Special Edition on Performance Management

This edition of Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice isdevoted to police performance management. Several of the articlesherein trace the origins of this style of police managementand the influences that have brought it about. Others appraiseits effects on matters as diverse as domestic violence, criminalinvestigation and the closure of police stations. They do so,not only from the perspective of the UK, but also from thoseof France, the United States and elsewhere; police performancemanagement is widespread and so are the issues that it raises. In this editorial     

Whistleblowing in ?sterreich - Gefahren, Probleme und L?sungsm?glichkeiten

Der vorliegende Artikel er?rtert die derzeitige Rechtslage betreffend Whistleblowing in ?sterreich und zeigt ua unter Zuhilfenahme ausl?ndischer und internationaler Vorbilder und Rechtsquellen m?gliche L?sungen für bestehende Probleme de lege ferenda auf. Ausgehend von verschiedenen Fallkonstellationen, die das jeweils ver?nderliche Schutzbedürfnis des Whistleblowers einerseits und der von dessen Enthüllungen betroffenen Person andererseits aufzeigen, sowie der Analyse schon derzeit bestehender Pflichten zum Hinweisgeben, wird zun?chst versucht, dem Gesetzgeber einen Definitionsvorschlag zu unterbreiten, um Whistleblower schon begrifflich von nicht schutzwürdigen Personen abzugrenzen. Im Anschluss wird versucht, dem Gesetzgeber eine L?sung aufzuzeigen, die die arbeits-, dienst-, straf-, verwaltungsstraf-, zivil- und standesrechtlichen sowie faktischen Gefahren für Whistleblower beseitigt bzw minimiert. Zudem werden Geldleistungen als m?gliche positive Anreize zum Whistleblowing er?rtert.     

From clean up to FICAC: Anti-corruption in Fiji’s post coup politics

The leaders of Fiji’s 2006 military coup launched a ‘cleanup campaign’ and set up an Independent Commission Against Corruption. So far it has brought court cases against about 24 people. Among them is the former Prime Minister, who was charged with corruption for his role in institutions designed to promote the economic interests of indigenous Fijians (who constitute about 56% of the population). The article considers what counts as ‘corruption’ in these Affirmative Action policies: a so-called ‘Agriculture Scam’, which distributed farm implements free to Fijian farmers; a company called Fijian Holdings, which received concessional finance from the government; and a Native Land Trust Board, which collects rent on behalf of indigenous landowners. It concludes that army and popular opinion in Fiji hold conceptions of corruption that are much broader than the offences set out in the country’s penal code, and which the new ICAC is attempting to enforce.     

Images of illness: how causal claims and racial associations influence public preferences toward diabetes research spending

Despite the salience of health disparities in media and policy discourse, little previous research has investigated if imagery associating an illness with a certain racial group influences public perceptions. This study evaluated the influence of the media's presentation of the causes of type 2 diabetes and its implicit racial associations on attitudes toward people with diabetes and preferences toward research spending. Survey participants who viewed an article on genetic causation or social determinants of diabetes were more likely to support increased government spending on research than those viewing an article with no causal language, while participants viewing an article on behavioral choices were more likely to attribute negative stereotypes to people with diabetes. Participants who viewed a photo of a black woman accompanying the article were less likely to endorse negative stereotypes than those viewing a photo of a white woman, but those who viewed a photo of a glucose-testing device expressed the lowest negative stereotypes. The effect of social determinants language was significantly different for blacks and whites, lowering stereotypes only among blacks. Emphasizing the behavioral causes of diabetes, as is common in media coverage, may perpetuate negative stereotypes. While drawing attention to the social determinants that shape these behaviors could mitigate stereotypes, this strategy is unlikely to influence the public uniformly.     

Survival analysis: A survey

This paper is a survey of statistical methods used to analyze the length of time until a specified event occurs. These models have often been used to analyze the survival times (i.e., time until death) of medical patients, and so the term survival analysis is natural. In criminology, the main application of these models has been to analyze the time until recidivism, but many other applications are possible. The paper summarizes the statistical literature on survival analysis, and describes its applications in criminology. The methods are illustrated by an application to the prediction of time until recidivism for a sample of North Carolina prison releasees.