The politics of performance evaluation: Independent evaluation at the International Monetary Fund

How has the Fund institutionalized independent evaluation as a means of assessing its performance? This paper process-traces the contentious creation of the Fund’s Independent Evaluation Office (IEO). I use primary interviews conducted at the Fund headquarters in 2008–2010 and Fund archive documents dating back to the beginning of the debate over independent evaluation in 1992 to analyze the interaction of internal and external actors and interests that led finally to the creation of the IEO in 2001. I then comment on the ‘performance of the performance evaluator.’ I draw from a recent external evaluation of the IEO (Lissakers et al. 2006), as well as interviews and secondary sources, to identify enduring contestation over the IEO’s function and scope of authority and to discern how this has affected the ability of the IEO to inform and shape the Fund’s process and outcome performance. To this end, I discuss four issues currently facing the IEO: the need to establish both actual and perceived independence, the problems of ambiguous or non-existent metrics for assessing Fund performance, difficulties in balancing candor of evaluation reports with credibility in the eyes of multiple constituencies, and the challenges of fostering a culture of learning in the Fund.     

A Person-centered Approach to Studying the Linkages among Parent–Child Differences in Cultural Orientation,Supportive Parenting,and Adolescent Depressive Symptoms in Chinese American Families

This longitudinal study examined whether supportive parenting mediates relations between parent–child differences in cultural orientation (generational dissonance) and depressive symptoms with a sample of 451 first and second generation Chinese American parents and adolescents (12–15 years old at time 1). Using a person-centered approach, meaningful typologies of cultural orientation were derived for fathers, mothers, and adolescents. Overall, results provided support, though qualified, for the notion that generational dissonance is linked to depressive symptoms through decreased supportive parenting. In general, having a parent with a bicultural profile seemed to be most advantageous if adolescents similarly had a bicultural profile, whereas more American oriented adolescents with more Chinese oriented parents reported the least supportive parenting and most depressive symptoms. Directions for future research and the benefits of using a person-centered approach in research of acculturation and generational dissonance are discussed.

A National Picture of Prison Downsizing Strategies

Abstract

Many states faced fiscal pressures on their corrections budgets as the country entered a deep recession in 2008. A 2011 survey by the Association of State Correctional Administrators (ASCA) asked corrections officials in all 50 states about changes in correctional facilities, focusing on closures, new facilities, and altering existing facilities as a response to budget pressures. States employed a combination of these strategies. Between fiscal year (FY) 2007–2008 and FY 2011–2012, 148 facilities were closed, 29 new facilities were opened, and 23 states added 22,740 beds to existing facilities, resulting in about a 19,000 net bed reduction overall. Closures did not necessarily appear to be related to fiscal pressures or always related to reductions in the prison population. Despite the Great Recession, correctional funding is still a large part of state expenses and many states’ correctional populations continue to grow.     

U.S. workers weigh‐in on the issue of portable benefits

As the sharing economy continues to grow and diversify, various institutes and members of government are contemplating the need for new employment regulations, including those related to portable benefits. However, there has been no known inquiry into this issue with those U.S. workers in the sharing economy. This paper presents exploratory research on the subject of portable benefits for workers engaged in the sharing economy and is intended to inform the development of future research questions and to determine the best research design and data collection method for a more extensive study. Arguably, rideshare drivers represent a large constituency of sharing economy workers in the United States and were utilized as the study population. Through authorized access to closed social media sites, this study explored the desire among rideshare drivers for portable benefits, how these benefits should be funded, and how such programs would be administered. The findings indicate that the majority of respondents were interested in the availability of portable benefits, although the preference for specific benefits varied widely among respondents. More than half believe companies, along with workers, should fund these benefits, and slightly less than half believe private sector third parties like insurance companies should administer these programs. However, given the transient nature of this workforce, administering such programs could prove to be quite challenging for organizations and plan administrators alike.     

Legal,Technical, and Interpretational Considerations in the Forensic Analysis of Viruses

The forensic evaluation of viruses presents new challenges to the forensic science community. Although many criminal cases have been adjudicated involving the deliberate transmission of viruses, especially HIV, this review provides a general approach to viral forensics, especially in light of significant biodefense challenges. Newly emerging techniques of nucleic acid sequencing are discussed in a forensic context. Human mitochondrial DNA analysis, wherein mixed profiles are routinely assessed in a forensic context, provides the groundwork for an interpretational approach to the issue of mixed DNA sequences. The importance of phylogenetic classification is discussed as both providing an integrated graphical depiction of the structure of viral nucleic acid variation as well as offering a tool that can be used to assess the relatedness of complex populations of nucleic acids.     

Results from experimental trials testing participant responses to White, Hispanic and Black suspects in high-fidelity deadly force judgment and decision-making simulations

Objective

Advance the methodological techniques used to examine the influence of suspect race and ethnicity on participant decisions to shoot in an experimental setting.

Methods

After developing and testing a novel set of 60 realistic, high definition video deadly force scenarios based on 30 years of official data on officer-involved shootings in the United States, three separate experiments were conducted testing police (n?=?36), civilian (n=?72) and military (n?=?6) responses (n?=?1,812) to the scenarios in high-fidelity computerized training simulators. Participants’ responses to White, Black and Hispanic suspects in potentially deadly situations were analyzed using a multi-level mixed methods strategy. Key response variables were reaction time to shoot and shooting errors.

Results

In all three experiments using a more externally valid research method than previous studies, we found that participants took longer to shoot Black suspects than White or Hispanic suspects. In addition, where errors were made, participants across experiments were more likely to shoot unarmed White suspects than unarmed Black or Hispanic suspects, and were more likely to fail to shoot armed Black suspects than armed White or Hispanic suspects. In sum, this research found that participants displayed significant bias favoring Black suspects in their decisions to shoot.

Conclusions

The results of these three experiments challenge the results of less robust experimental designs and shed additional light on the broad issue of the role that status characteristics, such as race and ethnicity, play in the criminal justice system. Future research should explore the generalizability of these findings, determine whether bias favoring Black suspects is a consequence of administrative measures (e.g., education, training, policies, and laws), and identify the cognitive processes that underlie this phenomenon.     

A Review Of: “Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism”

The growth and dispersion of America’s immigrant population exposes increasing numbers of non-Hispanic Whites to Spanish. Yet the political impacts of that exposure depend on whether Democrats and Republicans respond in similar ways. To address that question, this article first presents survey experiments showing that exposure to Spanish increases restrictive immigration attitudes only among Republicans. To confirm the external validity of that result, the article then presents an analysis of California’s Proposition 227 indicating that support for ending bilingual education was higher in heavily White, Republican block groups with Spanish-language ballots. No such pattern appears in Democratic block groups. Together, these findings demonstrate that Spanish is a politicized symbol, provoking different responses among Whites depending on their partisanship. To the extent that other immigration-related cues produce similar effects, the salience of immigration seems likely to reinforce existing partisan divisions rather than undermining them.