The purpose of this study was to describe the practice motivation and regulation of sixth-grade instrumentalists (11–12 years of age). A sample of 224 US band and orchestra students, representing 85 elementary schools, completed a 36-item practice inventory and produced two narratives depicting a typical practice session and a practice episode involving a difficult piece of music. Factor analysis of practice inventory responses demonstrated that motivation and self-regulation are distinct dimensions of music practice. While orchestra students reported significantly higher levels of practice motivation, there were no significant differences between band and orchestra students' self-reports for frequency of practice, amount of practice, or practice regulation. Practice motivation and regulation were associated with the quality of home environment in which students typically practice. Written narratives revealed that some students employ a range of practice and regulatory strategies, while others follow practice routines that cannot be considered strategic. Practice motivation was reflected in student comments about personal interest, effort, and emotional responses experienced while practicing.

Researchers are increasingly interested in the psychological and sociological processes by which college students develop competence and confidence as musicians. We surveyed 454 undergraduate music majors enrolled in one of three NASM-accredited music schools in the US. Participants completed a questionnaire that addressed beliefs about influential people and experiences, occupational roles within music, and music career commitment. Studio teachers were viewed as the strongest musician and teacher role models, studio teachers and parents had the most positive influence on pursuit of a music degree, and most performance-related activities were considered extremely important. People and experiences merged to exert influence through multiple contexts (both within and outside the music school environment), and occupational identity was multi-dimensional in nature (corresponding to different musical roles/occupations). Social influences, as well as teacher and musician identity, contributed to music career commitment prediction. We found evidence of some institutional differences and strong degree program effects, implying that decisions about which music school to attend and degree program(s) to pursue may have important consequences for socialization and occupational identity construction. We concluded that the presence of diverse but mutually supportive socialization structures may facilitate the integration of music, teacher and scholar identities among undergraduate music majors.

Criminal justice reformers often speak of their concern with the widening net of the criminal justice system, but they demonstrate little understanding of this phenomenon. Despite considerable reform activity during the past two decades, the reach of the justice system has remained unchanged or even has been extended. This paper examines the dialectics of reform movements and their intended or unintended consequences in widening, strengthening, or creating different nets of social control. Six major reform movements (diversion, decarceration, due process, decriminalization, deterrence, and just deserts) are reviewed to illustrate how organizational dynamics function to resist, distort, and frustrate the reform's original purposes. The authors also argue that potential reformers cannot ignore the surrounding social, political, economic, and ideological context. Reformers must recog nize that legal, programmatic, and administrative reforms are themselves circum scribed by political and economic forces. Future efforts at change must include detailed analyses of the larger political-economic structure and its interconnections with the social control apparatus if more substantive results are to be realized. 1. It is ironic that, on the issue of criminal justice, conservatives and liberals exchange their traditional positions with regard to fiscal policy. Conservatives advocate increasing state expenditures for police, courts, and prisons, while liberal reformers are likely to espouse the opposite position. 2. LEAA officials note that these figures are conservative estimates because of incomplete and inaccurate records of state LEAA grants. In addition, these figures do not include Department of Labor, National Institute of Drug Abuse, and Health, Education and Welfare grants awarded to promote diversion. 3. As used here, delinquent describes youths who commit acts that would be criminal if committed by adults. 4. Since numerous crimes are committed by staff and inmates within prison settings, crime is displaced by imprisonment but not prevented. 5. It did "materialize" for 1,132 offenders, who were sentenced to indeterminate "lifetime" prison terms between 1974 and 1975. It also materialized for New York's citizens, who paid a cost conservatively estimated as $55 million to implement the new law (Bar Association, 1976). 6. An important exception is Ehrlich (1975). However, his study has been criticized (as have Sellin's, Passell's, and others') for failing to control for relevant confounding variables. 7. Another reform similar to determinate sentencing is the development of parole guidelines. Each shares the common goal of reducing the discretionary power of judges and correctional officers. 8. Other factors that have contributed to prison overcrowding include increased arrest rates, worsening economic situation, demographic population shifts, and a more conservative political climate. Since almost all fifty state correctional systems are overcrowded, determinate sentencing cannot be considered the causal variable. 9. Sumner's position is revealed clearly in his essay, "The Absurd Effort to Make the World Over" (1894). 10. See Stanley Cohen (1979) for an illustration of how criminal justice reforms contribute to the nightmare of unfettered state control.

Research involving early adolescents highlights systematic declines in motiva- tion for learning as students progress from elementary school to secondary school. Students' attributions or explanations for past achievement outcomes often are important determinants of future activity choice, investment and persistence. In this article, we critique prior music attribution research and report findings from our empirical study of American 7th-graders' attributional beliefs about success and failure in classroom music. Our results demonstrated that secondary students do not attribute success and failure to the same factors, and that many of the most salient reasons for music-related outcomes (family-, teacher- and peer-influence) are not addressed in traditional attribution research. Attributional beliefs, particularly those concerning music ability, were strongly linked to students' music self-concept and achievement test scores, and the magnitude of those linkages was typically greater when students reflected upon past failures. Based on these findings, we recommend that music practitioners increase their awareness of students' attributional beliefs (particularly the tendency to attribute failure to lack of ability and/or negative family influence), encourage students to consider the r6le that less stable and more controllable factors (effort, persistence, strategy use, metacognition) play in determining achievement outcomes, and employ instructional or evaluative strategies that promote more expansive and developmental views of music ability among all students.

After three decades of passing laws and implementing policies designed to dramatically increase the nation's prison population and harden the conditions of confinement, there is a newfound interest among policy makers and criminologists in prisoner release. Using national data and a survey of eight states, this article examines the current “state of the art” of prisoner reentry. Not surprisingly, most state prison systems are ill equipped to ease the transition of inmates from prison to the community. A significant portion of released inmates pose minimal risk to public safety. Parole supervision increasingly results in ex-convicts' being reincarcerated for noncriminal behavior or misdemeanor crimes. For most inmates, reentry should be curtailed by either eliminating supervision or greatly shortening the period of supervision.