The Privatisation of Punishment: A Review of the Key Issues

Both the New South Wales and the Queensland Governments have opened the door to the privatisation of prisons in Australia. The term ‘privatisation’ refers to a range of processes in the financing and provision of corrective ‘services’ to criminal offenders. This paper canvasses the theoretical and policy issues related to the privatisation of prisons. Through a review of the international literature, the author suggests key areas of concern for future policy development and evaluation. The paper concludes with a comparison between the privatisation and the deinstitutionalisation of punishment and outlines the theoretical implications of such a comparison.     

Feeling Close to Fellow Citizens in Hong Kong,Korea, Taiwan,and Thailand

Feeling close to fellow citizens in the city is a feature of social cohesion that is worth investigation among East Asian societies for exploring societal conditions for the closeness. Because of the variation of such conditions among the societies, differentials in the closeness among the societies are possible. As the variation of societal conditions can translate into differences in personal characteristics and experiences, such differences are likely to explain differentials in the closeness. This likelihood is a focus for the present study, which surveyed 4,087 adult citizens in Hong Kong (n = 681), South Korea (n = 1,006), Taiwan (n = 1,200), and Thailand (n = 1,200). Results revealed significant differentials in the closeness among the societies, showing that it was highest in Thailand and lowest in Taiwan. Furthermore, these differentials were largely due to differences in personal and characteristics among citizens in the four societies. Among the significant predictors of the closeness, work-family conflict and the costliness of medical expense are two experiences. The two experiences, as well as other predictors, champion a conflict or social force explanation for citizens’ closeness. Accordingly, conflict or social force that is incapacitating would estrange the incapacitated individual from others. The results and explanation imply that relieving work and family conflicts is relevant to lifting citizens’ closeness. In conclusion, the East Asian societies manifested differentials in citizens’ social cohesion, and the differentials are explicable by differentials in resources and conflicts among the societies.     

影响高密度城市的城市更新因素——以香港为例

香港高密度城市发展模式闻名于世。这种模式的形成或是由于城市新的发展需要，或是由于城市更新，后者是目前香港政府为提高公众居住条件和建成环境质量所使用的主要手段。本文聚焦城市更新，旨在突出当前香港城市改造实践中的不足，并从文献中筛选出影响城市设计的主要考虑因素，阐析它们如何能够从各方面支持本地社区发展。笔者通过问卷调查及后期资料分析，搜集和评估了香港专业设计人士与市民的意见，提炼出提升城市更新项目可持续性的关键设计因素。但愿本文的结论能为香港的开发商、城市设计者以及政府官员在日后的可持续城市更新项目中带来启示。     

澳门青少年性教育的效果及优化路径——基于性相关行为形成机制的多群组结构模型分析

如何科学地向青少年传递性知识从而避免非意愿的或是过早的性行为是澳门当前促进青少年健康成长的重要问题,对澳门保持"健康城市"有重要的策略意义。对1338名青少年的调查发现,当性态度作为中介变量时,性知识对性相关行为的中介影响呈显著正相关;且运用"知信行"理论分析青少年性相关行为的影响因素时需考虑性别差异。澳门相对保守的性教育限制了青少年获取有利于其性及生殖健康的知识,同时受多元文化的影响,一旦有机会从学校或社会获得性知识,原本保守的性态度就会受到社会上开放的性态度所冲击,并影响其行为。澳门当局应从"积极的青年发展观"等策略角度,优化青少年性教育。     

Social mobility and the well‐being of individuals

Several papers published in recent years have revived interest in Sorokin's dissociative thesis: the view that intergenerational social mobility has detrimental effects on the social relationships and wellbeing of individuals. In this paper, I test the dissociative thesis using data from the British Household Panel Survey and Understanding Society. On a wide range of indicators that measure participation in civic associations, contact with parents, close personal relationships, social support, subjective wellbeing, etc. individuals who have achieved long‐range upward mobility (i.e. those who move from working class origin to salariat destination) tend to fare better than those who are immobile in the working class. Those who have experienced long‐range downward mobility (moving from salariat origin to working class destination) do about as well as second‐generation members of the working class. Overall, there is no support for Sorokin's thesis.     

Factor Structure and Psychometric Properties of the Work-Family Balance Scale in an Urban Chinese Sample

The purpose of this study was to explore the factor structure of the Work-Family Balance Scale (WFBS) and examine its reliability and validity in use in the urban Chinese population. The scale was validated using a sample of 605 urban Chinese residents from 7 cities. Exploratory factor analysis identified two factors: work-family conflict and work-family enrichment. The WFBS showed adequate reliability and concurrent validity. The WFBS is a reliable and valid instrument to measure work-family balance for Chinese working parents. However, further examination of the scale is needed.     

Consumer Preferences and Demand for Annuities: Evidence From Hong Kong

Retirees without annuities in Hong Kong confront longevity and investment risks. Despite these risks, there is very limited uptake of annuities. This study identifies product and consumer characteristics that are associated with the demand for annuities in Hong Kong. We conduct a discrete choice experiment and distribute a consumer survey among two independent representative samples of workers aged between 40 and 64. Results suggest that a fixed monthly income and a 10-year guarantee period are two significant product characteristics, while a bequest motive, being married, and an understanding of the annuity are consumer characteristics that are associated with the demand for annuities. Being presented the optimal hypothetical annuity product, approximately one-third of middle-aged workers choose to annuitize their retirement savings. The findings and methods of this study can be applied for designing annuity products in other contexts.     

On the performance of the Bayesian composite likelihood estimation of max-stable processes

The max-stable process is a natural approach for modelling extrenal dependence in spatial data. However, the estimation is difficult due to the intractability of the full likelihoods. One approach that can be used to estimate the posterior distribution of the parameters of the max-stable process is to employ composite likelihoods in the Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) samplers, possibly with adjustment of the credible intervals. In this paper, we investigate the performance of the composite likelihood-based MCMC samplers under various settings of the Gaussian extreme value process and the Brown–Resnick process. Based on our findings, some suggestions are made to facilitate the application of this estimator in real data.     

《满城尽带黄金甲》英文字幕中文化词语的翻译研究

中国迅速发展的电影产业使不同文化背景的人们进行跨文化交际成为一种需要。汉英字幕翻译已经成为外界了解中国的一种重要手段。文化是和语言紧密相关的,语言是文化的载体。对字幕翻译者来说,如何处理字幕中的文化词语已经变得尤为关键。本文将对《满城尽带黄金甲》字幕中的文化词语翻译模式进行研究,从中找出电影字幕中文化词语翻译的一般规律和经验。     

高校辅导员做好大学生就业指导工作的思考

辅导员在高校就业指导工作中扮演着越来越重要的角色,而在当代大学生就业日趋严峻的形势下,研究如何有效发挥辅导员在就业指导工作中的重要作用,对于做好大学生就业指导工作有着重要的意义.