Theories on the Economics of Regulation: A Survey of the Literature from a European Perspective

This article is, on one hand, a survey of the core theoretical literature on the economics of public regulation; and, on the other hand, a cohesive discussion about how the literature has matured and how recent contributions on political and regulatory institutions—US and European—are related to, and affect the results of, former lines of research. We conclude that the traditional distinction between public interest theories and special interest theories has lost validity due to the entry of game theory and institutional research. The evolving institutional analysis provides a sophisticated interpretation of possible corrective rationales inherent in regulatory restrictions, and is as such an important complement to the still vigorous special interest literature focusing on the redistributive rationales and their effects.     

Techniques for evaluating regulatory change

This paper demonstrates the applicability of two empirical techniques—the Heckman two-stage switching regression and the event study methodology—for evaluating regulatory or legislative change relating to companies and in particular to the regulation of company reporting. These techniques measure the impact of regulatory changes once they have happened. They could be used in practice if regulatory changes were subject to a review procedure. The availability of these relatively sophisticated techniques should encourage the quantitative analysis of regulatory changes. Comparisons of effects across member states of the European Union would be interesting but would obviously need care.     

A model process for forensic mental health screening and evaluation

This article describes an operational definition and a model process for forensic mental health examinations developed on the bases of field research, reviews of literature and other documentary materials, and a survey of forensic mental health programs. Forensic mental health screening and evaluation is defined as the process conducted by mental health personnel, at the direction of criminal justice authorities, for the purposes of delineating, acquiring, and providing information about the mental condition of client-offenders that is useful in decision making in the criminal justice system. The proposed model encompasses 14 pragmatically oriented steps within three major structural components of the examination process—delineation, acquisition, and provision—in a manner that places the entire process in the functional context of the criminal justice and mental health systems. The definition and model are aimed at practitioners, program evaluators, and policy makers to be used as a starting point for the establishment of standards against which the practices and policies relating to forensic mental health screening and evaluation can be compared and improved.The preparation of this article was supported in part by a grant (No. 79-NI-AX-0070) by the National Institute of Justice. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of the National Institute of Justice or the National Center for State Courts. The author thanks his colleagues for their assistance and advice during the study upon which this article is based, as well their critical reviews of earlier documents related to this work. The comments and suggestions of Amiran Elwork and an anonymous reviewer are also gratefully acknowledged.     

A Transaction Cost Approach to the Autonomization of Government Organizations: A Political Transaction Cost Framework Confronted with Six Cases of Autonomization in the Netherlands

The aim of this paper is to explore the relevance of some important aspects of transaction cost economics (TCE) to a better understanding and explanation of the autonomization of government organizations. As TCE, with its focus on economic efficiency, was basically developed for the profit sector, its main concepts have to be adapted for the public sector. This paper presents a 'political transaction cost' framework which emphasizes 'political rationality' and 'political efficiency'. TCE's main concepts—the transaction characteristics specificity, frequency/scale and uncertainty and its assumptions about human behaviour, i.e. bounded rationality and opportunism,—are discussed for politically governed organizations and they are related to autonomization. The results of exploratory case research into six government organizations in the Netherlands suggest that such factors as bounded rationality, opportunism, political efficiency, and social institutions may have played an important part in the autonomization of the organizations involved. It seems that strictly economic aspects were less relevant whenever a decision to autonomize was taken and a specific form of autonomization was chosen.     

The Constitutional and Political Economy of Trade Protection

This essay reviews Trade Protection in the United States (Aldershot, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd., 1995) by Charles K. Rowley, Willem Thorbecke and Richard E. Wagner. The book stimulates a radical rethinking of trade policy, with results that are applicable well beyond the political framework of the United States. The authors—all advocates of the Virginia public choice school of thought—provide a lucid explanation of the formation of trade policy and systematically explain the many paradoxes of endogenous policymaking. They assess the main players in the process of trade policy formation and rigorously explain the dynamic interaction of the various political organs involved. The authors conclude that unilateral free trade cannot be achieved through the ordinary legislative process, and make a compelling case for Constitutional reform. Given the fragility of free trade equilibria and the inadequacy of bilateral and multilateral trade treaties for a stable free trade environment, the right to trade should be constitutionally guaranteed as an individual right. Considering the relevance of the authors' conclusions in this phase of consolidation of European trade policymaking, this essay examines the proposed unilateral free trade amendment, addresses the game theoretic implications, in light of viable alternatives.     

Medicalization and social justice

Most social justice critiques of medical care focus upon the allocation of extant, but scarce, resources. In contrast to that focus, this article explores the preallocative arena of factors which shape the supply and availability of medical care. We identify four such factors: (1)medicalization — the tendency to regard as biologically caused various human problems which were in earlier eras ignored or attributed to other causes; (2)social inclusion — the bringing of economically deprived and socially marginal groups into participation in the medical care system; (3)biomedical transcendence — the elevation of biomedically derived concepts of human function into a social and personal world view; and (4)health absolutism — the ideology which holds individuals accountable for their own health and which, contrary to the thrust of the other factors, deemphasizes access and social equity for professionally provided medical care. While these forces all enhance the place of health as a social value, it is by no means certain that they will lead to a society which is more medically just. The article concludes with an appeal for critical analysis of the processes which shape both the medical care system and the broad social concern with medical care.     

The Treatment of Foreign Terror Suspects

Following the bombings in London of July 2005, the Prime Minister, Tony Blair warned that 'the rules of the game are changing'. The proposed changes have primarily related to foreign suspects of terrorism and engage rules relating to asylum, deportation and nationality. The Terrorism Act 2006 and the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006, which give effect to the proposals, are examined and analysed with reference to the policy choices in regard to counter-terrorism strategy, to the weighting of rights against policy, and to choices between rights, including the treatment of absolute rights.     

Criminal Decision Making: The Development of Adolescent Judgment,Criminal Responsibility,and Culpability

Theories of judgment in decision making hypothesize that throughout adolescence, judgment is impaired because the development of several psychosocial factors that are presumed to influence decision making lags behind the development of the cognitive capacities that are required to make mature decisions. This study uses an innovative video technique to examine the role of several psychosocial factors—temporal perspective, peer influence, and risk perception—in adolescent criminal decision making. Results based on data collected from 56 adolescents between the ages of 13 and 18 years revealed that detained youth were more likely to think of future-oriented consequences of engaging in the depicted delinquent act and less likely to anticipate pressure from their friends than nondetained youth. Examination of the developmental functions of the psychosocial factors indicates age-based differences on standardized measures of temporal perspective and resistance to peer influence and on measures of the role of risk perception in criminal decision making. Assessments of criminal responsibility and culpability were predicted by age and ethnicity. Implications for punishment in the juvenile justice system are discussed.     

Distributive and procedural justice: Multifaceted meanings and interrelations

Distributive, procedural, and interactional justice have taken on various interpretations. Even when the meaning assigned to each term has been specified and clarified, however, no single set of unique interpretations for each term allows for an unambiguous set of interrelations among the terms. That is, definitional clarity alone cannot resolve all of the questions that can be raised about how one construct is related to another. My discussion raises some of those questions to illustrate that point. A related point is that although an agreed upon set of conceptual defintions might allow for independence of the constructs and thus their independent manipulation, in practice—and as measured (rather than manipulated) variables—these constructs inevitably reveal considerable overlap. Several different reasons for this overlap are explored and the implications discussed.     

A Move Toward Specificity: Examining Urban Disadvantage and Race-and Relationship-Specific Homicide Rates

The purpose of this research is to estimate the differential impact of structural conditions on race- and relationship-specific homicide rates for U.S. cities in 1990. The structural conditions commonly employed in race-specific homicide research are examined, such as job accessibility, economic deprivation, racial segregation, and racial inequality. Furthermore, four relationship categories of homicide—acquaintance, family, stranger, and intimate—are disaggregated by racial group. The detailed relationship-specific homicide rates are compared to a baseline homicide rate to determine whether structural factors associated with urban disadvantage similarly influence homicide rates across relationship types. The results indicate that differences emerge in the impact of structural conditions on homicides disaggregated by race- and relationship-specific categories. Theoretical explanations consistent with criminology and race-relations literature are discussed, as well as the potential benefits and implications for studies that pursue more meaningful and detailed classifications in homicide offending.     

The Believability of Hearsay Testimony in a Child Sexual Assault Trial

Two experiments investigated how mock jurors react to hearsay testimony in a case involving child sexual assault. Participants read a fictional criminal trial summary involving the sexual assault of a 4-(Experiment 2 only), 6-, or 14-year-old female. The summaries were presented in one of four conditions: (a) child condition—the alleged victim testified; (b) hearsay condition—the alleged victim did not testify, but an adult hearsay witness did testify; (c) multiple condition (Experiment 1 only)—both the alleged victim and the adult hearsay witness testified; and (d) no-witness condition—neither the alleged victim nor the hearsay witness testified. The hearsay testimony was believed to a considerable degree, and this testimony led to an increase in the perceived guilt of the defendant. Moreover, these results were comparable to those of conditions in which the alleged victim testified. The results are discussed in terms of the psychosocial factors affecting the perception of hearsay testimony in a child sexual assault trial.     

Parental influences on deviant behavior in early adolescence: A logistic response analysis of age- and gender-differentiated effects

We used data from a 601-family longitudinal study to estimate the separate and combined effects of three risk factors—parental psychiatric disorders (principally depression and substance abuse), supportive parent-child communications, and household income—on the development of deviant behavior in boys and girls aged 11–14. Using logistic response models, we concluded that having fewer than two supportive parents generally increases the risk of deviant behavior, but more so for boys than for girls. This effect is amplified when one or more parent(s) has a chronic mental disorder, but thecombination of fewer than two supportive parentsand one psychiatrically impaired parent has a particularly marked effect on girls. Moreover, older children's behavior is affected more dramatically by parental mental disorders, especially among girls; 13 to 14-year-old girls with both parental risk factors are virtually as deviant as male agemates with both risks. Each one of these effects is present regardless of family income level; however, net of these risks, household income is negatively associated with deviant behavior—a 10% increase in income is associated with a 1.3% decrease in adolescent deviance.     

Pecunia non olet: Cleansing the money-launderers from the Temple

This article analyses the development of police-bank relationships, principally in the UK but also elsewhere, within the context of the control of money laundering. It argues that we have moved from a situation of national control over bank secrecy to an emerging New International Order in which most, though not all, countries are pressurised into taking greater measures to reduce bank secrecy where crime is suspected. In Europe, particularly, banks are being turned into an arm of the state by being required to keep detailed records and to inform police where they suspect — or even where they ought to suspect — that moneys banked are the proceeds of crime. The article concludes with discussion of the limitations on this process generated by political economy factors.     

On the Viability of the Concept of Staatswissenschaften

Staatswissenschaften is said to mean that there are certain specific fields of scholarly inquiry and higher education that relate primarily to the state, which is defined widely as structured human living-together. It is outlined why this is a concept viable for the future, particularly—but not only—in and for Europe.     

Understanding dynamic risk factors for violence

ABSTRACT

Recent years have seen a consensus emerge regarding the dynamic risk factors that are associated with future violence. These risk factors are now routinely assessed in structured violence risk assessment instruments. They provide a focus for treatment in structured group programmes. However, relatively little attention has been paid to risk-related theoretical issues, whether these dynamic risk factors are causally related or simply correlates of violent offending, or the extent to which they change as a consequence of treatment. More challenging is the lack of evidence to suggest that changes in these dynamic risk factors actually result in reductions in violent offending. In this paper we consider the meaning of the term dynamic risk, arguing that only those factors that, when changed, reduce the likelihood of violent recidivism, can be considered to be truly dynamic. We conclude that few of the violence risk factors commonly regarded as dynamic fulfil this requirement. There is a need to think more critically about assessment findings and treatment recommendations relating to dynamic risk, and conduct research that establishes, rather than assumes, that certain dynamic risk factors are directly related to violence. Some suggestions for advancing knowledge and practice are provided.     

Forensic applications of stable isotope analysis: Case studies of the origins of water in mislabeled beer and contaminated diesel fuel

This paper describes the use of oxygen (¹⁸O) isotope analysis of water contained in two different materials — beer and diesel fuel — involved in the resolution of two separate cases. In the first case study, it was possible to demonstrate that a sample of beer labelled as premium brand in fact belonged to a cheap brand. The second case related to the contamination of diesel fuel from a service station. The diesel fuel contained visible amounts of water, which caused vehicles that had been filled up with it to become defective. For insurance purposes, it was necessary to determine the source of water. The δ¹⁸O values for the water of nearly all samples of diesel was close to the δ¹⁸O of local tap water at the filling station.     

Comprehending life and death matters

Modern capital jurisprudence places special significance on judicial instructions to guide the discretion of the capital jury in reaching a penalty phase decision. Yet, previous social science research has raised doubts about the extent to which judicial instructions are generally understood by jurors and questioned their utility in producing intended effects. The present study measured the comprehension of the capital sentencing instruction employed in California. Data suggest widespread inability to define accurately the central concepts of aggravation and mitigation in use in virtually every state that currently has a death penalty statute, as well as the inability to distinguish properly the sentencing significance of the enumerated factors jurors are directed to use in reaching their life and death verdicts. In addition, an inordinate focus on the circumstances of the crime—to the exclusion of other potentially important factors—was identified, as well as special problems in comprehending the crucial concept of mitigation in constitutionally required ways.We would like to thank Suzanne Ban, Cori Nardello, and Maryanne Tagavilla for assistance in transcribing and content-analyzing the data.     

Political corruption and the role of public prosecutors in Italy

This paper analyzes the problem of political corruption in Italy and the role public prosecutors have played in unraveling such a phenomenon. The factors that have contributed to fostering systemic corruption as well as those that have contributed to uncovering such a system are given careful consideration. The most relevant conclusion is that whereas endogenous forces in the judiciary (prosecutors and judges) — in particular, its low level of institutional autonomy — have prevented it from containing corruption, exogenous forces — which have broken the conditions that had favoured the stability of the so-called first Republic — have led prosecutors to engage in massive investigations.This article is a revised version of the paper prepared for delivery at the 1994 Workshop on Corruption and Politics held at the Instituto Internacional de Sociologia Juridica, Onati (Spain), July 13–14, 1994. I am appreciative to Prof. Giuseppe Di Federico (University of Bologna) for his deep insights of this complex matter and for his very useful comments.     

Family contexts: The Balkans in European comparison

No satisfactory conclusions can be drawn with respect to joint families and nuclear families from an analysis of their frequency distributions. Joint families that practice ancestor worship and blood vengeance, for example, are to be classified differently for purposes of generalization than joint families in which these practices are absent. In the entire Balkan area penetration by institutions—the Church, the state or the feudal lord—remained extremely weak over the course of centuries. Correspondingly, the emergence here of familial social forms such as joint family households and kinship groups was stronger. The Balkan area is not a region characterized by a single form of family composition. Of the highly diverse patterns to be found here, particular significance can be attributed to the pattern in the western mountainous regions—producing the well-known zadruga—because of its very long history, the extent to which it was transmitted to other regions and, above all, because of its uniqueness on the European continent. When the Balkans are viewed in a European comparison, it is impossible to maintain a division of the continent into two or four discrete regions each displaying different forms of family composition.     

Growing Up Poor: Examining the Link Between Persistent Childhood Poverty and Delinquency

Findings from aggregate-level and ethnographic research suggest that poverty and delinquency are related. The inability of individual-level quantitative research to demonstrate consistent evidence of this relationship, however, has been used to call into question whether poverty is indeed related to an increased propensity for delinquent involvement. This may be due to the difficulty individual-level analyses have in identifying the group most important in uncovering the relationship of poverty to delinquency—those individuals that experience persistent childhood poverty. This paper provides an assessment of the effects of both the level of exposure to poverty and its timing on delinquent involvement using fourteen years of longitudinal data for a national sample of younger adolescents. Findings indicate that exposure to poverty and the timing of such exposure are indeed related to an increased likelihood of involvement in delinquency.