Surveying support for child and youth political participation in Australia and New Zealand

Recent decades have witnessed increased empirical and policy interest in children’s citizenship, particularly since the ratification of the United Nations Declaration of Children’s Rights. However, support for children’s active citizenship is often hindered by the pervasiveness of discourses that characterise children as innocent, developing, and free from responsibility. Public and governmental decision-making largely excludes children’s consultation and contributions, often determined by age alone. To quantifiably assess the amount of public support for children’s political participation, we commissioned a Likert scale survey question on degrees of support for children and youth (across four age groups between 3 and 18 year olds) having the opportunity to influence government decisions, in the Australian and New Zealand 2016 versions of the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP). Analysis of responses to this question in relation to demographic survey data indicate variation in preferences for different age groups, and that age, gender, and political party preference of respondents were variables of significance for both nations. These variables point to potential predictors of attitudes toward political participation of children and youth which have relevance for policymakers and educators in relation to provision of programmes that will increase the engagement of children and youth in government decision-making.     

Policy-making for the long term: the need to do more

Abstract. The government task of public policy-making has been growing substantially over three decades both in size and complexity. It will continue to do so. It is relevant to assess performance, taking account of the rule that even successful policies must be changed because the environment in which they work changes. This is illustrated in the areas of full employment and greater income security policies which now seem to entail endemic inflation. This in sight is underlined by Forrester's concept of the ‘counter-intuitive’ behavior of systems. Michael puts us on warning, too, that futures planning is handicapped not only by what we do not know, but by uncertainty as to what we need to know. The dimensions of the task of public lawmaking suggest a need for more effort on public policy research. This effort should be inter-disciplinary. It should be aimed far enough ahead in time to permit Useful work to be done and the results to be appraised and it should aim at seeing not only the early consequences, but also the longer-run results of policy actions. Sommaire. La responsabilité gouvernementale d'établir des politiques publiques a pris beaucoup d'ampleur au cow des trente dernières années, quantitativement et du point de vue de la complexité des décisions. Cette tendance ne fera que s'accentuer. Il est donc nécessaire d'évaluer les performances en acceptant comme prémisse qu'il faut éventuellement modifier les politiques même satisfaisantes parce que le milieu dans lequel elles s'appliquent ne reste pas le même. On peut en donner comme exemple les politiques contre le chômage et en faveur d'une plus grande sécurité du revenu qui semblent avoir entraîné une inflation endémique. Cette constatation se retrouve dam le concept de Forrester con-cernant “le comportement contre-intuitif” des systèmes. Michael nous avertit aussi du fait que c planification de l'avenir est gênée, non seulement par ce que nous ne savons pas, mais aussi par notre incertitude quant à ce que nous devrions savoir. Les dimensions même des politiques publiques demandent que l'on intensifie la recherche dans ce domaine. Cet effort devrait être inter-disciplinaire, il devrait être entrepris suffisamment longtemps à l'avance pour permettre de faire du travail utile, les résultats obtenus devraient être évalués et on devrait, en plus des conséquences dans la conjoncture, s'occuper de celles qu'entraîne à long terme l'application des politiques adoptées.     

Psychological autopsies: the current Department of Defense effort to standardize training and quality assurance

Psychological autopsies have been gathered by the US military for a long time, both for lessons learned after a known suicide and to investigate an equivocal death. The term "psychological autopsies" is now being restricted to define an investigation by mental health to help determine, in an equivocal death, if the manner of death is a homicide, suicide, an accident, or from natural causes. The Department of Defense has developed policy, and is now implementing training and peer review. A sample model curriculum, report format and quality assurance standards are included.     

State Policies Affecting Cities and Counties in 1992

Most states did not make major changes in their policies affecting cities and counties in 1992. California and Maryland are the two leading exceptions. As many states continued to experience fiscal stress, fourteen states cut aid to local governments, while ten states increased aid. Some important changes also occurred in local revenue authority, sorting out responsibilities, and restrictions on unfunded mandates.     

Preliminary Study of Testosterone and Empathy in Determining Recidivism and Antisocial Behavior

Recidivism, repeated criminal behavior after conviction and correction of prior offenses, is a costly problem across the nation. However, the contribution of empathy in determining the risk of recidivism has received limited attention, although lack of empathy has been related to antisocial personality disorder in various studies. Studies linked testosterone to aggression, antisocial behavior, and criminality, and evidence support hormonal connections between empathy and aggression. Adult male prison inmates convicted of violent or nonviolent offenses were included in a cross‐sectional study of empathy, antisocial behavior, salivary testosterone, and recidivism. Subjects underwent criminal history, Empathy Quotient, Levenson Self‐Report Psychopathy Scale, Beck Depression Inventory, Spielberger State‐Trait Anxiety Inventory, and salivary testosterone assays. Bivariate analyses indicated multiple correlations between variables. Multivariate modeling analyses found a significant relationship between self‐reported conviction number and psychopathy scale score (p = 0.013). These preliminary results suggest avenues of investigation of factors contributing to recidivism risk.     

Insider–outsider positions in health-development research: reflections for practice

Recognising that the stance of investigators could make a major impact on the quality and/or interpretation of development-study findings, a small investigation to explore researcher positions and roles was implemented. This was a subsidiary component of a larger health-development study which aimed to explore the evidence base for psychosocial and mental-health policy formulation and implementation in two conflict-affected, low-resourced countries. Five of the research team were interviewed by a sixth member in an open, semi-structured interview format, and the data were analysed thematically. The primary learning for the team, with wider implications for others in development research and practice, is that if the aim is to produce credible findings from investigations of this nature, it is important to exhibit a high degree of transparency regarding the role and position of each researcher, and an explicit attempt to be reflexive in relation to the associated challenges.     

A fresh look at a policy sciences methodology: collaborative modeling for more effective policy

Collaborative modeling offers a novel methodology that integrates core ideals in the policy sciences. The principles behind collaborative modeling enable policy researchers and decision makers to address interdisciplinarity, complex systems, and public input in the policy process. This approach ideally utilizes system dynamics to enable a multidisciplinary group to explore the relationships in a complex system. We propose that there is a spectrum of possibilities for applying collaborative modeling in the policy arena, ranging from the purely academic through full collaboration among subject matter experts, the general public, and decision makers. Likewise, there is a spectrum of options for invoking collaboration within the policy process. Results from our experiences suggest that participants in a collaborative modeling project develop a deeper level of understanding about the complexity in the policy issue being addressed; increase their agreement about root problems; and gain an appreciation for the uncertainty inherent in data and methods in studying complex systems. We conclude that these attributes of collaborative modeling make it an attractive option for improving the decision-making process as well as on-the-ground decisions.