The development and pilot testing of a family treatment court best practices assessment: The model standards implementation scale

In 2019, the family treatment court (FTC) best practice standards (the Standards) were published to clarify attributes of FTC programs associated with superior child, parent, and family outcomes. The Standards cover the breadth of FTC operations including program structure and leadership, substance use treatment and complementary services, and behavioral responses to participants. This study aimed to develop an instrument (the Model Standards Implementation Scale; “MSIS”) that stakeholders can use to assess implementation of the Standards by individual FTCs. The MSIS balances usability with scientific validity. Interrater reliability (IRR), internal consistency, and several types of validity were assessed. Results indicated moderate to strong IRR, high internal consistency, mixed known groups validity depending on Standard, and high convergent and divergent validity. Initial findings suggest good validity and usability of the MSIS for evaluating FTC Standards' implementation. Notably, the process of using the tool functioned to educate FTC team members on the Standards. Although implementation of the MSIS is a resource-intensive process, the opportunity to receive constructive feedback proved to be an effective incentive for initial and subsequent participation in the evaluation among FTCs. Future research is needed to examine predictive validity, including association between Standards' implementation and family outcomes in FTCs.     

The future of parenting plan evaluations: A view from the trenches

As expectations rise for parenting plan evaluators to be well-trained, skilled, and knowledgeable in numerous subject areas, and scrutiny of evaluators' work intensifies, the pool of qualified evaluators is shrinking nationwide. The future of parenting plan evaluation as a forensic subspecialty relies upon the availability of competent and committed professionals to do this challenging work, yet few are entering the field. Five experienced parenting plan evaluators from various regions of the United States, including the authors, met for a roundtable discussion to ponder the future of parenting plan evaluations. The panel discussed what drew them to the work, their experiences “in the trenches,” and what has kept them committed to doing evaluations despite daunting challenges. Their views of the rewards and risks of doing the work, barriers and disincentives to newcomers entering the field, recommendations to new evaluators, and outlook for the future are presented.     

Public Wi‐Fi provision by Australian local government authorities

Investment by Australian local government authorities (LGAs) in public Wi‐Fi (PWF) provision has grown substantially in recent years. PWF represents the first significant venture of LGAs into telecommunications, a field of national jurisdiction, and thus is a precursor of wider local investment in digital communication technologies, particularly the Internet of Things and other ‘smart city’ infrastructure. However, there has been little published analysis of PWF provision and use in Australia. This knowledge gap limits understanding of the rationales, business models, and uses and impact of investment in these networks and offers little guidance for local authorities and communities contemplating wider ventures in the field of digital networks. This article draws on a national survey of PWF provision by LGAs, together with interview data and critical analysis of policy and institutional settings, to present an overview of local PWF provision in Australia. The analysis highlights some familiar problems associated with LGA infrastructure investment and service delivery, as well as some novel challenges posed for local managers by digital communication networks. Following an empirical mapping of PWF provision in Australia, we explore three significant themes that our research in this field highlights: accountability and transparency, competence in the field of information and communication technologies (ICT) and evaluation.     

京津冀协同发展背景下的政策协同评估研究——基于省级“十三五”专项规划文本的分析

从国家层面提出的京津冀协同发展战略,对于推动京津冀一体化,打造以创新为特征的世界级城市群具有重要指导意义。在此背景下,实现区域协同目标,需要率先发挥政策的先导作用。为了保障政策制定的绩效水平,对京津冀三地的政策协同状况进行评估具有重要意义。根据政策协同理论的相关内容,借鉴日趋成熟的政策分析模型,融合文本分析的量化研究方法,构建了基于纵向维度和横向维度的政策协同分析框架,同时运用政策协同量化标准对北京、天津、河北三地的省级"十三五"专项规划进行了指标评分和数据分析,得出了有关京津冀地区政策协同状况的研究发现。     

Learning to de-escalate: evaluating the behavioural impact of Verbal Judo training on police constables

ABSTRACT

This article presents findings from an assessment of the immediate behavioural impact of the ‘Verbal Judo’ de-escalation training program, delivered to officers in a Canadian police service in 2017, and represents the first evaluation of Verbal Judo. The evaluation utilized systematic observations of officers in videotaped simulations, comparing a baseline group of officers to officers trained in Verbal Judo. The study found that five of 15 coded behaviours were impacted at a statistically significant level in the hypothesized direction, and these tended to be simpler behaviours encouraged by the training (such as identifying oneself or providing a reason for contact), while more complex behaviours (such as empathizing with the subject) were not impacted. The evaluation also found that likelihood of utilizing de-escalation skills decreased as an officer’s years of experience increased. The paper closes by outlining the implications of these findings for de-escalation training, and elaborates the main limitations of the study.     

Publishing while editor: Transparency and behaviour in public administration journals

Journal editors serve as gatekeepers of knowledge, a role critical to preserving the quality and standards of good research. Some scholars have questioned whether editors have taken advantage of their position to publish their own work. To understand the extent to which editors of public administration journals self-publish, we examined publishing patterns over a 20-year period. We collected the names of editors from the mastheads of 13 generalist public administration journals from 1997 to 2016 and used data indexed from Web of Science to look at articles published in those journals during the same time. We found that while self-publishing behaviour is not common across the entire field, it is a trend for certain journals and individuals. We also found the practice of self-publishing is influenced by whether an individual served in a primary editorial role (e.g., editor-in-chief), length of editorial service, and overall scholarly productivity. We discuss appropriateness and ethical implications of the practice.     

中国特色社会主义理论向实践转化的评估体系的构建

构建中国特色社会主义理论向实践转化的评估体系,是有针对性地推进马克思主义中国化时代化大众化的现实需要,也是保证和提升马克思主义中国化时代化大众化的实践路径与制度创新研究的客观需要。     

新时代工会参与构建和谐劳动关系面临的挑战及其应对 ——基于深圳工会试验区改革的分析

构建和谐劳动关系是新时代中国劳动关系发展的方向和目标,而工会作为劳动关系的重要一方,是构建和谐劳动关系的重要参与主体。新时代工会参与构建和谐劳动关系面临着劳动力市场分割、职工群体性事件诱因转变、经济下行压力和中美经贸摩擦的负面影响,以及隐含在“三新”就业中的职工权益保护难题等挑战。面对这些挑战所带来的劳动关系不确定性,深圳工会试验区在参与构建和谐劳动关系方面进行了有益的探索。重塑工会以应对劳动关系的不确定性、积极发挥工会参与社会治理的作用、培育基层工会的治理能力、加强工会服务职能建设和建立冲突事件预警与处理机制等是新时代工会参与构建和谐劳动关系的基本经验。     

“多次违法行为”入罪之思考——以多次非法行医为视角

我国法律规定未取得医生执业资格的人非法行医,被卫生行政部门行政处罚两次以后,再次非法行医的,应当以非法行医罪追究其刑事责任。此种将多次行政处罚后再实施违法的行为纳入刑事犯罪构成要件或者说作为罪量要素的定罪模式是合理的,不违反禁止重复评价原则和刑法谦抑性原则。但为了防止刑事制裁范围的肆意扩大,应从违法主体、违法程序及违法次数上对"非法行医被二次行政处罚后再次非法行医"入罪进行一定的限制,以实现人权保障和惩罚犯罪的有机统一。     

关于加强公安高校教工基层党组织建设的思考

构建社会主义和谐社会的伟大实践为公安高校基层党组织建设提出了新的任务与要求。当前公安高等院校教工基层党组织建设仍面临许多问题,在构建和谐社会背景下,公安高等院校应当秉承学习与实践相结合、开放与创新相结合、民主与集中相结合的思路,从提高对教工基层党组织建设的认识、创新教工党员的教育形式、建立健全教工基层党组织评价机制、加强教工基层党组织领导班子建设等方面入手,加强公安高校教工基层党组织建设。