Participatory Governance into the Future: Roles of the Government and Community Sectors

A paradigm shift is occurring in the way in which the government, business and community sectors relate to each other, challenging each to redefine their respective roles and responsibilities. This paper explores those changing relationships, focussing on how the community sector in particular may move beyond delivering services to be given a greater voice in the government's policy development process. Overseas, especially Canadian experience is drawn upon to suggest a possible participatory framework for progressing collaborative arrangements. Challenges the sectors need to confront are discussed before possible future roles and responsibilities are suggested.     

Predictors of recidivism among halfway house residents

This study concerns client success or failure while residing in a halfway house for adult offenders. As with some other studies, failure or recidivism is defined in this analysis as behavior that results in removal from the facility and subsequent incarceration. This quantitative case study of one treatment facility in Tennessee utilized case records on the population of clients from 1981 through 1987 (N = 75). A number of hypotheses were developed and tested with both bh/ariate and multivariate methods. Results indicated that, at least in this halfway house, those residents who had experienced two or more prison terms and who had most recently been convicted for a violent crime were most likely to recidivate while in the facility. Other substantively significant factors were alcohol use, religious attendance, and the experience of mental health counseling. Programmatic implications of these results are discussed.     

Choices That Increase Compliance

A compliance model is developed and tested using a survey of corporate officials and the regulatory arena of equal employment opportunity. Findings support the economic model of compliance in its conclusion that probability of detection and probable level of sanctions influence compliance decisions. Results also indicate that adjustments to the model that account for bounded rationality are valid. The key outcome, however, is that although all types of investigations play some role in enhancing compliance, those that stress sanctions and thus severity rather than certainty of detection may have the greatest positive influence on compliance. Enforcement programs attempting to operate simply as investigators of small-scale complaints will have less success than those with different types of investigations or a balanced type of single investigation. The results also suggest a more complex cognitive process on the part of regulated individuals than initially theorized.