Risky Reports: Crime Risk Assessments and Spatial Governance

The identification, assessment, and minimization of crime risk has permeated practices that extend well beyond traditional criminal justice responses. This article analyses crime risk assessment reports and the guidelines and processes through which they are produced for large-scale commercial and residential developments and redevelopments, taking New South Wales Australia as a case study. The article suggests that although the crime risk assessment guidelines and reports deploy a language of risk, there is a messiness and inconsistency to the crime risk assessment process that raises significant questions its normative utility. The article concludes that the language and promise of risk minimisation can silence or ‘black box’ what appear to be coherent regulatory process making them little more than symbolic gestures.     

Parental Influence on Eating Behavior: Conception to Adolescence

The first years of life mark a time of rapid development and dietary change, as children transition from an exclusive milk diet to a modified adult diet. During these early years, children's learning about food and eating plays a central role in shaping subsequent food choices, diet quality, and weight status. Parents play a powerful role in children's eating behavior, providing both genes and environment for children. For example, they influence children's developing preferences and eating behaviors by making some foods available rather than others, and by acting as models of eating behavior. In addition, parents use feeding practices, which have evolved over thousands of years, to promote patterns of food intake necessary for children's growth and health. However in current eating environments, characterized by too much inexpensive palatable, energy dense food, these traditional feeding practices can promote overeating and weight gain. To meet the challenge of promoting healthy weight in children in the current eating environment, parents need guidance regarding alternatives to traditional feeding practices.     

Capacity,Guidance, and the Implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

Programs administered by the U.S. Department of Energy under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 were designed to spur investment in clean energy and jump‐start the economy. There was considerable variation, however, in the proportion of obligated funds that states spent during each year. A primary goal of the ARRA was to infuse as much money as possible into the struggling economy; however, there was significant variation in the success with which states implemented these programs. This article draws on and extends the literature on intergovernmental implementation to explain such variation. The authors argue that jurisdictional capacity and federal guidance were important determinants of the rate at which states spent ARRA funds and, more important, that these factors interacted with one another in the implementation process. This assertion is tested using a mixed‐methods approach that includes a regression analysis of state ARRA spending between 2009 and 2012, as well as an evaluation of interviews conducted with 46 state agency representatives responsible for spending ARRA energy funds.     

The value of reducing risks of death: A note on new evidence

Government agencies face difficult resource-allocation decisions when confronted with projects that will reduce risks of fatality. Evidence from individual behavior helps determine society's values for reducing risks. The most credible evidence is based on individuals' willingness to pay (or willingness to accept compensation) for small changes in risks. Studies of consumer behavior are limited, but more evidence is available relating wages to job risks. Contingent valuation studies reinforce the wage-risk implications, leading to a range of values that can be compared with the costs of proposals to reduce fatal risks.