Perceptions of child abuse: a comparison of three professional groups in Japan

Japan passed its Child Abuse Prevention Act on 20 November 2000. In these early years following the passage of this Act, it is especially important to attempt to define what constitutes child abuse. Definitions and practical responses may be coloured by perceptions of service providers, and since professional culture is believed to influence individuals, this study compared the perceptions of (a) social workers, (b) physicians, (c) lawyers, and (d) the general public. Results suggested less disagreement in perceptions than was anticipated. When differences were observed, they were correlated more frequently with age and gender rather than with profession.     

Risk aversion in the small and in the large: Calibration results for betweenness functionals

A reasonable level of risk aversion with respect to small gambles leads to a high, and absurd, level of risk aversion with respect to large gambles. This was demonstrated by Rabin (Econometrica 68:1281–1292, 2000) for expected utility theory. Later, Safra and Segal (Econometrica, 2008) extended this result by showing that similar arguments apply to many non-expected utility theories, provided they are Gateaux differentiable. In this paper we drop the differentiability assumption and by restricting attention to betweenness theories we show that much weaker conditions are sufficient for the derivation of similar calibration results.

Social Empathy: A Model Built on Empathy,Contextual Understanding,and Social Responsibility That Promotes Social Justice

ABSTRACT

A model of social empathy is described where social empathy is defined as the ability to more deeply understand people by perceiving or experiencing their life situations and as a result gain insight into structural inequalities and disparities. The three components of the model—individual empathy, contextual understanding, and social responsibility—are explored and explained. Social empathy provides a framework for more effective social policies that address disparities and support social and economic justice for all people. Social workers are well positioned to enhance social empathy, and application and suggestions for further enhancement and research are provided.     

The Effects of the Recession on Attitudes toward Business Ethics: An Inter‐temporal Study of Business Students in 2001, 2009, and 2010

This inter‐temporal study compares the ethical attitudes of business students at three points: in 2001, when the economy was relatively healthy; in 2009, near the beginning of the current recession; and in 2010, when the economy was worse. Ethical attitudes were measured by replicating a popular survey consisting of 25 ethically charged vignettes. The survey measures willingness to engage in white‐collar crime behaviors, some clearly illegal; others marginally unethical. Findings show an increase in tolerance for clearly illegal behaviors from 2001 to 2009 and an increase in tolerance for an even broader array of unethical acts from 2009 to 2010. As compared with 2001 respondents, 2009 respondents were more tolerant of seriously illegal behaviors but less tolerant of marginally unethical ones. In 2010, respondents were more accepting of both kinds of unethical behaviors. The results also suggest that the change in ethical attitudes from 2009 to 2010 was larger than the average annual change in ethics from 2001 to 2009. These findings are discussed within the framework of classical strain theory, Agnew's General Strain Theory, and the legitimacy of social institutions.     

Gender and the propensity to enlist in the U.S. military

This article analyzes sex differences in high school seniors' propensity to enlist in the military, differences between military preferences and expectations, sex differences in the relationship between propensity and actual service, effects of background and educational characteristics, and post-high school activities of men and women who do not serve. Using data from the Monitoring the Future surveys, we find that young women's propensity to serve is lower than men's, but more women desire than expect to serve. The relationship between propensity and service is weaker for women than men and has not increased over time. Background characteristics and educational achievement and plans are less predictive of women's propensity and enlistment than men's, with the exception of higher race and ethnicity effects among women. Having children has a small negative effect on high propensity women's enlistment, but an even stronger positive effect on low propensity men's enlistment. More women desire and expect to serve than the military is enlisting. Mady Wechsler Segal is Professor of Sociology and Distinguished Scholar-Teacher at the University of Maryland, as well as a faculty affiliate of the Women's Studies Program and Associate Director of the Center for Research on Military Organization. Her recent research focuses on military personnel issues, with particular attention to military women and military families. His current research focuses on enlistment propensity, diversity in military forces, and peacekeeping operations. His most recent book is Smoking, Drinking, and Drug Use in Young Adulthood: The Impacts He has co-authored, with David R. Segal and Jeral G. Bachman, several forthcoming articles on military propensity and enlistment. His publications deal with alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drug use and related attitudes and beliefs.     

MISBEHAVIOR,EDUCATION, AND LABOR MARKET OUTCOMES

Using data on young men from the National Education Longitudinal Survey, this paper investigates the relationship between childhood misbehavior and later education and labor market outcomes. The main finding is that eighth‐grade misbehavior is important for earnings over and above eighth‐grade test scores. Moreover, controlling for educational attainment, childhood misbehavior is associated with earnings at all educational levels, whereas achievement test scores are related to earnings only for young men with postsecondary degrees. Possible explanations for the association between eighth‐grade misbehavior and economic success are explored.     

An Efficient Dynamic Mechanism

This paper constructs an efficient, budget‐balanced, Bayesian incentive‐compatible mechanism for a general dynamic environment with quasilinear payoffs in which agents observe private information and decisions are made over countably many periods. First, under the assumption of “private values” (other agents' private information does not directly affect an agent's payoffs), we construct an efficient, ex post incentive‐compatible mechanism, which is not budget‐balanced. Second, under the assumption of “independent types” (the distribution of each agent's private information is not directly affected by other agents' private information), we show how the budget can be balanced without compromising agents' incentives. Finally, we show that the mechanism can be made self‐enforcing when agents are sufficiently patient and the induced stochastic process over types is an ergodic finite Markov chain.