Revenue Diversification: Fiscal Illusion or Flexible Financial Management

This study examines the trends in revenue diversification in approximately 240 suburban municipalities in the Chicago metropolitan region between 1988 and 1997. It then tests a model of revenue diversification's impact on tax effort using data from 1993 to 1997, and separated by home rule and non–home rule municipalities. Trends show that suburbs with higher increases in diversification tend to be home rule, younger, less residential, experiencing more growth, less reliant on property taxes, and more reliant on sales taxes. Model estimates show that communities with more revenue diversification have lower tax effort when controlling for other determinants of tax effort, and this effect is stronger in non–home rule municipalities.     

Do Metropolitan Special Districts Reinforce Sociospatial Inequalities? A Study of Sewerage and Technical Education in Milwaukee County

Public choice scholars state that federal systems are more responsiveand efficient than unified ones. In addition, through overlappingunits, federal systems provide a measure of interjurisdiclionalequity. This research addresses the equity claim and extendsthe testing of it beyond previously-examined federal, state,and county role! to the unexamined role of metropolitan districtsthat overlap cities and suburbs. Services provided by the MetropolitanMilwaukee Sewerage Qistricl and the Milwaukee Area TechnicalCollege are found to be disparity-reducing between the Cityof Milwaukee and its suburbs.     

Contextualizing depression and physical functioning in battered women: adding vulnerability and resources to the analysis

This investigation examined the relationships between physical, psychological, and sexual abuse along with vulnerability appraisals, positive and negative social relations, and socioeconomic resources on battered women's depression symptomatology and physical functioning. Women were recruited following an incident of partner violence that resulted in a police-report or the filing of a protection order. Participants were surveyed using a standardized questionnaire. Bivariate correlations and multiple regressions were used to examine the relationships between predictors as well as the cumulative and unique contributions of each variable set in explaining depression and physical functioning. Findings indicate that vulnerability appraisals, social relations, and socioeconomic resources significantly explain women's depression and physical functioning over and above the unique effect of specific types of partner violence. Given that women's physical and mental health are important aspects of assisting women with safety planning and violence cessation strategies, implications for assessment and interventions for battered women are discussed.     

Tripping over thresholds: a reflection on legal andragogy

This lecture was delivered as the 2015 Annual Lord Upjohn Association of Law Teachers lecture. It explored the nature of law as a learned discipline, using the process of leading the review group responsible for writing the 2015 QAA Law Subject Benchmark Statement, but within a broader framework of threshold concepts. It considered how the process of learning the law can irreversibly transform the learner, and included a examination of liminal spaces (troublesome places in learning) in law and the teacher’s role in promoting the students’ transformation and in facilitating (nudging) their successful crossing of the legal learning threshold and meeting a learning outcome. The lecture set legal learning primarily in the undergraduate context in England and Wales, but it also included references to graduateness (in law and more widely) and commented on the place of an undergraduate law degree in the legal regulatory landscape.     

The Institution of a Standardized Investigation Protocol for Sudden Infant Death in the Eastern Metropole,Cape Town,South Africa,,

The rate for the sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) in Cape Town, South Africa, is estimated to be among the highest in the world (3.41/1000 live births). In several of these areas, including those of extreme poverty, only sporadic, nonstandardized infant autopsy, and death scene investigation (DSI) occurred. In this report, we detail a feasibility project comprising 18 autopsied infants with sudden and unexpected death whose causes of death were adjudicated according to the 1991 NICHD definitions (SIDS, n = 7; known cause of death, n = 7; and unclassified, n = 4). We instituted a standardized autopsy and infant DSI through a collaborative effort of local forensic pathology officers and clinical providers. The high standard of forensic investigation met international standards, identified preventable disease, and allowed for incorporation of research. We conclude that an effective infant autopsy and DSI protocol can be established in areas with both high sudden unexpected infant death, and elsewhere. (SUID)/SIDS risk and infrastructure challenges.