The immigration–crime relationship: Evidence across US metropolitan areas

Despite popular commentary claiming a link between immigration and crime, empirical research exploring this relationship is sparse. Especially missing from the literature on immigration and crime is a consideration of how immigration affects rates of crime at the macro-level. Although individual-level studies of immigrant criminality and victimization tend to demonstrate that immigrants typically engage in less crime than their native-born counterparts, the effect of immigration on aggregate criminal offending is less clear. In this research, we attempt to address this weakness in the literature by examining the effects of aspects of immigration on crime rates in metropolitan areas. We combine 2000 US Census data and 2000 Uniform Crime Report data to explore how the foreign-born population influences criminal offending across a sample of metropolitan areas. After controlling for a host of demographic and economic characteristics, we find that immigration does not increase crime rates, and some aspects of immigration lessen crime in metropolitan areas.     

Interkulturelle Kompetenz in der Polizei: Qualifizierungsstrategien

Increasing tension and scandal-laden conflicts with members of ethnic minorities during the 1990s make it clear, that the German police force is still not satisfactorily prepared to deal with a multi-cultural society. An immediate reaction was the engagement of training programmes, giving higher-rank officials something to present as an approach to solving the problem. This can apparently be seen as cosmetic change without effect on the structure and culture of the organisation. This work attempts to map the potential for sustainable development of intercultural competence via training programmes, based on the results of international research on police work. Four classical models of intercultural training are described, and their suitability for further education within the police analysed. Starting from the difficulties of determining the actual competency requirements specific in the field, and the basic problems of mediating and acquiring inter-cultural skills, the article concludes with a discussion of sustainable education strategies, which extend to fundamental questions of organisational development.     

Gleich und gleich gesellt sich gern — auch im Wahlkampf?

Does the well-known effect of social position on party preference depend on the distance to election day? Based on findings on campaign effects, it is argued that the effect of social position on party preference could vary over time, especially it may react on changes in political communication in campaign phases: parties appeal to their social bases, and therefore the effect of social position on party preference may rise in election campaigns; furthermore, this means that throughout a parliamentary term the partisan effect of social position should first weaken and later rise again. These hypotheses are tested empirically against trend data (Politbarometer) and panel data covering the German federal elections 1972 to 1998. Empirically, however, the core hypotheses are rejected: the structuring effect of social position is almost constant throughout parliamentary terms. Hence, federal election campaigns in Germany do not strengthen the partisan effect of social position substantially.     

Wie wirken „Subkulturen der Gewalt“? Das Zusammenspiel von Internalisierung und Verbreitung gewaltlegitimierender Normen in der Erklärung von JugendgewaltHow do “Subcultures of Violence” lead to violence? The interplay of internalization and prevalence of norms legitimizing violence in the explanation of youth violence

Both the internalization and the prevalence of violence-legitimizing norms are empirically related to acts of violence. The action-theoretic processes, though, that generate these relationships are not well understood. Based on subcultural approaches to violence formulated in social psychology, ethnology and sociology the current study identifies two action-theoretic processes that relate violence-legitimizing norms to acts of violence: conforming to internalized norms in applicable situations on the one hand; and status considerations on the other hand. The model of frame selection is applied to integrate these processes into a general theory of action. Hypotheses are tested using data from a school-based survey in Germany (N?=?2635). Multi-level regression models on measures of violent intentions in a factorial survey, as well as on response times to this factorial survey, are reported. The results confirm the expected interplay of internalization of violence-legitimizing norms, prevalence of these norms, and situational provocation in explaining violent intentions and the time respondents needed to answer the factorial survey.     

A parsimonious multivariate poisson model for market basket analysis

Intensified research on multivariate Poisson models offers new opportunities for the analysis of purchase quantities in market basket data. The investigation of positive or negative correlations in quantity decisions among product categories facilitates a deeper understanding of consumer purchase behavior. The applied multivariate log-normal Poisson model introduces interdependencies between categories with multivariate normal-distributed latent effects by means of a covariance matrix. As the size of this covariance matrix depends on the number of categories in the model, its ation may become tedious. Furthermore, we assume that quantity decisions do not interact for all pairs of categories. That is why we propose to use covariance selection to derive a parsimonious representation of the correlation structure. For two market basket data sets, we show that the vast majority of off-diagonal elements in the covariance matrix are irrelevant. For a data set with product categories, the model with a partly restricted covariance matrix achieves a better fit to the holdout data than the model with full covariance matrix. For a data set with subcategories of the broader category beverage, the proposed model with restricted covariance outperforms the model with full covariance matrix even on the calibration data. We conclude that interactions of quantity decisions are overall the exception, even for complements-in-use.     

Die Entwicklung des Partnermarkts im Längsschnitt – Alters- und Kohortenunterschiede

For the first time, this study provides longitudinal research on regional partner market conditions and trends in Germany. It works with indicators of the partner market that are appropriate to theoretical concepts. Using ministerial regional population data, the study examines several assumptions about how the partner market alternates over the life course and differs between birth cohorts. It describes differences between partner market conditions of the sexes and shows effects on the partner market that derive from changes of the birth rate, from shifts in the prevalence and forms of couple relationships, from the expansion of higher education, and from migration.     

How to ensure that headquarters add value

Over the last few years many international corporations have started to restructure their organizations fundamentally by redistributing management tasks and creating small, market-oriented units. However strong the centrifugal forces were, the core task in restructuring these corporations was: how to redesign the corporate centre. The design of the corporate centre is of major importance for the performance of corporations. Corporate Centres can actively improve the performance of their business units, for instance by defining performance targets or by providing shared resources. On the other hand headquarters are frequently accused of being bureaucratic liabilities which make no contribution to corporate success. This problem has grown in recent years as organic growth, internationalization, and an increasing number of mergers and acquisitions have generated new co-ordination problems. These developments have given new priority to the question of corporate centre organization. What is required is the definition of an effective role for the centre and the establishment of central units with efficient scope and size. This article discusses both tasks in the light of current and future requirements for corporate centre organization.     

The word ‘variable’ in logic,mathematics and economics

The paper deals with the meaning of the word variable as used by various authors in various disciplines. In the first part of his article the author explains the synonyms used for this word such as indefinite numbers, mappings or concepts. He further discusses the meaning of variables and unknowns as applied in modern logic and traditional mathematics. In economic models the variable is inseparably linked to the economic quantity by which it is characterized and interpreted. Distinctions are made between endogenous and exogenous variables and between a variable and its time path.The author is indebted to Tor Fernholm for valuable comments on a preliminary draft.