Judicial Decision Making and International Tribunals: Assessing the Impact of Individual,National, and International Factors*

Objective. The objective of this article is to explain judicial decision making at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia by analyzing the impact of individual, national, and international factors. Methods. We use regression and probit analysis of data on the verdicts and sentences handed down by the judges. Results. We find that international factors best explain judicial decision making, especially regarding sentencing. Conclusions. International tribunals and courts are becoming increasingly important and prevalent and it is critical that scholars better understand how their judges make decisions.     

Australian University Students' Views of the Nuclear Arms Race: Comparative and Qualitative Analyses

Australian university students' views of the nuclear arms race were analysed in two studies. A sample comparison study used Nuclear Arms Race Questionnaire (NARQ) and Position on Nuclear Weapons (PNW) scales to compare university students' views with those of high school students and community groups. University students' views were more strongly anti-nuclear than middle income and Middle European migrant groups, but not more than high school student and church member groups'. Females' attitudes were more strongly anti-nuclear than males. A qualitative analysis of ten university students' formulations of the arms races problem and Australia's involvement revealed the complex dimensions of perceived relationships between global and national interests and personal nuclear issues. Students' solutions were directly related to their formulations of the major aspects of the arms race problem, with six students who represented the nuclear problem in terms of superpower conflict, seeing individuals as powerless to influence solutions. Quantitative trends are interpreted in light of the varied representations of the problem and the association of students' generally anti-nuclear attitudes with lack of involvement in the peace movement.     

PREDICTORS OF STRESS AMONG AUSTRALIAN FARMERS

Australian farms continue to suffer economic pressure which directly and indirectly produces stress among farm family members. This study uses qualitative and quantitative data to isolate factors which predict stress, Financial condition, perception of what is at stake, the combination of on-farm and off-farm obligations and the general frustrations of farm life are found to predict stress among both men and women. Gender relations and attachment to farm life emerge as stronger predictors for women, while youth is a stronger predictor for men. The study concludes that attempts to develop and preserve the family farm may be creating stressful situations which threaten the family relations upon which the farming system is based.     

Composition and decomposition in nonmarital fertility

Ermisch (2009) criticized Gray, Stockard, and Stone (2006), arguing that they incorrectly tested a model positing a nonlinear relationship between the nonmarital fertility ratio and the proportion of unmarried women. I identify a different problem, which is that even if this model were to hold for a particular population, it would not in general hold for subgroups of this population; likewise, were it to hold for subgroups, it would not hold for aggregations of these subgroups.     

SHORT REVIEWS

Books reviewed in this article: Gay Becker, The Elusive Embryo: How Women and Men Approach New Reproductive Technologies Theodore Caplow, Louis Hicks, and Ben J. Wattenberg, The First Measured Century: An Illustrated Guide to Trends in America, 1900–2000 Stephen Moore and Julian L. Simon, It's Getting Better All the Time: 100 Greatest Trends of the Last 100 Years Elisabeth Croll, Endangered Daughters: Discrimination and Development in Asia Barbara Entwisle and Gail E. Henderson (Eds.), Re‐Drawing Boundaries: Work, Households, and Gender in China David T. Graham and Nana K. Poku (Eds.), Migration, Globalisation and Human Security Paul Harrison and Fred Pearce, AAAS Atlas of Population and Environment Russell King, Paolo De Mas, and Jan Mansvelt Beck (Eds.), Geography, Environment and Development in the Mediterranean Michael T. Klare, Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs and United Nations Population Fund, Low Fertility and Policy Responses to Issues of Ageing and Welfare National Assessment Synthesis Team, Climate Change Impacts on the United States: The Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change. Report for the US Global Change Research Program Jacques Vaixin and Thérèse Locoh (Eds.), Population et développement en Tunisie: La métamorphose     

＂Inspire Confidence, Stay Relevant＂

(Continued from the last issue)However,I did not feel I had made the right choice and the next time I saw her I apologized.She said to me I had done nothing wrong and said it’s not your fault teacher,it’s my fault my English is too poor. But I still insisted that I had made a mistake.Yes,I had corrected her,but at what cost? The experience obviously embarrassed her,and her peers by the third time she repeated the word incorrectly had been shaking their heads.She may have left the classroom being able to pronounce the word correctly but what about the damage to her confidence? I thought about it for literally hours.I feared that perhaps next time she might not want to stand up,or shout out the answer in class in case she might be humiliated again.In her mind it was her own incompetence but for me it was my own ignorance.