of lognormally distributed returns which is often in poor agreement with actual data. An option pricing formula based on the generalized beta of the second kind (GB2) is presented. This formula includes the Black Scholes formula as a special case and accommodates a wide variety of nonlognormally distributed returns. The sensitivity of option values to departures from the skewness and kurtosis associated with the lognormal distribution is investigated.     

Powers of Discrete Goodness-of-Fit Test Statistics for a Uniform Null Against a Selection of Alternative Distributions

The comparative powers of six discrete goodness-of-fit test statistics for a uniform null distribution against a variety of fully specified alternative distributions are discussed. The results suggest that the test statistics based on the empirical distribution function for ordinal data (Kolmogorov–Smirnov, Cramér–von Mises, and Anderson–Darling) are generally more powerful for trend alternative distributions. The test statistics for nominal (Pearson's chi-square and the nominal Kolmogorov–Smirnov) and circular data (Watson's test statistic) are shown to be generally more powerful for the investigated triangular (∨), flat (or platykurtic type), sharp (or leptokurtic type), and bimodal alternative distributions.     

What you say,and how you say it: Preschoolers' growth in vocabulary and communication skills differentially predict kindergarten academic achievement and self‐regulation

The idea that language skills support school readiness, predicting later self‐regulation and academic success, is widely accepted. Although vocabulary is often emphasized in the developmental literature, the ability to use language appropriately in the classroom, or social communication skills, may also be critical. This article examined longitudinal contributions of children's vocabulary and social communication skills, from preschool to kindergarten, to kindergarten academic achievement (reading and math) and self‐regulation (executive functions and learning behaviors). Participants were 164 children (14% Latinx, 30% Black, 56% White; 57% girls) enrolled in Head Start programs. Results revealed that initial levels and growth in vocabulary and communication skills predicted better academic achievement. Social communication skills uniquely predicted self‐regulation, after accounting for vocabulary. We discuss potential mechanisms for these links and recommend that strategies to build social communication skills be incorporated in preschool interventions promoting school readiness.     

Writing resistance together

This piece of writing is a joint initiative by the participants in the Gender, Work and Organization writing workshop organized in Helsinki, Finland, in June 2019. This is a particular form of writing differently. We engage in collective writing and embody what it means to write resistance to established academic practices and conventions together. This is a form of emancipatory initiative where we care for each other as writers and as human beings. There are many author voices and we aim to keep the text open and dialogical. As such, this piece of writing is about suppressed thoughts and feelings that our collective picket line allows us to express. In order to maintain the open‐ended nature of the text, and perhaps also to retain some ‘dirtiness’ that is essential to writing, the article has not been language checked throughout by a native speaker of English.     

‘Actually There is a Brain in There’: Uncovering Complexity in Pathways Through Education for Young Adults Who Have Been in Care

Internationally, research has highlighted disruption to the educational trajectories of young people in care, documenting concern about upheaval and poor educational outcomes. We present findings from English data arising from qualitative longitudinal research with care experienced people (16–32 years) who were also in education, employment or training. The analysis extends understanding of the experiences of those who achieve educational ‘success’, including those who followed non‐linear trajectories. The need for a flexible education system, and leaving care entitlements, which take into account the disruption experienced by young people in care and the consequent possibility of delayed educational pathways, is discussed.     

Reviewing challenges and the future for qualitative interviewing

ABSTRACT

In this article, we consider challenges for the existence and practice of qualitative research interviews. We review key features of qualitative interviewing, in particular the debate over the radical critique of interviewing and the nature of the data it generates, to set the scene for our arguments about the current standing and future prognosis for the method of generating data and the technologies that enable this. We look at qualitative interviewing in the context of the political project of neoliberalism and the regime of austerity associated with it, and the linked turn to what is known as ‘big data’, a feature of digital technological developments in garnering data. Qualitative researchers using interview methods have been creative in working with and resisting features of neoliberal austerity pragmatically and politically, and we provide some examples. We also consider an epistemological challenge and resistance from outside of the dominant framework – interviewing in indigenous methodologies. We argue that it is the relationship between the interview as a method of data generation for research and the ways of knowing about the world, that is the epistemology that the interview-based research proceeds from, that is crucial in considering the potentials for the method’s practice.