Theory vs reality: partisanship and Northern Ireland's Public Accounts Committee 2011–2016

Public accounts committees (PACs) are tasked with scrutinising executive use of public money, undertaking inquiries with the support of the legislative auditor. Through several means, an expectation is placed on members to be politically neutral in undertaking committee work. However, in the context of Northern Ireland, where consociationalism entrenches binary ethno-national identities throughout the political institutions, it would be expected that party-political interests would prevail and fracture the committee. This paper analyses Northern Ireland's PAC from three perspectives alongside qualitative data from interviews with committee members: theory, party-partisanship and changes in the committee's working relationship with the legislative auditor. It is argued that over the 2011–2016 mandate, this PAC coalesced and functioned well as a unit despite expectation to the contrary, and that the changing dynamics of its working relationship with the Northern Ireland Audit Office over this time are testament to its development in this way.     

Increasing Community College Completion Rates Among Low-Income Students: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial Evaluation of a Case-Management Intervention

Community college completion rates are low, especially among low-income students. The existing policy and research attention has primarily focused on academic and financial challenges, but there is ample reason to think that non-academic obstacles might be key drivers of dropout rates for low-income students. This study focuses on the role of “life barriers” and investigates the effectiveness of intensive case-management services for low-income community college students. We evaluate the impact of the Stay the Course (STC) intensive case-management program through a multi-armed randomized controlled trial evaluation conducted between 2013 and 2016 in Fort Worth, Texas. Analysis of administrative records indicates that STC significantly increased persistence and degree completion for women; estimates for the full sample are imprecise. The statistically significant estimates for women imply that STC tripled associate's degree receipt by 31.5 percentage points. We find no difference in outcomes between students in an emergency financial assistance (EFA) only treatment arm and the control group. Given program costs of $4,343 per person, the implied cost per additional associate's degree is $27,140. This study complements existing literature on financial and informational interventions designed to increase completion rates and is most closely related to the smaller literature examining coaching and mentoring interventions.     

Racial Differences in Battered Women’s Experiences and Preferences for Treatment from Physicians

The present study evaluated racial differences in battered women’s experiences and preferences for treatment from physicians when seeking help for abuse-related issues. Prior research revealed unexpected findings that African American women rated certain physician behaviors related to victim blaming and expression of sympathy for the male partner less negatively than White women. The present study found that when potential confounders, such as source of care, education level, and income were controlled, racial differences in approval ratings of physician behaviors almost disappeared. Only one physician behavior—blaming the patient for the abuse—differentiated the two groups. However, despite racial differences, both groups rated the behavior negatively. Other findings were that, overall, African American women are more likely than White women to seek abuse-related health care from emergency and urgent care settings and have fewer preferences for the race of their physician provider. Both White and African American women preferred to see a female physician. Implications of these findings for future research are discussed.     

The Role of Employment Equity Units in the Public Sector and in Universities

The location of equity units remains a matter of contention in some agencies. Are equity goals best served by a central placement, or is mainstreaming a more efficient method? This article argues that issues such as active intervention, culture and management commitment are important prerequisites to questions of organisational design.     

Presence of fecal material in diapers as a potential source of error in estimations of postmortem interval using arthropod development rates.

Second instar larvae of the fly Chrysomya megacephala (Diptera, Calliphoridae) were recovered from the diapers of a 16-month-old child abandoned by her mother on Oahu, Hawaii. The development of these larvae indicated a minimum period of 23.5 h of exposure prior to discovery of the child. Larvae of this species of fly are not normally associated with living tissues in Hawaii, but rather with feces and remains during the early stages of decomposition. Had the child in this case died and data not been provided detailing the site of infestation, the postmortem interval estimated would have been significantly longer than was actually the case, because of the development of the larvae inside the diapers of the living child. The need for caution in cases involving deaths of infants, the elderly, and individuals not capable of caring for themselves is stressed.     

Decision games applied to police decision making -an exploratory study of information usage-

An analysis of police decision making is presented using the decision board technique developed by Leslie Wilkins. This method assumes that decision making can be measured by observing a subject's response to stimuli presented in the form of pieces of information. A board was created and employed with fifty municipal police officers. Findings suggest that police demonstrate individualized preferences for varying amounts and kinds of information. The nature of the offense was considered most frequently. The attitude of the offender was also an important determinant of the decision outcome; and the offender's attitude then influenced the amount and type of information subsequently used.