The resilience of neighborhood social processes: a case study of the 2011 Brisbane flood

Social disorganization theories position neighborhood social capital and collective efficacy as key social processes that should facilitate community resilience in the aftermath of disaster. Yet limited evidence demonstrates that these social processes are themselves resilient with some studies showing that disaster can fracture even once cohesive neighborhoods. In this paper we assess the stability of neighborhood level collective efficacy and social capital before and after a disaster. We use multilevel structural equation modeling and draw on census and longitudinal survey data collected from over 4000 residents living in 148 neighborhoods in Brisbane, Australia before and after a significant flood event. We examine what happens to social capital and collective efficacy in flooded and non-flooded neighborhoods and assess whether demographic shifts are associated with change and/or stability in these processes. We find strong evidence that these processes operate similarly across flooded and not flooded communities. Our findings also reveal significant stability for our measures of social capital across time, while collective efficacy increases post flood across all neighborhoods, but more so in flooded neighborhoods. Neighborhood demographics have limited effect on patterns of stability or change in these social processes. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings for our understanding of neighborhood resilience in the wake of disaster

Self-Control and Adverse “Drinking” Consequences

Most research on adverse alcohol consequences such as problems with health, work, and relationships focuses only on alcohol use itself as a cause of these outcomes. However, Gottfredson and Hirschi’s (1990) self-control theory holds that alcohol use and these negative outcomes are likely to have a common cause–low self-control. Tests of hypotheses derived from self-control theory show that self-control predicts negative drinking consequences better than combined measures of alcohol dependence and frequency and quantity of drinking. This suggests that various forms of risk–taking behavior and negative outcomes can be conceptualized as indicators of underlying levels of self-control

Crime, criminal careers and social control: A methodological analysis of economic choice and social control theories of crime.

This study tests the validity of two theories of crime: economic choice (as manifest in the criminal career paradigm) and social control. The test of these two theories is primarily methodological, in that four types of crime data (official and longitudinal (Uniform Crime Reports), official and cross-sectional (Bail Decisionmaking Study), self-report and longitudinal (National Youth Survey), and self-report and cross-sectional (Seattle Youth Study)) and a variety of graphical and statistical techniques are used to compare findings on (1) the stability of the age distribution of crime, (2) the prevalence of offense specialization, and (3) the differences in the causes of participating in crime compared to the causes of frequency of criminal activity among those individuals committing crimes. The findings on the relation between age and crime show the general shape of the age-crime curve is stable across year of the data or curve, type of data, cohort, and age group. The tests for offense specialization reveal that offenders are versatile. An individual's current offense type is not predictable, with much accuracy, on the basis of prior offending. Again, the lack of offense specialization held across type of data, but age, race, and gender distinctions also failed to alter significantly the observed pattern of versatility. Findings on the causes of participation in crime and frequency of criminal activity among active offenders showed only trivial differences in the set of statistically significant predictors for each operationalization of crime and delinquency. Two distinct operationalizations of frequency also showed no substantial difference in the set of statistically significant predictors. Similar to the findings on age and crime, and offense specialization, the pattern of results for the participation and frequency analyses held across type of data. In sum, the results tended to support the predictions of social control theory over those of the economic choice-criminal career view of crime

MICROWAVE ABSORPTION INTENSITIES AT LOW PRESSURE∗^{\ast}

$^{\ast}$ This work was supported by a grant from the United States Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories.Author Institution: Department of Chemistry, The University of TexasThe peak absorption intensities of a number of ammonia inversion lines have been measured in the pressure region from 2 to 100 microns. Measurements were made with a bridge-type spectrometer employing neither source- nor Stark-modulation, but with a mechanically chopped beam and synchronous detection. The constant peak intensity, characteristic of moderate pressures, drops off at lower pressure, as expected, but the pressure at which the decrease in intensity occurs is larger than anticipated by a factor of about 10. The pressure at which the attenuation falls to half of its moderate-pressure value varies in a regular manner with the rotational state of the molecule. Possible causes of the behavior will be discussed

Statistics in Criminal Justice

XVII, 783 p. 81 illus., 5 illus. in color.online

An Ael allele-specific nucleotide insertion at the blood group ABO locus and its detection using a sequence-specific polymerase chain reaction

Genomic DNA from each of four Acl individuals (genotypes AO1, AO1var, AO2) and one AclB individual was used as a template for amplifying exons 6 and 7 of the ABO genes, which were subsequently sequenced. In all the Ael alleles a single nucleotide insertion, compared to the A consensus sequence, was observed that would alter the amino acid sequence of the glycosyltransferase immediately after its postulated nucleotide sugar binding site and furthermore extend the translated protein by 37 amino acids (16 more than the A2 enzyme). A sequence-specific primer PCR assay was developed to detect the nucleotide insertion. It was possible to differentiate all 20 serologically defined Acl/AclB individuals available from 145 blood donors with normal ABO phenotypes and genotypes and 26 individuals with various A subgroups other than A1, A2 and Acl. This mutation explains the Acl phenotype and forms the basis of a method for detecting the Ael allele