Sex differences in the likelihood of arrest

Using data from the new National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), this study analyzed the impact of a criminal offender's sex on the likelihood of arrest for 555,752 incidents of kidnapping, forcible rape, forcible fondling, robbery, aggravated assault, simple assault, and intimidation in nineteen states and the District of Columbia during 2000. The data used in this study advanced the literature by enabling the authors to determine the likelihood of arrest for males and females based on sex-specific offending as reported by crime victims. Controlling for offense seriousness and a variety of other factors, logistic regression results showed that the probability of arrest for females was 28 percent lower for kidnapping, 48 percent lower for forcible fondling, 9 percent lower for simple assault, and 27 percent lower for intimidation than for males. A supplemental analysis also revealed that Black females had a higher probability of arrest than did White females for aggravated and simple assault. No discernable impact of an offender's sex on the prospect of arrest was noted for the crimes of forcible rape and robbery. Overall, these findings suggest that the lower arrest rate for females is partly the result of leniency shown women by law enforcement personnel.     

"NOT A DEPARTMENTAL STATEMENT": A CASE STUDY OF EQUAL OPPORTUNITY IN THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN DEPARTMENT OF TAFE 1978–84

Abstract: This paper traces the background to the 1979 and 1984 equal opportunity policy statements in the South Australian Department of TAFE. It documents the process of policy development and planning for implementation and, through an examination of the content of each statement, evaluates the intentions of the authors. It concludes that there is little evidence of commitment at political and bureaucratic levels to deal with the issues the policies sought to address. By use of documents produced within the department at the time, the paper traces resistance to external pressures for change and failure to establish a firm and realistic program for policy implementation.     

Trading with the Dragon: Chinese trade,investment and development assistance in the Pacific Islands

Chinese development assistance, raw material exploitation, investment and trade increases in their region are causing Pacific Islanders to ask: ‘Why are the Chinese interested in Pacific Island states?’ and ‘Why has there been an upsurge of the Chinese influence in the Pacific?’. This article seeks to add to the debate on that issue by examining the nature and the evolving purpose of Chinese engagement with the small island states of the Pacific. Only a small proportion of China's outbound investment goes to the Pacific Islands, but it has a considerable effect on the region's economically dependent states. Pacific Island nations have a pressing need for overseas investment and are highly dependent on development assistance. They are, therefore, particularly vulnerable to external players.     

How Social Wealth Funds Could Help Tackle Inequality

This article examines the potential to tackle the roots of inequality by the introduction of one or more social wealth funds. Such funds would aim to capture some of the financial gains from the private ownership of capital—a principal driver of inequality—and use the proceeds for wider community benefit, such as investment in social infrastructure. In recent decades a number of countries have introduced a variant on such funds, mostly taking the form of state‐owned sovereign wealth funds resourced through the exploitation of oil, and used for a diversity of economic purposes. In contrast, the UK has failed to take the opportunity to create such funds by, for example, reinvesting the revenue from the sales of public assets. So would it be possible to build one or more such collectively owned funds in the UK, and if so, how should they be financed? As well as funding social investment and anti‐inequality programmes, could such a scheme also help finance a regular Citizen's Dividend payment or a Citizen's Income scheme?     

Affordability After Subsidies: Understanding the Trajectories of Former Assisted Housing in Florida

Each year, thousands of units are lost from the assisted rental housing inventory through deterioration and default, subsidy expiration, and market-rate conversion. While a good deal of research and data collection has focused on identifying at-risk developments, less is known about what happens to former assisted developments after they exit income and rent restrictions. This article uses a survey of former assisted properties in Florida to identify their postsubsidy trajectories—that is, as to whether developments continue as rental housing, are converted to condominiums, or leave the housing stock through vacancy and demolition; and for those that continue as rental housing, whether they continue to offer affordable rents. Using logistic regression models, the article examines the property, housing market, and neighborhood characteristics that determine these trajectories. The results show that smaller properties, those that have been out of subsidy programs longer, and those in stronger neighborhood housing markets are more likely to be converted to condominiums. Among developments that continue as rental housing, those that previously had more stringent rent restrictions, those in strong rental submarkets, and those with better transit access tend to become unaffordable compared with previous rent limits.     

Public Sector Reform Knowledge Production: Validation and Evidence as 'Agreement'

In this article I draw on public sector reform knowledge in the United States, New Zealand and Australia. I argue that we, as practitioners, do not need to immerse ourselves in academic debates about 'positivism' or 'post-positivism'. These are frameworks for examining knowledge capable of validation. Instead, we are now engaged in using diverse forms of knowledge to spread the word on what works and does not work to deliver outcomes. Such knowledge is not above reproach; it is not acceptable merely because it exists but nor is it unacceptable because it cannot be rigorously validated in a positivist way.