Responses to the ‘policy science’ problem: reflections on the politics of development

Taking as its point of departure the failure of the ‘policy science’ project, the article discusses the declining authority of ‘one size fits all’ policy advice. It relates this to the absence of a robust empirical basis for such positions, as shown by the cross-country regressions literature, and relates it also to changes in a range of disciplines, including natural sciences and mathematics. It discusses the rising tolerance for inconsistency between implementation logics and argues that these issues, while of general importance, are most obvious in the context of development, where ‘one size fits all’ policy logics have been heavily contested.     

Psychopathy and Culpability: How Responsible Is the Psychopath for Criminal Wrongdoing?

Recent research into the psychological and neurobiological underpinnings of psychopathy has raised the question of whether, or to what degree, psychopaths should be considered morally and criminally responsible for their actions. In this article, we review the current empirical literature on psychopathy, focusing particularly on deficits in moral reasoning, and consider several potential conclusions that could be drawn based on this evidence. Our analysis of the empirical evidence on psychopathy suggests that while psychopaths do not meet the criteria for full criminal responsibility, they nonetheless retain some criminal responsibility. We conclude, by introducing the notion of rights as correlative, that even if psychopaths were to be fully nonresponsible, imposing some form of civil commitment would still be warranted.     

Returning to Beijing

I had been home for Christmas and was just back in Beijing,where I had spent all of the previous year.That year had been one of the best in my life,and though I had been here before and always had a soft spot for Beijing,the city had now taken up a strong place in my heart.Going back home had been a strange experience of being home and away from home simultaneously.     

The Community Policing Evaluation Survey: Reliability, validity, and structure

This paper describes the reliability, validity, and structure of a scale designed to evaluate community-policing programs. The Community Policing Evaluation Survey (CPES) is designed in such a way that local police agencies can implement it without the assistance of professional researchers. The scale consists of four subscales which measure (1) Quality of Contact with Police, (2) Perceptions of Crime and Disorder, (3) Personal Fear, and (4) Community Cohesion.