Funding Levels and Gender in Public Pension Plans

Using a comprehensive sample of 2002 and 2005 U.S. public retirement systems, we found that public pension plan underfunding grew dramatically in these years despite a good economy, increasing state tax revenues, and strong stock market returns on average, plans were only 83% funded. Teacher plans and plans with the most retirees were more underfunded. We found no significant differences related to asset allocations or actuarial assumptions about inflation and rate of return. A primary factor associated with significantly lower underfunding was more female active participants in the plan, suggesting another risk to women's retirement income.     

SOCIAL ALTRUISM AND CRIME*

Drawing on the theoretical statements of Braithwaite (1989), Cullen (1994), Messner and Rosenfeld (1994), this research examines the influence of social altruism on the level of crime for a sample of U.S. cities. The multivariate analyses clearly indicate that the ratio of contributions to the United Way to aggregate city income, a behavioral approximation of the cultural value of altruism, is inversely related to property and violent crime rates. The implications of these findings for the reduction of crime are discussed.     

TARGETED ENFORCEMENT AND ADVERSE SYSTEM SIDE EFFECTS: THE GENERATION OF FUGITIVES IN PHILADELPHIA*

Research on targeted enforcement in high‐crime places has focused on direct crime‐reduction impacts, possible displacement of crime, and more recently, diffusion of benefits to adjacent areas. Studies have ignored other unanticipated negative effects that a place‐oriented enforcement intervention may have on the justice system overall. Using the generation of fugitive defendants as one possible example of an important system side effect, this study proposes hypotheses relating to adverse, generalized, system side effects of a place‐ and crime‐focused intervention, and it tests for target area and targeted crime‐type effects, nontarget area and nontargeted crime‐type effects, and overall system effects. The analysis employs a multiple interrupted time‐series design [auto‐regressive integrated moving average (ARIMA)] to test the impact of one widely publicized, geographically targeted drug‐enforcement strategy in Philadelphia (Operation Sunrise, formally launched in June 1998) on the incidence of bench warrants as a measure of fugitives (weekly aggregate bench warrants series for the period January 1994–May 2005; N= 590 observations). The findings appear to support all hypotheses as they relate to the example of the generation of fugitives, and suggest a generalized system adverse side effect from the circumscribed place‐ and crime‐focused intervention. The implications of the findings for both research and policy relating to targeted enforcement interventions are discussed.     

INCOME INEQUALITY AND HOMICIDE RATES: CROSS-NATIONAL DATA AND CRIMINOLOGICAL THEORIES

Previous studies have identified but failed to explain satisfactorily the positive relationship between income inequality and homicide rates. This paper proposes an explanation based on the concept of relative deprivation, but also reviews the criminological literature in a search for other theoretically relevant variables. After assessing problems of sampling and measurement, and using a considerably larger sample than used in previous studies, multiple regression analyses reveal positive net effects of both inequality and population growth (reflecting a higher proportion of young people) on homicide rates. Further analyses show that the effects of inequality on homicide are more pronounced in more democratic nations, a finding supporting the relative deprivation explanation. Income inequality also has stronger effects in more densely populated countries, in wealthier nations, and in countries with larger internal security forces.