VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN U.S. METROPOLITAN AREAS: CHANGES IN WOMEN'S STATUS AND RISK, 1980–2004*

This article examines the impact of women's status on rates of violence against women using longitudinal data from the National Crime Survey and National Crime Victimization Survey for 40 U.S. metropolitan areas for the period 1980 to 2004. Drawing on feminist and routine activities perspectives, we specify hypotheses about the association between women's status and violent victimization, some of which predict different effects depending on whether the offender is a stranger, intimate, or known (nonintimate) other. Consistent with feminist and other perspectives, we find that absolute increases in women's labor force participation, income, and education are associated with decreases in intimate partner violence. Our findings also provide limited support for the backlash hypothesis by showing that increases in female labor participation relative to men are associated with increases in intimate partner violence but not with increases in violence by others. Consistent with routine activities theory, the data also indicate that absolute increases in female labor force participation are associated with increases in victimization by strangers and by known others. Furthermore, we find that absolute increases in female voter participation are associated with decreases in violence for all victim–offender relationship categories. The findings thus show that changes in the status of women have both positive and negative associations with violence victimization, and that comparative analyses of different types of violence are necessary for clarifying the sources of violence against women.     

Agents of Change or Unchanging Agents? The Role of Lawyers within Russian Industrial Enterprises

The transition from state socialism toward market capitalism has led to an almost endless supply of new laws and legal institutions. Industrial enterprises need to adapt to this new institutional regime. In-house lawyers are well placed to be agents of change in facilitating this adjustment. Using survey data from 328 Russian enterprises, the article examines the role of company lawyers, asking whether they have fulfilled this potential. Legal expertise is not in short supply, but lawyers are marginalized within the enterprise. They focus on established, routine tasks, such as handling labor relations or drafting form contracts, rather than on shaping enterprise strategies in the newer areas created by the transition, such as corporate governance or securities law. The failure of in-house lawyers to emerge as agents of change in Russia reflects a continuation of their low status during the Soviet era and the lack of professional identity among these company lawyers.     

“REPATRIATING” LOW‐WAGE WORK: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF PRISON LABOR REPRIVATIZATION IN THE POSTINDUSTRIAL UNITED STATES*

Applying Rusche and Kirchheimer's theory regarding labor markets and penal change, this paper examines recent initiatives to expand the labor force participation of federal and state prisoners. Globalization and labor market transformation have increased the potential value of prison labor as a subcontracting component of post‐Fordist production systems. We examine privatization's ideological rationale (economic “cost benefits”) and its political strategy of foreign job repatriation. Based on cultural and economic factors, the South is identified as the probable locale for “repatriation.” A case study of Escod Industries reveals the emerging elements of a post‐Fordist penology, involving a fundamental transformation in prison discourse, techniques, and management objectives.     

Crime, Prison, and Female Labor Supply

This paper introduces the vector autoregressive (VAR) methodology into themainstream of applied criminological research as an alternative to theestimation of structural models of crime. The paper presents cointegrationtest statistics for a second-order VAR of crime, prison population, femalelabor force participation, and durable consumption. Our results for theimpact of imprisonment on the crime rate are similar to Levitt's (1996)and substantially larger than previous estimates (e.g., Marvell and Moody,1994). We find that the short-run response of the crime rate to increasedlabor force participation of women is larger than the long-run effect. Theimplication is that major social changes, like the increased labor supply ofwomen, may have surprising impacts and that social institutions may takesome substantial period of time to adjust to such major changes.     

Protection of Socialist Property: A Task of the Entire People

In a socialist state all material wealth created by the labor of workers, collective farm peasantry, and the intelligentsia is the sole property of the people. This defines the attitude of Soviet people to public property. Socialist property, according to the Constitution of the USSR, is the sacred and inviolable foundation of the Soviet system.     

Women in Science: Racial and Ethnic Differences and the Differences They Make

Often the term “women” is assumed to include women of color in the same way as the terms “African American” and “Hispanic” are assumed to include both women and men. Although women of color and non-Hispanic white women are under represented in the science labor force, the rates of and factors contributing to this under representation differ by race and ethnicity. Consequently, disaggregating data on women in science by race and ethnicity is crucial to capture these differences. Such distinctions are critical to developing effective policy, practice, and programs to increase the participation of women in science.     

State power and diffusion processes in the ratification of global environmental treaties, 1981–2008

There have been many explanations for why countries ratify global environmental treaties. They range from neorealist theory, to hegemony theory, world society theory, and network embeddedness theory. Drawing on hegemonic transition theory, this paper provides evidence that prior to the fall of the Soviet Union, strong and weak countries ratified a treaty if the USA or the USSR ratified the treaty first. After the fall of the Soviet Union, countries’ proximity to world society institutions increased the likelihood of ratifying a treaty, and only weaker countries emulated the ratifications of the USA and Russia. However, weaker countries also emulated economic, religious, and language peers, diplomatic ties, and neighbors as well. In contrast, more powerful countries ratified treaties more independently. We studied the ratifications of eight universal environmental treaties by 166 countries between 1981 and 2008 and showed that as the geopolitical context changed, the diffusion process changed. The paper argues that the hegemonic transition which took place in the late 1980s and early 1990s was an enabling event that helped to explain the new roles that major powers assumed in the 1990s and 2000s and opened the door to the ascendency of global institutions and broader participation in the environmental regime.     

Special Aspects of Hiring and Discharging Scientists

Scientific work is one of the most complex forms of labor. The legal regulation of labor relations in science is based on the general principles of the socialist organization of labor as enacted in the Constitution of the USSR and on the general norms of Soviet labor law. At the same time, these relations have a number of distinctive features defined by the creative character and particular significance of the work of scientific personnel. As a consequence, the law has established a distinctive procedure under which labor relationships at law arise between scientific workers and scientific institutions.     

Tripartite decomposition of labor productivity growth,FDI and human development: evidence from transition economies

This study investigates the relative contribution of technological change, technological catch-up and capital deepening as drivers of labor productivity growth in 14 transition economies during the period 2000–2012. In addition, the study extends the usual decomposition of labor productivity growth by encompassing the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on labor productivity growth in transition economies. To illustrate the relative contribution of FDI as a driver of labor productivity growth, we present a simple theoretical model that augments Kohli [Labour productivity vs. total factor productivity. IFC Bulletin 20 (April), Irving Fisher Committee on Central Bank Statistics, International Statistical Institute, 2005] and Grosskopf et al. (Aggregation, efficiency, and measurement, Springer, New York, pp 97–116, 2007) decomposition of the labor productivity. The insights derived in this model provide an underpinning to the empirical analysis in this study. Using Blundell–Bond dynamic panel General Method of Moments estimators, the main finding of dynamic panel data regressions shows that technological catch-up, technological change, and human development level, trade and demographic of population ageing are the main factors that affect labor productivity growth in transition countries. Furthermore, the findings of dynamic panel data regressions show insignificant positive impact of FDI on productivity growth in transition economies. One explanation is that the 14 transition economies that are included in this study do not reach a minimum human development threshold level.     

Estimation of output loss from allocative inefficiency: A comparison of the Soviet Union and the U.S.

This paper presents two different estimates of the output loss resulting from allocative inefficiency in the Soviet Union and the United States. Surprisingly, the evidence from our examination of nine industrial sectors during the period 1960–1984 shows only small differences in measured allocative inefficiency between the United States and Soviet economies. Instead of immediately rejecting this result as the product of unreliable data and insurmountable methodological difficulties, we present a plausible explanation for the unexpectedly strong performance of Soviet-type economies in the allocation of labor and capital across sectors. If true, the finding of relatively low levels of resource misallocation implies that the source of poor economic performance in Soviet-type economies must be due to technical inefficiency, slow technological change, and/or production of the wrong mix of outputs.     

Equality and Sharing: Views of Household Across the Iron Curtain

Before they reunified, the two Germanies provided a natural experiment in whether law could rectify what many have seen as injustice between men and women in the household. East German legislation mandated that equal hours of housework be contributed by husband and wife, while West Germany allowed the couple to reach any arrangement they chose. This paper explores the predicted and actual consequence of the two regimes for labor force participation, divorce, and equality within marriages.     

Is Chivalry Dead?

An apparent decrease in differences between the sexes in criminal behavior and law enforcement outcomes has been attributed to changes in attitudes toward sex roles and increasing female labor force participation. The research reported here addresses two related questions in this area: (1) Have there been changes over time in sex differences in the disposition of police contacts with juveniles and adults? and (2) Do any observed changes account for increases in the female crime rate? Our analysis of data from 10,723 police contacts in a mid-western city during the period 1948–1976 found a trend toward a diminished sex difference in police dispositions of juvenile and adult misdemeanors and adult felonies. There was no evidence for a similar trend for juvenile status offenses or juvenile felonies. The findings also suggest that part of the apparent increase in female crime may be due to changes in official reactions to female offenders.     

Government Service

Questions arise in the course of regulating administrative and labor relations involving the need to define the concept of the Soviet government employee, his rights and duties, and to distinguish between the category of government employees and other persons employed in state and cooperative institutions (workers, engineering and technical personnel).     

Soviet discussion on enterprise incentives and methods of planning

For some years a discussion has been in progress among economists in the Soviet Union on methods of securing the active and positive participation of individual enterprises in a centrally planned economy. The main theme of discussion has been the problem: how to arrange the system of plan indices, prices, enterprise bonuses, etc. to encourage enterprise interest in higher plan assignments, introduction of new technology, and improvement of quality of output. On the following pages some excerpts from this debate are reproduced. However, since the problems discussed are now engaging also the Soviet political authorities, let us first quote a few sections from one of the many official statements made in this connection. The one we have chosen is from the report given by the Soviet Prime Minister N. S. Khrushchev at the CPSU Central Committee Plenary Meeting of November 19, 1962 (Pravda, November 20).     

第三产业发展带动我国就业增长的实证分析

本文借助就业弹性、产业偏离度、不同产业的相对劳动生产率等指标,对改革开放以来我国劳动力向第三产业转移的现状及对就业的影响进行了国际比较和实证分析.得出如下结论:(1)1990年代以来,我国第一产业己成为劳动力净流出的部门,第二产业吸纳劳动力的能力下降,第三产业的就业GDP弹性、对就业增长的贡献份额均高于第一、第二产业,第三产业已成为吸纳劳动力就业的主要产业.(2)我国的产业结构与就业结构具有非一致性的特点,主要表现为:就业结构滞后于产业结构的发展;第二产业比重过大,第三产业发展速度趋缓,发展水平不高;劳动力向第三产业转移的速度缓慢,第三产业就业比重明显偏低.(3)第三产业中传统的商贸餐饮业、房地产业及新兴的服务业将成为吸纳我国劳动力就业的主要行业.     

劳动派遣机构与用人单位之比较

劳动派遣机构是随着劳动派遣这一特殊社会现象而在法律概念上逐步明确下来的.劳动派遣的样态和性质决定了派遣机构的性质.用人单位是我国劳动法上具有特定内涵与外延的法律概念和范畴.要扩大劳动法的调整范围,将劳动派遣关系纳入其调整,必须要对这两个劳动法律关系主体进行对比研究.分别从两个主体的法律资格、职能、法律责任承担以及法律创制的意义四个方面进行对比分析,以期厘清这两个主体既相联系又相区别的特征.     

职业技能培训是提高农民素质的治本之策

农村劳动力已经成为产业工人的重要组成部分,加强对农村劳动力的职业技能培训是产业结构调整升级的需要,也是提高农民素质的治本之策。因此,构建农民终身教育体系,创建农民职业教育、农村富余劳动力就业培训和学习的机制是农民工进行职业技能培训之必要途径。     

Sequence of techniques

This paper analyzes the sequence of techniques in an explicitly dynamic version of the Dobb-Sen choice of techniques model. It is proven that when the modern (capital intensive) technique dominates in an optimal full employment steady state, traditional capital accumulation is characteristic of an optimal path in the labor surplus phase when: (1) traditional capital has the higher maximal growth rate and (2) the initial capital stock is ‘sufficiently poor’. The switch date from traditional to modern capital accumulation is shown to be a function of the maximal growth rate and steady shadow price of labor for each technique and the optimal phasing out of traditional capital is characterized. These results are placed in the context of the choice of techniques controversy between Dobb, Sen and Kalecki and its relevance to early Soviet economic development.     

Soviet Political (State) Sciences Association Centers Attention on the Scientific Foundations of Politics

The decisions of the October and November 1964 plenums of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union have drawn attention, with new force, to problems of the scientific validity of political practices. Prevention of subjectivism and unjustified haste in the solution of affairs of state, and the further improvement of the efficiency of all links in the political organization of Soviet society — this is the range of problems now facing the social sciences.     

Improving National Relations in the USSR

The problem of nationalities occupied a substantial place among the wide range of social problems raised at the Twenty-seventh CPSU Congress. The Soviet Union has been a pioneer in addressing the national question which, as V. I. Lenin wrote, is a worldwide phenomenon. It is one of the most acute questions in the history of mankind: the engendering of class antagonisms that inevitably entail national oppression, the lack of equality of nationalities before the law, and their inequality. Our country has convincingly demonstrated to the entire world that with the victory of socialism antagonisms in the sphere of national relations are being overcome. As noted in the new edition of the CPSU Program, "the Soviet Union has successfully resolved the national question that was left over from the past." In the course of socialist construction, the formerly backward national hinterlands have long ago vanished; socialist nations have joined to form an international community—the Soviet people—that is new in its social parameters; there have formed common cultural traits that are characteristic of Soviet people of all nationalities; national discord is a thing of the past; and the fraternal friendship of the peoples, forged in their common creative labor and tested in the most difficult of wars, has become the standard of life.