Loss of urban forest canopy and the effects on neighborhood soundscapes

Urban Ecosystems - The urban landscape constitutes a key aspect of human - nature interactions, as more than 60% of the world’s population resides in cities and their suburbs. This study...     

Bargains Rejected? Developing Country Trade Policy on Used Equipment

Many developing countries restrict imports of second-hand goods. These policies appear contrary to the optimal choice of technique in developing countries, where low wages, small markets, and scarce technical skills would appear to call for use of more labor intensive smaller scale, and lower-tech machines. This paper examines data on US exports of new and used metalworking machine tools by type and by country of destination to investigate the determinants of used versus new machinery trade. The results indicate that technological factors, skill constraints, and market size may be more important than factor prices in determining the choice of machine. Trade restrictions on used machinery distort firms' investment decisions.     

Affairs of the Heart: Qualities of Adolescent Romantic Relationships and Sexual Behavior

We know more about parent and peer influences than about the ways in which specific qualities of adolescent romantic relationships may influence sexual decision‐making. Using data from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study, we focus on communication processes and emotional feelings, as well as more basic contours of adolescent romantic relationships, including power and influence dynamics. Controlling for traditional predictors and duration of the relationship, results suggest that subjectively experienced relationship qualities matter for understanding teens' sexual behavior choices. Further, findings indicate a similar effect of most relationship qualities on male and female reports of sexual behavior. However, influence and power dynamics within the relationship were not related to the likelihood that boys reported sexual intercourse in a focal relationship. In contrast, girls who perceived a more favorable power balance were less likely to report sexual intercourse than their female counterparts who perceived a less favorable power balance. Recognizing that the results capture reciprocal influence processes, longitudinal and qualitative data are used to further explore the complex nature of these associations.     

Friends of the Circuits: Interest Group Influence on Decision Making in the U.S. Courts of Appeals*

Objective. Though there is an extensive literature focused on the participation and efficacy of interest group amici curiae in the U.S. Supreme Court, there is little rigorous analysis of amici curiae in the U.S. Courts of Appeals. Here, we systematically analyze the influence of amicus curiae briefs on U.S. Court of Appeals decision making to provide insights regarding both judicial decision making and the efficacy of interest groups. Methods. We use a probit model to capture influences on appellant success in the courts of appeals from 1997–2002. Results. We find that amicus briefs filed in support of the appellant enhance the likelihood of that litigant's probability of success, but that amicus briefs filed in support of the appellee have no effect on litigation outcomes. Conclusion. Amici can help level the playing field between appellants and appellees by serving to counter the propensity to affirm in the U.S. Courts of Appeals.     

The Impact of Managed Care on Field Instruction

Managed care is changing the provision of services to clients and the availability of field placements for students. This exploratory study, reporting on an October 1996 survey of social work field directors nationwide, confirms that placements have been lost because of managed care. Yet, it also notes that schools and agencies are reassessing their relationship and can collaborate to create different learning opportunities in the new environment. The findings have implications for deans, program directors, field directors, and regional and national organizations (such as the Council on Social Work Education) in the areas of revising the curriculum, confronting student expectations, and establishing new relationships with agencies.     

Notes on School-Based Crime Fighting: International Lessons in Moral Education

Few communities are immune to organized crime and corruption. What has not been fully explored is how education in lawfulness can be introduced into the curriculum of primary and secondary schools to confront the influences of criminal life styles that continue to be romanticized byfactions within a community. This paper reports on such efforts in Sicily, Hong Kong, Russia, and Mexico. Each community is vigorously seeking to repel negative influences from traditional strongholds of organized crime, which continue to exert powerful and pernicious effects on those societies.

Challenging organized crime requires more than governmental regulatory responses. Civic, business, labor, religious, social, and educational organizations all have a role in mitigating the scourge of lawlessness. A central question is to consider the ways in which a civil society can foster a culture of lawfulness. Promoting a set of beliefs and mobilizing the legal norms and institutions for changing, administering, and enforcing laws will enhance and protect “quality of life” is a task that some primary and secondary schools have begun to explore. One approach involves moral education, explicitly and directly teaching children and young people about the rewards and obligations in making moral and ethical decisions. This paper examines this effort in four, distinct cultural settings.     

Using Child Advocacy Center Tracking Data to Examine Criminal Disposition Times

Given the difficulty of obtaining criminal justice data on child abuse cases, information from child advocacy centers could be an important resource for answering questions about criminal justice outcomes for child abuse cases. In this exploratory study, we use data from one child advocacy center (N = 632) to examine the feasibility of using NCAtrak, a national computerized, Web-based case tracking system, to examine criminal disposition timeframes in child abuse cases. The system data indicated that the time frame for the cases to be criminally resolved varied widely. About one in four child physical and sexual abuse cases with adult offenders took more than one year to reach a final disposition. About 11% of child sexual abuse cases with juvenile offenders took more than one year to reach a criminal disposition. We encourage child advocacy centers using computer-based data systems to think of additional ways they might use this potentially rich source of data.     

Globalization and Free Trade Agreements: A Profile of a Nicaraguan Factory Community

This study examines a Nicaraguan community 3 years after the signing of the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). Qualitative and quantitative methods were used to learn how families, living in a community constructed near a US-owned factory, maintained resilience under growing negative conditions. These conditions relate to family dislocation, loss of support systems, lack of childcare, safe water, and food security, in addition to labor injustices. Although maintaining relatively high scores on a baseline resilience test, these families and others like them in Central America, demonstrate a struggle for survival in a globalized context.