A prospective study of pathways to hospital readmission in Canadian forensic psychiatric patients

Individuals admitted to secure care often experience lengthy hospitalizations and are likely to be admitted on more than one occasion. In the context of growing demand and costs associated with secure care, the current study investigates the frequency and reasons for readmission among 87 forensic patients recently discharged into the community. We identify risk factors that are associated with the likelihood of readmission and describe areas of overlap and discordance with the existing literature in civil and forensic samples. Using a prospective design that included patient follow-up interviews and records review, we found that 28% of patients were readmitted on one or more occasions over a 12-month period. Psychiatric decompensation, substance use, and treatment non-adherence were the central reasons prompting readmission. Patients with one or more readmissions were found to have spent significantly more time in the forensic mental health system as compared to patients not readmitted. They were more likely to have a substance use disorder and were estimated to be at higher risk for violence. Results replicate the finding of low rates of serious violence and reoffending among discharged forensic patients, and substantiate the centrality of substance use as a growing and clinically important treatment issue.     

Searching for voting patterns in post-communist Poland's sejm elections

This article explores associations between participation and party voting and a number of socio-economic variables observed at the voivodship level in Poland's 1993 Sejm elections. It further identifies similarities and differences between the impact of those factors in the 1991 and 1993 elections. The regression estimates indicate that 1993 was not a “reproduction” of 1991. In the most recent election, increases in voting participation accounted for the great upsurge in support for parties of the left, while socio-economic factors were of lesser significance. Moreover, a geographical political cleavage, not previously identified in other voting studies, had an important influence on both participation and party voting.     

Information technology and development: creating ‘IT harems’, fostering new colonialism or solving ‘wicked’ policy problems?

The proliferation of information technology offers challenges to developing countries which struggle with basic human needs. Yet the key to their survival may lie in information which is inaccessible to them. Facing these challenges, developing nations start from a position of frailty based on low levels of capital; a limited information infrastructure; dependencies on foreign aid and multinationals; and an ever‐increasing population growth. It is essential that foreign technology inflow is adopted strategically within the pre‐existing framework of national policies for technological development and with an emphasis on technology transfer. The broad policy direction needs to be towards the establishment of an information infrastructure and a contingent perspective for the meta‐policy process of designing appropriate information technology infrastructures. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The politics of IO performance: A framework

Some international organizations (IOs) are subject to constant criticism for producing poor results while others are praised for accomplishing difficult tasks despite political and resource constraints. Indeed, IO performance varies substantially over time and across tasks, and yet the international relations literature has devoted little attention to why this occurs. This article provides a framework for studying IO performance. After addressing some of the distinct challenges of conceptualizing and analyzing performance in the context of IOs, we discuss the tradeoffs of using different performance metrics—from process indicators to outcome indicators—and present a typology of factors that influence performance. Finally, we discuss research strategies for those interested in studying performance rigorously. The policy relevance of studying IO performance is clear: only if we understand why some IOs perform better than others can we begin to improve their performance in a systematic way. As many organizations come under pressure to reform, while at the same time taking on new and more complicated tasks, scholars should be actively engaged in debates surrounding IO performance and its role in effective governance at the international level.     

Sumptuary administration: How contested market actors shape the trajectory of policy when regulated under fragmented governance

In contemporary society, sumptuary laws regulate contested markets by delegating enforcement responsibilities to the private sector. This can decouple the intention behind policies from the practices to implement them. When state interests do not align concerning the legality of a market, can policy and practice recouple, and if so, how? This article reports on a case study of commercial cannabis in the United States to answer this question. Interviews with 56 cannabis industry stakeholders in California, Arizona, and Texas reveal that policy and practice recoupled through a patterned process that I call sumptuary administration. In each state, regulators drew on a unique set of schemas, or “framework of accountability,” that prioritized a subset of cannabis market participants during the policy-making process. This resulted in missing or ambiguous sumptuary laws. To address business challenges that were tethered to this regulatory environment, cannabis businesses drew on similar schemas to identify appropriate practices. I show how grounding practices in these frameworks legitimized the preferences of the cannabis industry in the eyes of state authorities and influenced specific program policy revisions. Sumptuary administration represents a novel mechanism for understanding the social construction of legality in markets that are regulated under fragmented governance.     

In Defense of the Standard Picture: Overcoming Death by a Thousand Cuts

In a previous article, I defended the standard picture of law (or SP), so labeled by its foremost critic, Mark Greenberg. In that article, I addressed Greenberg's root-and-branch critique of the SP and, to a much lesser extent, a related critique by Scott Hershovitz. But the Greenberg and Hershovitz frontal attacks on the SP are not its only threats. Some theorists, while not attacking the SP directly, give accounts of law that the SP cannot accommodate. Those theorists will be challenged here, because if they are correct, the SP is not a tenable account of law.