纽约的邻里纠纷与"皮毛法"

邻里相处难免也有个磕磕碰碰的时候,有些是当事人无意识的行为,有些却是当事人的有意作为。一般来说,如果是小的冒犯,邻里之间打个招呼,犯事一方主动认个错、及时纠正,那么问题也就迎刃而解了。但总有一些蛮横无理之徒“不依不饶”,那么受害一方就不得不依据相应的法律与之对簿公堂。 在美国,无论是无意伤害、或是有意妨碍,只要给他人的人身安全和财产带来“伤害、损害、骚扰”的邻里纠纷,都被称之为“nuisance”,但是如若处理不当,也会酿成大祸。因此,这类小麻烦也有相应的法律管辖,纽约人称此类法律为“皮毛法”(nuisance law)。     

Immigrant Environmental Behaviors in New York City

Objective. This article compares environmental behaviors of immigrants and the native-born to answer questions about potential impacts of immigration on the U.S. environment. Methods. We consider immigrant/native-born differences in the likelihood of engaging in environmentally friendly behavior. With data from a survey of New York City residents, we test two hypotheses regarding environmental behavior: (1) controlling for environmental orientation, environmental knowledge, acculturation, community attachment, and economic status will reduce immigrant/native-born differences, and (2) controlling for race will increase immigrant/native-born differences. Results. Our analysis provided no support for the second hypothesis, but there were varied results for the first hypothesis depending on the type of environmental behavior considered. Conclusions. Our findings for New York City show that fears of immigrants being less likely to engage in environmentally friendly behaviors are unfounded. Of greater significance to environmental organizations is the lower level of immigrant involvement in environmentally oriented political behaviors, suggesting that continued immigration will present challenges both in making the environmental movement more ethnically diverse and in maintaining its vitality.