PROFILING THE DRUGGIE LIFESTYLE: CHARACTERISTICS RELATED TO SOUTHERN COLLEGE STUDENTS' USE OF ILLICIT DRUGS

Drawing on self-report survey data from a sample of 1,218 Southern college/university students collected in 1998, this study examines the relationship of demographics, family and background statuses, peer influences, experiences of alcohol and tobacco use, and academic activities as they influence the use of illicit drugs. Separate examinations are conducted to construct the profile of individuals who use marijuana only and those who use harder (i.e., cocaine, stimulants, LSD, opiates, ecstasy) drugs. Results reveal that marijuana-only users received little/inconsistent supervision as children, are members of fewer social clubs/organizations, are more likely to skip class, smoke, party with friends, get drunk often, and get drunk in public. Harder drug users report little/inconsistent supervision as children, getting drunk frequently and in public, are less far along in their schooling, spend their leisure time partying at friends’ homes or bars where they are regulars, and/or going to concerts, and/or attending club functions, and are tobacco smokers.     

Rethinking the Concept of Sustainability

The role of business ethics in developing more sustainable societies is crucial, but we first have to review the concept of sustainability itself and its ethical roots. The objective of this work is to rethink the current concept of sustainability by providing it with a sound universalistic ethical rationale. We propose that ethics is the key by which disputes and conflicts among the economic, social, and environmental domains can and ought to be resolved. This work argues that if we fail to recognize the essential ethical grounding of sustainability, or if we take it for granted, then sustainability can easily lose its way and can end up unjustified.     

The Clayhangers: Father and Son

Summary This paper was written to demonstrate the value of creativeliterature in giving body to the abstractions of psychology,thus promoting insight and empathy.     

DIAGNOSTICS FOR REDESIGNING SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES: MEASURING WORK IN THE CURRENT POPULATION SURVEY

Between 1986 and 1993, a program of questionnaire design andcognitive research was conducted by the Census Bureau and Bureauof Labor Statistics, to improve labor force measurements inthe Current Population Survey (CPS). As part of the researchprogram, diagnostic measures for systematically testing andevaluating alternative questionnaire versions were developedand applied. This article reports results of applying two methods,special follow-up probes and hypothetical vignettes, to themeasurement of "work" in the CPS. These measures provided bothdirect and indirect information about problems of respondentcomprehension and reporting errors. In this article, we analyzeresults using these diagnostic measures to evaluate the effectof questionnaire revisions on reporting of work activities,and we assess the consistency and usefulness of the informationprovided by alternative diagnostic measures for pretesting andselecting questions.     

Dip.S.W. Students and Anti-Discriminatory Practice: Questions of Learning Outcomes and Assessment

Correspondence to Elizabeth L. Sullivan, School of Health and Community Studies, De Montfort University, Kents Hill, Milton Keynes MK7 6HP, UK. E-mail: esulliva{at}dmu.ac.uk Summary There is great public interest in issues of discrimination andprejudice and, while this interest leads to changes in publicand professional behaviour and sometimes to legislative changes,it is not at all apparent that these changes achieve the statedintention, which is to eliminate negative and oppressive discrimination.It is argued that current methods of education for anti-discriminatorypractice, while successful in terms of imparting understandingand competence in relation to structural and societal issuessuch as racism, power and inequality, may be less successfulat the individual level of personal attitudes. An argument isput forward which suggests that anti-discriminatory practice(ADP) education may sometimes result in hidden or unrecognized,unmeasured, and possibly unwanted learning outcomes. This isdiscussed in relation to social work education, and two possibleunforeseen outcomes are proposed: first, the individual mayshift the focus of prejudice from one subject to another, secondly,the individual may unrealistically interpret their attitudesas anti-discriminatory, despite evidence to the contrary. Inaddition, it is suggested that social workers may hold conflictingdiscriminatory attitudes towards a single subject, dependingon whether they see themselves, at that time, as an individualor as a professional.     

SELF-INTEREST AND PUBLIC OPINION TOWARD SMOKING RESTRICTIONS AND CIGARETTE TAXES

A burgeoning literature suggests that self-interest has littleinfluence on policy preferences. In sharp contrast are the findingsdiscussed in this paper: we show that self-interest plays adecisive role in shaping attitudes toward smoking restrictionsand cigarette taxes. Data from two random samples of Californiaadults collected by the Field Institute in April 1987 and February1984 indicate that nonsmokers are far more enthusiastic abouttightening smoking restrictions and increasing cigarette taxesthan smokers, particularly heavy smokers. We conclude by discussingseveral explanations for the apparent discrepancy between theseresults and the pattern of null findings characteristic of theself-interest literature.     

PRODUCTION COSTS, TRANSACTION COSTS, AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT CONTRACTOR CHOICE

Local governments that choose to externally produce a service can contract with other governments, for-profit firms, or nonprofit organizations. This contractor choice is modeled as one in which the local government decision maker minimizes service delivery costs, both production and transaction costs, subject to political and fiscal constraints. The model is estimated using data on three frequently contracted health services obtained from a national survey of local government service delivery arrangements. The empirical analysis reveals the importance of both production and transaction costs, as well as the choice set of available suppliers, to contractor choice.     

THE IMPORTANCE OF FINANCIAL CONSIDERATIONS IN DIVORCE DECISIONS

This paper studies the linkage between the expected financial consequences of divorce and the decision to become divorced. A standard choice-theoretic model predicts that the probability of divorce will be negatively related to the financial opportunity cost of divorce. This opportunity cost is measured as the difference in the present values of the future income streams that a married woman might expect if she were to stay married rather than become divorced. Our empirical results indicate that the expected short-term financial consequences are a better predictor of subsequent divorce than are the longer-term consequences.     

PRODUCTION FACTORS IN POLICING SERVICES*

The demand for increased public protection has become a major public issue of our times. The usual American response of increased resources has been applied but has had less than the desired effects. This paper analyzes the existing production factors in the provision of policing services in terms of the efficiency with which these services are delivered. The efficiency analysis occurs on a number of levels: (1) the use of existing resources, (2) alternative allocation at the existing resource level, (3) alternative technologies, and (4) the tasks and services which should be undertaken. The effects and implications of exogenous changes upon crime and policing services are considered and the problems and needs for change in the production factors for policing services are presented.