The Effects of Youth Mentoring Programs: A Meta-analysis of Outcome Studies

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Mentoring programs, which pair youth with caring, non-parental adults with the goal of promoting positive youth development, are an increasingly popular strategy...     

The activists decide: the preferences of party activists in the 2016 presidential nominations

ABSTRACT

One view of presidential nominations in the United States [Steger, Wayne P. 2007. “Who Wins Presidential Nominations and Why: An Updated Forecast of the Presidential Primary Vote.” Presidential Research Quarterly 60: 91–97; Cohen, Marty, David Karol, Hans Noel, and John Zaller. 2008. The Party Decides: Presidential Nominations Before and After Reform. Chicago: University of Chicago Press; Silver, Nate. 2016. “The Republican Party May Be Failing.” FiveThirtyEight. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-republican-party-may-be-failing/] claims that the support of political elites is causally related to success in the nomination. The mechanisms for this relationship include party activists, who follow the cues party leaders send and provide necessary support to candidates in primaries and caucuses. This mechanism has not been explicitly tested. This paper explores the preferences of party activists in light of the unified elite preferences among Democrats and the lack of such unity among Republicans. Some activists in each party resist the signals from elites, but the resistance is far less widespread in the Democratic Party, where party leaders exhibited consensus support for the eventual nominee.     

Rational Management, Performance Targets and Executive Agencies: Views from Agency Chief Executives in Northern Ireland

The way in which central government services are delivered in both Britain and Northern Ireland has changed significantly since 1988. Executive Agencies have been created with the aim of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery, with changes being supported by an increasing focus on the rational management model as a basis for improving management in the public sector. This paper is a case study of nine agencies within the Northern Ireland 'family of agencies' and is the first study of its type in the UK. It presents the results of a series of interviews with agency Chief Executives that attempted to identify perceptions with respect to the development, use and impact of mission statements, objectives, targets and performance measures (components of a rational management approach). The main findings of the research include: Northern Ireland Chief Executives perceive an increased focus on quantification since agencification; this focus is viewed as helpful in providing a basis for improving management; systems in practice are considered to be much more flexible than a rigid management model would normally suggest; and, it is thought that the potential adverse consequences of such an approach can be managed.     

Access to justice: is legal services regulation blocking the path?

Abstract

High prices and lack of innovation have placed expert legal services beyond the reach of too many Americans and Canadians. Is legal services regulation exacerbating common law North America's access to justice problem? Does regulatory maintenance of a unified legal profession, and insulation of that profession from non-lawyer influence, make it more difficult for people here to meet their legal needs? This article argues that, although regulatory liberalization is not a magic bullet for the accessibility of justice, there is strong evidence of a link between regulation and access. North American lawyer regulators need to understand, and work to reduce, the effects of their policies on the accessibility of justice.     

Objections to medico-legal autopsy--recent developments in case law

Medico-legal autopsies can be directed by coroners. However, in a number of jurisdictions family members can lodge objections with coroners against such procedures taking place. The authors analyse the objections, successful and unsuccessful, taken in Australia. Reviewing recent Victorian developments, they emphasise the public interest in autopsies which reveal medical causes of death. They identify the ongoing importance of coroners being able to exercise their statutory function to undertake death investigations effectively and to make informed recommendations to reduce the incidence of avoidable deaths.     

Bidirectional partner violence among homeless young adults: risk factors and outcomes

One of the most prevalent forms of violence in contemporary society is the victimization of intimate partners. Although it has been established that homeless young people experience high levels of victimization on the street, little is known about partner violence (PV) experiences among this group, especially bidirectional violence. As such, the purpose of this study is to examine the prevalence of PV and bidirectional violence and to investigate risk factors and outcomes of this form of violence using a sample of homeless young adults. Overall, 59% of the sample experienced bidirectional violence. Multivariate results reveal that sexual abuse and neglect are significant correlates of PV. In addition, being either a victim or perpetrator of PV is associated with more severe substance use and higher levels of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Finally, there is support for bidirectional violence among homeless young adults even after controlling for early histories of maltreatment.     

Peacekeepers Fighting a Counterinsurgency Campaign: A Net Assessment of the African Union Mission in Somalia

In response to Somalia's decades-long political and humanitarian crises, the African Union has deployed a peace support operation known as the African Union Mission in Somalia. Tasked to help eliminate an ongoing insurgency, the mission has seen heavy combat as it fights to reclaim territory held by the al-Shabaab militant organization. This article applies the techniques of open source campaign analysis to assess the mission's prospects for long-term success. The prognosis is not good. Analysis reveals a range of vulnerabilities that threaten the deployment's core security objectives, suggesting that the optimism many have expressed for the mission is misplaced.     

Ethics and Government: Preliminary Considerations

This symposium reproduces several of the papers presented during the international conference sponsored by the Queensland University of Technology Centre for the Study of Ethics, at Parliament House, Brisbane, 11-13 February, 1999. The theme of the conference was 'Government and Business: Integrity and Accountability'. The papers have been revised following discussions within a research colloquium associated with the conference. They were initially presented within a strand entitled 'Competition, Marketisation, Public Services and Public Ethics' which explored ethical issues for contemporary government within different national contexts (New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Malaysia and Australia) around the impact of economic policies that have reframed the role of government primarily as a servant of the international market.