Publication Type: Poster
Abstract: The role of the prosecution varies in different jurisdictions. In some countries, the prosecution’s main task is to bring the offenders before the court, whereas, in others, it is given a wide discretion over the disposal of the case. There is a trend towards widening prosecutorial powers. This poster presentation presents the results of an evaluation of the early implementation of a new alternative to prosecution in England and Wales for adult offenders – the conditional caution. The disposal allows the Crown Prosecution Service to attach rehabilitative and/or reparative conditions to a caution, such as drugs programmes or restorative justice interventions. Restorative justice can also be used as part of the decision-making process whereby conditions are agreed. This presentation will consider the results of semi structured, telephone interviews conducted with 50 stakeholders from across six police forces. The focus will be on the decision to administer a conditional caution and the selection of the conditions. Overall, the research found that the scheme was perceived to be working well. However, there were concerns about the effect of extending the prosecution’s powers in this way, the clarity and dissemination of the application criteria for the new disposal and its effect on the use of other disposals.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In this paper, I attempt to identify a causal mechanism which accounts for the centralization in excise collection before 1688 and the establishment of an institutional connection between excise revenue and the government’s long-term borrowing in the 1730s. The causal mechanism was produced by a credit crisis due to the government’s excessive issue of short-term credit instruments, a desperate means to meet spending needs. This credit crisis made the government bear all the risks in the financial markets and thus changed the risk distribution between the government (as the principal) and its revenue collectors (as agents), which in turn led to the centralization of tax collection. As it takes time to build the necessary institutions to overcome this credit crisis, the mechanism thus has a built-in temporal dimension. Moreover, I argue that certain structural features in the economy are necessary to sustain the process of institutional innovation from emergence to its consolidation. I will focus on the special position of London in English commerce and finance. I thus try to integrate structure, institutional development, and the unintended consequences of historical events into a unified, process-based account of the English financial revolution.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In this paper we argue that conceptualising political parties and legislative bodies as gendered political institutions opens up useful routes for theorising the gender dimensions of contemporary politics as well as suggesting ways in which the organisation and practice of politics can be transformed to promote greater gender equality. Drawing on survey and interview data with local councillors in England, we analyse how the gendered understructure (Acker 1998) of parties and local councils shapes the experiences, opportunities and rewards available to the men and women who serve within them. Through our discussion of the gendered experiences of female councillors we highlight the ways in which factors such as the unequal domestic division of labour and childcare responsibilities continue to have an impact on women’s access to and experience of political office-holding. In addition, we draw attention to the patterns of hegemonic masculinity evident in the structures and practices of political institutions, and the impact this has on women councillors’ working practices. We show how thinking of local councils as gendered political institutions illuminates the complex ways in which gender difference and inequalities are reproduced and sustained in political life.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This study was an effort to examine the impact of receivers-involvement with the topic on the effects of health risk messages. It employed a 2 (low vs. high level of involvement with the topic) X 2 (physical vs. social threat) X 2 (within-subject pretest vs. posttest) X 4 (four countries) mixed repeated-measures design. Participants in the experiment were first pre-screened for their age and nationality. Pretest questionnaires were distributed to the participants recruited for the study. To qualify for the experiment, the participants had to be between the ages of 18 and 25, and they had to be citizens of Malaysia, Singapore, England, and the U.S., respectively. Of the 911 college students who participated in the pretest, a total of 700 students completed the experiment and posttest. Regardless of message condition, country, and time, participants with high level of involvement with the topic all reported greater perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived response efficacy, intention to use condoms, condom interpersonal impact, knowledge about gonorrhea scores, fear arousal, and perceived content learning, but lower scores for message reactance and defensive avoidance than participants with low level of involvement. Participants with high level of involvement with the topic also had greater increase in posttest scores for perceived susceptibility, perceived response efficacy, perceived self-efficacy, intention to use condoms, and condom self-control than participants with low level of involvement.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: It has been assumed that support for the national football team maps onto feelings of national identity and pride. The growth in support for the England football team has been equated with a growing sense of English nationalism in the context of Scottish devolution. In Scotland, support for the national team is considered to be an expression of Scottish national identity in domestic and international contexts, and a crucial site for political and social representation. Drawing upon in-depth interview data it is suggested the relationship between national football support and national identity is more complex than previously assumed. The problematisation of the assumption that â??beingâ?? a nation is equivalent to â??feelingâ?? a nation enables us to consider national football support as a strategy for expressing and rejecting feelings of national pride, the legitimising of national prejudice, and the assertion of political claims. Using the example of Scotland and England national football support, we note how participants may attribute national â??othersâ?? with collective feelings of â??national identityâ?? in relation to football support and position themselves, personally or socially, in contrast. In England support for the team is distinguished from national identity. Participants distinguish their rational â??selfâ?? from the irrational expressions of nationalism typical of members of the far right. In Scotland expressions of support for a national football team in both England and Scotland are understood as legitimate collective representations of national identity. This warrants a positive Scottish national identity in contrast to the English, and is tied to political rights.