High quality criminal justice education and the role of the community college

Summary We are entering a new era where the demands for quality will include higher expectations of faculty, students, and practitioners. Now is the time for action and decision. Criminal justice education has rapidly matured; rather than being complacent about the progress we’ve made, we should take the lead and become acknowledged as pacesetters for high educational standards. Recommendations for improving the quality of higher education must be considered with sincerity and diligence. The capability for excellence is present in the conscientious faculty residing in each and every criminal justice program. With proper nurturing and support, these faculty would flourish and this excellence come into full bloom. Furthermore, the task of achieving quality education in all fields will not and must not fall to one group for action. We are faced with the necessity of bringing all factions together—teacher, administrator, student, and practitioner—to develop and implement solutions to today’s education problems, not as a last resort, but in recognition of change as a constant reality. The time for change is always now.     

Low-Power Contributions in Multilateral Negotiations: A Framework Analysis

Negotiation Journal - How do low-power parties contribute to the resolution of complex, multiparty conflicts? The research reported here uses content analysis to capture evidence of the strategies...     

Relationship Between Two Types of Help Seeking Behavior in Domestic Violence Victims

A coordinated community response system to the help-seeking behaviors of domestic violence victims is critical to minimize the impact of violent events and to educate the public, so that safe and effective conflict management skills may replace violent responses. The focus for the present study is to identify and analyze victims’ choices of law enforcement assistance in stopping the violence and/or aid through the services of the regional family violence center. Some victims select legal channels of support; others rely exclusively on social service support, and others seek assistance from both sources. Characteristics of victims whose cases followed two types of help-seeking behavior patterns—legal support or social support–were determined through archived data from both the records of a regional family violence center (FVC) (n=258) and domestic violence incident reports of a police department serving a city of approximately 200,000 citizens (n=127). Findings indicate that African American victims more frequently sought protection through law enforcement sources than they did through family violence center services, and the reverse was true for Euro-Americans.     

Short Circuit: Federal-State Relations in the California Energy Crisis

This article examines the changing roles of the federal andstate governments in electricity regulatory policy, includingthe history of electricity regulation and the development ofstate and federal regulatory powers. The case of Californiasuggests that deregulation has elevated the role of federalregulators and increased their responsibility to protect theinterests of the states beyond those of the market. The inabilityof the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to protect Californiafrom predatory market manipulation demonstrates the necessityfor states to plan carefully to protect their multiple policyinterests.     

The transition from defense contractor to commercial company: The Huntsville, Alabama case

Studies have documented the historic failure of defense contractors in commercial markets. Yet some defense firms make this transition successfully. Based on a survey of Department of Defense contractors located in Huntsville, Alabama, this paper compares the characteristics and business strategies of firms that were successful in commercialization with those firms that were not. Characteristics of firms gaining employees during the defense funding downturns of the early 1990s included: (1) being an 8A vendor; (2) being a manufacturer or technical services provider rather than a research and design firm; and (3) spending a higher proportion of total revenue on internal research and development and marketing.     

WOMEN'S AND MEN'S VIEWS OF MEDIATION IN VOLUNTARY AND MANDATORY MEDIATION SETTINGS

This article reports findings regarding women in mediation from a combined group of 184 persons who received mediation services from the Alameda County Superior Court Family Court Services or the Northern California Mediation Center. This empirical study refutes many of the criticisms of mediation by some feminist critics of the process.