Internal and External Determinants of Formal Plans in the Nonprofit Sector

ABSTRACT

The study of formal planning in nonprofits and the public sector is thriving, with management gurus providing abundant advice on its value and proper execution. We address a related, but broader issue: why has the management tool of formal planning become prevalent in organizations with a public goal in the first place? To answer this question, we draw on insights from institutional theories of organization, bringing a fresh perspective to the increasingly common practice of formal planning in the administration of public entities. Using a unique dataset constructed from interviews with a random, representative sample of the leaders of 200 nonprofits in the San Francisco Bay Area, we analyze the factors associated with the presence of a formal plan. We combine the interview data with details on organizational characteristics from tax reports and consider the features of nonprofits that plan using logistic regression. The findings reveal that size and capacity are important, but links to an external, rationalized environment dampen the effects of both. Thus, functional factors, while important, are insufficient to explain why nonprofits engage in planning. For those interested in promoting formal planning as a management tool, our findings provide insight into other organizational features that promote the use of planning. And for those concerned with the potentially deleterious effects of this tool in the nonprofit sector, we show that certain types of organizations seem adept at maintaining a less formal structure.     

Modeling the suppression effect of correctional programs on juvenile delinquency

Studies of the effects of correctional programs on juvenile delinquency have observed that delinquents exhibit a sharp rise in their arrest rates up to the time of intervention. The drop to a lower rate following intervention has been labeled a suppression effect. A controversy has arisen regarding the nature of the suppression effect; some scholars attribute it to the effectiveness of the correctional programs, while others claim that it is due to a selection artifact. In this study, we examine attempts to model such phenomena and point out that the general terms in the model are not identifiable. Without identifiability, one can construct models that attribute the suppression effect either to the correctional program or to the selection artifact. Some identifiable models are proposed and their associate likelihood functions are used to present a process of model-based analysis to analyze data collected originally by the American Institutes for Research. Discussion of the feasibility of this type of probabilistic modeling approach to criminal justice phenomena is also given.     

The pious or the doctrinaire? who supports suicide terrorism in Indonesia?

ABSTRACT

Indonesia is generally viewed as a moderate Muslim nation that episodically struggles with terrorism. Between 1981 and the end of 2016, Indonesia experienced 156 attacks from some 15 Islamist militant groups. However, the lineaments of popular support for Islamist militancy in Indonesia remain understudied. In this paper, we expand upon the existing literature on popular support for Islamist violence in Indonesia by replicating and extending the empirical framework for modeling the relationship between support for various conceptualizations of Shari’a and support for Islamist violence offered by Fair, Littman and Nugent (2018) for Pakistan and extended to Bangladesh by Fair, Hamza and Heller (2017). To do so, we conduct ordered logistical regression analysis of Pew survey data which includes information about respondents’ religious beliefs and practice as well as support for Islamist violence. We find considerable evidence that their framework is useful for understanding support for violence in Indonesia.     

The Identification of Ingested Dandelion Juice in Gastric Contents of a Deceased Person by Direct Sequencing and GC–MS Methods*

Abstract: DNA and chemical analysis of gastric contents of a deceased person were handled in this work. The body of the victim was discovered in his car, submerged in a lake. We were asked to determine whether or not the gastric contents of the victim harbored drugs and dandelion material. It was suspected that the victim had been murdered by poisoning with an excess amount of sleeping medication (doxylamine), which had been homogenized with dandelion. The concentrations of 11.4 and 27.5 mg/kg of doxylamine detected from spleen and liver of the victim were far higher than the assumed therapeutic concentration. Via gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) analysis and direct sequencing analysis of plant genetic markers such as intergenic transcribed spacer, 18S ribosomal RNA (rRNA), rbcL and trnLF, it was confirmed that the gastric contents of the victim contained taraxasterol, which is one of the marker compounds for dandelion and contained dandelion species‐specific rbcL and trnL‐trnF IGS (trnLF) sequences. The initial PCR of the genomic DNA isolated from the gastric contents showed insufficient quantity, and the second PCR, of which the template was a portion of the initial PCR products, exhibited a sufficient quantity for direct sequencing. rbcL and trnLF located in the cpDNA resulted in the successful determination of dandelion DNA in a decedent’s stomach contents. GC–MS identifies the actual presence of a taraxasterol at 28.4 min. Raw dandelion was assumed to be used as a masking vehicle for excess sleeping drug (doxylamine).     

Clusters of Nonverbal Behaviors Differ According to Type of Question and Veracity in Investigative Interviews in a Mock Crime Context

Evaluating truthfulness and detecting deception is a capstone skill of criminal justice professionals, and researchers have long examined nonverbal cues to aid in such determinations. This paper examines the notion that testing clusters of nonverbal behaviors is a more fruitful way of making such determinations than single, specific behaviors. Participants from four ethnic groups participated in a mock crime and either told the truth or lied in an investigative interview. Fourteen nonverbal behaviors of the interviewees were coded from the interviews; differences in the behaviors were tested according to type of question and veracity condition. Different types of questions produced different nonverbal reactions. Clusters of nonverbal behaviors differentiated truth tellers from liars, and the specific clusters were moderated by question. Accuracy rates ranged from 62.6 to 72.5% and were above deception detection accuracy rates for humans and random data. These findings have implications for practitioners as well as future research and theory.     

Elevated creatinine levels in rape assault survivors

Urine specimens were collected from alleged rape survivors. In 13 of the 29 survivors, creatinine levels were over 150 mg/dl, and nine of these were over 200 mg/dl. These elevated urine creatinine levels persisted for some time after the alleged rape attacks. Various controls yielded overall levels below those of the alleged rape assault survivors. When control values of creatinine and osmolality of pre- and postintercourse samples were plotted and compared by linear regression covariance analysis to the data on alleged rape survivors, the levels of urinary creatinine in the alleged rape survivors were higher than would have been expected from urine osmolality increases. The dissimilarity of the two sets of data has a p value less than 0.0001. These findings might serve as supplemental objective evidence of rape (or terror) that could be used medicolegally.     

Authoritarianism and UMNO's factional conflicts

Abstract

Do democratic political regimes facilitate more robust environmental and natural resource regulatory policies? Yes, in many cases. Using detailed cases of natural resource policy making in Thailand, however, we find that neither political parties nor civil society nor state institutions do well in representing diffuse interests, mediating among conflicting ones or defining compromises and securing their acceptance by most key players. Gains in environmental or natural resource policy making have not been dramatically more likely under democratic regimes than under “liberal authoritarian” ones with broad freedoms of speech and association. We argue that Thailand's democratic political system features weak linkages between groups in society and political parties, lacks alternative encompassing or brokering institutions in civil society, and that these features account for a tendency for political democracy to fail to deliver on its policy potential in Thailand.     

The Disengagement of Indonesian Jihadists: Understanding the Pathways

While much research has been conducted on the radicalization of Muslim militants from Jemaah Islamiyah, its spinoffs, and splinter factions; the historical roots of Indonesian radical movements; and their ideological underpinnings, far less analysis has centered on how and why individual militants may come to disengage from violence. Disengagement is defined as a gradual process through which a member of a terror group, radical movement, gang, or cult comes to reject the use of terror methods in pursuit of their goals. Utilizing original fieldwork conducted between 2010 and 2014, with fifty current and former members of Islamist extremist groups in Indonesia, this article will unpack the patterns, pathways, religious considerations, and psychological processes that propel individual militants to turn away from violence.