Welfare and child support: Complements,not substitutes

In most states, child support paid on behalf of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) participants is used to offset TANF and child support administrative expenditures; this policy primarily benefits taxpayers. In contrast, Wisconsin allowed most custodial parents to keep all support paid on their behalf. This policy, which treats welfare and child support as complements, was evaluated through an experimental design. This paper reports the key results of the experimental evaluation, using state administrative data to examine the effects on child support outcomes and governmental cost. We find that when custodial mothers keep all child support paid on their behalf, paternity establishment occurs more quickly, noncustodial fathers are more likely to pay support, and custodial families receive more support. These outcomes are achieved at no significant governmental cost. © 2008 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

Will the introduction of an emotional context affect fingerprint analysis and decision-making?

Fingerprint identification relies on an expert's ability to accurately recognise differences and similarities in friction ridge detail. The process is open to the questioning of an expert's ability to accurately analyse and interpret friction ridges. It has been suggested that the interpretation and analysis of fingermarks becomes more subjective as clarity decreases and as a consequence the expert is more vulnerable to external stimuli. An experiment involving 70 fingerprint experts was conducted to establish whether the introduction of an emotional context would alter the experts' judgement of an ambiguous or poor quality mark. The emotional context did have a perceived effect on the experts' analysis, as more stated they were affected by the information they were given. However, it did not have any actual effect on their final opinions as no difference was observed between the high- and low-emotional contexts.     

Comparative public adminstration: The United States view in international perspective

In the study of comparative public administration in the United States, there are currently four directions of development associated with bureaucratic and policy models, case and component approaches, the comparative study of organizations, and application. The characteristics of these developments are outlined in this article, recent publications surveyed and future trends discussed. The extent to which there is a peculiarly American or Western tradition in the comparative study of administration is considered and issue is taken with the argument presented by Dwivedi and Nef (1982) for greater autonomy.     

Designer drugs: past history and future prospects

Historically, drugs of abuse have come from two sources: plant products and diverted pharmaceuticals. Today, new, totally synthetic drugs produced by clandestine laboratories have become an increasingly important source of abused substances. Of particular concern are the fentanyls, a family of very potent narcotic analgesics, which first appeared on the streets in California in 1979 under the name "China White". At least 10 different analogs have been identified to date and are thought to be responsible for over 100 overdose deaths. The fentanyls are not used by any particular ethic or age group, but rather by the general heroin using population. Their use, however, does seem to be restricted to suburban, rather than urban areas, and almost exclusively to the state of California. The most potent analogs, the 3-methyl- and beta-hydroxy-fentanyls, may be up to 1000 times as potent as heroin, but are not chemically related to the opiates and therefore not detected by conventional narcotic screening tests. However, using a sensitive radioimmunoassay highly specific for the fentanyls they can be measured at the very low concentrations observed in body fluids, generally less than 10 ng/mL. It is likely that, as efforts to restrict the importation of natural products and prevent diversion of pharmaceuticals become more effective, the fentanyls and other synthetics will become increasingly important drugs of abuse.