THE SHINING LIGHTS? PUBLIC SERVICE AWARDS AS AN APPROACH TO SERVICE IMPROVEMENT

Award schemes have proliferated in the public sector worldwide – yet there is little analysis of their role in improving public services through celebrating performance and sharing good practice. This paper theorizes this development, establishing a research agenda to examine the functioning, attractiveness and effectiveness of award schemes, which may be classified as being threshold or competitive schemes. The paper examines a major English competitive award, the Beacon Scheme, and focuses initially on its attractiveness to applicants. The research constructed a database of applications and awards of all English local authorities over six years as well as using interviews and observation. The analysis examined trends over a changing policy context, along with differences in application rates across eligible authorities and perceptions of the scheme. The analysis is used inductively to construct criteria by which the attractiveness of award schemes and their effectiveness in service improvement can be conceptualized.     

CRIMINAL PROPENSITY,DEVIANT SEXUAL INTERESTS AND CRIMINAL ACTIVITY OF SEXUAL AGGRESSORS AGAINST WOMEN: A COMPARISON OF EXPLANATORY MODELS*

Three hypotheses have been used to describe the male propensity for sexual aggression towards women: a general propensity to offend, a specific propensity to sexually offend and a combination of both. In this paper, using structural equation modeling, we compared the relative utility of these three hypotheses in explaining criminal activity in adulthood of sexual aggressors of women. In total, 209 adult males who were convicted of at least one sexual offence were included in the study. Results indicate that a propensity model emphasizing the role of an early and persistent general propensity to act in an antisocial manner during childhood and adolescence is most adequate to explain sexual aggressors' criminal activity. After controlling for the role of this propensity, a specific propensity characterized by high sexualization and deviant sexual interests explained only a modest proportion of variance of the sexual criminal activity.