US state government privatization: Implications for social equity and inequality?

Privatization of state government services is commonplace, but our understanding of its effects is limited by data availability. We study the relationship between American state government contracting and public sector wages. Governments have used public sector employment to support a variety of goals, including social equity and economic development, but privatization, as a new public management (NPM) reform, may shift the focus. Our empirical analysis shows that state privatization of service delivery is associated with decreases in the public sector wage premium, but that these effects are not driven by gender, race, or low-levels of educational attainment. The fidelity of the implementation to NPM values conditions these effects. We also find that contracting service delivery is associated with a lower public sector wage premium for middle-class workers.     

Punishing Mothers for Men’s Violence: Failure to Protect Legislation and the Criminalisation of Abused Women

Feminist Legal Studies - This article explores the gender dynamics of ‘causing or allowing a child to die’, contrary to the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004,...     

The Moderating Effect of Debates on Political Attitudes

In theory, candidate debates can influence voters by providing information about candidates' quality and policy positions. However, there is limited evidence about whether and why debates influence voters in new democracies. We use a field experiment on parliamentary debates during Ghana's 2016 elections to show that debates improve voters' evaluations of candidates. Debates have the strongest effect on partisan voters, who become more favorable toward and more likely to vote for opponent-party candidates and less likely to vote for co-partisans. Experimental and unique observational data capturing participants' second-by-second reactions to the debates show that policy information was the most important causal mechanism driving partisan moderation, especially among strong partisans. A follow-up survey shows that these effects persist in electorally competitive communities, whereas they dissipate in party strongholds. Policy-centered debates have the potential to reduce partisan polarization in new democracies, but the local political context conditions the persistence of these effects.     

Geographical versus social displacement: the politics of return and post-war recovery in Northern Uganda

The civil war in Northern Uganda in the period 1986–2006 fundamentally altered former ways of life and created diverse and complex needs. Protracted conflict and displacement create, reveal, and enforce vulnerability, which can undermine resilience. Based on in-depth interviews with internally displaced persons and returnees, both before and after their return to Amuru District and Gulu District, this article argues that war and displacement constitute more than a temporary disruption. The physical and social wounds of war are engraved and embedded in people’s lives. Therefore, recovery interventions must take these effects into account to forge a new post-war future.     

Who Am I?: Using Reflective Practice and Self-determination to Redefine ‘Employability’ in Legal Education

Liverpool Law Review - This study examines the value of undergraduate law students undertaking structured and assessed reflective practice as part of their studies, in the context of competing...     

How Managers Can Reduce Household Water Use Through Communication: A Field Experiment

As populations increase and droughts intensify, water providers are using tools such as persuasive messaging to decrease residential water use. However, district-led messaging campaigns are rarely informed by psychological science, evaluated for effectiveness, or strategically disseminated. In collaboration with a water district, we report a field experiment among single-family households using persuasive messaging based on the information-motivation-behavioral skills model (IMB). We randomly assigned 10,000 households to receive different mailings and measured household water use. All messaging reduced water consumption relative to the control. On average, water use dropped 0.68 hundred cubic feet (HCF) (509 gallons) per household in the first month. Had all 10,000 single-family, occupied, non-agricultural residences been mailed the IMB messaging, more than five million gallons would have been saved in the first month. The effects declined but persisted for approximately three months and were three to six times greater in households with high water use (75th to 90th percentiles) relative to average water use. These findings suggest that combining message elements from the IMB model can reduce residential water use and that targeting high-use households is particularly cost-effective.     

Lavascape: legal spectacle at Kīlauea

ABSTRACT

In considering the theme “Exploring Legal Discourse: A Sociosemiotic (Re)Construction,” this paper examines the symbolic relationship between law and chaos in the changing landscape of Kīlauea Volcano on Hawai’i Island. The socio-legal dimensions of this relationship provide insight into law’s project of governance in the dynamic natural environment. Most recently, in the summer of 2018, lava spouted and then flowed from Kīlauea in over twenty-four fissures which opened up within two heavily populated residential subdivisions. Law's response to the ensuing chaos provides keen insight into the epistemological positionality of law toward nature. In an attempt to tame this enlivened lavascape of persons and lava, law asserts authority over the spectacle in the areas of sightseeing, access, and mapping. In other words, the legal spectacle of lava eruption is an attempt to jurisdictionally frame the legal imagination of human risk in this dynamic landscape through legal semiotics, legal materiality, and legal topology. However, as this paper will explore, the source of chaos is actually law itself. Attempts to manage chaos are actually attempts to manage human nature as visitation to the erupting volcanic environment is ultimately beyond law's complete control. In a larger sense, this study of Kīlauea's lavascape as a constructed legal spectacle illustrates the phenomenological framing of law's incomplete jurisdiction over kinetic environments.     

The Impact of Increased State Regulation of Campus Sexual Assault Practices: Perspectives of Campus Personnel

ABSTRACT

Seeking to improve university accountability and compliance with federal mandates, states are considering new reforms including mandating reporting of campus sexual assault allegations. These new policies remain an empirical “black box.” To address these gaps, the current exploratory study draws upon a recent survey that examines the extent of awareness, perceptions, concerns, and policy practices of victim advocates and other personnel concerning new legislation. Virginia is chosen as the state for this case study given its recent implementation of a controversial mandated reporting law, as well as other initiatives, across institutions of higher education. Findings suggest that campus personnel are aware and largely supportive of the new reforms, but they also share concerns. Implications for research and policy development are discussed.     

Application of lead isotope analysis in shooting incident investigations

A study was conducted to examine the potential of the considerable variability of the lead isotope compositions in bullets (projectiles) and primers in shooting incident investigations. Multiple-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (MC-ICP/MS) was used to analyze lead isotopic compositions in projectiles, cartridge cases, firearms discharge residues (FDR) in barrels of firearms and in the gunshot entries. .22 caliber plain lead and plated ammunition and 9 mm Luger full metal jacket (FMJ) ammunition were employed in shooting experiments using semiautomatic pistols. Cotton cloth served as the target material and two firing distances were tested; 1 cm (near contact) and 2 m distances. It was observed that various mechanical or chemical means of cleaning do not completely remove lead deposits ("lead memory") from barrels of firearms. Nonetheless, it was shown that analysis of lead isotopic composition may provide valuable evidence in investigating specific scenarios of shooting incidents. For instance in a shoot-out where several firearms and ammunition brands are involved, it may be feasible to point out which ammunition and/or firearm caused a particular gunshot entry if the ammunition brands involved (bullets and primers) differ considerably in their lead isotopic composition.