Managerial Induced Guilty Pleas in England and Israel – Legitimacy and the Role of the Judiciary: Reclaiming Judicial Responsibility through Managerial Means

Criminal Law Forum - The practice of induced guilty pleas, in which a defendant is induced to plead guilty due to an offered concession, has long been criticised in legal studies. It offers an...     

An interlaboratory study to evaluate the utility of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and gas chromatography-infrared spectroscopy spectral libraries in the forensic analysis of fentanyl-related substances

Synthetic opioids such as fentanyl account for over 71,000 of the approximately 107,000 overdose deaths reported in the United States in 2021. Fentanyl remains the fourth most identified drug by state and local forensic laboratories, and the second most identified drug by federal laboratories. The unambiguous identification of fentanyl-related substances (FRS) is challenging due to the absence or low abundance of a molecular ion in a typical gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis and due to a low number of fragment ions that are similar among the many potential isomers of FRS. This study describes the utility of a previously reported gas chromatography-infrared (GC-IR) library for the identification of FRS within a blind, interlaboratory study (ILS) involving seven forensic laboratories. Twenty FRS reference materials, including those with isomer pairs in the library, were selected based on either their presence in the NIST library and/or some similarity of the mass spectra information produced. The ILS participants were requested to use the Florida International University (FIU) GC-MS and GC-IR libraries supplied by FIU to search for matches to their unknown spectra generated from in-house GC-MS and GC-IR analysis. The laboratories reported improvement in the positive identification of unknown FRS from ~75% using GC-MS alone to 100% correct identification using GC-IR analysis. One laboratory participant used solid phase IR analysis, which produced spectra incompatible with the vapor phase GC-IR library to generate a good comparison spectrum. However, this improved when searched against a solid phase IR library.     

The new public management

The New Management of British Local Governance. Edited by Gerry Stoker. Macmillan Press in association with the ESRC Local Governance Programme, 1999. Pp.295. £45 hb; £14.99 pb.

Beyond the New Public Management: Changing Ideas and Practices in Governance. Edited by Martin Minogue, Charles Polidano and David Hulme. Edward Elgar, 1998. Pp.325. £59.95.     

Exploring the “Root Causes” of Terrorism

This article attempts to clarify what is meant by “root causes” and considers if their analysis helps to explain and describe how, where, and why terrorism occurs. In attempting to explore—but not definitively resolve—these challenges, the article will attempt to delineate “root causes” into qualitative and quantitative variables that can be empirically tested in relation to contemporary terrorist activity. In so doing, it considers the relative merits of different methodologies for approaching “root causes.” The article concludes that indirect and underlying sources of conflict are significant to understanding specific incidents of terrorism and certain categories of terrorism; that “root causes” are less helpful in describing and explaining terrorism as a general phenomenon; and that root causes are of analytical use only in conjunction with precipitant factors.     

Weak States,State Failure,and Terrorism

It is common to hear the assertion that weak or failed states are fertile ground for terrorism. Yet terrorist groups have emerged from, and operated within, countries which have strong, stable states and a variety of systems of government. Terrorist organizations operate in weak and failed states but it is not necessarily the condition of weak or failed statehood which explains their presence. Moreover, it is not necessarily the weakest states which do host such groups. Therefore, this condition is not a sufficient explanation for their presence. While weak or failed states might provide an enabling environment for certain types of terrorist groups to operate, additional explanatory variables need to be identified.     

Do Terrorist Attacks Increase Closer to Elections?

The shadow of violence that elections cast remains poorly understood. A key obstacle impeding cross-national empirical analysis of electoral violence has been the varied nature of such violence. To address this challenge, I examine terrorist attacks as one particular form of electoral violence. By tracking the incidence of terrorist violence relative to election dates over time and across countries using an original dataset for the period from 2000–2005, I find strong support for the hypothesis that terrorist violence increases as we move closer to an election date. In fact, terrorist violence approximates a normal distribution centered on the election date.     

“… And a suitable living environment”: The failure of housing programs to deliver on neighborhood quality

Abstract

This article evaluates the relative performance of housing programs in terms of neighborhood quality. We profile neighborhood characteristics surrounding assisted housing units and assess the direction of assisted housing policy in light of this information. The analysis relies on a housing census database we developed that identifies the type and census tract location of assisted housing units—that is, public housing, developments assisted under the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Section 515 Rural Rental Housing Direct Loan Program, the low‐income housing tax credit, certificates and vouchers, and state rental assistance programs.

We conclude that project‐based assistance programs do little to improve the quality of recipients’ neighborhoods relative to those of welfare households and, in the case of public housing, appear to make things significantly worse. The certificate and voucher programs, however, appear to reduce the probability that families will live in the most economically and socially distressed areas.     

The Financial Viability of Housing for Mentally Ill Persons

Abstract

Although persons with serious mental illness experience significant unmet housing needs, basic information on how housing is successfully financed, developed, and operated for them is lacking. It is possible that standard housing rules of thumb may not apply to this population. (For example, community opposition may raise development costs.) This lack of information may be a stumbling block to policy makers, planners, and developers.

This article attempts to close the gap by examining the financial profile of 153 properties developed for persons with serious mental illness by five nonprofit housing corporations between 1988 and 1992. Our analysis suggests that although this housing may require more management attention, it is not fundamentally different from market‐rate housing for low‐income tenants. After more than 10 years, the nonprofit housing developers continue to thrive, and virtually all of the properties continue to serve persons with mental illness, demonstrating that such housing can be successfully developed and operated.     

Literary reviews

Thinly‐veiled autobiography

The Enigma of Arrival. V S Naipaul, London: Viking. 1987. 318pp. £10.95hb

Unmasking Mexico

The Good Conscience. Carlos Fuentes, London: André Deutsch. 1986. 148pp. £8.95hb/£3.95pb

A Change of Skin. Carlos Fuentes, London: André Deutsch. 1986. 462pp. £6.95pb

The Old Gringo. Carlos Fuentes, London: André Deutsch. 1986. 199pp. £8.95

Alternative realities: novels from Brazil

Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands. Jorge Amado, London: Serpent's Tail. 1986. 553pp

High Art. Rubem Fonseca, London: William Collins Sons. 1987. 345pp. £9.95

Maíra. Darcy Ribeiro, London: Picador, Pan Books, 1985. 353pp. £3.50

Perceptions of Nicaragua

To Bury Our Fathers. Sergio Ramirez, London: Readers International. 1984. 253pp. £5.95pb

Stories. Sergio Ramirez, London: Readers International. 1986. 118pp. £3.95pb

The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey. Salman Rushdie, London: Picador. 1987. 171pp. £2.95pb

The double yoke: women's writing from the Third World

Other Fires: Stories from the Women of Latin America. Edited by Alberto Manguel, London: Picador. 1986. 222pp. £3.50pb

Unheard Words: Women and Literature in Africa, The Arab World, Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America. Edited by Mineke Schipper, London and New York: Allison and Busby. 1985. 288pp. £4.95pb

A Double Colonization: Colonial and Post‐Colonial Women's Writing. Edited by Kirsten Hoist Petersen & Anna Rutherford London: Dangaroo Press. 1986. 188pp. £15.95hb/£8.95pb

Future landscapes

A Sport of Nature. Nadine Gordimer, London: Jonathan Cape. 1987. 396pp. £10.95hb

A Land Apart: A South African Reader. Edited by André Brink and J M Coetzee, London: Faber and Faber. 1986. 256pp. £9.50hb

Satires of class and power

Out of India. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, London: John Murray. 1987. 288pp. £10.95hb

Rich Like Us. Nayantara Sahgal, London: Hodder and Stoughton. 1987. 268pp. £3.95pb

The oil of acceptance

Talkative Man. R K Narayan, London: William Heinemann. 1986. 123pp. £7.95hb

Occupied Palestine: the writer as eyewitness

The Secret Life of Saeed: The Pessoptimist. Emile Habiby, London: Zed. 1985. 169pp. £9.95hb/£3.95pb

Wild Thorns. Sahar Khalifeh, London: Al Saqi. 1985. 207pp. £3.95pb

Poetry and politics

Modern Poetry of the Arab World. Translated and edited by Abdullah al‐Udhari, London: Penguin. 1986. 154pp. £3.95pb

Spanning Muslim Literature

The Worlds of Muslim Imagination. Edited by Alamgir Hashmi, Islamabad: Gulmohar. 1986. 270pp. $12.95hb

Pakistani Literature. Edited by Alamgir Hashmi, Islamabad: Gulmohar. 1987. 107pp. $10.00hb