The Impact of Punishment and Rehabilitation Views on Organizational Commitment Among Correctional Staff: A Preliminary Study

It has been long recognized that organizational commitment is an important component of effective organizations. It has, however, received relatively little attention in the correctional literature. Furthermore, much of the research to date on correctional orientation has focused on examining how various forces affect the punishment and rehabilitation views of correctional employees, but ignored how these views affect employees’ organizational commitment. Using a data set collected from 272 staff members at a Midwestern, high security state prison, this study examined the impact of punishment and rehabilitation views on organizational commitment. It was found that support for rehabilitation was associated with higher levels of organizational commitment while support for punishment was related with lower levels of organizational commitment.     

The Chechen Exception: Rethinking Russia's Human Rights Policy

Orthodox interpretations of human rights policies and practices in post-Soviet Russia are often construed by external critics through a historicist lens of tsarist and Soviet-era authoritarianism. Contemporary Russia's adherence to emerging international human rights norms is commonly judged in sole reference to its human rights disaster in Chechnya. In this article, we contest the notion that human rights abuses in Chechnya fully illustrate Russia's stance on international human rights. We suggest that Chechnya is the exception in the post-Soviet era, and that Russia has increasingly brought its human rights standards in line with the West. We use a historical comparative context as well as Russia's discursive response to NATO's intervention in Kosovo and its UN Security Council voting record as empirical evidence for our argument. ¹     

Measurement of police cynicism: A factor scaling approach

Niederhoffer's police cynicism index is assessed in an attempt to identify and refine specific dimensions of police cynicism. Through a principal component factor analysis, a three-factor structure was identified. Three factor scales were developed, and their internal consistency, reliability, and predictive validity were compared with those of the original index. Overall, although less reliable, the factor scales proved to be more powerful predictors of salient criterion variables and to offer greater conceptual clarity in studying the effects of police cynicism.     

Calling the cops: Police telephone operators and citizen calls for service

Citizen calls for police service represent direct demands on government. It is the job of police phone operators to translate these demands into official, bureaucratically recognized inputs. As “street-level” bureaucrats, police phone operators enjoy considerable discretion in how they recieve, process, and transmit information. Operators screen all calls, categorize the citizen's problem, and by that process they determine much of the initial police response to that call. This article analyzes data on citizen requests and operator responses coded from a sample of over 26,000 phone calls to police in 21 jurisdictions in three metropolitan areas. The data indicate that most citizen calls to police involve the provision of information or assistance, nuisance abatement, traffic problems, or the regulation of interpersonal disputes. Citizen calls cover a wide range of topics, but only about 20 percent involve predatory crime of any type. The typical operator response to the problems described by most citizens was to promise the dispatch of a patrol unit, although this varied by problem type and by the apparent seriousness of the call. Complaint operators seem to follow a decision rule that a patrol unit will always be sent to the scene except in those situations where it is clear that none is needed. The article concludes with a discussion of the possible impact of operator demeanor on policy-community relations.     

The impact of work-family conflict on correctional staff job satisfaction: An exploratory study

Correctional staff job stress has grown dramatically as a result of the increase in inmate populations, legal interventions, and competing ideologies. A wealth of literature has been published on correctional staff job stress. This literature, however, has failed to address the impact of work-family conflict on correctional staff job satisfaction. A survey, administered to correctional staff at a midwestern prison, reveals that role ambiguity and work-on-family conflict have a significant negative effect on correctional staff job satisfaction, while family-on-work conflict does not. Implications are discussed.     

The commitment of delinquents to their misdeeds: A re-examination

Do delinquents and nondelinquents adhere to similar or contrasting value systems? The results of a study undertaken to resolve the conflicting conclusions of Sykes and Matzas' studies and those of Cohen, Cloward and Ohlin, and Hindelang are reported. Correlations of participation in delinquent activities and approval or disapproval of those activities indicate that delinquents generally hold “middle class” values, but violate them in a search for excitement.     

Nanotechnology . . . What Is It Good For? (Absolutely Everything): A Problem Definition Approach

Problem definition studies focus on the ways in which problems are characterized in the political domain, and how they can be used strategically to limit or expand policy participation. Nanotechnology entrepreneurs are vying for resources in the political domain while strategically linking their nano‐solution to multiple and ambiguous problems. This article considers the evolution of nanotechnology as a solution, and the linked problems from a problem definition perspective. We consider how nanotechnology has been defined over time, in the scientific community and in the media, through development of a database of problem and solution definitional change. We find that, over time, advocates have defined the solution from a more narrow perspective while maintaining the overall ambiguity of the problem set. We suggest that the problem definition perspective is a viable framework for understanding the fluid and complex dynamics of science and technology issues and offer several suggestions for further research.     

Hot corridors, deterrence, and guardianship: An assessment of the Omaha metro safety initiative

The purpose of this research is to describe the Omaha Metro Safety Initiative (OMSI) and assess its deterrent effects. The OMSI, a multi-agency task force, has been carrying out “hot spot” policing practices focused on traffic corridors in high crime areas. The purpose of OMSI operations is to deter crime through a highly visible “guardianship” presence that emphasizes contacts with citizens. Findings showed that a corridor approach was consistent with a “hot spot” policing strategy, in that operations occurred in hi-density crime areas. Nine crime categories were examined to assess the efficacy of 41 operations carried out in 2008. Generally, OMSI revealed a short term deterrent on crime, with the actual deterrent effect associated with the kind of crime assessed. Business crimes tended to show the most consistent operational deterrent effects. Effects also were more consistent in precincts with greater crime density. The paper concludes with recommendations concerning data gathering and operational effectiveness across a multi-agency task force.