Fostering and managing innovation in the forest service

This article discusses innovation and recommends ways the USDA-Forest Service can foster and manage the process. It is based on an analysis of field observations, a broad literature survey, and discussions with nearly 200 Forest Service people and some outside innovation-management professionals. The recommendations, although couched mainly in Forest Service terms, are general and can be adapted to virtually any organization.     

Penal ideology, sentencing and the legitimacy of trial justice

The paper explores the link between penal ideology and international trial justice from the perspective of sentencing. The argument is based on the premise that the perceived legitimacy of punishment is directly related to effective governance in criminal justice. As such, loss of faith, or lack of moral empathy by individuals and communities with the ideologies, processes and outcomes of punishment compromises the ability of criminal trials to function effectively in maintaining the ‘rule of law’. The paper argues that more emphasis should be given explaining the moral foundations that underpin perceptions of ‘justice’ in sociological accounts of the ‘reality’ of sentencing, and proposes an analytical framework for conceptualising this. Adopting this approach, the paper draws on examples from national and international criminal justice to illustrate how the hegemony of penal ideology and its implementation compromises the ability of sentencing outcomes to resonate with the trial‘s ‘relevant audience’. The paper then focuses on how penal ideology influences the construction of the factual basis for sentencing in international criminal trials, and considers the consequences of this for the perceived ‘legitimacy’ of international trial justice.     

Which Cosmopolitanism? Whose Empire? Or Why the Schmittian Charge of “Liberal Imperialism” is Only Half Right

This article examines the Schmittian-inspired charge that liberalism is intrinsically imperialistic and that it dehumanises alternative illiberal political projects in ways that lead to disproportionate and indiscriminate violence. It focuses specifically on the charge that the US war on terror is the latest manifestation of this kind of liberal imperialism. Such an argument only makes sense when liberalism is combined with exclusionary modes of nationalism and realism. This synthesis underpins the “hard Wilsonianism” of American neoconservatism. The article argues that the Schmittian-inspired charge of imperialism cannot be properly directed at the more inclusionary cosmopolitan forms of liberalism, which is illustrated with reference to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.     

Community-level impacts of temperature on urban street robbery

Purpose

Conduct the first empirical intra-urban examination of community-level connections between street robbery and temperature. Examine whether community socioeconomic status (SES) and crime-relevant land uses strengthen or weaken the temperature impact. A theoretical framework relying on routine activity theory, crime pattern theory, and resident-based control dynamics organized predictions.

Data and methods

For Philadelphia census tracts (n = 381), monthly street robbery counts and temperature data for 36 consecutive months were combined with census and land use data, and analyzed with multilevel models.

Results

Community robbery counts were higher when temperatures were higher, and in lower SES communities. In support of previous work with property crime, but in contrast to previous work with assault, the effects of temperature were stronger in higher SES communities. In support of the integrated model, commercial land use prevalence and subway stations were associated with heightened temperature impacts on robbery.

Conclusions

Community-level fixed and random effects of temperature on urban robbery counts persist when controlling for land use and community structure; further, the random effects depend in part on both. There are implications for understanding indigenous guardianship or informal resident-based place management dynamics, and for planning seasonal police deployments.     

Review article: Realising realism's role in us policy towards Europe

Adam Bronstone, European Union ‐ United States Security Relations. Transatlantic Tensions and the Theory of International Relations. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997. Pp.viii + 282, biblio., index. £45. ISBN 0–333–69136–9.

Robert L. Hutchings, American Diplomacy and the End of the Cold War. An Insider's Account of US Policy in Europe, 1989–1992. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997. Pp.xx + 456, illus., biblio., index. £33. ISBN 0–8018–5620–5.

Thomas Risse‐Kappen, Cooperation Among Democracies. The European Influence on US Foreign Policy. Princeton: Princeton University Press 1995. Pp.x + 250, biblio., index. £30.50. ISBN 0–6910–3644–6.     

Multiple Self‐Inflicted Stab Wounds to Neck,Chest and Abdomen as a Unique Manner of Suicide

Abstract: This is a case report of a 30‐year‐old man found dead in his flat lying on the floor with multiple stab wounds over the body, surrounded by an extensive volume of blood. Examination of the scene of death showed a secure flat, locked from inside. A blood‐stained knife was present close to the body and two unstained notes left on the sofa at the locus. A small plastic bag containing white powder (which following toxicological examinations appeared to be cocaine) and an almost full bottle of beer were present on a table. Autopsy revealed more than 40 stab wounds to neck, chest, and abdomen arranged in isolated groups within which the wounds showed similar directions and had a transverse orientation. Together with hesitation marks located on the neck and wrists these characteristics allowed to interpret this case as a suicide.     

William Friedman's Bletchley park diary: A different view

‘William Friedman's Bletchley Park Diary’ (INS 20/4 (2005) pp. 654–69) stated that Friedman, with Col. Alfred McCormack and Lt.-Col. Telford Taylor (US Army Special Branch), visited Bletchley Park in mid-1943 to negotiate with the British Government Code and Cypher School on how the Travis–Strong Agreement of May 1943 on Sigint cooperation should be implemented. This article shows that they had no substantive negotiating powers, and that they were essentially on a fact-finding mission.