Are counter-terrorism strategies effective? The results of the Campbell systematic review on counter-terrorism evaluation research

The events of September 11th have led to massive increases in personal, commercial, and governmental expenditures on anti-terrorism strategies, as well as a proliferation of programs designed to fight terrorism. These increases in spending and program development have focused attention on the most significant and central policy question related to these interventions: Are these programs effective? To explore this question, this study reports the results of a Campbell Collaboration systematic review on evaluation research of counter-terrorism strategies. Not only did we discover an almost complete absence of evaluation research on counter-terrorism interventions, but from those evaluations that we could find, it appears that some interventions either did not achieve the outcomes sought or sometimes increased the likelihood of terrorism occurring. The findings dramatically emphasize the need for government leaders, policy makers, researchers, and funding agencies to support both outcome evaluations of these programs as well as efforts to develop an infrastructure to foster counter-terrorism evaluation research.     

Addressing fragmented government action: coordination,coherence, and integration

Solving complex problems is a challenge faced by many governments. Academic and practical discussions on how to solve said problems look at policy integration as a solution to the negative implications that fragmented government actions have on addressing public problems or providing public services. Notwithstanding important recent contributions, we still lack a precise understanding of what policy integration is, an explanation of how it differs from other “solutions” to complex problems, such as coordination or policy coherence, and a practical operationalization. In this paper, we argue that coordination, coherence, and integration are related but substantively different concepts. We offer a new way of understanding and observing policy integration in a manner that is theoretically distinguishable from policy coordination and coherence and empirically observable. We argue that policy integration is the process of making strategic and administrative decisions aimed at solving a complex problem. Solving this complex problem is a goal that encompasses—but exceeds—the programs’ and agencies’ individual goals. In practical terms, it means that, at every moment of the policy process, there is a decision-making body making decisions based on a new logic—that of addressing a complex problem.     

“Where Liberty Reigns and God is Supreme”: The Christian Right and the Tea Party Movement

In this article we argue that the tea party movement is the most conspicuous contemporary vehicle for reconciliation between Christian and economic conservatives. The analysis draws upon participant observation of two recent Christian right events at which the tea party was a central preoccupation. Offering evidence of the dynamics of a shifting framing process, it is argued that the Christian right elites are willing to accommodate strategically the precedence of economic issues but only if these are accompanied by a commitment to familiar Christian right positions on social issues.     

Reducing criminal recidivism: evaluation of Citizenship, an evidence-based probation supervision process

‘Citizenship’ is a structured probation supervision program based on ‘what works’ principles, designed for offenders on community orders or licenses supervised within the UK National Probation Service. The program was evaluated using survival analysis comparing the reconvictions of a cohort of all offenders in one probation area eligible for Citizenship over a 2-year period (n = 3,819) with those of a retrospective cohort of all eligible offenders in the same probation area receiving ‘traditional’ probation supervision (n = 2,110), controlling for risk related factors. At the 2-year stage, 50% of offenders in the comparison group had reoffended compared to 41% in the experimental group, and the difference between the survival curves was statistically significant. The hazard ratio was 0.69, which represents a 31% reduction in reconvictions in the experimental group over the proportion in the comparison group at any given time. Time to violation of a supervision order or post custody license was also statistically significantly longer in the experimental group. A key element of the program, promoting contact with community support agencies, was statistically significantly related to reduced reoffending in the Citizenship group. The overall effects remained after controlling for differences in risk scores although effectiveness varied by risk level. Contrary to other ‘what works’ research findings, the program was found to be most effective across the low–medium and medium–high risk thresholds, and was not effective with the highest risk group. This difference can be explained and is discussed in terms of risk, need, and responsivity principles. The Citizenship program was found to be cost-beneficial.     

Predicting public support for the use of license plate recognition technology by police

The use of license plate recognition technology (LPR) by police is becoming increasingly common. LPR may be used for many purposes, ranging from stolen vehicle enforcement to more complex surveillance and predictive functions. Existing research does not examine community support for this technology, despite its potential to impact police legitimacy. Results from the first community LPR survey are presented and multinomial logistic regression models of citizen support for the technology are developed. Regression results suggest that a number of factors significantly predict citizen support for LPR use, including increased trust in police and the belief that LPR information is public information.     

Strategy first in international joint ventures

International technology- based joint ventures are proliferating despite their inherent complexity and high risk of failure. US firms continue to employ international joint ventures as a vehicle for collaborative research and development (R & D); foreign investors prefer the joint venture for investing in the emerging market economies of Eastern Europe. Tipping the balance in favor of successful joint ventures requires a strategic approach from the very advent of entering into an international R&D arrangement: an approach in which clear objectives are set and alternative ways to reach these objectives are systematically evaluated. Several frameworks are presented that clarify and facilitate the decisionmaking process during the initial phases of considering a joint venture in which project objectives are developed, alternative R&D arrangements are evaluated, and potential partners are identified and eventually selected.     

Association of a Mixed Anxiety-Depression Syndrome and Symptoms of Major Depressive Disorder During Adolescence

The relations between an empirically derived syndrome of Anxiety-Depression and an analogue measure of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) are examined in a longitudinal study of a nationally representative sample of adolescents. Analyses of parents' reports and adolescents' self-reports indicate that there is moderate correspondence between scores on the Anxious-Depressed syndrome and symptoms of the MDD Analogue. Furthermore, scores on the syndrome predicted MDD Analogue symptoms 3 years later with sensitivities ranging from .69 to .71 and specificities from .69 to .93. Meeting criteria for either the Anxious-Depressed syndrome or the MDD Analogue was associated with low social or academic competence and high scores on other syndromes of psychopathology. Implications for integration of empirical/dimensional and categorical/diagnostic approaches are highlighted.     

Murder, Nonnegligent Manslaughter, and Spatial Autocorrelation in Mid-South Counties

In this paper we explore to what extent county murder and nonnegligentmanslaughter rates in the midsouth are spatially autocorrelated, usinga variety of spatial autocorrelation tests. The data are 3-year averages ofUCR murder and nonnegligent manslaughter rates from the 383 midsouthcounties. Moran's I statistics show a statistically significant amountof spatial autocorrelation in the murder and nonnegligent manslaughter ratesamong the 383 midsouth counties. G statistics, however, fail to detect aglobal pattern in this region. We also compute G _i statistics and localMoran's I statistics with these data and detect some patterns oflocalized spatial autocorrelation. We estimated and compared an MLE spatiallag model and an OLS model with constructs informed by socialdisorganization theory. The regression analysis failed to detect anysignificant spatial effects for the midsouth counties.