People for sale: the need for a multidisciplinary approach towards human trafficking

The article addresses the question of how to develop appropriate measures to tackle trafficking in women, based on the findings of a study of trafficking between the Philippines and Belgium. It argues that there is no easy or uni-dimensional solution to human trafficking, since it is influenced by a complex set of factors, often working in combination with one another. It concludes that control measures alone cannot stop the flow of trafficking in women and that a legal approach which relies solely on one type of legislation would be too narrow. An effective strategy must combine and balance punitive measures with protection of human rights, stricter border control and the removal of the root causes of irregular movements. Measures must be agreed and coordinated between origin, transit and receiving countries.     

Experiments with incentives in telephone surveys

In an effort to counter the problem of noncooperation, survey organizations are offering incentives to respondents with increasing frequency, some at the outset of the survey, as has traditionally been done in mail surveys, and some only after the person has refused, in an attempt to convert the refusal. This article reports on a series of experiments carried out over a period of about 2 years with a monthly telephone survey, the Survey of Consumer Attitudes, in an effort to increase response rates or reduce interviewer effort. We report on experiments with prepaid versus promised incentives; advance letters; and advance letters with prepaid incentives; and we also report on the effects of incentives on response quality, sample composition, response bias, interviewer and respondent expectations, and costs.     

Measuring Christian Beliefs that Affect Managerial Decision-Making: A Beginning

Although considerable work has been done on the measurement of religious values and beliefs, little is understood about their effect on managerial values and decision making. This paper reports on theoretical work by the authors identifying Christian religious beliefs that might affect managerial decision making; it also reports the results of empirical work validating five scales of religious beliefs that might affect managerial decision making. Future research directions are proposed. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Toward Less Division of Labor? New Production Concepts in the Automotive, Chemical, Clothing, and Machine Tool Industries

In this contribution, we focus on the results ofthe Belgian Trend Study. The intention of this study wasto examine the prevalence of new production conceptswithin the widest possible range of companies in the automotive, the machine tool, thechemical, and the clothing industries. The Trend Studyaimed to answer the following questions: is theTaylorist division of labor a thing of the past? Whatare the alternatives? Are shifts in the division oflabor accompanied by another type of personnel policy,and do traditional industrial relations have to make wayfor this new approach? The methodological concept used had to guarantee that the findingsat the level of each industry could be generalized.Though the picture emerging from the empirical datacollected in the four industrial sectors is inevitablydiverse, the data make it possible merely to suggest aneo- rather than a post-Taylorist or -Fordistconcept.     

A comparison of poverty in seven European countries and regions using subjective and relative measures

This paper presents comparative results on poverty in seven countries and regions of the European Community: Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Lorraine, Ireland, Catalonia and Greece. The data are obtained from comparable socio-economic surveys in each country. Subjective as well as relative poverty lines are used. The results indicate that the subjective poverty lines are plausible in a comparative context, although the levels of the subjective standards are rather generous. The estimated equivalence scales are much flatter than the one recommended by the OECD. The extent of poverty is much greater in the peripheral EC-countries than in the central ones. Though similar factors are found to be associated with poverty in all countries, there are also important differences in the characteristics of the poor across countries. The impact of social security transfers on poverty appears to be much smaller in the southern countries Greece and Catalonia, than in the Benelux and Lorraine.     

A clinical perspective on ethical issues in genetic testing

Genetic testing is traditionally preceded by counselling to discuss its advantages and disadvantages with individuals so they can make informed decisions. The new technique of whole genome or exome sequencing, which is currently only used in research settings, can identify many gene mutations, including substantial numbers of mutations with unknown pathological effect; it may, therefore, threaten this balanced approach if it is used in a clinical setting. We discuss the ethical challenges of several approaches to pre- and postnatal DNA testing, individual privacy versus the interests of families and of scientists, and the clinician's duty to re-contact if new information or options become available.     

Environmental stressors: the mental health impacts of living near industrial activity

A growing literature examines whether the poor, the working class, and people of color are disproportionately likely to live in environmentally hazardous neighborhoods. This literature assumes that environmental characteristics such as industrial pollution and hazardous waste are detrimental to human health, an assumption that has not been well tested. Drawing upon the sociology of mental health and environmental inequality studies, we ask whether industrial activity has an impact on psychological well-being. We link individual-level survey data with data from the US. Census and the Toxic Release Inventory and find that residential proximity to industrial activity has a negative impact on mental health. This impact is both direct and mediated by individuals' perceptions of neighborhood disorder and personal powerlessness, and the impact is greater for minorities and the poor than it is for whites and wealthier individuals. These results suggest that public health officials need to take seriously the mental health impacts of living near industrial facilities.     

A Family System Approach to Investigate Family‐Based Pathways Between Financial Stress and Adolescent Problem Behavior

This article proposes a family system approach to improve our understanding on family stress processes. Examining effects within (actor) and between (partner) parents, we explored family‐based pathways through which financial stress is associated with adolescent externalizing problem behavior. Data from 340 families were analyzed, with both parents rating their financial stress and parenting stress, and parents as well as adolescents rating the parent–child communication and adolescent problem behavior. The results revealed that the association between financial stress and adolescent externalizing problem behaviors was mediated by parenting stress and parent–child communication. Although our results provided evidence for both actor and partner effects, actor effects were more prominent. No parent gender differences were found in the strength of the pathways.