Recidivism as a feedback process: An analytical model and empirical validation

A feedback model of the criminal justice system (CJS) incorporates the continuing input of people arrested for the first time (virgin arrests) and the recycling of individuals with prior arrests (recidivists). Such a model is needed to enable CJS planners to assess the impact of possible actions on the future arrests and system workloads. Using an empirically determined estimate of the number of virgin arrests in the U.S. as input to a feedback model of the CJS, recidivism parameters, probability of rearrest, and average time between arrests were estimated by matching the output of the model to the total arrests in the U.S. in the period 1960–70. The average deviation between the model output and total U.S. arrests was minimized at less than 4% when the probability of rearrest is equal to 0.875 and the average time between arrests equal to 1.1. years. The relative sensitivity of total arrests to changes in virgin arrests and the probability of rearrest are also presented.     

The false memory syndrome: Clinical/legal issues for the prosecution

Early trauma, especially alleged recollected sexual or ritualistic abuse, has dominated both the clinical and legal systems recently. The clinical/legal challenge is to discern between true abuse and false memories. Modern medical technology has provided new insights into the operation of the brain along with the central and peripheral nervous systems and their relationship to the endocrine system. We now have a better understanding of how our system processes trauma and severe anxiety. An understanding of trauma recollection and client's susceptibility to causal suggestions from the neuropsychological perspective is crucial when these types of abuses are alleged.     

Federal Oversight, Local Control, and the Specter of "Resegregation" in Southern Schools

Analyzing data for the 100 largest districts in the South andBorder states, we ask whether there is evidence of "resegregation"of school districts and whether levels of segregation can belinked to judicial decisions. We distinguish segregation measuresbased on racial isolation from those based on racial imbalance.Only one measure of racial isolation suggests that districtsin these regions experienced resegregation between 1994 and2004, and changes in this measure appear to be driven largelyby the rising nonwhite percentage in the student populationrather than by district policies. Although we find no time trendin racial imbalance over this period, we find that variationsin racial imbalance across districts are nonetheless associatedwith judicial declarations of unitary status, suggesting thatsegregation in schools might have declined had it not been forthe actions of federal courts.     

Variations in Organizational Participation in Government: The Case of Denmark*

The main purpose of this article is to refine, modify, and elaborate some central propositions and assumptions in the scholarly debate on corporatism or corporate pluralism. The empirical base is a data archive containing information on practically all interest groups in Denmark. Hypotheses are formulated and tested concerning variations in direct representation and participation of interest groups in public policy-making across (a) types of interest groups, (b) organizational resources, (c) organizational structures, and{d) political issue areas. Contrary to prevailing propositions in the literature on corporatism, the Danish case shows that corporate structures and practices go hand in hand with a system of interest groups characterized by myriads of interest groups, and an overall, rather decentralized structure.     

Government Risk-Financing Pools: An Assessment of Current Practices

Since 1970, state and local governments have experienced two “insurance crises;” the first occurred in the mid- to late-1970s and the second in the mid-80s. The result has been a twenty-year period of time in which state and local governments have been able to afford insurance only intermittently-if insurance has been available at all. In response to this problem, local governments, government associations, and state governments created alternative risk-finartcing mechanisms to provide coverage for themselves. These mechanisms, commonly referred to as self-insurance pools, enable local governments within a state to pool together risks and resources to finance the costs of fortuitous losses. In 1988, the first comprehensive examination of pooling practices was undertaken through a nationwide survey. This article reports the findings from the first follow-up study since the 1988 survey and further extends knowledge of pooling and pooling practices.