Disarmament, Arms Control, and Peace in the Nuclear Age: Political Objectives and Relevant Research

The present paper differentiates the political objectives of nuclear disarmament, nuclear arms control, and peace, and it selectively reviews psychological research relevant to each of these areas. The term nuclear disarmament—originally intended to indicate the complete elimination of nuclear weapons—is now commonly used to describe the reduction of any militarily operational nuclear weapons. Nuclear arms control, or the regulation of the nuclear arms race, includes attempts to (a) reduce the perceived probability that nuclear weapons will be used; (b) limit damage in the event that nuclear weapons are used, intentionally or unintentionally; (c) reduce the economic burden posed by various weapon systems; or (d) improve international relations through military restraint. In contrast to nuclear arms control and nuclear disarmament, there is no generally accepted definition of peace in the nuclear age. Peace has been defined variously as (a) the prevention or cessation of armed conflict, (b) a state of active cooperation, or (c) a condition resulting from the absence of unmet needs.     

美国外交中的援助制裁行为

作为经济制裁的一种,援助制裁是援助国为了实现一定的对外政策目标而采取的延缓、减少、终止援助,或者威胁采取上述措施以惩罚受援国。相对于其他西方国家而言,美国更倾向于使用援助制裁,其目的是使被制裁国按其意愿采取或改变政策。援助制裁还是美国推行人权外交的重要手段,但在实际执行中,援助制裁却往往很难奏效。此外,援助国实施援助制裁的决心、目标国对援助的依赖程度以及国际社会的协调行动都在某种程度上削弱或抵消援助制裁的效果。     

“作为武器的弱者身份”：农民维权抗争的底层政治

社会弱者并不必然在任何时候都处于弱势地位,有时甚至拥有优势。在评述和借鉴农民维权抗争,特别是体现为“弱者的武器”的日常抵抗的相关研究的基础上,本文将农民底层政治的自主性作为分析农民的维权抗争的基点,同时将关注焦点放在农民维权抗争的日常事件上,从而发现了农民的另一种底层抗争的政治机制——“作为武器的弱者身份”。本研究论述了弱者所具有的隐性力量及以弱者身份作为武器进行抗争的作为,即回答了“作为武器的弱者身份”何以可能与何以可为的问题,从而对学界以往对弱者的传统认识提出了修正。本文最后指出,“作为武器的弱者身份”的抗争机制的研究对于社会管理与发展具有更深远的意义。     

Progress Toward Title IX Compliance: The Effect of Formal and Informal Enforcement Mechanisms*

Objective. This article examines the factors that determine whether an intercollegiate athletic program is in compliance with Title IX, the statute requiring gender equity in educational programs. Methods. I conduct a series of econometric regressions that examine the compliance status of Division I institutions as well as the progress they have made toward compliance. Results. Large institutions and institutions with a lower percentage of female undergraduates are more likely to be in compliance. Institutions with football programs are less likely to be in compliance as are schools in the south. The effect of football revenues, operating budgets, and NCAA sanctions varies across division as well as compliance area. Conclusions. The results of the analysis indicate that current enforcement mechanisms have been relatively ineffective at increasing compliance and that some change either in enforcement or compliance standards is warranted. Additionally, a one‐size‐fits‐all enforcement approach is unlikely to be effective.     

“无核世界”构想及其区域性实践——基于东南亚无核区的分析

"无核世界"构想是一种要求在限制核武器扩散的基础上,对已有核武器进行严格控制并逐步销毁,最终彻底消灭核武器,使国际社会回归到没有核武器的世界的政治主张。半个多世纪以来,"无核世界"构想在塑造全球政治安全环境、培育和平理念、推动核裁军方面发挥了重要作用。虽然当前"无核世界"构想尚难以实现,但在地区层面,无核区在一定意义上实现了"无核世界"构想。东南亚无核区是冷战后核扩散形势严峻的亚洲地区建立的首个无核区,对缓和亚洲地区的核扩散形势起到了积极的作用。本文认为,在国际政治现实下,无核区的建立必将成为实现无核世界的重要路径选择。     

Race, Gender, and Educational Advantage in the Inner City

Objective . In this study we examine race differences in the effect of childhood in an urban inner–city community on educational attainment in adulthood. Methods . We examine a cohort of African American and white individuals born in the late 1950s and early 1960s in the same hospital. Our analysis examines a set of individual, family, and community characteristics for the respondents at three time points in their life course, birth, childhood, and adulthood. Results . We find that black men and women are substantially more likely than their white counterparts to graduate from high school, and that black women are more likely than white men, black men, and white women to graduate from high school and college. Conclusions . We conclude that social policy to eradicate urban disadvantage must not shift its focus to the plight of poor whites to the neglect of African Americans. Rather, we urge that inner–city white children be "drawn out of the shadows" of social research and that the uniqueness of race, class, and gender intersections realized in the inner city be brought to bear.     

Nowhere to go: Housing pathways of college students with foster care and homelessness experience

This study builds on previous research to understand longer term housing experiences in late adolescence and early adulthood for vulnerable college students. Using a biographical, qualitative method, we study high school and college housing and family circumstances for 27 students with homelessness or foster care experience enrolled in 4-year colleges in Georgia. We identified three different housing pathway types in high school—family homelessness, unaccompanied youth and foster care. Housing instability and frequent moves were common in high school among all housing pathway types. In college, students who were able to find low or no-cost housing and those who identified a foster care pathway in high school achieved greater housing stability. Others students experienced a continuation of housing instability that began in high school. Additional funding to cover the cost of on-campus housing would likely contribute to increased stability. Additional strategies, such as rental assistance programmes tailored for college students, may be needed to address housing instability for vulnerable college students. More research on the unmet housing needs and the consequences of housing instability during college for homeless and foster youth is needed to further a housing policy agenda that focuses on practical solutions.     

Producing Contradictory Masculine Subject Positions: Narratives of Threat, Homophobia and Bullying in 11–14 Year Old Boys

This paper reports a qualitative analysis of data from a study of masculinity in 11–14 year old boys attending twelve London schools. Forty-five group discussions ( N = 245) and two individual interviews ( N = 78) were conducted. The findings indicate that boys' experiences of school led them to assume that interviews would expose them to ridicule and so threaten their masculinity. Boys were generally more serious and willing to reveal emotions in individual than in group interviews. A key theme in boys' accounts was the importance of being able to present themselves as properly masculine in order to avoid being bullied by other boys by being labeled "gay." The ways in which boys were racialized affected their experiences of school.     

The cost of war: Impact of sanctions on Russia following the invasion of Ukraine

We use a computable general equilibrium model of world trade to quantify the possible impact of economic sanctions imposed by Western and other countries in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. If sender countries chose 100 % import tariffs and export taxes on trade with Russia, Russia’s GDP would decline by 3–7 % due to the resulting significant reduction in exports. By contrast, the GDP loss for those countries would be 0.2 % for the European economies, but only about 0.05 % for Japan. Although unlikely, the effect of China’s participation in the sanctions would be more significant than that of India. There are concerns about food and energy crises due to economic sanctions against Russia, but the effect on food supplies would not be a serious problem for either senders or third parties. The impact on energy supplies would affect all senders to some extent; for example, there would be a 3% reduction of energy consumption and a 3–4 % rise in electricity and town gas prices in Japan.     

The problem of engaging men in child protection work

Correspondence to Kieran O'Hagan, Department of Social Work, The Queen's University of Belfast, 7 Lennoxvale, Belfast BT9 5BY Summary Child protection workers often concentrate upon mothers, andignore or avoid fathers and male cohabitees. This article attemptsto explore such tendencies, with the help of literature, researchand the author's own experiences. It asks: when does this ignoringand avoidance take place? How and why is it done, and what arethe likely consequences for child, mother, father/male partner,and child protection worker? It suggests that ignoring or avoidingmen constitutes a serious problem in child protection work.It makes suggestions on how trainers and managers may prepareworkers more effectively, enabling them to engage men who aresignificant in the lives of abused children.     

Estimating educational production functions: The problem of multicollinearity

This article attempts to address the problem of multicollinearity in the estimation of educational production functions. Past studies consistently indicate the seeming lack of importance of school input variables such as teacher salary, class size, and expenditure per student in influencing educational outcomes. Our ordinary least squares results were consistent with these past studies, but collinearity diagnostics revealed the presence of at least four potentially serious sources of collinearity within the data, possibly degrading the coefficients on the school input variables. Ridge regression and principal components regression techniques were employed in an effort to “solve” the collinearity problem. The coefficients of the school input variables continue to have the hypothesized signs, but with smaller standard errors. The results indicate that researchers should be cautioned against reaching the conclusion that school input variables don't matter on the basis of ordinary least squares estimates of these parameters.     

The Wise Man Builds His House Upon the Rock: The Effects of Inadequate School Building Infrastructure on Student Attendance*

Objective. This article looks at the effect of school infrastructure on student attendance and drop‐out rates. Methods. Using the school as the unit of analysis, Tobit analysis is performed to analyze 226 Houston Independent School District schools. Results. The quality of school infrastructure has a significant effect on school attendance and drop‐out rates. Students are less likely to attend schools in need of structural repair, schools that use temporary structures, and schools that have understaffed janitorial services. Conclusions. School districts who wish to maximize attendance and minimize drop‐out rates should avoid temporary solutions to school building inadequacies and provide students, teachers, and administrators with quality permanent structure schools, and quality janitorial staffs to maintain those schools.     

The Differential Wage Impact of the Immigration Reform and Control Act on Latino Ethnic Subgroups*

Objective. This article tests whether employer sanctions for hiring undocumented workers, a provision of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), adversely affected the hourly earnings of Latino workers. Methods. Using the Current Population Survey Outgoing Rotation Group Files from 1983–1990, a natural experiment framework is developed to assess the differential wage impact of employer sanctions on Latino ethnic subgroups. Results. Estimates of wage changes indicate that workers of Mexican descent saw a sizeable pre‐post IRCA decline in their hourly earnings relative to Cuban or Puerto Rican workers. Moreover, this change in wages is not observed among non‐Latino white workers. Controlling for the level of enforcement explains part of this decline immediately following the passage of IRCA, and enforcement efforts continue to be a significant factor several years later. Conclusions. The majority of evidence is consistent with the contention that employer sanctions adversely affected the earnings of Mexican workers.     

The problem of teenage pregnancy: an educational imperative

Unmarried pregnant teenagers comprise the most significant challenge to contemporary US social welfare policy. In 1986, never-married women who first gave birth in adolescence represented 37% of all poor, female-headed families. Education has been widely recognized as both a cause and a consequence of adolescent motherhood. Failure to complete high school is a major predictor of poverty and the duration of receipt of welfare benefits. The pattern is intergenerational: teenagers whose parents have not completed high school are substantially more likely to become pregnant and have an out-of-wedlock birth than are their peers whose parents have at least a secondary education. Even when socioeconomic factors are controlled for, unmarried teenage mothers average two years less education than their peers. More critical, the literature suggests, than the number of years of schooling is performance in and attitudes toward school. An adolescent who is performing below grade level and aware that her occupational choices are limited as a result is more likely to choose to become an unwed mother than to seek abortion or adoption. This finding suggests the importance of identifying teenagers with risk factors for out-of-wedlock birth (e.g., coming from single-parent households, low socioeconomic family status, chronic school underachievement) and providing them with enriched educational and occupational motivation and opportunities.     

The complex nature of juvenile court judges’ transfer decisions: A study of judicial attitudes

A fundamental premise behind the judicial transfer (used in 46 of 50 states) decision is that serious and repeat juvenile offenders have little or no chance of rehabilitation in the Juvenile Justice System. Those juveniles who are considered “untreatable” are believed to be best dealt with by criminal justice sentencing practices that emphasize retribution and deterrence. A survey was administered to juvenile court judges (1,040) across the United States to explore the possible role of attitudes on judicial transfer decisions. The findings indicate that judges’ attitudes as well as other factors such as type and severity of abuse, the type of weapon used in an offense, the number of participants involved, and the use of a drug affect their transfer decisions. Importantly, the results also suggest that in addition to legal factors judicial transfer decisions may be affected by a complex array of socio-cultural and psychological factors.     

Hitting home: The nuclear freeze and the defense-dependent economy of Connecticut

This article examines the impact of a nuclear weapons freeze on the economy of Connecticut, which is per capita the most defense-dependent state in the nation. The study first lists the weapons contracts that would be lost to the state in the event of a freeze. The impact of these losses is then examined through the use of an input-output model of the state's economy. The results indicate a disruptive effect not only on military manufacturing but also on the civilian manufacturing and service sectors of Connecticut's economy. The importance of preplanning for a freeze or arms control is examined in the last part of the study, which discusses the process of economic conversion of defense production to civilian manufacturing.     

Educational attainment and employment of young adults ageing out of care: A registry study based on the Finnish birth cohort 1987

Adolescents growing up outside their birth homes are at major risk for multiple adversities in early adulthood, including low education and unemployment. The transition from out-of-home placement to independent living overlaps with the transition from school to work and higher education. However, the support during this critical phase is often inadequate. Adolescents ageing out of care are also more likely to have faced adversities in their birth families. Yet, the interplay between different risk factors and having aged out of care has gained little attention. This study aimed to assess known risk factors for low education and unstable employment and their interaction with ageing out of care, controlling for birth-home-related adversities. We assessed this topic using logistic and linear regression modelling based on the Finnish birth cohort 1987 (n = 59 476) registry. Our analysis showed that obtaining upper secondary and higher education was much less likely among those ageing out of care, and they had spent 52–80 fewer days annually in employment after graduation. Few interactions with other risk factors were, however, found. Efforts are needed to prevent inequalities in education and employment for those ageing out of care in the transition phase from school to work.     

Punitive welfare reform and claimant mental health: The impact of benefit sanctions on anxiety and depression

Internationally, policymakers assume that sanctioning claimants of unemployment benefits will engender both improved employment outcomes and wider positive effects. A growing evidence‐base challenges these expectations, though additional insight is needed from large‐scale longitudinal research. This article contributes by conducting a quantitative investigation into the mental health impacts of benefit sanctions. To do so, it focuses on a recent period in UK sanctions policy in which rates of sanctions varied markedly and their length was substantially increased. Using quarterly panel data for local authorities in England (Q3 2010–Q4 2014) and fixed effects models that control for important confounders, the analysis provides robust evidence that Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) sanctions lead to increases in self‐reported anxiety and depression. Evidence of this adverse impact is particularly clear following the increase in the length of sanctions in October 2012. The results have important implications for contemporary social security policy, which is underpinned by a similarly punitive sanctions regime. Whilst additional individual‐level research is needed to fully consider the causal relationships in operation, the findings support a precautionary approach that should seek to minimise the harm associated with sanctions. This implies taking steps to reduce both the severity and frequency of applied sanctions.     

Delinquency and the Family

Summary A standardized procedure based upon current social work practicewas used to assess the family circumstances of a randomly drawnsample of Tower Hamlets families with son/s between 11 and 14years of age. These families were compared to those of localboys of the same age before the Courts for a first time. Two-thirdsof the officially delinquent boys came from ordinary families,intact and without serious problems. However, compared to theofficially non-delinquents in the random sample they were significantlymore likely to come from broken homes or unbroken (intact) butwith serious and persistent problems. The differences are notdue to neighbourhood or school factors that appear to a considerableextent to operate independently of family factors. Few firstCourt appearances in Tower Hamlets are explained by boys reactingto serious family stress. Follow up over two years of the delinquentsshowed that just under one-quarter of the boys from ordinaryfamilies became persistent offenders. Just over one-third ofthose from difficult family circumstances reappeared. These findings are discussed in the light of other researchand current social work practice.     

Examining the Administration of Work Sanctions on the Frontlines of the Welfare System*

Objectives. Financial penalties, or sanctions, are a core mechanism for enforcing the work requirements of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program and helping clients achieve self‐sufficiency. This study's objective is to examine whether sanctions are being administered consistent with policy goals of encouraging work. Methods. This study uses administrative fair hearing decisions, which are the product of an adversarial‐style procedure triggered when a client appeals an adverse decision by the agency, including work sanctions. Qualitative content analysis is used to analyze the decisions. Results. The study found that despite organizational reforms, local offices had created the welfare‐to‐work version of an eligibility‐compliance culture, where sanctions were based primarily on attendance records and became a paper‐processing function. Transactions between clients and workers were often routinized and mechanical, resulting in improper and arbitrary sanctions that were reversed by the hearing officers nearly 50 percent of the time. Conclusion. This study underscores the importance of scrutinizing and correcting agency errors that may undercut clients' engagement in work activities.