A question of identity

The weight to be attached to DNA profile evidence was the centre of a huge scientific controversy in the early-mid-1990s, with scientists, including statistical scientists, criticising each other over both science and conduct in the editorials of prestigious journals, on television and radio, and in newspapers. Today, only the occasional shot rings out on the DNA evidence front. David Balding looks back and reflects on the causes of the dispute, its evolution and resolution, and the role in it of statistics and statisticians.     

Specialised Supported Education for Australians with Psychotic Disorders

Australia has a network of Federally funded disability employment and vocational rehabilitation services, including a proportion of outlets that specialise in providing services for persons with psychiatric disabilities. However, neither Federal nor State Governments currently provide or fund disability‐specific education assistance to persons with psychiatric disabilities. To begin considering whether Specialised Supported Education is indicated for persons with psychotic disorders, we examined data collected in a national ‘Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers Australia, 1998’. International studies of the effectiveness of overseas Supported Education programs were also examined to identify the forms of assistance most likely to warrant consideration in Australia. U.S.A. evidence indicates that Specialised Supported Education is emerging as an effective career development option for persons with psychotic disorders. An example of an innovative Specialised Supported Education program is provided to illustrate how this type of program can be implemented in Australia.     

HISPANIC MEDIA USE AND PERCEPTIONS OF DISCRIMINATION:

This study utilizes data from the Latino National Political Survey to evaluate the relationship between several social and cultural variables, media use, and Hispanic perceptions of discrimination. We examine the effects that level of income and education, personal experience, ethnicity, and political party preference and media exposure have on these perceptions. The examination builds on social-psychological theories and media framing/cultivation arguments. The cross-section, regression analysis considers Hispanics as a whole and as various subgroups (Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and Cubans), respectively. Contrary to conventional wisdom that media use is positively related to perceived discrimination, we find that socioeconomic and ethnic conditions are of greater import for understanding perceptions. Further, it appears that media use has little impact on perceptions of discrimination.     

Prisoner escort in Scotland: Costs, projection and performance under scrutiny

David Eyre is a journalist. He says that he is a little ignorant when it comes to statistics, as he thinks many people in the media are. Which is pretty surprising when you consider the number of stories that are based on statistics—everything from crime surveys to NHS waiting lists. Here he and Sheila Bird describe how they sought to address this problem in the context of prisoner escort in Scotland.     

“I Did Not Get that Job Because of a Black Man...”: The Story Lines and Testimonies of Color-Blind Racism

In this paper we discuss the dominant racial stories that accompany color-blind racism, the dominant post–civil rights racial ideology, and asses their ideological role. Using interview data from the 1997 Survey of College Students Social Attitudes and the 1998 Detroit Area Study, we document the prevalence of four story lines and two types of testimonies among whites. We also provide data on ideological dissidence among some whites (we label them racial progressives) and blacks. We show that although these stories, and the racial ideology they reinforce, have become dominant, neither goes uncontested.     

A rich opportunity

Certain sectors are well known for employing large numbers of statisticians, points out David Hand. These include the pharmaceutical sector, medical research and government. Less well known, however, is that the personal . Financial services sector also requires large numbers of numerate people, and that statisticians, with their understanding of risk and uncertainty and their ability to extract information from large quantities of data, are in particular demand.     

Services for troubled adolescents: exploring user variation

This paper outlines some of the main findings from an exploratory study of a sample of 257 adolescents living in children's homes, foster homes and residential special schools ‘for pupils with emotional and behavioural difficulties’ (‘EBD’). It focuses on the characteristics of service users, particularly contrasting the looked after and EBD groups. Though there are some similarities, there are also important differences between the populations in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, reasons for separation, legal status, family background and education. An attempt was made systematically to compare groups by creating a subsample of ‘difficult’ adolescents, based on involvement in anti‐social behaviour. Unexpectedly, this revealed that half of the teenagers were not ‘difficult’. Factors associated with being identified as ‘difficult’ were explored.     

Cultural factors in the intervention of child maltreatment

The focus of this paper is to suggest an approach to cultural factors in intervention efforts with child maltreatment cases. General issues as well as issues specific to Black and Hispanic Americans are explored. Various risk factors commonly used to guide intervention efforts are examined from a cultural perspective. Recommendations are provided in four key practice areas; organizational and administrative adaptations, staff recruitment and training, research, and public relations.     

Michel Maffesoli's sociology of modernity and postmodernity: an introduction and critical assessment

This article introduces and criticises Michel Maffesoli's attempt to formulate a post-modern sociology for post-modern times. While arguing that Maffesoli's sociology is suggestive and insightful about many aspects and features of late-modern life this article, nonetheless, questions whether Maffesoli's approach should be accepted as a fruitful sociological paradigm which others should take up uncritically. Moreover, it will be argued that Maffesoli's approach is an ultimately incoherent and one-sided approach to studying the ‘postmodern condition’ in that it does not escape the problem of ‘performative contradiction’ identified by the likes of Habermas, Giddens and Touraine. That is to say, Maffesoli has produced a one-sided and flattened out image of modernity that cannot account for the possibility of social and political critique.