Understanding and assessing school police officers: A conceptual and methodological comment

Although law enforcement officials have been involved in the provision of school security services for the past half century, prior to the 1990s the practice of assigning sworn police officers to serve in schools on a full-time basis was uncommon. Over the past decade the number of police officers serving in schools increased substantially, but few studies of school police officers were conducted and little attention was devoted to understanding the role of school police officers. This article contributes to the literature on school police officers by providing an overview of the development of school police officers, an outline of issues which should be considered in conceptualizing school police officers, and a discussion of methodological issues pertaining to the assessment of school police officers.     

Confrontation by default and confrontation by design: strategic and institutional responses to Poland's populist coalition government

For a short and controversial period in 2006–2007, Poland was governed by a three-party “populist coalition” which attempted to break with the liberal-democratic model of post-communist transition and implement a far-reaching set of reforms. In this article, I analyse the ways in which domestic and external actors responded to the challenges posed by this coalition. I argue that Poland's Constitutional Court and the temporarily united opposition parties were key to repelling the populist challenge. However, the anti-populist response was driven less by a deliberate strategy than by the confrontational logic of populism itself, and the institutional design of Poland's liberal-democratic system. I conclude with a discussion of several lessons the Polish case holds for further analyses of anti-populist reaction.     

Police Body-Worn Cameras: Perceptions of Law Enforcement Leadership

Many people are enthusiastic about the potential benefits of police body-worn cameras (BWC). Despite this enthusiasm, however, there has been no research on law enforcement command staff perceptions of BWCs. Given the importance that law enforcement leadership plays in the decision to adopt and implement BWCs, it is necessary to assess their perceptions. This is the first study to measure law enforcement leadership attitudes toward BWCs. The study relies on data collected from surveys administered to command staff representing local, state and federal law enforcement agencies in a large southern county. Among the major perceptual findings are that command staff believe BWCs will impact police officers’ decisions to use force in encounters with citizens and police will be more reluctant to use necessary force in encounters with the public. Respondents also believe that use of BWCs is supported by the public because society does not trust police, media will use BWC data to embarrass police, and pressure to implement BWCs comes from the media. Perceptions of the impact of BWCs on safety, privacy, and police effectiveness are also discussed.     

Nuisance Law and the Industrial Revolution: A Reinterpretation of Doctrine and Institutional Competence

Contrary to the leading studies of Brenner and McLaren, it is argued that nuisance law was consistently a robust constraint on polluting industrial enterprise during the industrial revolution. The defining nuisances of industrialisation were ‘inter‐neighbourhood’ in character. They affected country estates surrounding industrial seats into which pollutants were displaced by increasingly tall chimneys and long outfalls. The victims of revolutionary nuisance included elite proprietors with unsurpassed capacity to enforce the law. Like Galanterian ‘haves’, who (it is postulated) use the law to reinforce a social advantage, nineteenth century proprietors enforced the common law to protect the ecological fabric of rural life from the threat of polluting corporate enterprise. This is a fundamental challenge to the orthodox view of the common law's complicity with industrial ecological harm in the past, and poses important questions about the prospect of strengthened common law protection of the environment in the modern day.     

Reformierung der Vergütungssysteme für die Finanzbranche – Eine rechtsökonomische Analyse

Die Vergütungspraktiken bei Spitzenmanagern gelten als Mitverursacher der Finanz- und Wirtschaftskrise und stehen in der ?ffentlichen Kritik. Oft werden Spitzenmanager für kurzfristige Unternehmenserfolge mit gro?zügigen Bonuszahlungen ausgestattet, w?hrend Fehlverhalten nicht sanktioniert wird. Eine solche Vergütungspraxis setzt falsche Anreizmechanismen und f?rdert die Risikobereitschaft von Spitzenmanagern. In diesem Aufsatz werden zun?chst die derzeitigen Regulierungslücken im Lichte der Prinzipal-Agenten-Beziehung diskutiert. Anschlie?end wird anhand eines theoretischen Modells gezeigt, wie die kurzfristige Gewinnorientierung eines Managers zu einem Moral-Hazard-Verhalten führen kann. Des Weiteren werden m?gliche Reformma?nahmen diskutiert sowie die bisherigen Reformbemühungen beleuchtet. Mit der Verankerung der neuen Instituts-Vergütungsverordnung im deutschen Recht ist ein erster Schritt zu einer langfristigen und nachhaltigen Unternehmenspolitik erfolgt. Es kommt in naher Zukunft darauf an, dass alle Industrie- und Schwellenl?nder die internationalen Richtlinien in nationale Gesetzgebung umsetzen, damit keine Regulierungsarbitrage zwischen den einzelnen Staaten entsteht.