Are groups a good thing? Evaluating group associations among vegetable farmers in Freetown,Sierra Leone

Urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) is a widespread feature in sub-Saharan African cities, and has become particularly important in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Recent surveys have revealed the importance of UPA in Freetown as a method for generating food, income, and employment. Government and NGOs have encouraged urban farmers to group together into farming associations so that advice and inputs can be provided. Little information currently exists about the functioning of these associations, and whether their effectiveness might be improved. This paper draws upon recent field-based research in which the experiences of members in six different farming associations were investigated.     

The impact of two Los Angeles County Teen Courts on youth recidivism: comparing two informal probation programs

Objective

This study sought to examine the impact of two Teen Courts operating in Los Angeles County, a juvenile justice system diversion program in which youths are judged by their peers and given restorative sentences to complete during a period of supervision.

Methods

A quasi-experimental design was used to compare youths who participated in Teen Courts (n = 112) to youths who participated in another diversion program administered by the Probation Department (the 654 Contract program) (n = 194). Administrative data were abstracted from the probation records for all youths who participated in these programs between January 1, 2012 and June 20, 2014. Logistic and survival models were used to examine differences in recidivism, measured as whether the minor had any subsequent arrest or arrests for which the charge was filed.

Results

Comparison group participants had higher rates of recidivism than Teen Court participants, after controlling for age, gender, race/ethnicity, and risk level. While the magnitude of the program effects were fairly consistent across model specifications (odd ratios comparing Teen Court [referent] to school-based 654 Contract ranging from 1.95 to 3.07, hazard ratios ranging from 1.62 to 2.27), differences were not statistically significant in all scenarios.

Conclusions

While this study provides modest support for the positive impact of Teen Court, additional research is needed in order to better understand how juvenile diversion programs can improve youth outcomes.

     

“The world would just fall apart if there’s no respect at all”: children’s understandings of respect for diversity in a post-conflict society

The term ‘respect for diversity’ has gained prominence in many policy and curricular developments aimed at promoting reconciliation and pluralism. To explore the understandings of ‘respect for diversity’ held by children in a society that has both emerged from conflict and is increasingly multicultural, 15 group interviews were conducted with 7–11-year-old children in Northern Ireland. The behavioural aspects of respect for diversity articulated by the children were identified as: attention; offering time; equality of treatment; and acts of solidarity. Affective motivations for these actions were empathy and the pursuit of friendship; cognitive motivations were: a moral norm of inclusion; curiosity; internalised human rights principles; and egalitarianism (a belief that all persons are equal in fundamental worth or value). Findings are discussed in relation to theories of children’s prejudice development and moral development, and implications for the teaching and promotion of respect for diversity as part of peace education programmes are considered.     

Management in New Public Service Systems: Reframing the Position of Managers and Their Training and Development

Management training and development (T&D) plays an important part in enabling managers to deal with complexity and change associated with new public service systems. Using a service-dominant logic approach, this paper explores the relevance of T&D in preparing managers for changing roles, responsibilities and relationships that integrated service systems demand. Exploring the views of service managers working in Community Health Partnerships, the study establishes that present management T&D does not support the delivery of integrated services which require different abilities and new ways of working. New public service systems demand new processes of learning where re-framing the position of managers and their T&D becomes increasingly necessary.     

Settling institutional uncertainty: Policing Chicago and New York, 1877–1923

We show how both the Chicago Police Department and the New York Police Department sought to settle uncertainty about their propriety and purpose during a period when abrupt transformations destabilized urban order and called the police mandate into question. By comparing annual reports that the Chicago Police Department and the New York Police Department published from 1877 to 1923, we observe two techniques in how the police enacted that settlement: identification of the problems that the police believed themselves uniquely well equipped to manage and authorization of the powers necessary to do so. Comparison of identification and authorization yields insights into the role that these police departments played in convergent and divergent constructions of disorder and, in turn, into Progressivism's varying effects in early urban policing.