Performance Standards and Evaluation

The benefits of performance monitoring for public services are identified as greater transparency of objectives and accountability for results. This article considers recent experience in developing standards to evaluate efficiency and effectiveness of public services. In broad terms this is being done through performance information which is a much more encompassing concept than standards or indicators. Such information is an element of an accountability framework that provides greater management autonomy and flexibility and extends to the private sector which is increasingly providing, or involved with the provision of, public services.     

Introduction: Blogs, politics and power: a special issue of Public Choice

There is good reason to believe that blogs are changing politics, but we don’t know exactly how. Nor do we know whether the normative consequences of blogs for politics are likely to be good or bad. In this special issue, we and our co-authors undertake the first sustained effort to map the empirical and normative consequences of blogs for politics. We begin by setting out basic information about blogs, and some anecdotal evidence suggesting that they are indeed politically important. We go on to identify the key empirical and normative questions that blogs raise, and discuss the dearth of relevant data in the existing literature. We conclude by summarizing how the authors of the articles gathered in this special issue help fill this gap.     

The power and politics of blogs

The rise of bloggers raises the vexing question of why blogs have any influence at all, given their relatively low readership and lack of central organization. We argue that to answer this question we need to focus on two key factors—the unequal distribution of readers across weblogs, and the relatively high readership of blogs among journalists and other political elites. The unequal distribution of readership, combined with internal norms and linking practices allows interesting news and opinions to rise to the “top” of the blogosphere, and thus to the attention of elite actors, whose understanding of politics may be changed by frames adopted from the blogosphere.     

Athletic Involvement and Adolescent Delinquency

Athough conventional wisdom suggests that organized sport deters delinquency by building character, structuring adolescents’ time, and providing incentives for socially approved behavior, the empirical evidence to date has been mixed. Based on a sample of approximately 600 Western New York adolescents, the present study examined how self-reported jock identity, school athlete status, and frequency of athletic activity differentially influenced a range of delinquent behaviors. Neither athlete status nor frequency of athletic activity predicted these behaviors; however, jock identity was associated with significantly more incidents of delinquency. This finding was robust across both gender and race. Follow-up analyses indicated that jock identity facilitated both minor and major delinquency, with major delinquency effects for white but not black adolescents. Research scientist at the Research Institute on Addictions and adjunct assistant professor of sociology at the University at Buffalo, SUNY. Her research interests focus primarily on adolescent and young adult health-risk behaviors such as substance use, sexual risk-taking, and suicidality. She is the principal investigator of a exploratory study of athletic involvement, gender, and substance use by college students. Professor of physical education and sport at S.U.N.Y. Brockport for 33 years. A native New Yorker, he has also held adjunct faculty appointments at universities in Finland, Israel, England, New Zealand, and Norway. He has authored or edited nearly a hundred publications in physical education, sociology of sport, and social psychology of sport, including Sports Fans: The Psychology and Social Impact of Spectators (Routledge) and Contemporary Issues in Sociology of Sport (Human Kinetics). Senior research scientist at the Research Institute on Addictions and adjunct associate professor of sociology at the University at Buffalo, SUNY. Her research interests include family influences on the development of adolescent substance use and other problem behaviors, including gambling. Professor of sociology at D’Youville College, and director of the Center for Research on Physical Activity, Sport & Health. He has conducted numerous nationwide studies of the links among sport, health, and educational outcomes. An avid scholar on gender relations, his recent book Prison Masculinities (Temple University) focuses on the USA prison system. Professor of sociology at the University at Buffalo, SUNY. Author of numerous articles and books on adolescent and parental development in families and groups, his most recent book is Collaborative Circles: Friendship Dynamics and Creative Work (University of Chicago).     

Speedy trial and the legal process

The role of speedy trial in state proceedings is empirically investigated for defendants in criminal homicide (N=444). Employing multiple regression techniques, an assessment is made of the relationship between the length of time involved in defendants' legal processing, their sociolegal status, and the final dispositions awarded by the court. The findings show that blacks and jailed defendants are processed more swiftly than their white and bailed counterparts. The consitutional guarantee of speedy trial also appears to be a state resource, in that cases adjudicated promptly result in higher conviction rates than those which are delayed. This is especially so for defendants who are not released on bail, and may be attributed to the prosecutorial success that accompanies the availability of witnesses whose memories are unclouded by time and the existence of a social climate that calls for retribution. While not related to postponement in the present study, it is suggested that the efforts of counsel in obtaining delay may become increasingly important with the adoption of the new federal guidelines.     

Gender/Racial Differences in Jock Identity,Dating, and Adolescent Sexual Risk

Despite recent declines in overall sexual activity, sexual risk-taking remains a substantial danger to US youth. Existing research points to athletic participation as a promising venue for reducing these risks. Linear regressions and multiple analyses of covariance were performed on a longitudinal sample of nearly 600 Western New York adolescents in order to examine gender- and race-specific relationships between jock identity and adolescent sexual risk-taking, including age of sexual onset, past-year and lifetime frequency of sexual intercourse, and number of sexual partners. After controlling for age, race, socioeconomic status, and family cohesion, male jocks reported more frequent dating than nonjocks but female jocks did not. For both genders, athletic activity was associated with lower levels of sexual risk-taking; however, jock identity was associated with higher levels of sexual risk-taking, particularly among African American adolescents. Future research should distinguish between subjective and objective dimensions of athletic involvement as factors in adolescent sexual risk.Research Scientist at the Research Institute on Addictions of the University at Buffalo. Received PhD in sociology from the University at Buffalo. Research interests include adolescent athletic involvement, gender, race, and health-risk behavior, particularly substance use.Department Chair and Professor of Sociology at the University at Buffalo. Received PhD in sociology from Yale University. Research interests include the effects of families, friendships, and organizational participation on adolescent development and substance use.Senior Research Scientist at the Research Institute on Addictions of the University at Buffalo. Received PhD in sociology from the University at Buffalo. Research interests include family influences on adolescent substance use, gambling, and other problem behaviors.Professor of Physical Education and Sport at SUNY College at Brockport. Received PhD in physical education from Ohio State University. Research interests include the sociology of sport, social psychology of sport, sport group dynamics, and sport spectatorship/fandom.Professor of Sociology at DYouville College. Received PhD in sociology from the University at Buffalo. Research interests include the sociology of sport, gender, and mens health.     

The drug trade in Southern Africa

Introductory Address by Dr. AM Omar MP, Minister of Justice, at the South African Institute of International Affairs’ Workshop on ‘The Drug Trade in Southern Africa’, 5 June 1997, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.     

Online victimization risk and self-protective strategies: developing police-led cyber fraud prevention programs

ABSTRACT

The prevalence and impact of cyber fraud continues to increase exponentially with new and more innovative methods developed by offenders to target and exploit victims for their own financial reward. Traditional crime reaction methods used by police have proved largely ineffective in this context, with offenders typically located outside of the police jurisdiction of their victims. Given this, some police agencies have begun to adopt a victim focused, crime prevention approach to cyber fraud. The current research explores with a sample of two hundred and eighteen potential cyber fraud victims, the relationship between online victimization risk, knowledge and use of crime prevention strategies. The study found those most at risk of cyber fraud victimization despite accurate perceptions of risk and knowledge of self-protective behaviors in the online environment underutilise online prevention strategies. This research has important implications for police agencies who are designing and delivering cyber fraud education. It provides guidance for the development of effective prevention programs based on practical skills development.