Using the institutional grammar tool to understand regulatory compliance: The case of Colorado aquaculture

What is the relationship between the design of regulations and levels of individual compliance? To answer this question, Crawford and Ostrom's institutional grammar tool is used to deconstruct regulations governing the aquaculture industry in Colorado, USA. Compliance with the deconstructed regulatory components is then assessed based on the perceptions of the appropriateness of the regulations, involvement in designing the regulations, and intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. The findings suggest that levels of compliance with regulations vary across and within individuals regarding various aspects of the regulatory components. As expected, the level of compliance is affected by the perceived appropriateness of regulations, participation in designing the regulations, and feelings of guilt and fear of social disapproval. Furthermore, there is a strong degree of interdependence among the written components, as identified by the institutional grammar tool, in affecting compliance levels. The paper contributes to the regulation and compliance literature by illustrating the utility of the institutional grammar tool in understanding regulatory content, applying a new Q‐Sort technique for measuring individual levels of compliance, and providing a rare exploration into feelings of guilt and fear outside of the laboratory setting.     

Religious perspectives on umbilical cord blood banking

Umbilical cord blood is a valuable source of haematopoietic stem cells. There is little information about whether religious affiliations have any bearing on attitudes to and decisions about its collection, donation and storage. The authors provided information about umbilical cord blood banking to expert commentators from six major world religions (Catholicism, Anglicanism, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism) and asked them to address a specific set of questions in a commentary. The commentaries suggest there is considerable support for umbilical cord blood banking in these religions. Four commentaries provide moral grounds for favouring public donation over private storage. None attach any particular religious significance to the umbilical cord or to the blood within it, nor place restrictions on the ethnicity or religion of donors and recipients. Views on ownership of umbilical cord blood vary. The authors offer a series of general points for those who seek a better understanding of religious perspectives on umbilical cord blood banking.     

Ethical and legal dilemmas surrounding bio-banking

The interaction of medical technology and advancements in human life and biological tissue offers many possibilities and issues, for example the area of assisted conception and the identification and treatment of disease. However, hand-in-hand with these, ethical dilemmas arise. The overarching ethical issue surrounding cryo-preserved embryos is： Should an embryo be accorded the status of ＇life＇ or should it be labeled nothing more than ＇property＇？ This question is the interaction between frozen embryos and divorce, adoption, research and terminal incidents; it is a legal and ethical quagmire that cannot be readily resolved. This issue is of particular moral importance when one contemplates the fact that the scientific definition of life is dealt with on a continuum ranging from the metabolic view to the emergence of self-consciousness. The question must become property versus life or, in essence, sale or destruction of property versus sale or destruction of life. As this paper will show, the underlying attitudes of the progenitors involved in cryogenics can be driven by the darker side of our species; that side being the possible exploitation of those individuals or those capable of becoming individuals for personal and community gain while denying or rationalizing that point of view to society as a whole.     

Arsenic Poisoning Caused by Intentional Contamination of Coffee at a Church Gathering—An Epidemiological Approach to a Forensic Investigation

Abstract: An outbreak of apparent food‐borne illness following a church gathering was promptly reported to the Maine Bureau of Health. Gastrointestinal symptoms among church attendees were initially attributed to consumption of leftover sandwiches that had been served the previous day. However, a rapid epidemiological and laboratory assessment revealed the etiology of illness, including the death of an elderly gentleman, was not food‐borne in origin. A criminal investigation determined that deliberate arsenic contamination of the brewed coffee by one of the church members was the source of the outbreak. Public health officials and criminal investigators must be aware that intentional biologic aggression can initially present as typical unintentional disease outbreaks. Practitioners must also consider the need to properly maintain and preserve potential forensic evidence. This case demonstrates the key role public health practitioners may play in criminal investigations.     

Punishing Benevolence: The Criminalization of Homeless Feeding as an Act of State Harm

The homeless population in the United States increased substantially since the 1980s. As a result, research into homelessness and its effects, as well as policies aimed at addressing this vital social problem, have also grown. While criminologists have examined state actions to control the homeless from a critical perspective, we are not aware of any research that addresses the issue of restricting homeless feeding. Because such state actions extend the criminal justice system by criminalizing benevolent acts, restrictions on feeding the homeless are ripe for critical examination. In this article, we examine such restrictions in American cities and argue that they can be conceptualized as a form of state harm. These government practices target homeless advocates engaged in charitable work by prohibiting feeding in particular locations and/or requiring expensive permits and licenses in order to provide food. Using the theoretical framework of state crime we argue that these policies are a recent evolution of laws that target the homeless, and suggest that these polices represent a disturbing trend of policies that attempt to regulate grassroots and community efforts to combat injustice and inequality. We finish by offering new directions for research and action in order to reduce the harm incurred by these policies.     

Don’t stop believing: the relative impact of internal alibi details on judgments of veracity

The relative impact of five alibi components on the assessment of alibi veracity was investigated using a policy-capturing methodology. Participants (N?=?115) were instructed to assume the role of a homicide investigator and evaluate 32 alibis that varied on five dichotomous variables: Salaciousness; Legality; Change in Details; Superfluous Details; and Specific Details. Participants evaluated the believability of each alibi, and the likelihood of the alibi provider’s guilt. Results indicated that participants tended to disbelieve suspects when illegal or salacious behaviours were mentioned within the alibi. Few decision policies contained Change in Details, Superfluous Details, or Specific Details. The potential implications for alibi assessments during police investigations are discussed.     

The Intergenerational Impact of Intimate Partner Violence against Mothers on Child Functioning over four Years

Intimate partner violence affects one in three U.S. women. Children often witness the violence. Methods: A 4-year cohort analysis of 300 mother-child dyads used latent growth curve techniques to examine the impact of partner violence on mothers’ and children’s mental health and function over time. The dyads entered the study when the mother sought safe shelter or justice services. Data was collected every four months, 13 times. Results: Four models were derived, each with good fit. Maternal age, Adverse Childhood Events, and ethnicity determined the level of maternal PTSD, depression, and anxiety at baseline. Mothers’ self-efficacy and marginalization determined if maternal mental health symptoms decreased or increased over 4-years. Maternal symptom levels determined if child dysfunctions persisted over time. Conclusion: This analysis provides longitudinal evidence that maternal mental health determines children’s recovery from or persistence of behavioral dysfunctions. Primary prevention and informed referral has the potential to improve child outcomes.     

The Gains of Greater Granularity: The Presence and Persistence of Problem Properties in Urban Neighborhoods

Objectives

This study applies the growing emphasis on micro-places to the analysis of addresses, assessing the presence and persistence of “problem properties” with elevated levels of crime and disorder. It evaluates what insights this additional detail offers beyond the analysis of neighborhoods and street segments.

Methods

We used over 2,000,000 geocoded emergency and non-emergency requests received by the City of Boston’s 911 and 311 systems from 2011–2013 to calculate six indices of violent crime, physical disorder, and social disorder for all addresses (n = 123,265). We linked addresses to their street segment (n = 13,767) and census tract (n = 178), creating a three-level hierarchy that enabled a series of multilevel Poisson hierarchical models.

Results

Less than 1% of addresses generated 25% of reports of crime and disorder. Across indices, 95–99% of variance was at the address level, though there was significant clustering at the street segment and neighborhood levels. Models with lag predictors found that levels of crime and disorder persisted across years for all outcomes at all three geographic levels, with stronger effects at higher geographic levels. Distinctively, ~15% of addresses generated crime or disorder in one year and not in the other.

Conclusions

The analysis suggests new opportunities for both the criminology of place and the management of public safety in considering addresses in conjunction with higher-order geographies. We explore directions for empirical work including the further experimentation with and evaluation of law enforcement policies targeting problem properties.