Rethinking Legitimacy and Illegitimacy in Violent Political Conflict

Analytic and conceptual ambiguity associated with the study of legitimacy have motivated debates over the utility of this construct in the analysis of violent political conflict. Using these debates as a point of departure, I review several challenges that have limited the study of legitimacy in this area and discuss two features of legitimation that have gone widely overlooked: (i) the asymmetric causes and effects of legitimacy and illegitimacy, and (ii) the relational dynamics of legitimation. I argue that turning explicit analytic attention to the asymmetry and relationality of legitimacy and illegitimacy allows us to overcome the most intractable challenges associated with the analysis of legitimation in violent conflict.     

Cultural Schemas of Religion,Science, and Law in Talk About Social Controversies

We analyze cultural schemas of religion, science, and law reflected in the way ordinary citizens discuss contemporary social controversies and assess whether these schemas accord with a modernization narrative or whether people's experiences with each of these institutional arenas lead them to adopt realistic or critical schemas not predicted by modernization accounts. Focus group participants in three metropolitan areas were asked to talk about one of three vignettes on faith‐based prison ministries, parents’ refusal of medical treatment for a child on religious grounds, or preimplantation genetic diagnosis of human embryos. We find that people's everyday experiences, grounded in specific institutional contexts, produce perceptions of the domains of religion, science, and law that are not fully captured by the modernization account. Further, our findings illustrate that schemas of law, science, and religion are varied and evoked by social context and the specific issues under consideration. Schemas that do not fit the modernization framework provide a way for people to address concerns about power and effectively level the playing field between more and less rationalized social domains. Future research on a broader range of issues is needed to develop a theory of when different schemas of law, science, and religion are activated.     

Female Delinquency: Goal Obstruction and Anomie

S'inspirant de Cohen et de Merton, les auteurs enoncent l'hypothese que la delin-quence feminine pourrait etre la consequence de l'ensemble des difficultes que percoivent les jeunes filles dans la poursuite et la realisation de leur desir de se marier. Un groupe experimental d'adolescentes delinquentes et un groupe-con-trole de filles frequentant deux ecoles superieures furent utilisees. Elles durent remplir un questionnaire comportant un index de difficultes et trois echelles distinctes de delinquence, d'angoisse et d'anomie. Les resultats demontrent le fait suivant: bien que les delinquentes pergoivent moins d'obstacles que les autres par rapport a un mariage eventuel, elles manifestent tout de meme plus d'angoisse et plus d'anomie. On essaie d'expliquer ce resultat inattendu.
Inspired by Cohen and Merton the authors hypothesize that female delinquency may be the result of difficulties perceived by girls in the fulfillment of their marital goal. A test group of delinquent girls and a control group of high school girls were administered a questionnaire with an obstacle index, and three separate scales on delinquency, anxiety, and anomie. The findings revealed that although delinquent girls perceived fewer obstacles to their marital goal, they showed higher delinquency, greater anxiety, and higher anomie. The possible explanations are discussed.     

Talking About Culture With Internationally Adoptive Parents: An Anthropological Perspective

Parents who adopt internationally are commonly implored to expose their children to their “birth cultures.” While this celebration of origins is praiseworthy, the approach to “culture” that it typically involves is arguably problematic. This article discusses what anthropologists mean by culture and how this differs from the way culture is treated in international adoption. It then considers what medical anthropologists have learned through decades of evolving discussions about how to teach “cultural competency” to health care providers and suggests that the insights from these debates can be applied to encourage a more nuanced approach to “cultural competency” among adoptive parents.     

Culture,Son Preference,and Beliefs About Masculinity

We examined whether endorsing hyper‐masculine attitudes positively related to the psychological well‐being of adolescent boys (N=233) in an extreme son preference community, in Tamilnadu, India. A survey with masculinity and measures of psychological well‐being was administered. We predicted that endorsement of masculinity would positively relate to personal strength, academic achievement, and positive psychological outcomes. Using regression analyses, we found that greater endorsement of masculinity predicted lower self‐reported depression (b=?.48, p<.001), lower internalized shame (b=?.48, p<.001), higher academic performance (b=.15, p<.05), and higher personal strength (b=.43, p<.001). We discuss the relevance of our findings for developing interventions to combat extreme female neglect.     

The Work Ethnic and Delinquency

Abstract

Many criminologists argue that delinquency stems, in part, from the abandonment of the work ethnic by adolescents. No longer willing to engage in hard work and self-denial, adolescents become more likely to engage in delinquency. Using longitudinal data from a national survey of adolescent boys, this study found that adolescents with a low commitment to the work ethic were more likely to become delinquent. The effect of the work ethic was explained, in large part, by social control and cultural deviance theory. The implications of these findings are briefly examined.     

Gender Convergence and Delinquency*

Theory about the relationship of gender roles to delinquency illustrates the taken-for-granted assumption that as role expectations of people become more alike, their behavior becomes more similar. This paper tests the hypothesis that delinquency of androgynous and undifferentiated males and females is more similar in frequency than that of traditional males and females. Self-reported delinquency and self-ratings on scales of traditionally feminine and traditionally masculine expectations provide the data for this research. The analysis reveals that, as predicted, androgynous and undifferentiated males and females report more similar frequencies of delinquent behavior than do traditionally masculine males and traditionally feminine females. Undifferentiated respondents report the highest levels of delinquency among females, but the reverse pattern tends to hold for males. These patterns are analyzed and their importance for theory of gender and crime is suggested.     

Social Class and Delinquency: One More Time*

The diversity of findings on the class-delinquency relationship may reflect differential middle-class cultural dominance in school systems. In predominantly middle-class schools, the minority of working-class youth conform to the majority standards and the relationship does not hold. In more class heterogeneous schools a cross-class cultural diffusion occurs among youth such that objective class status no longer is predictive of delinquency. In predominantly working-class schools a negative class-delinquency relationship is found; in such a milieu, those youth who are committed to conventional middle-class culture only can have acquired such commitments from their middle-class parents. The self-report studies of class and delinquency are reviewed in the light of these hypotheses.     

Managing Organizational Emotions: Framing Feelings of Illegitimacy in the Radical Women's Prison Movement

Abstract

This article examines how activists manage the potentially deleterious emotions that arise in social movement organizations. Using data from a case study of an organization in the contemporary radical women's prison movement in California, I explore how feelings of illegitimacy are managed and sublimated by activists, during the course of organizational life, to sustain participation in the movement. Drawing on framing theory, I find that organizational frames serve as mechanisms that manage and focus activists' feelings, delimit movement strategies, and inspire and legitimate collective action.     

Delinquency among pathological gamblers: A causal approach

In a comprehensive research project on gamblers in self-help groups in West Germany one object of investigation was the question of whether or not pathological gambling has a criminogenic effect. 54.5% of the 437 members of Gamblers Anonymous interviewed stated that they had committed illegal actions in order to obtain money for gambling. Comparisons of this sub-group with those interviewees who did not admit having committed criminal offences show distinct differences: Those who admitted illegal action were more excessive in their gambling behavior and experienced a higher degree of subjective satisfaction through gambling. They also showed a more pronounced problem behavior and more psychosocial problems because of gambling. A multiple regression within the framework of path analysis was computed in order to explore causal links between pathological gambling and delinquency. The results support the hypothesis that pathological gambling can lead to delinquent behavior. Forensic implications are discussed.This article is a revised version of a paper presented at the Eighth International Conference on Risk and Gambling in London, U.K., August 15–17, 1990.The content and presentation of this article has benefited from the comments of Agnes Roemer, Department of Psychology, University of Bremen.     

Treatment Strategies for Juvenile Delinquency: Alternative Solutions

Social workers involved in the treatment of adjudicated youth commonly encounter youth sentenced to traditional incarceration or parole as a path to rehabilitation. This article examines alternative treatment strategies for adjudicated youth, namely Victim Offender Reconciliation Programs (often called mediation), Boot Camps, and Wrap-Around Community-Based Care, to help these youth avoid reoffending. While popular with the media, policymakers, or the general public, an evaluation of the literature makes it clear that these programs do not necessarily guarantee lower recidivism rates for program participants. It is evident that further research and evaluation must be done in order to more fully understand the drawbacks and benefits of alternative strategies, and to more appropriately help adjudicated youth and their communities.     

预防青少年犯罪:香港经验及其启示

青少年犯罪是当今全球城市发展面临的一个重大问题。香港社会预防青少年犯罪的主要做法包括强化专职机构建设、构建多元综合服务网络、营造良好社会氛围、推行新高中学制、实施警司警讯计划、开展禁毒教育和服务等。国内其他城市和地区为了有效防范青少年犯罪,应该加强专业机构建设、综合服务体系建构、以家庭为主的核心价值体系建设、依法维护青少年合法权益等工作。     

论家庭暴力与青少年犯罪

由于家庭暴力的隐蔽性使社会难以干预、相关法律法规的可操作性不强以及公安机关处置不力等原因，家庭暴力仍是引发青少年犯罪的重要因素。要通过完善相关法律法规、普及青少年咨询求助机构、强化学校教育素质的功能以及发挥公安机关的职能作用等途径防治家庭暴力，减少青少年犯罪。     

DSM-5: An Overview of Changes and Controversies

The DSM-5 offers many changes in the criteria and categories used in clinical diagnosis. The provocative and sometimes controversial nature of the changes has enlivened debate in the mental health field about how we should best understand our clients. I selectively survey what is new in DSM-5, why changes were made, and what about them is so controversial. First, I summarize the main metastructural and organizational changes, including elimination of the multiaxial system and changed chapter groupings. Second, I survey the most important new categories of disorder and the most important changes to the diagnostic criteria for existing categories of disorder. I focus on particularly controversial changes, such as those to substance use and addictive disorders, autism spectrum disorders, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Pros and cons are provided for changes in criteria as well as for the addition of new disorder categories, such as hoarding disorder and binge eating disorder. Finally, I offer a more in-depth review and analysis of the changes to the depressive disorders chapter, which was subject to some of the most intense controversies and had some of the most extensive changes.