The impact of police charges in incidents of wife abuse

The present study addressed the impact of an urban police force laying criminal charges in cases of wife abuse. Follow-up data from battered women and from police officers were collected to identify the long-term consequences of this police policy that began in 1981, including any negative or unintended side effects. Results indicated that the policy resulted in a dramatic increase in police-laid charges (2500%), and a shift from the Family to the Criminal Division of Provincial Court. Based on interview data, victims did not decrease their requests for police service (a feared side effect) and reported a significantly higher level of satisfaction with police service in this area. A significant reduction in police calls and victim-reported violence was associated with police intervention, especially when charges were laid. Paradoxically, police officers' attitudes about the policy were more negative than the actual positive changes that they helped to produce. Considerations for future research and professional training are outlined.     

A comparison of mediated and non-mediated juvenile offender cases in California

Juvenile delinquency is a major public concern in the United States, and increasingly in many other industrialized countries. The last few years have seen a decline in officially recorded juvenile delinquency (Snyder, 1997). However, projections are that with the anticipated increase of the U.S. teenage population because of the echo baby boom generation, serious juvenile crime will substantially increase in the next few years (see Fox, 1996).     

Thermometer or sauna?: Performance measurement and democratic assistance in the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

This article presents a case study of performance measurement in the United States Agency for International Development's (USAID's) democracy and governance program. Its purpose is to illustrate the juxtaposition (and sometimes contradiction) between the high standards of causal logic and accuracy required of performance measurement, and the untidiness involved in the 'politics of democratization'. Based on USAID experiences in numerous countries, the article concentrates on four specific themes drawn mainly from the literature on re-engineering but also from new public administration. These are: the complexity of politics; the challenge of attribution; the danger of distortive incentives; and the interrelated questions of product and process and quantitative and qualitative measures. Problems of measurement are clearly complicated by the fact that the Agency does not deliver service directly, has limited control over its expenditures, and, in the case of democracy assistance, by the need to operate in a complex and sensitive area, across international borders and diverse political systems and cultures. The article includes a discussion of some innovative qualitatively-oriented USAID responses to these problems.