Use of State Police Services for Local Policing: The Case of New Jersey

All states in the New England and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States provide State Police services without charge to municipalities without full-time local police departments. Efficiency and equity issues have resulted from this tradition and the development of local police departments or shared departments across neighboring municipalities in rural and exurban areas has been discouraged. These problems will diminish in scope as municipalities receiving the State Police subsidy opt out of the program and adopt local policing. We examine this potential by estimating models of the municipal decision to use the State Police for local policing among New Jersey municipalities with less than 15,000 population. We find that the elasticities of the decision to use the State Police for local policing with respect to population and median family income to be −1.1 and −2.3, respectively. If recent income and population trends in New Jersey municipalities using the State Police continue, our upper range estimate is that about 20 of the 90 municipalities using the State Police will opt out of the program in the next decade.     

Dichotomies and Oppositions in Legal Argumentation

In this paper we use a series of examples to show how oppositions and dichotomies are fundamental in legal argumentation, and vitally important to be aware of, because of their twofold nature. On the one hand, they are argument structures underlying various kinds of rational argumentation commonly used in law as a means of getting to the truth in a conflict of opinion under critical discussion by two opposing sides before a tryer of fact. On the other hand, they are argument structures underling moves made in strategic advocacy by both sides that function as platforms for different kinds of questionable argumentation tactics and moves that are in some instances tricky and deceptive.     

PRETREATMENT CHARACTERISTICS AND TREATMENT PERFORMANCE OF LEGALLY COERCED VERSUS VOLUNTARY METHADONE MAINTENANCE ADMISSIONS*

Analyses were conducted to determine whether addicts coerced into treatment by actions of the criminal justice system differed from voluntary entrants in terms of background characteristics, early risk factors, or drug use and criminal behavior during pretreatment, treatment, and post treatment periods. Subjects were categorized into high, moderate, and low legal coercion groups based on their official legal status, related narcotics testing requirements, and their self-reported perceptions of criminal justice system coercion. Those induced to enter the treatment program through legal channels had slightly higher rates of serious property offenses and higher proportions of time incarcerated and under legal supervision, but they did not differ from voluntary entrants in overall criminal behavior during pretreatment periods. All groups showed substantial improvement in level of narcotics use, criminal involvement, and most other behaviors during treatment, but there was some regression after treatment.     

WHEN “WHAT WORKS” NEVER DID: DODGING THE “SCARLET M” IN CORRECTIONAL REHABILITATION

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