Target Selection Models with Preference Variation Between Offenders

Objectives

This study explores preference variation in location choice strategies of residential burglars. Applying a model of offender target selection that is grounded in assertions of the routine activity approach, rational choice perspective, crime pattern and social disorganization theories, it seeks to address the as yet untested assumption that crime location choice preferences are the same for all offenders.

Methods

Analyzing detected residential burglaries from Brisbane, Australia, we apply a random effects variant of the discrete spatial choice model to estimate preference variation between offenders across six location choice characteristics. Furthermore, in attempting to understand the causes of this variation we estimate how offenders’ spatial target preferences might be affected by where they live and by their age.

Results

Findings of this analysis demonstrate that while in the aggregate the characteristics of location choice are consistent with the findings from previous studies, considerable preference variation is found between offenders.

Conclusions

This research highlights that current understanding of choice outcomes is relatively poor and that existing applications of the discrete spatial choice approach may underestimate preference variation between offenders.

     

Exploring the Origins of the American Administrative State: Recent Writings on the Ambiguous Legacy of Alexander Hamilton

Books reviewed:
Arnold A. Rogow, A Fatal Friendship: Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr.
John Steele Gordon, Hamilton's Blessing: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Our National Debt.
Peter McNamara, Political Economy and Statesmanship: Smith, Hamilton, and the Foundation of the Commercial Republic.     

“Internationalizing the curriculum:” challenges to public administration

It is tempting to “internationalize the curriculum” in professional graduate programs by adding courses and units that deal with strategies to improve the international competitive position of the United States. The study considers three strategies for dealing more credibly with international and global issues. The more difficult and challenging are those that attempt to incorporate multi- and interdisciplinary activities. The study describes several topics with global implications that would benefit from interdisciplinary study. In the meantime, the traditional perspective of Public Administration is not very relevant to global concerns because of the close connection to nation-states and hierarchical organizations. There are, however, a number of trends in the field that could enhance its ability to contribute to a global perspective such as a growing attention to new institutional arrangements, more emphasis on consultations rather than regulatory controls, and more interest in the role of managers.     

Communication induced distortion in scholarly research -- the case of action theory in american public administration

The history of action theory in American Public Administration provides the basis for development of a conceptual scheme for understanding how the operating codes that define communication processes used by theorists can distort scholarship. Transaction is a mode that induces distortion; relationship is a mode that helps avoid it. Some suggestions for reissuing the current operating code -- in the direction of making it better fit the relationship model -- are presented.