How Can Subnational Governments Deliver Their Policy Objectives in the Age of Austerity? Reshaping Homelessness Policy in Wales

This article explores how a devolved government in a small country, faced with external constraints beyond its immediate control, can deploy policy resources to shape a distinctive approach to public services. We analyse recent homelessness policy in Wales using the NATO (Nodality, Authority, Treasure, Organisation) typology of tools of government proposed by Hood and Margetts, and show how this can be applied usefully to understand the choices that governments must make in conducting relationships with other institutions. We conclude that a combination of Nodality and Authority provide powerful resources for a subnational government which has only limited formal powers and fiscal autonomy.     

Does Adolescent Bullying Distinguish Between Male Offending Trajectories in Late Middle Age?

The perpetration of bullying is a significant issue among researchers, policymakers, and the general public. Although researchers have examined the link between bullying and subsequent antisocial behavior, data and methodological limitations have hampered firm conclusions. This study uses longitudinal data from 411 males in the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development from ages 8 to 56 in order to examine the relationship between adolescent bullying and distinct late middle adulthood trajectories of offending, in which different groups of males follow different offending pathways. Results show that self-reported bullying predicts only certain adult offending trajectories but that the effect becomes insignificant once controls are introduced for childhood risk factors, although this may be due to the small number of the most chronic offenders. Study implications and directions for future research are noted.     

CLINICAL ETHICS COMMITTEES IN THE UNITED KINGDOM: TOWARDS EVALUATION

In the United Kingdom there is a growing conviction that CECs have an important role to play in helping health care professionals address ethical dilemmas. For example, the Royal College of Physicians, the Nuffield Trust and the unofficial Clinical Ethics Network, which has received financial support from the Department of Health, commend the use of CECs in the UK. The growth of such committees has been influenced by the legal and policy support they have received in the United States. However, there is increasing concern about both the benefits and the quality of work produced by CECs. In addition, despite the rapid increase in the number of CECs in the UK, outside of the United States they remain under-researched and no formal mechanism exists to assess their performance. As a result we know little about the structure, function, impact and effectiveness of CECs. We are currently conducting a research project funded by the Wellcome Trust that seeks to interrogate the competing claims regarding the benefits and disbenefits of CECs. This initial account of our research provides a detailed analysis of theoretical issues that surround the development and use of CECs and points towards the questions that lie at the heart of the social science strand of our project.     

Alternatives to abstinence: the practice of (un)safe sex in prison

Correctional rules and regulations requiring sexual abstinence for prison inmates, coupled with unsupported beliefs about the risks of condom provision, keep most inmates in a dangerous muddle of criminalized sexual expression, covert efforts at erroneous myth-based safe sex practices, and high risk of sexual disease contraction and transmission. With the vast majority of inmates eventually released to re-enter communities across the US, these health concerns are not quarantined to the correctional environment, but rather contribute to what has been described as the hidden epidemic in public health . Using inmate voice from a large-scale national examination of inmate sexual behavior, the current study explores inmates’ attempts at ‘safe sex’ in an environment where sexual behavior, though prohibited, frequently occurs, and where no sex is the only accepted form of ‘safe’ sex. Inmates identify many approaches to safe sexual practice including barrier protection, partner selection, and risk reduction strategies. Unfortunately, many improvised, though innovative, inmate protection strategies reflect a very rudimentary understanding of safe sex for the purpose of reducing disease transmission and contraction, frequently exacerbating these risks. Policy implications include widespread condom provision and expanded inmate education and programming around sexual health and disease prevention.