Beyond crime seriousness: Fitting the punishment to the crime

This paper presents an exposition of how the factorial survey approach may enhance empirical assessments of the complex judgment principles involved in public views of just punishments for convicted offenders. Ratings of the appropriateness of sentences given across 50 typical crimes obtained from a household sample (N=774) of the Boston SMSA and several special-interest samples in 1982 are examined in three alternative ordinary least-squares (OLS) regression equations. These analyses show there is not a one-to-one direct relationship between public perceptions of the seriousness of criminal acts and desired sanctions. Crime seriousness is modified by the characteristics of the offenders and victims and by the consequences of the crimes. Preferred punishments also vary in severity by demographic, experiential, and attitudinal characteristics of the persons who make the judgments.     

Expectancy theory in developing nations: Motivating Botswana public servants

The degree to which individuals are motivated to apply themselves depends in part on how far they expect to be able to achieve given goals. This study, based on interviews of local government administrators in Botswana, not only stresses the importance of expectancy in motivation but reports the importance of altruistic goals among these administrators. Among those interviewed there was a strong desire to advance their own careers, both by developing themselves in the job they currently hold, and by advancing through the organizational hierarchy. Employees, however, were also anxious to accomplish concrete objectives in their current jobs and thus to contribute to the development of the nation. Here unless officials have the expectancy of being able to achieve these goals their motivation is affected. Thus emphasis is placed in this article on the need to supplement traditional attention to pay and promotion as devices to improve motivation with a concern to remove road blocks to development. The enquiry thus strengthens the case for the performance improvement programme of the United Nations.     

Coping With the Loss of General Revenue Sharing in Ohio

The authors examine the impact of the loss of general revenue sharing on Ohio local governments. A study of seven large cities and surrounding counties found that the loss of the federal funds did not trigger any fiscal crises: it came as no surprise. Localities engaged in a number of coping strategies including cuts in spending and replacement of lost federal funds from local surpluses, increased debt, and some tax increases.     

Rural Senegalese Perceptions of Environmental Quality

Differences in environmental perspectives between advanced industrial and developing country nationals has both practical and policy implications for the transfer of environmentally sound technologies. This paper characterizes rural Senegalese environmental perspectives in the context of competing environmental paradigms and of their historical development. Methodological issues concerning the adaptation of items from the Health of the Planet Survey (HOPS) questionnaire (Dunlap, Gallup, and Gallup, 1993) to rural Senegal are discussed and qualitative survey results presented. Based on a stratified national sample of rural Senegalese men and women, a quantitative analysis addresses the priority concerns of rural Senegalese men and women and how they perceive the trade off between environmental protection and economic development. The paper concludes that attempts to draw valid conclusions concerning comparisons between the environmental perspectives of the publics of advanced industrial and low income developing countries must take local conditions, their historical dynamics and cultural expressions into account.