Separation and Reunification: Using Attachment Theory and Research to Inform Decisions Affecting the Placements of Children in Foster Care

Determinations regarding removal of children from home in maltreatment situations typically take into consideration the physical safety of the child. Less recognized and often underappreciated is the severe risk endured by the child as a result of separation from the caregiver, and the long‐term effects of the separation on the child. This article describes recent developments in attachment theory and research and their usefulness for placement decisions. We will explain how a child develops a secure attachment to a caregiver and review the deleterious consequences associated with maltreatment and separation. The case of a child in a foster/adoptive placement will be discussed in order to clarify common misinterpretations of attachment research and how attachment theory and research can inform permanency decisions that are in the best interest of the child.     

Putting the Brakes on the Rush to Spend Down End‐of‐Year Balances: Carryover Money in Oklahoma State Agencies

End‐of‐the‐year spending sprees by government agencies are viewed generally as an example of government wastefulness. Agency personnel, however, rationalize the practice as a means for protecting their budgets from inexpedient cuts. In Oklahoma, a policy has been adopted that allows agencies to carry over and reprogram year‐end surpluses as long as the reprogrammed funds are spent within 16.5 months of the end of the fiscal year. Using agency theory as a theoretical lens, we show that this policy restructures the contract between the principal (legislature) and its agents (state agencies) so that their interests are better aligned, regarding end‐of‐the‐year surpluses.     

Appearance Without Counsel: Self-Representation in the Criminal Courts of the United States and Canada

Previous attempts to ground structural effects have averaged the responses of individuals in survey research and consequently equate properties of the respondent with attributes of the system itself. This technique (Blau, 1960; 1974) generates philosophical controversy which can only be avoided by measuring properties of criminal justice agencies having no counterpart at the individual level (offenders, police, correctional workers) of analysis. Sampling designs must subsume both organizations and individuals to formulate generalizations about interorganizational processes. Applying conventional multivariate statistical models, we are able to examine one type of characteristic while simultaneously adjusting for the effects of the other.     

Iraq Casualties and the 2006 Senate Elections

Prior scholarship on the effects of war casualties on U.S. elections has focused on large‐scale conflicts. For this article, we examined whether or not the much‐smaller casualty totals incurred in Iraq had a similar influence on the 2006 Senate contests. We found that the change in vote share from 2000 to 2006 for Republican Senate candidates at both the state and county level was significantly and negatively related to local casualty tallies and rates. These results provide compelling evidence for the existence of a democratic brake on military adventurism, even in small‐scale wars, but one that is strongest in communities that have disproportionately shouldered a war's costs.     

Orchestrating Party Talk: A Party‐Based View of One‐Minute Speeches in the House of Representatives

Previous studies of House members' speech‐giving behavior treat the behavior as a product of members' individual goals. By uncovering leadership memoranda soliciting member participation in one‐minute speech giving, I find, first, that parties significantly structure one‐minute speech giving, with party‐orchestrated message campaigns accounting for about one‐third of the speeches given. Second, I find that a party‐based explanation illuminates individual members' speech‐giving behavior. Ideological proximity to the party leadership and party organizational factors strongly influence a member's willingness to be “on message.” These findings have important implications for studies of both party message politics and members' speech‐giving behavior.     

Testing Spatial Models of Elections: The Influence of Voters and Elites on Candidate Issue Positions

This research tests spatial models of electoral competition using survey data on state legislative candidates' policy positions and ideology in eight U.S. states. Our data support several hypotheses: 1) candidates' issue positions do not converge; 2) party elites have more extreme positions than do candidates; 3) candidate issue positioning is a function of party‐elite issue positions and union involvement in the campaign, as well as constituency characteristics; and 4) when candidates rely heavily on elite resources during their campaign, elites become more important in shaping candidate issue positions.     

The Fly Ball Effect: A Theoretical Framework for Understanding the Impacts of Short‐Term Seed Grants

The federal government has long used grants‐in‐aid to encourage state and local governments to carry out federal policies. Little research has been done that examines how short‐term seed grants affect program continuation. We propose the “fly ball effect” as a theoretical framework for understanding how seed money should impact program maintenance. Our theory suggests that short‐term seed grants by themselves should result in considerable funding uncertainty and program eliminations or stagnation once the initial grant money expires. We use data from drug court start‐ups in four states to provide empirical support for our theory. We argue that understanding the logic of the fly ball effect can help granting governments to improve the effectiveness of their grant funding systems, at least as measured by strong program continuation and expansion.