The impact of racial slurs and racism on the perceptions and punishment of violent crime

When a crime is committed by an individual of one race against an individual of another race, there is the possibility that the crime is a hate crime. Legislation often mandates harsher penalties for perpetrators convicted of crimes determined to be hate crimes, yet this determination is difficult to make. This study used vignettes of violent crimes to examine how the races of the perpetrators and victims, the severity of the assault, and the use of racial slurs by the perpetrators would affect perceptions of the crimes as "hate crimes," victim blaming, and sentencing recommendations. Results showed that each of these factors affected participants' perceptions and punishments of violent crime. Participants' levels of racism were an additional factor. These results contribute to the understanding of how crimes in which the perpetrator's and victim's races differ are perceived.     

From Policy to Practice: From Ideas to Results,From Results to Trust

Few areas of public administration have been more discouraging, over a longer period of time, than the struggle to build public trust in government's work. However, new research suggests that public administrators can build trust by improving the results they produce for citizens. Practical, practicable steps can produce big improvements: improving government's focus on citizens' needs; engaging employees; focusing on fairness; and, especially, concentrating on the delivery of public services at the “retail” level. Citizens, research shows, can discriminate among levels of government, the administration of different programs in different functional areas, and the work of individual administrators. That provides strong hope for improving trust, in an era when too often government appears too untrustworthy.     

Building Secure Elections: E-Voting, Security, and Systems Theory

The increased use of information technology promises to revolutionize both the provision of government services and the vibrancy of democracy. In the aftermath of the Florida voting controversy during the 2000 presidential election, governments have placed their faith in technology, adopting e-voting machines that offer enhanced voter convenience and eliminate the need for subjective recounts. However, the same underlying assumptions that apply to e-government theory do not apply to e-voting because of the severity of consequences if failure occurs and the loss of transparency traditionally associated with the voting process. A more useful theoretical guide is systems theory, which deals with complex, high-risk systems. This literature has been largely overlooked by adopters of e-voting technology, even though the practical criticisms of e-voting made by computer security specialists reflect an essentially systems theory perspective.     

Assessing present practices for defense conversion in small to medium-sized firms

This study found that in spite of increased calls for conversion from defense to commercial-based capabilities to enhance survival and growth opportunities, reduced dependency on Department of Defense (DOD) sales was negatively associated with sales growth for a sample of 90 Ohio-based small to medium-sized defense firms from 1990 to 1993. This implies that rather than converting to commercial production, most smaller defense firms are shrinking along with DOD procurement budgets. This finding is not surprising, since the structural characteristics of the defense industry make DOD-dependent firms' transitioning to commercial business extremely difficult if not impossible. The paper concludes by providing several recommendations for managers and policy makers to help these firms make the transition to a civilian economy.     

Should compensation be based on costs or benefits?

In restitution cases should the compensation be based on the benefit to one side or on the cost to the other side? For example, should a rescuer be compensated for the costs to the rescuer or for the benefits to the rescuee? A similar question can be asked regarding awards in nuisance and accident cases. For example, should a polluter be liable for the damage to the pollutee or for the benefit to the polluter from not having to install smoke scrubbers? In this paper we will show the critical role that asymmetries in information have on the choice of payment structure.     

Telling tales: Gender discrimination,gender construction and battered women who kill

This article is based on papers presented at the 1993 Critical Legal Conference in Oxford, and to the Critical Law Groups of Bristol and Lancaster Universities. I would like to thank Mary Barker, Eugene Mac Namee and Paul Skidmore for their comments on earlier drafts.     

Selected Federal Research Grants for the Fiscal Year 1987

Selected Federal Research Grants for the Fiscal Year 1987