A dutch perspective on some of the effects of alternative sanctions

The central theme is the developmental process of alternative sanctions in the Netherlands. Starting-point is the increasing crime rate, especially in the field of juvenile delinquency. At the same time it is clear that the traditional sanctions are not effective. That creates a need of alternative sanctions. The author developed criteria for these sanctions and besides applied these as an experiment in the field of juvenile vandalists in public transport. As a consequence of the positive evaluation the alternative sanctions were institutionalised in the Netherlands by way of the installation of HALT offices in every city.     

Bureaucracy and state intervention: Parkinson's Law?

Abstract. Parkinson's Law is the popular idea that bureaucrats or administrators are bound to multiply. The basis for the Law was Parkinson's observation that, in some organizations, the number of administrators continued to increase even when the organization, as measured either by its output or the size of its direct labour force, was declining. This paper first considers two popular explanations of this phenomenon: the political monopoly model and the model of bureaucrats as budget maximizers. The authors show that neither of these theories is capable of providing a satisfactory explanation of Parkinson's observations. They then outline a new and more general theory of bureaucracy, in which bureaucrats maximize power, not by maximizing budgets, but by accumulating the loyalty of their subordinates and that of interest groups and the media. The paper then shows that this model does provide a consistent and indeed commonsense explanation of Parkinson's observations. All declining organizations might be expected to become top-heavy with administrators, as Parkinson predicted, but the process need have nothing to do with bureaucratic expansionism. The paper concludes by stressing the important policy implications of Parkinson's Law for the rational administration of government in an era of declining budgets. Sommaire. Selon une conception populaire, les bureaucrates ou les administrateurs sont régis par la loi de Parkinson: ils tendent à se multiplier. Cette loi découle de l'observation de Parkinson suivant laquelle, dans certaines organisations, le nombre des administrateurs continue à augmenter même lorsque la taille de l'organisation, mesurée par sa production ou par l'importance de sa main-d'oeuvre directe, diminue. Nous considérons deux explications populaires de ce phénomène: le modèle du monopole politique et celui des bureaucrates maximiscurs de budgets. Nous montrons que ni l'une ni l'autre de ces théories est capable d'expliquer de façon satisfaisante les observations de Parkinson. Nous offrons done une nouvelle théorie, plus générale, de la bureaucratic, d'après laquelle les bureaucrates maximisent le pouvoir et non les budgets, en accumulant la loyauté de leurs subordonnés, celle des groupes impliqués et celle des media. Nous démontrons ensuite que ce modèle fournit une explication cohérente et en fait logique, des observations de Parkinson. Nous nous attendons à ce que toutes les organisations en perte de vitesse aient une quantité disproportionnée d'administrateurs, comme l'a prédit Parkinson, mais ce processus n'a rien à voir avec l'expansionnisme bureaucratique. Nous concluons cet article en insistant sur les conséquences importantes de la loi de Parkinson pour l'administration rationnelle du gouvernement en période de restrictions budgétaires. ‘Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.’-C. N. Parkinson.     

Extraction and analysis of flunitrazepam/7-aminoflunitrazepam in blood and urine by LC-PDA and GC-MS using butyl SPE columns

The forensic toxicology community has recognized flunitrazepam and its metabolite (7-aminoflunitrazepam) as compounds of concern for several years. In this procedure, the analytes were extracted from whole blood and urine onto single mode solid phase cartridges (butyl) using nitrazepam as an internal standard. The columns were washed with distilled water and hexane. All three compounds were eluted from the sorbent using an ethyl acetate-methanol solvent mixture. After collection and evaporation of the solvent, the residue was dissolved in A, 0.1% (v/v) aqueous trifluoroacetic acid for HPLC-PDA analysis or B, ethyl acetate for derivatization with pentafluoropropionic anhydride (PFPA) for analysis by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (selected ion monitoring, SIM). A limit of quantitation for this method using HPLC-PDA was found to be 5 and 1.0 ng mL(-1) by SIM.     

Involuntary outpatient treatment as "desintitutionalized coercion": the net-widening concerns

In American jurisprudence, two justifications have traditionally been put forth to support the government's social control of persons with mental illness: police power and parens patriae. As public mental hospitals became less available as loci in which to exercise these functions, governments sought alternative means to achieve the same ends. One prominent but quite controversial means is involuntary outpatient treatment (IOT). While the concerns about IOT have been myriad, one often alluded to but never documented is that of "net-widening." That is, once IOT became available, it would be applied to an ever greater number of individuals, progressively expanding the margins of the designated population to whom it is applied, despite the formal standard for its application remaining constant. We tested the net-widening belief in a naturalistic experiment in Massachusetts. We found that net-widening did not occur, despite an environment strongly conducive to that expansion. At this time, whatever the arguments against IOT might be, net-widening should not be one of them.     

Information,intelligence, enlightened public policy: Functions and organization of societal feedback

Normative properties which make social statistics useful as social indicators are illuminated by considering the functions systematic social knowledge has at various levels of social organization and the involvements of actors at these various levels in roles which result in such knowledge. Modes and degrees of generalization which make knowledge useful for action at the lowest levels of social organization (information) or for administration at intermediate bureaucratic levels (intelligence) are not necessarily applicable to the formation of broad social policy (policy knowledge) or for affecting the general conceptions of the social world held by broad public (enlightenment). The latter two functions are not always well served by data which have been collected and ordered by systems primarily responsive to the former two functions.Portions of this paper were presented at the 65th Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, New York City, 6 September 1969 and at a Colloquium on Urban Intelligence Systems at the Center for Urban Studies, Wayne State University, 17 April, 1969.