Reducing Crime Through Environmental Design: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment of Street Lighting in New York City

Journal of Quantitative Criminology - This paper offers novel experimental evidence that violent crimes can be successfully reduced by changing the situational environment that potential victims...     

Michel Crozier and the study of complex bureaucratic organizations: Towards the development of French strategic analysis

Un système bureaucmtique d'organisation n'est pas seulement un système qui ne se corrige pas en fonction de ses erreurs, mais c'est aussi un système trop rigide pour s'adapter sans crise aux transformations que I'évolution accélérée des sociétes industrielles rend de plus en plus fréquemment impératives.*     

Pitfalls of Computed Tomography 3D Reconstruction Models in Cranial Nonmetric Analysis*

Many studies in the literature have highlighted the utility of virtual 3D databanks as a substitute for real skeletal collections and the important application of radiological records in personal identification. However, none have investigated the accuracy of virtual material compared to skeletal remains in nonmetric variant analysis using 3D models. The present study investigates the accuracy of 20 computed tomography (CT) 3D reconstruction models compared to the real crania, focusing on the quality of the reproduction of the real crania and the possibility to detect 29 dental/cranial morphological variations in 3D images. An interobserver analysis was performed to evaluate trait identification, number, position, and shape. Results demonstrate a false bone loss in 3D models in some cranial regions, specifically the maxillary and occipital bones in 85% and 20% of the samples. Additional analyses revealed several difficulties in the detection of cranial nonmetric traits in 3D models, resulting in incorrect identification in circa 70% of the traits. In particular, pitfalls included the detection of erroneous position, error in presence/absence rates, in number, and in shape. The lowest percentages of correct evaluations were found in traits localized in the lateral side of the cranium and for the infraorbital suture, mastoid foramen, and crenulation. The present study highlights important pitfalls in CT scan when compared with the real crania for nonmetric analysis. This may have crucial consequences in cases where 3D databanks are used as a source of reference population data for nonmetric traits and pathologies and during bone-CT comparisons for identification purposes.     

Critical Management Studies and public administration: Reinterpreting democratic governance using critical theory and poststructuralism

In this article we present the schools of thought comprising Critical Management Studies (CMS), explore their implications for public administration, and provide an alternate definition of democratic governance. We synthesize and describe the “modern stream,” inspired by the Frankfurt School, and the “postmodern stream,” associated with poststructuralist authors. Despite significant epistemological and ontological differences, these perspectives complement each other and cast new light on democratic governance. We present the respective theories of Foucault and Habermas, explore their implications for public administration, reconcile their views on power as a basis for a normative definition for so‐called good governance, and redefine the concept of “democratic governance.”     

Nouvelles stratégies d'action dans le secteur public québécois: quatre exemples d'innovations financieres

Sommaire: Depuis 20 ans, le discours néo‐libéral a été abondamment utilisé pour caractériser le Nouveau Management Public et la philosophie des réformes entreprises par de nombreux gouvernements occidentaux. Cet article examine la réforme administrative mix en place au gouvernement du Québec et analyse I'influence des préceptes du Nouveau Management Public sur les pratiques de gestion financière dans certains organismes du secteur public québécois. Les résultats suggèrent que le gouvernement a résolument adopté une approche managérielle qui favorise la mesure du rendement et le recours aux capacités d'innovation des gestionnaires publics pour supporter la modernisation de I'administration. L'analyse suggère également que I'idéal de concurrence, cher à la philosophie néo‐libérale, est présent à I'esprit des gestionnaires publics lorsqu'ils abordent la question de la place concurrentielle des entreprises québécoises sur les marchés internationaux. Toutefois, les pratiques de gestion financière recemment mises en place dans les organismes étudiés montrent que les stratégies de gestion adoptées misent plus sur I'autonomie des gestionnaires, sur la concertation et sur la responsabilisation que sur la concurrence, pour assurer I'efficacité des services publics. Abstract: Over the past twenty years, the neo‐liberal discourse has served extensively to characterize the new public management paradigm and the philosophy behind the reforms undertaken by many western governments. This article reviews administrative reforms within the Quebec government and focuses on the impact that new public management precepts are having on financial management practices in some Quebec public‐sector organizations. The findings suggest that the government has definitely adopted a managerial approach that favours performance measurement and the use of public managers' innovative abilities to support the modernization of the administration. The analysis also suggests that the ideal of competition, important to the neo‐liberal philosophy, is present in the minds of public managers when they deal with the competitive position of Quebec enterprises in international markets. However, financial management practices recently implemented in the organizations examined show that the management strategies adopted rely more on managers' autonomy, collaboration and accountability than on competition to ensure efficient public services.     

Le syndrome du SUrViVant et les fonctionnaires fédéraux du Quebec: vers une répudiation du discours managériel dominant

Sommaire: La littérature en études managérielles et en gestion des ressources humaines concemant la décroissance organisationnelle et la réduction des effectifs maintient depuis une quinzaine d'années que leur principal effet néfaste serait le syndrome du survivant. Menace très réelle A l'accroissement de l'efficacité et de I'effi‐cience recherché par la décroissance organisationnelle, le syndrome du survivant nécessiterait d'être combattu par des pratiques de gestion des ressources humaines stratégiques pouvant éliminer ou amoindrir les symptômes couramment associés à ce syndrome. Cette recherche s'intéresse aux variations du syndrome du survivant dans des organisations de I'administration publique fédérale au Québec suite à sa sévère réduction des effectifs durant les années quatre‐vingt‐dix. Construite à partir d'un questionnaire complété par 3 307 fonctionnaires de vingt‐trois (23) ministères et agences de la Fonction publique fédérale du Canada répartis dans les seize (16) régions administratives du Québec, cette recherche suggère que le syndrome du survivant est un phénomène de faible intensité dans le cas des fonctionnaires fédéraux du Québec. Elle suggère également, suite à l'analyse factorielle et la régression linéaire, que les pratiques de gestion des ressources humaines privilégiées dans ces organisations publiques n'expliquent que très faiblement la variation des symptômes couramment associés au syndrome du survivant. En ce sens, cette recherche dément le discours pratique dominant sur le syndrome du survivant et le guide d'action managériel qui le sous‐tend, sans pour autant suggérer que la réduction des effectifs soit une décision et un processus exempt de tout effet pervers ou de conséquence non voulue. Abstract: Mainstream literature in human resource management (hrm) and managerial studies have suggested repeatedly over the last fifteen years that the main unintended consequence of downsizing is the so‐called survivor syndrome, a potentially     

L'impact du discours des droits des détenus et des normes d'équité sur le tribunal disciplinaire carcéral

Over the past two decades, the prisoners rights movement and active judicial intervention in prison law have widely expanded in Canada. This movement has had a significant impact on the emergence of new norms of correctional justice. The recentCorrections and Conditional Release Act, (November 1992), inserts notions of human dignity; due process of law; and to a certain extent, the fundamental rights of prisoners. The aim of this essay is to measure the impact of prisoners rights discourse, and the legal obligation to act fairly towards prisoners, on the practices and quality of disciplinary decisions. Based on observations made at disciplinary hearings in various penitentiaries and interview data derived from the main actors, the author assesses how the ‘judiciarization’ of social relations and the ‘legalization’ of discipline in the prison have contributed to the birth of a more humanized prison and the promotion of human dignity for those people who are incarcerated.      

Assessment of accuracy of suicide mortality surveillance data in South Africa: investigation in an urban setting

Although it is not a legal requirement in South Africa, medical practitioners determine the manner of injury death for a surveillance system that is currently the only source of epidemiological data on suicide. This study assessed the accuracy of suicide data as recorded in the system using the docket produced from standard medico-legal investigation procedures as the gold standard. It was conducted in one of three cities where the surveillance system had full coverage for the year 2000. In the medico-legal system, one-third of cases could not be tracked, had not been finalized, or had unclear outcomes. For the remaining cases, the sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values were generally high, varying somewhat across sex and race groups. Poisoning, jumping, and railway suicides were more likely than other methods to be misclassified, and were more common among females and Whites. The study provides encouraging results regarding the use of medical practitioner expertise for the accurate determination of suicide deaths. However, suicides may still be underestimated in this process given the challenge of tracing disguised suicides and without the careful examination of potential misclassifications of true suicides as unintentional deaths.     

LIFE BEYOND LIFE – An Easy Way to Derive Lung Fibroblasts from Cadavers

Several protocols have illustrated the possibility of deriving cells, such as fibroblasts, from different organs. These techniques generally concern organs sampled from living persons, but have already been described for cadavers, especially concerning the skin and tendons. We present, for the first time, an easy way to derive pulmonary fibroblasts from a lung tissue sampled from a cadaver and directly culture plated. The fibroblast output was checked daily. We obtained lung fibroblasts from 3 (60%) cadavers and 2 (100%) living persons. The fibroblast output took about 3 days for cells from living persons and took up to 39 days for those from cadavers. We did not clearly identify any parameters that could explain these differences. Nevertheless, these derived cells had the same features as the source cells, especially in terms of morphology and proliferation, and could potentially be used in different research domains such as forensic or regeneration medicine.