The Confidence Game: Of Ropers and Roping

This is the fourth in a series of five articles on the Bernard Madoff con game. This essay is about the arrangements between some ropers, those that solicited money for Madoff and his investment company, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities (BLMIS). Ropers lure victims/marks/clients/investors into a con game. The focus of this essay is on, what began as an accounting firm, Avellino and Bienes (A & B), Madoff’s own roping operation, Cohmad Securities, and Robert M. Jaffe, a well-connected competitive golfer. Madoff’s ropers were generously rewarded for their efforts at bringing in money to keep his con game going.     

Crossing the Boundaries between ‘Third Sector’ and State: life-work histories from the Philippines,Bangladesh and the UK

The three-sector model—encompassing the private, public and non-governmental or ‘third’ sectors—is important to much of the research that is undertaken on development policy. While it may be analytically convenient to separate the three sectors, the realities are more complex. Non-governmental actors and government/public sector agencies are linked in potentially important (though often far from visible) ways via personal relationships, resource flows and informal transactions. This paper seeks to understand these links by studying the ‘life-work histories’ of individuals who have operated in both the government and third sector. Two main types of such boundary crossing are identified: ‘consecutive’, in which a person moves from one sector to the other in order to take up a new position, and ‘extensive’, in which a person is simultaneously active in both sectors. Drawing on a set of recently collected life-work history data, the paper explores the diversity of this phenomenon in three countries. It examines the reasons for cross-over, analyses the experiences of some of those involved, and explores the implications for better understanding the boundaries, both conceptual and tangible, that both separate and link government and third sector in these different institutional contexts.     

A community response to a 9/11 hate crime: Restorative justice through dialogue

Nearly two hours after the September 11 terrorist attacks, a hate crime was committed against the Islamic Cultural Center in Eugene, Oregon. Rather than following the conventional criminal justice process, the director of the center and his wife chose to engage in a process of restorative dialogue with other community members and the offender himself. This case study of moving from hatred to healing occurred in the larger context of restorative justice, a movement that is now developing in many hundreds of communities in more than 17 countries. Social workers committed to community practice have played an active role in this reform movement, which has developed over the past two decades.     

Improved detection of semen by use of direct acid phosphatase testing

Acid phosphatase (AP) reagent (Fast Black) is used as a presumptive test for the presence of seminal fluid on exhibits submitted in allegations of sexual assault. Research was carried out to determine whether the direct application of AP reagent to exhibits is a viable alternative to the traditional indirect (blot) testing method used routinely in the laboratory. The relative sensitivity of the indirect and direct testing methods was investigated as was the effect of AP reagent on histological staining of spermatozoa, the incidence of false positives from vaginal material and saliva, and the effect of AP reagent on subsequent DNA testing. Also included are the results of specificity studies from validations of the direct AP testing method. The results of this research show that, provided the incidence of false positives is borne in mind, direct AP testing can be especially useful when screening exhibits which are difficult to indirectly (blot) AP test or when it is problematic to relocate an AP positive stain. Direct application of AP reagent can also be beneficial for locating dilute semen stains. Three case examples are given which illustrate the use of direct AP testing in laboratory casework.     

Of texts and practices: Empowerment and organisational cultures in world bank-funded rural development programmes

The World Bank's recent concern for ‘empowerment’ grows out of longer standing discussions of participation, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil society. While commitments to empowerment enter World Bank texts with relative ease, their practice within Bank-funded projects is far more contingent, and the meanings they assume become much more diverse. This paper considers the relationship between such texts and the development practices which emerge, using an analysis of the ‘organisational cultures’ of the Bank and the many organisations on which it depends in the implementation of its rural development programmes. The paper presents a framework for analysing these organisational cultures in terms of (a) the broader contexts in which organisations and their staff are embedded; (b) the everyday practices within organisations; (c) the power relations within and among organisations; and (d) the meanings that come to dominate organisational practice. A case study of a development programme in Bangladesh is used to illustrate the ways in which cultural interactions between a variety of organisations – the World Bank, government agencies, NGOs, organisations of the poor, social enterprises – mediate the ways in which textual commitments to empowerment are translated into a range of diverse practices.     

Freedom of information: Developments in the United Kingdom

The great Iranian whodunit

Edward Shirley (pseud.): Know Thine Enemy: A Spy's Journey into Revolutionary Iran, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1997, 247 p. $24.00

The big con game

John Barron: Operation SOLO: The FBI's Man in the Kremlin, Regnery Publishing, Inc., Washington, D.C., 1996, 368 p., $24.95.     

Substance Use Among African American Adolescents in the Midwest

The purpose of this article is to examine the attitudes and substance use behaviors of African American adolescents living in the Midwest. A baseline survey was administered to 463 African American teens between the ages of 11–19. The article examines the relationship between attitudes toward drugs and drug-using behavior in this African American sample. Drug use will be compared to national drug use norms established by the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey. Overall participants had fairly negative attitudes toward drugs. Sixty percent of the sample reported that they were committed to a drug-free life, 74% had made a decision to stay away from marijuana, 79% reported making a decision not to smoke cigarettes, and 71% reported they would not get drunk in the next year. Females were more likely to stay away from marijuana than males. In this current study there is cause for alarm; participants reported higher percentages of ever smoking cigarettes and marijuana than the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey. This study shows there is a need to provide substance abuse prevention programs for African American adolescents. Limitations and future directions are also discussed.     

The Power of Aspirations and Expectations: The Connection Between Educational Goals and Risk Behaviors Among African American Adolescents

Numerous studies and interventions have been designed to either reduce the prevalence of risky behaviors (substance use, sexual activity, etc.) or increase the level of educational activity for adolescents. Research suggests that these two constructs may be related yet little is known about this relationship among African American youth. Archival data from the Risk Reduction Project was used to explore the connection between the protective factors of educational aspirations/expectations and recent participation in risky behavior. Results suggest that recent use of marijuana, alcohol to the point of intoxication, and sexual activity predicted lower aspirations and expectations among African American youth. From a positive youth development perspective, this study suggests the development of holistic interventions that build educational assets in youth, in addition to working to minimize risk behaviors. Limitations and suggestions for future research are also discussed.     

The Structure of Utility in Spatial Models of Voting

Empirical models of spatial voting allow legislators' locations in a policy or ideological space to be inferred from their roll‐call votes. These are typically random utility models where the features of the utility functions other than the ideal points are assumed rather than estimated. In this article, we first consider a model in which legislators' utility functions are allowed to be a mixture of the two most commonly assumed utility functions: the quadratic function and the Gaussian function assumed by NOMINATE. Across many roll‐call data sets, we find that legislators' utility functions are estimated to be very nearly Gaussian. We then relax the usual assumption that each legislator is equally sensitive to policy change and find that extreme legislators are generally more sensitive to policy change than their more centrally located counterparts. This result suggests that extremists are more ideologically rigid while moderates are more likely to consider influences that arise outside liberal‐conservative conflict.     

Politics Can Limit Policy Opportunism in Fiscal Institutions: Evidence from Official General Fund Revenue Forecasts in the American States

Governments make policy decisions in the same areas in quite different institutions. Some assign policymaking responsibility to institutions designed to be insulated from myopic partisan and electoral pressures and others do not. In this study, we claim that differences in political context and institutional design constrain the policy choices governments make. Testable propositions based on an analysis of varying electoral incentives and time horizons created by these different contexts are empirically tested using panel data on official general fund revenue forecasts in the American states, 1987 to 2008. The empirical evidence reveals that executive branch agencies and independent commissions produce more conservative forecasts than legislatures with one important exception. Executive branch revenue forecasts in states with gubernatorial term limits are indistinguishable from legislative branch forecasts. Further, we find that legislative branch forecasts are more conservative in the presence of divided partisan legislatures than unified party government. In turn, this implies that entrusting policymaking authority to either the executive branch or an independent commission may only be consequential when the political system itself fails to check legislative excesses or executive myopia.