International relations: the dawn of a historiographical turn?

Books reviewed in this article:
Donnelly, Jack, Realism in International Relations
Dunne, Tim, Inventing International Society: A History of the English School
Schmidt, Brian, The Political Discourse of Anarchy: A Disciplinary History of International Relations
Tuck, Richard, The Rights of War and Peace: Political Thought and the International Order from Grotius to Kant     

Using the Results from Rigorous Multisite Evaluations to Inform Local Policy Decisions

Evidence‐based policy at the local level requires predicting the impact of an intervention to inform whether it should be adopted. Increasingly, local policymakers have access to published research evaluating the effectiveness of policy interventions from national research clearinghouses that review and disseminate evidence from program evaluations. Through these evaluations, local policymakers have a wealth of evidence describing what works, but not necessarily where. Multisite evaluations may produce unbiased estimates of the average impact of an intervention in the study sample and still produce inaccurate predictions of the impact for localities outside the sample for two reasons: (1) the impact of the intervention may vary across localities, and (2) the evaluation estimate is subject to sampling error. Unfortunately, there is relatively little evidence on how much the impacts of policy interventions vary from one locality to another and almost no evidence on the implications of this variation for the accuracy with which the local impact of adopting an intervention can be predicted using findings from an evaluation in other localities. In this paper, we present a set of methods for quantifying the accuracy of the local predictions that can be obtained using the results of multisite randomized trials and for assessing the likelihood that prediction errors will lead to errors in local policy decisions. We demonstrate these methods using three evaluations of educational interventions, providing the first empirical evidence of the ability to use multisite evaluations to predict impacts in individual localities—i.e., the ability of “evidence‐based policy” to improve local policy.     

Dental shape match rates in selected and orthodontically treated populations in New York State: a two-dimensional study

Forensically identifying a suspect's dentition from a bitemark in an open population requires the supposition that every person's dental alignment is different. There have been few studies that have tested this claim. Four hundred and ten lower anterior dentitions from a selected population and 110 lower anterior dentitions from one that was orthodontically treated were measured using geometric morphometric analysis, allowing comparison of arch shape. Dental match rates of 1.46% and 42.7% of individuals were found in the respective populations, given an established measurement error. Orthodontic treatment had a strong effect on match rate suggesting that treated or naturally well-aligned dentitions may be indistinguishable. Sexual dimorphism was found to be only slightly significant. Principal shape variation in both populations was degree of arch curvature. Results of studying these populations show that dental matches can occur, and that statements of certainty concerning individualization in such populations should be approached with caution.     

License plate reader (LPR) police patrols in crime hot spots: an experimental evaluation in two adjacent jurisdictions

Objectives  

This randomized controlled experiment tests whether license plate readers (LPR) deter crime generally, and automobile crime more specifically in crime hot spots. The limited intervention tested here reflects one current likely use of LPR at the time of this publication.     

An Innovative Program for Justice-Involved Partner Violence Victims: “No Man is Worth Me Getting Locked Up”

Violence victims who are the primary caregivers for their children sometimes become justice-involved through efforts to protect and defend against intimate partner violence (IPV). Judges often mandate these victims to community-based services, although little is known about these services. Given increasing numbers of such victims, two human service agencies collaborated to create a program for female IPV victims who were their children’s primary caregivers and who were mandated to services for violence against a male partner. Our research team conducted a feasibility study of the program using an exploratory qualitative study design to collect data from program participants (n?=?18) and providers (n?=?7). Analyses determined three key findings: (a) the importance of a welcoming, comfortable environment; (b) the value of certain aspects of the program content; and (c) the importance of support from like others for participant improvement. These findings point to indispensable program elements. Implications for other communities and providers serving justice-involved IPV victims who are also primary caregivers are described.