Tagging and deportation: who gets it right?

The Home Office in England suffered major embarrassment this year over its failure to deport foreign nationals who had served prison sentences. It could not even supply statistics on how many there were, or what crimes they may have committed after release. Scotland, in contrast, could answer such questions with ease. Sheila Bird investigates English failure and Scottish solutions.     

A comparative study of conflicts experienced between immigrant parents in Canada and in Israel,and professionals in educational institutions about appropriate responses to children's misbehavior

One of the barriers which immigrant parents may encounter in the process of acculturation into their new country is differing expectations about ways in which teachers and other professionals involved in the educational system should relate to their children's misbehavior. To examine the potential sources of conflicts relating to disciplinary measures, a comparative study utilizing a qualitative methodology was conducted with 65 immigrant parents from Latin America in Canada and with 103 immigrant parents from the Former Soviet Union in Israel. The findings indicate that, in the two samples, participants experienced differences between their expectations about the way in which teachers should handle student misbehavior and the actual behavior of the teachers. The differences which the immigrant parents indicated could be characterized primarily as culturally based disagreements about (a) the types of misbehaviors which justify intervention by teachers, (b) the kind of disciplinary measures which should be used, (c) the factors that should be considered when deciding about disciplinary actions, and (d) the lack of sensitivity to the impact of immigration related difficulties on the behavior of children. The immigrants' current expectations of teachers' behavior was based on their experiences in their country of origin, and these were often in contradiction with the common approach in Canada and Israel. Ways of developing reciprocal channels of communication between professionals in schools and kindergartens and immigrant parents are suggested in order to overcome barriers and bridge gaps in communication.     

Venture capital and risk perception

This study extends the current state of research on venture capital (VC) determinants by introducing a behavioral perspective. We focus on individuals’ risk perception and connect it to Hofstede’s cultural dimensions of individualism and uncertainty avoidance. Individualism is related to overoptimism and uncertainty avoidance is related to overcaution, and hence affect the perception of risk. In a cross-country empirical analysis with 49 countries, we find that individualism is positively associated with VC activity, whereas uncertainty avoidance is negatively associated with VC activity. Our results are robust to controlling for other determinants as well as using other proxies of VC activity, other time periods, and subsamples of countries.     

Criminal justice on trial

The range of initiatives for young or drug-dependent offenders is bewildering, and includes arrest referral (to drugs worker), drug treatment and testing orders, drugs courts, random mandatory drugs testing of prisoners, transitional care between prison and community, and Scotland's now disbanded Airborne Initiative. Yet judges prescribe sentence on lesser evidence about what works, is safe and is cost effective than that relied on by doctors prescribing licensed medicines. Sheila M. Bird and Clive B. Fairweather make a passionate plea for an evidence-based approach to investigating the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of criminal justice initiatives     

如何最大程度地利用压缩气体——气体减压阀的作用

压缩气体供应商竭尽其所能供应气体产品以满足用户对气体纯度、混合精确度和其他特殊要求。大多数气体通过传统的高压气瓶传输,而另一些气体通过容器或者是小型容器或真空瓶传输。不论哪一种运输和存储方法,用户都必须对这些气体进行处理、管理和分配。在这个过程中,气体会与不同的设备系统接触,而这些设备和系统会保持或者降低其纯度。本文讨论了气体减压阀使用材料、选择标准、注意事项和其他与其相关的问题。     

Nexus analysis: Refocusing ethnography on action

Nexus analysis takes human action rather than language or culture as its unit of analysis. We take one specific case to illustrate the methodology as well as its continuity with the project of Hymes, and of Boas before him, to take action against racism. A nexus analysis takes the constitution of human social groups and languages as a problem to be examined, shifting the focus away from groups toward action as the prime unit of analysis. This shift disrupts power relations between ethnographer as participant and observer and those observed who are now participants and observers in partnership, with consequences concerning when, where, and with whom ethnography can be done, consequences for the security of subjects as well as national security. We begin where inequality is perceived and analyze the actions that bring that about, our analysis itself being a form of action.     

Essay/Comment. Instruments of ‘Instant’ Change? A Question of Timing

Much current writing and a good deal of training in family therapy tends to focus on ways of intervening that can assist, facilitate, and hasten change. Less attention tends to be given to an equally important question: “WHEN is the right moment for this particular intervention?” The expert and gifted therapists who are the writers and teachers have generally acquired exquisite skills in timing (including assessment). Their writing tends to take these skills for granted and more attention tends to be given to the instruments to be used than to the question of timing. Some training in timing may be possible. At least some extended reflection on the question of timing may increase the dialogue around the use of powerful interventions which, if introduced rashly, can alienate clients, and even at times bring the field of family therapy into some disrepute.