Europe's Last Red Terrorists: The Revolutionary Organization 17 November, 1975-2000

This article discusses and analyses the wave of bombing incidents occurring in South Africa between 1996 and the beginning of 2000, and inter alia linked to vigilante action, gang warfare and drug smuggling. An overview of measures adopted to combat what has been termed ‘urban terrorism’ is also provided. In conclusion, the point is made that it is unclear to what extent the incidents are criminally or politically motivated, or whether a combination of motives are present.     

The New Model of Economic Management

One of General Secretary Gorbachev's key economic advisors outlines the basic components of a new “model” of economic management in the USSR (e.g., new forms of private and cooperative activity, increased flexibility in production, relationships in state enterprises, election of directors), to be in place by the early 1990s. Also presented is the rationale for the current timetable of the reform. American participants in the first joint Soviet Economy roundtable then discuss with the Academician the role of collectives and local Party officials in the new system of management. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: 027, 052, 124.     

The Politics of the 19th Party Conference

Reasons for caution in interpreting results of the 19th Party Conference are outlined, but an argument for a continuing consolidation of Gorbachev's power and use of the democratization theme as a screen for acceleration of economic reform is made. Various explanations for the lack of significant change in party rules and in procedures for determining Central Committee membership (defeat for Gorbachev, alternative strategies for membership change, solid Politburo and/or military power base for Gorbachev) are examined, Gorbachev's ability to handle the “lame duck” membership problem in the Central Committee being identified as a feature to watch in the future. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: 052, 124, 113.     

Export concentration and export performance in developing countries, 1954–67

The relationship between export concentration and various aspects of the export performance of 31 developing nations during the period 1954–67 is considered in this paper.¹ Estimates of the magnitude, instability and time‐trend of both the geographic concentration of exports and export earnings are utilised to estimate the direction and strength of association between these aspects of export concentration, instability and growth.² The analysis reveals diverse patterns of geographic export concentration among the countries, but offers little support for conventional views of an important direct relationship between export concentration and the instability or growth rate of export earnings.³     

BUILDING A CHILD PROTECTION MEDIATION PROGRAM IN BRITISH COLUMBIA

Effective implementation of mediation programs on a large scale is a complex challenge. This article describes the process of design and implementation of a child protection mediation model and highlights the challenges and successes involved in leading fundamental culture shifts within the child welfare system over a period of eleven years.     

Proactive Policing: a Summary of the Report of the National Academies of Sciences,Engineering, and Medicine

This paper provides a summary of our report for the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine on proactive policing. We find that there is sufficient scientific evidence to support the adoption of many proactive policing practices if the primary goal is to reduce crime, though the evidence base generally does not provide long-term or jurisdictional estimates. In turn, we conclude that crime prevention outcomes can often be obtained without producing negative community reactions. However, the most effective proactive policing strategies do not appear to have strong positive impacts on citizen perceptions of the police. At the same time, some community-based strategies have begun to show evidence of improving the relations between the police and public. We conclude that there are likely to be large racial disparities in the volume and nature of police–citizen encounters when police target high-risk people or high-risk places, as is common in many proactive policing programs. We could not conclude whether such disparities are due to statistical prediction, racial animus, implicit bias, or other causes.

     

Aoristic Signatures and the Spatio-Temporal Analysis of High Volume Crime Patterns

The spatial analysis of crime and the current focus on hotspots has pushed the area of crime mapping to the fore, especially in regard to high volume offenses such as vehicle theft and burglary. Hotspots also have a temporal component, yet police recorded crime databases rarely record the actual time of offense as this is seldom known. Police crime data tends, more often than not, to reflect the routine activities of the victims rather than the offense patterns of the offenders. This paper demonstrates a technique that uses police START and END crime times to generate a crime occurrence probability at any given time that can be mapped or visualized graphically. A study in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, Australia, demonstrates that crime hotspots with a geographical proximity can have distinctly different temporal patterns.     

The eleventh plateau: The lost object(ive) of legal education

Thanks to Peter Goodrich for commenting on an earlier version of this essay.