Factors Affecting Juvenile Court Decisions in Israel: A Multivariate Approach*

This paper investigates the factors influencing the disposition of cases in juvenile courts. The factors considered are the prior record of the offender, the nature of the offense, the recommendation of the probation officer, and the age of the offender. These four factors are essential components of the juvenile justice system and as such are perceived to be crucial for the understanding of the court's decision. A multivariate analysis of the data is undertaken using the method of log-linear analysis for hierarchical models. In contrast to other studies that have utilized the same method but with fewer variables, the model arrived at in the paper seems to be more accurate and suggests that while the offense and the prior criminal record are quite important factors, their influence on the disposition of cases is greatly bound by the age of the offender and the recommendation of the probation officer.     

Quantum mechanics and the postmodern in one country

Abstract

The orthodox interpretation of Quantum Mechanics was banned in the Soviet Union in 1947, an episode usually glossed as another illustration of repressive Soviet science. This paper argues that the roots of this ban should be located at a much deeper level, in a tension existing between the ‘postmodern’ form of orthodox Quantum Mechanics and an ideology of modernization. In the West a similar ideological tension had a different result: when the occasion demanded, the orthodox interpretation was covertly exchanged for an agnosticism about metaphysical matters, and potential areas of conflict with the principles of modernization were thus defused. The latter strategy benefited the orthodox interpretation, which enjoyed a virtual monopoly in the West from the 1940s through to the 1960s. Using the Freudian notions of ‘transference’ and ‘disavowal’, I explain why the ideological tension with modernization was resolved differently in the West and in the Soviet Union.     

Mothers' and Fathers' Use of Internal State Talk with their Young Children

The present study extends previous results demonstrating a relation between maternal discourse and child social understanding to include paternal discourse. Emotion understanding (EU) and theory of mind (ToM) were considered as two distinctive aspects of social understanding. Participants were 106 children (54 boys and 52 girls) studied at 3.5 and 5 years. Discourse measures came from separate parent–child conversations during a picture‐book task; measures of EU and ToM came from children's performance on social cognition tasks. Differences in parental talk translated into important differences in the influence of each parent on children's social‐cognitive understanding. Mothers' references to emotion and emotion causal explanatory language predicted children's concurrent EU. Fathers' use of causal explanatory language referring to desires and emotions predicted children's concurrent and later ToM. These results highlight important differences between mothers and fathers in their use of internal state language and its impact on children's social‐cognitive understanding.     

Pathological gambling: A review of the literature (prepared for the American Psychiatric Association task force on DSM-IV committee on disorders of impulse control not elsewhere classified)

This is a review of the literature on pathological gambling prepared for the work group on disorders of impulse control, not elsewhere classified of the American Psychiatric Association. It introduces the new DSM-IV criteria as well as outlines the phases of the career of the pathological gambler. Research discussed includes that on pathological gambling and psychiatric disorders, substance abuse, family issues, children, finances, and crime. Psychoanalytic, personality, behavioral, sociological, psychologically based addiction theories, and physiological research are also summarized. Finally, treatment outcome studies are outlined.This article is dedicated to the memory of Robert L. Custer, MD whose inspiration and encouragement stimulated much of the research discussed herein.     

Epidemiological surveys of pathological gambling: Critique and suggestions for modification

Epidemiological studies of problem and pathological gambling were examined for their accuracy. Fundamental flaws and biases were found in these surveys. These include problems with survey instruments; nonresponses and refusal bias; the exclusion of institutionalized populations; exclusion of other groups; and failure to protect against denial on the part of the respondent when others are present near the telephone. Based on the issues discussed, one can reasonably be expected to assume that most epidemiological surveys seriously underestimate the extent of problem and pathological gambling. Alternative strategies for addressing these issues are discussed. These strategies include the use of field interviews, surveys of institutionalized populations, frequent player surveys and significant other surveys. The value and potential problems of these approaches are also discussed.This is a revision of a paper presented at the 9th International Conference on Risk and Gambling, Las Vegas, Nevada.The author would like to thank Rachel Volberg and Mark Dickerson as well as conference participants for their valuable suggestions on an earlier draft of this paper.     

Inequality at work: Race,sex and underemployment

New indicators of underemployment are presented for whites, blacks, Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans by sex. The indicators are based on hours worked, education, skill utilization, and pay. Data from the 1980 Current Population Survey are supplemented with Dictionary of Occupational Titles information to construct the indicators. Whites consistently have the lowest underemployment, and comparison across groups reveals the different types of employment problems faced by minorities and women. These indicators of underemployment are compared with those from a different conceptual approach (the Labor Utilization Framework) using the same survey data. The advantages of the new indicators are discussed.     

An Analysis of Damage to U.S. Soybean Yields from 1982 Acid Deposition Levels

Experimental data were compiled for seven soybean varieties studied at four different locations in the U.S. for a period of one to three years. Three dose–response functions (linear, quadratic, and Weibull) were fitted, as appropriate, to the experimental data. Effects of acid deposition on soybean yields were estimated by combining variety-specific dose–response and production data. These calculations suggest that U.S. soybean production (2.2 billion bushels in 1982) would increase by 3.2 million bushels with a 10% reduction in 1982 hydrogen ion concentration levels in all counties where soybeans were grown, and by almost 70 million bushels with uniform improvement to pH 5.2. These estimates are based on many simplifying assumptions and are subject to several important sources of uncertainty explored in this study. The calculated changes are small in comparison with effects from other natural and anthropogenic stresses.     

Kinship and Population Subdivision

The coefficient of kinship between two diploid organisms describes their overall genetic similarity to each other relative to some base population. For example, kinship between parent and offspring of 1/4 describes gene sharing in excess of random sharing in a random mating population. In a subdivided population the statistic F _st describes gene sharing within subdivisions in the same way. Since F _st among human populations on a world scale is reliably 10 to 15%, kinship between two individuals of the same human population is equivalent to kinship between grandparent and grandchild or between half siblings. The widespread assertion that this is small and insignificant should be reexamined.