Beyond Crime Statistics: The Construction and Application of a Criminogenity Monitor in Amsterdam

Criminologists have devoted a great deal of attention to risk factors – also called criminogenic factors – leading to criminal offending. This paper presents a criminogenity monitor which includes 19 risk factors that underlie crime. These factors do not themselves cause criminal behaviour; rather, they must be seen as signals that crimes may be committed. After discussing how the criminogenity monitor was constructed, we apply the risk factors we examined to the situation in Amsterdam, capital city of the Netherlands. The monitor is intended to function particularly as an instrument to rationalise policy-makers’ work in targeting and preventing symptoms of crime at three geographical levels: the entire city, its boroughs and its neighbourhoods.     

Place Marketing as Governance Strategy: An Assessment of Obstacles in Place Marketing and Their Effects on Attracting Target Groups

Place marketing is increasingly being used as a governance strategy for managing perceptions about regions, cities, and towns. What are the most important obstacles to implementing place marketing? Based on a survey of 274 public managers involved in place marketing in the Netherlands, this article analyzes the main obstacles as perceived by public managers. It also analyzes the effects of obstacles on perceived results of place marketing in terms of attracting target groups. A factor analysis of a variety of obstacles investigated in the survey shows three clearly demarcated obstacles: administrative obstacles within municipalities, obstacles in developing the substance of marketing campaigns, and political obstacles. Obstacles in developing the substance of the marketing campaigns have significant effects on the results of place marketing in terms of attracting stakeholders, whereas the two other obstacles have no significant influence.     

Explaining miracles: Third ways and work and welfare

The emergence of the Dutch miracle – often seen as a result of the famous Polder model – has not only resulted in drastic changes as regards the labour market policy, but also in a performance that is considered superior to most other OECD economies. In addition, it is often suggested that this development may well be considered a prototype of the Third Way politics of contemporary social democracy. Both views are scrutinised and discussed by means of a cross-national and cross-time analysis of 19 liberal democracies within the OECD world. The comparative analysis of the labour market performance, also by means of demographic categories, demonstrates that the performance of the Dutch labour market is neither outstanding nor exceptional. It appears mainly to have been caused by the growth of part-time labour. Hence, one may well doubt whether a Dutch miracle exists at all. The analysis also demonstrates that the Dutch labour market performance is neither optimal nor beneficial to all concerned. Finally, it is observed that the social democratic Third Way turns out to be a trade-off in the Netherlands: welfare is becoming less generous and work comes first.     

Death penalty sentiment in the United States

Pro-death penalty sentiment, at its all-time low in 1966 at 42% of the country's adult population, steadily rose to 71% in 1986. This average percentage varies widely for various subgroups of the population-as widely as between 43 and 93% at the extremes: political leanings, ethnic background, sex, and economic status are the main determinants. Death penalty sentiments are not of uniform strength: about one-third of the pro-death penalty population might give up their position if the alternative were life without parole and if they were convinced that the death penalty is not a deterrent. In the main, death penalty sentiment is not determined by utilitarian considerations but by moralistic ones, which in turn are part of the liberal-conservative dividing lines.     

Budget-Making for Social Purposes

A theory of the budgetary process within public resource allocation has to recognize two basic properties of budgetary behavior and budgetary interaction: variation over time and program variation. Our results indicate that the hypothesis of program variation is worthy of effort, as we find different decision mechanisms operating in the six programs studied, which belong to different categories of public resource allocation. Variation over time is particularly difficult to accommodate within the framework of incrementalist notions: incremental decision rules imply structural stability over time slices. We find the opposite to be true in two of the program types analyzed, the transfer programs and the service programs. Bureaucratic programs may look incremental; however, that may only be an appearance, as a closer analysis of the data indicates that the decision mechanism involves the occurrence of shift-points or non-incremental changes. A theory of the public expenditure process has to take into account both incremental decision strategies and non-incremental ones, which requires an econometric methodology based on the possibility of structural variability. Such a methodology includes the use of both test statistics and estimation techniques suitable to the occurrence of structural variability.     

Proximity as a Resource Base for Competitive Advantage: University–Industry Links for Technology Transfer

One of the important arguments in favor of Science Parks is the claimed networking benefit. A total of 273 new technology-based firms (NTBFs) were surveyed. The assessing of academic knowledge and expertise by businesses located on site is a key principle of Science Parks. Science Park NTBFs stand out as a special group of small firms in terms of performance (Growth: sales and employment). The arguments presented in this paper recognize the complex nature of co-operative resources. The level of interaction in the innovation process between firms located on Science Parks and local universities is generally low, but it is higher than the level of interaction exhibited by firms that are not Science Park firms. The underlying premise of our research propositions (P1 and P2) is that the NTBF-specific co-operative resources will provide the firm with a competitive advantage. This paper, building on the resource-based theory and empirical evidence, argues that NTBFs working with universities that have more proximity achieve certain advantages. Proximity between NTBFs and universities promote the exchange of ideas through both formal and informal networks. Statistically significant differences between Science Park NTBFs and off-Park NTBFs were recorded with regard to product development in the last three years.     

The privatization of health care in Europe: an eight-country analysis

This article presents an analysis of recent changes in the public-private mix in health care in eight European countries. The leading question is to what extent a process of privatization in health care can be observed. The framework for the analysis of privatization draws on the idea that there are multiple public/private boundaries in health care. The overall picture that emerges from our analysis is diverse, but there is evidence that health care in Europe has become somewhat more private. The growth of the public fraction in health care spending has come to an end since the 1980s, and in a few countries the private fraction even increased substantially. We also found some evidence for a shift from public to private in health care provision. Furthermore, there are signs of privatization in health care management and operations, as well as investments. Specific attention is spent on the identification of factors that push privatization forward and factors that work as a barrier to privatization.     

Elain: Innovative transfer of a federal-industry network

ELAIN is an automation project for the processing of export-license applications by the Bureau of Export Administration of the Department of Commerce (DOC). The project is unusual in that it was implemented by administrators without going through normal approval channels. The relationships between the change agent and the agency participants can best be described by Havelock's diffusion-adoption model, which depicts the execution as a one-way relationship from sender to receiver. The more complex models that were examined do not apply because this project was inauguated and furthered by bureaucrats, as opposed to the more usual participation of political appointees. The ELAIN system uses commercial valueadded telecommunications vendors to trasfer the information between the exporters and DOC. Industry used its own funds to develop the necessary special features, with repayment possible only if exporters used their sevices, paying fees for this convenience. No precedent for this type of arrangement was found, hence it is considered to be a social invention as well as an innovation.