Options for state and local governments to regulate non-cigarette tobacco products

Most tobacco control laws were written to address the scourge of smoking--particularly smoking cigarettes. As a result, these laws frequently exclude non-cigarette tobacco products, which are becoming more prevalent on the market. These regulatory gaps jeopardize public health by increasing the possibility that these products will be used--particularly by minors and young adults. This article examines gaps in regulation using five products as case studies: dissolvable tobacco products, electronic cigarettes, little cigars, snus, and water pipes. In addition, this article presents policy options that state and local governments can adopt to regulate these products more effectively, including regulations relating to price, flavors, youth access, use in public places, point-of-sale warnings, and marketing. Furthermore, this article contains extensive discussion of the recently adopted federal Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which both limits and expands the power of state and local governments.     

A mountain or a molehill: is the illicit trade in cigarettes undermining tobacco control policy in South Africa?

This study estimates the size of the market for illicit cigarettes in South Africa between 1997 and 2007 in order to consider the impact of the illicit trade in cigarettes on the effectiveness of tobacco control policies. Estimates of the illicit market are made using data on smoking prevalence and simulations of smoking intensity. The paper shows that the size of the illicit market to have grown substantially from 1997 until peaking in 2000 between 9.4% and 11.5% of the total market. The most recent estimate for 2007 suggests that the illicit market occupied between 7.0% and 11.2% of the total market. These estimates are significantly lower than the anecdotal claims of the tobacco industry. Although the scale of the illicit market is significant it has not undermined tobacco control policy. Consumption in the total market, including both the illicit and legal market, has declined in size consistently. At the same time, tax revenue from higher excise taxes has offset the tax losses as a result of illicit trade.     

Youth probation officers' interpretation and implementation of the Youth Criminal Justice Act: A case study of youth justice in Canada

Many juvenile justice systems are characterized by an amalgam of different principles and ideologies, which have been incorporated into laws and policies regarding youth crime. This study examines the perceptions of youth probation officers (YPOs) concerning the 2003 Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) in Canada, which is one recent case example of a mixed model of juvenile justice. For instance, although the Act emphasizes diversion and community-based sanctions for first time and minor offenders, it also allows for adult-length custody sentences for the most serious and violent youth. This study asked YPOs about their understanding of the YCJA and their ability to apply the Act in their daily work as well as their access to community programs in 2004 and 2007. The results as well as previous research on the YCJA and policy implications are discussed.     

Access to health care for undocumented migrants: a comparative policy analysis of England and the Netherlands

The presence of undocumented migrants is increasing in many Western countries despite wide-ranging attempts by governments to increase border security. Measures taken to control the influx of immigrants include policies that restrict access to publicly funded health care for undocumented migrants. These restrictions to health care access are controversial, and evidence suggests they do not always have the intended effect. This study provides a comparative analysis of institutional, actor-related, and contextual factors that have influenced health care policy development on undocumented migrants in England and the Netherlands. For undocumented migrants, England restricts its access to care at the point of service, while the Netherlands restricts through the payment system for services. The study includes an analysis of policy papers and semistructured, in-depth interviews with various actors in both countries. Findings confirm the influence of such contextual factors as immigration considerations and cost concerns on health care policy making in this area. However, these factors cannot explain the differences between the two countries. Previously enacted policies, especially the organization of the health care system, affected the kind of restrictions for undocumented migrants. Concerns about the side effects of generous treatment of undocumented migrants on other groups played a substantial role in formulating restrictive policies in both countries. Evidently, policy development and implementation is critically affected by institutional rules, which govern the degree of influence that doctors and professional medical associations have on the policy process.     

Decisions without consequences: cost control and access in state Medicaid programs.

States have implemented a number of strategies to provide services, pay providers, and control Medicaid spending. We test the effects of some differences in state Medicaid policies on program enrollees' access to and use of health care services. Logistic and OLS regression analyses of cross-sectional data indicate that these policies exert significant influences on enrollees' access to health services but have a weaker direct effect on their use of them. However, we find evidence that utilization is affected indirectly (through increased access) by state policy decisions. Somewhat surprisingly, Medicaid policies designed to contain costs by limiting utilization appear to affect neither access nor utilization. Medicaid enrollees have greater access to a private physician in states with higher physician reimbursement and additional Medicare insurance for their enrollees. Other nonpolicy variables with pronounced impacts on access to private office physicians include race and the availability of private insurance.     

Brave New Fathers for a Brave New World? Fathers as Caregivers in an Evolving European Union

This article focuses on the role that fathers play when it comes to family responsibility, in particular the care of young children, and how EU policy and legislation have contributed to it. This is important for several reasons. From a theoretical perspective, access to care for fathers represents the other side of the access to paid employment for mothers debate, and completes the deconstruction of the two‐sphere structure. From a more practical point of view, including fathers in the work/family life reconciliation debate is essential for the achievement of important EU policies, such as employment and gender equality. Although society is ready for a change, the legislator has been slow to address it, thus fathers are still missing from the EU's reconciliation policy and legislation. Against this background, the decision of the Court of Justice in Roca Álvarez has, potentially, laid down the basis for a new model of fatherhood.     

Drug Policies and Drug Prevalence: The Role of Demand and Supply

Changes in drug policy within countries and variations in drug policy across countries do not show clear cut relationships with drug prevalence levels. Neither liberal nor repressive policies promote or reduce drug use. Though policy might affect supply, factors associated with demand seem to exert a greater impact. Socio-economic conditions and attitudes of the populations towards drugs and related areas might be more important than policy in determining the prevalence level of cannabis and the turnover rate to hard drug use.     

Counterfeit tobacco in London: local crime requires an international solution

The supply of counterfeit tobacco, illegally manufactured tobacco passed off as legitimate products, is a global problem that costs many governments millions of dollars annually in lost revenue. This paper looks at one end of this supply network: Kurdish refugee street sellers of counterfeit tobacco in Islington, North London. Local initiatives to deal with the criminal activity of the street sellers have been ineffective and at best have resulted in only a temporary interruption to activities. With little agreement amongst local agencies as to what constitutes the ‘problem’, and with local shoppers giving a higher priority to other neighbourhood issues, it would appear that efforts need to be focussed on interrupting the supply of counterfeit cigarettes before they reach the sellers. The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, proposing marking of tobacco products, information sharing and mutual legal assistance, may offer a solution and is expected to produce a protocol for adoption in 2010.     

Understanding Offenders' Compliance: A Case Study of Electronically Monitored Curfew Orders

The focus of this paper is on offenders' compliance, which is an important but largely neglected area of criminal justice. The paper draws on an empirical study of offenders' compliance with electronically monitored curfew orders with the aim of elucidating theories of compliance. Electronic monitoring is used as a case study to illustrate some of the factors which influence offenders' compliance. One of the main strengths of electronic monitoring is the certainty and speed at which non-compliance can be detected and, as expected, instrumental compliance was found to be important. Nonetheless, the paper suggests that the reasons why offenders comply or fail to comply are complex and interrelated and encompass many different factors including procedural justice, individual motivation, and attachments to significant others. The implications of these findings for compliance theories and community sentence policy are explored.     

“FU”: One Response to the Liminal State Immigrant Youth Must Navigate

Undocumented youth experience partial integration in some institutional spaces but remain barred from others. Although they are permitted to attend and graduate from K–12 public schools, the geographic unevenness of immigration policy leads to inequitable access to higher education for undocumented youth. In this article, we examine undocumented higher education access and how an underground freedom school is providing an alternative. We apply the theoretical lens of spaces of care within the framework of geographies of care to understand the uneven legal geographies that exist and the structures that emerge to equip and empower youth to leverage their experiences with illegality.     

Community organization and gang policy response

Analysis of agency response networks in 21 urban areas reveals that the adoption of policy responses is significantly related to social network location. In the 1988 National Youth Gang Intervention and Suppression Program survey, agency representatives were asked to list agencies with which regular contact was maintained in the process of dealing with the youth gang problem. Policy response is measured by the adoption of four policy responses: (1) making staff training available, (2) having a policy for dealing with youth gang problems, (3) having a policy in writing, and (4) attempting to influence legislation on the youth gang problem. Rasch modeling supports the scalability of the four items. The STRUCTURE program is used to identify elements of network structure within each community-specifically cliques and equivalence structures. A generalized linear model analysis of variance of the policy response scale reveals that structural equivalence and clique membership account for 54% of the variation in policy response. An examination of clique means indicates that network structure may retard as well as enhance policy response adaptations. In policy terms, this finding suggests that network structure should be mobilized by those who wish to develop a unified, national-level response to youth gang problems at the local level.     

Finding common ground in the study of child maltreatment, youth violence, and adult domestic violence

For several decades, we have witnessed a surge in public policies aimed at ending child maltreatment, youth violence, and adult domestic violence. Commensurate with this increased interest has been a growing body of research on each issue's etiology, affected population, and the public policy and prevention impacts. Even a cursory review of the literature suggests a number of commonalities across these forms of violence. As such, it seems timely and prudent to craft a research framework that facilitates the identification and dissemination of practice and policy innovations that can address all three concerns. This article articulates an overarching framework to guide researchers in better identifying common avenues of study. After summarizing the commonalities found across the three areas, the authors identify cross-cutting issues that have particular relevance for advancing our understanding of violence and its effects on personal and social interactions.     

WHEN IT HAPPENS IN A FAMILY: AIDING PARENTS OF SUBSTANCE‐ABUSING ADOLESCENTS*

This article first summarizes key data on the scope of teen substance abuse and the lack of teen access to needed treatment services. It then describes how and why attorneys may be helpful to parents who discover their teen's drug or alcohol problem and seek advice and counsel about the legal implications of various actions that can or may be taken. The article explores such issues as parents finding illegal drugs in the house or on their teen's person, various modalities of treatment and how family members are involved, how parents might secure residential evaluations for their youth without the necessity of juvenile court involvement (and why this is important), concerns about placing youth in unlicensed residential treatment facilities, health insurance coverage issues, home drug testing, and how past American Bar Association (ABA) policy on youth drug and alcohol abuse is being followed up with a new ABA project to aid parents of substance‐abusing teenagers and their families.     

When Are Transport Pricing Policies Fair and Acceptable?

This study examines the relative importance of six policy outcomes related to different fairness principles for the perceived fairness and acceptability of pricing policies aimed at changing transport behaviour. The fairness and acceptability of six different types of transport pricing policies were systematically higher if policy outcomes were related to environmental justice and equality. The policy measures were evaluated as more acceptable and fair when respondents believed that future generations, nature and the environment were protected (reflecting environmental justice), and to a lesser extent, when everybody was equally affected by the policy outcomes (reflecting equality), irrespective of absolute differences in fairness and acceptability of the policies. Policy outcomes reflecting egoistic concerns (e.g. being financially worse off and being worse off than others) and equity (e.g. proportional to people’s income and contribution to problems) were related to the fairness and acceptability of some policy measures, but no systematic pattern was found across six policy measures. This suggests that policy outcomes related to distributions that focus on collective considerations appear to be more important for the fairness and acceptability of transport pricing policies than those focusing on individual interests. Theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.     

A cross-national analysis of policies affecting innovation diffusion

Innovation diffusion is important for both firms’ profitability and countries’ economic growth. For these reasons, policies that aim to reduce the main barriers to innovation diffusion are a relevant issue on the agenda of most policy makers. Although the importance of this topic is widely recognized, few studies explore public policies that aim to enhance innovation diffusion. This article attempts to fill this literature gap. Specifically, the study aims to clarify the role of policy makers in promoting new technology diffusion, to identify the barriers that affect the process of innovation diffusion and that are relevant for public policy makers and to analyze potential policies to overcome the main barriers to the diffusion of new relevant technologies. This study shows that public policies must simultaneously address the most relevant barriers to the diffusion of a new technology to be effective. Focusing on only specific barriers by developing policies with a too narrow scope may lead to poor results. The study explores a topic that is almost neglected in the innovation management literature. On the one hand, the article provides a conceptual framework for analyzing public policies. On the other hand, it proposes an overview of the repertoire of policies that policy makers can use to overcome the most relevant barriers to the diffusion of a new technology. In doing so, it also contributes to the debate about the role of the policy maker in the process of innovation development and diffusion.     

Therapeutic jurisprudence: A framework for evidence-informed health care policymaking

Translation of evidence-based practice (EBP) into health care policy is of growing importance, with discussions most often focused on how to fund and otherwise promote EBP through policy (i.e., at system level, beyond the bedside). Less attention has been focused on how to ensure that such policies - as enacted and implemented, and as distinguished from the practices underlying policies - do not themselves cause harm, or at least frustrate accomplishment of "therapeutic" goals of EBP. On a different front, principles of therapeutic jurisprudence (TJ) in law have been developed, most prominently in certain areas of law (e.g., mental health and family law), to support more collaborative, less traumatic advocacy and conflict resolution. This paper draws on current applications of TJ and translates such into a therapeutic approach to health care policymaking that moves beyond promotion of EBP in policy. Health care policy itself may be viewed as an intervention that impacts health, positively or not. The goal is to offer a framework for health care policymaking grounded in TJ principles that does not focus on which evidence is "right" for policy use, but rather how we can better understand how consequences of policy, intended or not, affect the well-being of populations. Such framework thus moves policymaking from an either/or debate to a data- and human-driven process. Utilizing TJ framing questions, policies can be developed and evaluated through open dialogue among diverse voices at the table, including - like interventions - the "patients" or, here, targets of such policies. Collectively, they clarify how ends sought - to enhance (or at least not impair) health - can best be achieved through policy when needed, recognizing that as an intervention, there are limits to and boundaries on the usefulness of policy.     

香港青年内地发展政策与大湾区“融合发展”--基于HKPSSD数据的实证研究

促进港澳青年"北上"内地发展,融入国家发展大局,最终实现"人心回归",是"粤港澳大湾区"政策体系中的重要内容和目标。回归以来,中央已累计推出100多项鼓励香港青年到内地发展的政策,其效果和机制亟需进行评估。论文基于香港社会动态追踪调查HKPSSD数据,以国家认同作为政策效标,评估现有内地发展政策对香港青年国家认同的效应,并从心理层面考察其作用机制。研究发现,频繁返回内地对青年国家认同确有提升作用,心理融合在此过程中起到完全中介作用。该机制在通过倾向值匹配进行稳健性检验后依然稳健,并且心理融合的中介效应量有所上升。研究表明,香港青年内地发展政策已取得了一定程度的积极效应,心理融合在机制中起到关键的效能转化作用。在粤港澳大湾区"融合发展"的战略目标和制度框架底下,做好心理融合工作,将是香港青年内地发展经历转化为国家归属感的重要抓手。     

State Politics and the Right to Counsel: A Comparative Analysis

One of the most significant recent developments in the study of crime and justice is the emergence of theoretical explanations for the dramatic changes in criminal justice policy over the past few decades. These theoretical accounts address not only highly visible developments, such as the meteoric rise in incarceration rates, but also less-conspicuous shifts in due process and civil liberties, and they do so by attributing more-repressive policies to the emergence of a political culture that has substantially redefined crime and justice. This article focuses on an important due process issue, the legal representation of indigent defendants in criminal courts. We describe the state of indigent defense policy, particularly structure and funding, across the states in 2002, and analyze variation on two dimensions where states may exercise discretion: the extent to which states assume responsibility for funding services (rather than relying on local governments), and the generosity with which these programs are funded overall. We test hypotheses that link funding for services with the ideology of state political leadership, public values about tolerance and race relations, and states' public welfare policy climates. We find little support for the prediction that a welfare climate shapes more progressive indigent defense policies. However, the results suggest that the racial threat hypothesis helps account for spending on indigent defense, and that Republican control of the statehouse results in the perpetuation of local responsibility for program funding. Normative literature on indigent defense suggests that the patterns we observe may have important consequences for the quality of indigent defense services across states. Further, the findings reported here suggest that the politics of the punitive turn, as it has played out across the states, may be responsible not only for shifts in crime control policy, but for due process policy as well.     

The Regional Innovation Paradox: Innovation Policy and Industrial Policy

This paper explores the regional innovation paradox and its policy implications. The regional innovation paradox refers to the apparent contradiction between the comparatively greater need to spend on innovation in lagging regions and their relatively lower capacity to absorb public funds earmarked for the promotion of innovation and to invest in innovation related activities compared to more advanced regions. Empirical analysis of the nature of the paradox shows that there are strong complementarities between business, education and government spending on R&D and that technology/innovation policy and industrial policies tend to work in opposite directions. Our analysis suggests that resolution of the paradox requires policies that: (i) increase the innovation capacity of regions by working both on the demand and the supply side of the system to increase both private and public sector investment in innovation activity; and (ii) integrate technology policy and industrial policy by encouraging expenditure on innovation activity within mainstream industrial policy programmes. The penultimate section of the paper outlines and assesses policy initiatives/experiments along these lines and suggests how they might be developed in the future.