The organizational justice effect among criminal justice employees: A meta-analysis*

Organizational justice has been shown to be an important predictor of criminal justice employees’ work-related perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors. In this study, we take stock of the organizational justice effect on criminal justice employees’ work outcomes by subjecting the literature to a meta-analysis. Multilevel modeling based on 1,924 effect size estimates drawn from 143 studies (95 independent data sets) was used to establish the empirical status of the organizational justice effect. The results indicate a sizeable relationship between organizational justice and justice system employee work outcomes (Mz = .256, CI = [.230, .283]). The findings also demonstrate that the organizational justice effect size varies slightly across several methodological variations. Specifically, the organizational justice effect size is larger when the concept is measured with scales that contain survey items tapping into all four dimensions of justice. Also, we found that outcome type, presence of confounding mechanisms, research design, and sample characteristics moderate the justice effect. We conclude that organizational justice theory is a useful framework for developing a more theoretically informed understanding of justice system employees’ work outcomes. We discuss the theoretical implications of the meta-analytic findings and avenues for future research based on the results.     

Who Benefits from Targeted Property Tax Relief? Evidence from Virginia Elections

This study examines the market impact of targeted property tax relief, which is critical for understanding who exactly benefits from a widely used local policy. Specifically, we investigate this in the context of two statewide ballot measures in Virginia that provided property tax relief or heightened expectations for future relief intended to aid disabled veterans and seniors, respectively. Using residential multiple listing service microdata from Virginia, results from a regression discontinuity analysis show that once the 2010 tax relief measures passed on Election Day, property values rose sharply in response to the sudden increase in demand for homeownership among the targeted groups. We find that senior preferred housing and properties within areas with higher proportions of seniors and veterans experienced the highest price appreciation, while areas with fewer veterans or seniors saw little impact. The findings suggest that this type of policy provides an immediate benefit to current homeowners, thereby offsetting benefits for subsequent homeowners within the targeted groups. This effect represents an unintended consequence of targeted property tax relief as a policy tool more generally, as immediate capitalization into home prices subsequently increases the cost of housing for many individuals the relief was intended to help.     

The Trouble with Boycotts: Can Fossil Fuel Divest Campaigns Be Prohibited?

Organizations like 350.org, Insure Our Future, and DivestInvest are leading campaigns to urge boycott and divestment from fossil fuels as a means to address climate change. Increasingly, they are finding success, from individual consumers to massive pension and sovereign wealth funds. However, as organized group boycotts, divest campaigns may be vulnerable to prosecution under antitrust law. This article explores the likelihood of success in such a case, considering the history of the legal treatment of organized boycotts, the scope and purpose of antitrust law, and the possible application of the First Amendment to the divestment context. The article finds that fossil fuel boycotts straddle a number of contradictory characteristics, making application of existing theories inadequate. In particular, existing precedent protects political boycotts, but not those with primarily economic objectives, and fails to definitively address whether a noncompetitive actor may undertake concerted action under antitrust law. In the context of climate change, where the political is economic, and political goals may seek significant economic changes (such as undermining an entire industry), existing theories may lead to a result that threatens both free expression and the health of the planet. The essential flexibility of the Sherman Act, however, provides room for protection of political activity, even where the ultimate objective is economic in nature.     

Boko Haram,bandits and slave-raiders: identities and violence in a Central African borderland

ABSTRACT

Boko Haram is a religiously motivated insurgency with a complex history in Nigeria and origins in urban Maiduguri. Through most of its existence Boko Haram has shown an affinity for border regions: the frontier zones between Nigeria and Niger, the Mandara Mountains on the border with Cameroon, and the shorelines and islands of Lake Chad. This paper argues that this is an historically mediated process. Boko Haram as a borderland phenomenon echoes the hijra of Usman dan Fodio, but also structured forms of violence and wealth creation that have historically united elites and their followers in the region. Moreover, there are continuities between the actions and actors associated with earlier phases of border violence and processes involving Boko Haram today. This suggests that Boko Haram will not be “defeated,” but rather that the region will see a reversion to forms of border violence that were prevalent as recently as the early 2000s.     

Mental Health Services for ‘Difficult’ women: Reflections on Some Recent Developments

The provision of mental health services to women has come sharply into focus for providers of secure psychiatric services in the UK. Women's services are being developed in response to the known risks of mixed-sex provision, and a growing appreciation of the ways that women in secure services can be further disadvantaged by their minority status. Our intention here is to present evidence and reflections to help inform this development. The evidence is drawn from our recent work in this field, which includes carrying out a review of local mental health services for ‘difficult’ women, and developing and piloting a national training programme for staff working with women in secure services. The reflections we offer are informed by the conviction that taking social inequalities into account is central to making sense of women's mental health difficulties, and improving service responses to women's needs. While there are signs that many mental health workers in secure services are beginning to share these convictions, the challenge now is to provide the necessary authorization, training and support that will enable them to translate these understandings into empowerment practice with women.     

Permanency for Children in Foster Care: Issues and Barriers for Adoption

The desired outcome for children in foster care is to be reunited with their parents or to be permanently placed in a stable home. Federal and state legislation directs increased efforts by the social welfare and judicial systems in the United States to act in the best interests of the child and to identify and reduce barriers to permanency. Records from two county dependency courts in Florida were examined and caregivers surveyed to identify issues that prevented them from adopting the child in their care, and to identify services that would have enhanced the likelihood of adoption. The findings and their implications suggest that more integration of the two systems and support for concrete assistance to caregivers are paramount to facilitating adoption of children in foster care.     

Twisting the knife: Frontier violence in the central Amazon of Brazil

The presence or absence of high rates of violence in the Central Amazon of Brazil, one of the last great frontiers of the world, is analysed in terms of a comparative approach to the study of global frontiers. Violence is shown to be low among historical peasantries in riverine and pastoral areas of old settlement located beyond the greater frontier where less inequity and imbalance between social classes, ethnic groups, sexual groups and age sets exist. The advancing frontier of open-field agriculture presents the opposite with some of the highest rates of violence in the country and is shown to be typical of a process of polarised development in Brazil.     

Smallholdings,land law and the politics of land tenure in Papua New Guinea

It has been asserted of Papua New Guinea that the nineteenth and twentieth century expansion of capitalism into that country occurred without the commodification of more than a small amount of land. The various arguments supporting this view are rejected, and the evidence to the contrary is presented. It is shown that from the 1950s smallholder production increases have been substantial, mainly but not wholly in export crops. The role of the state is examined, with particular focus upon the characteristics of state power and the politics of land which have underpinned the increase in smallholder production. Similarities in the quality and application of state power across both colonial and post‐colonial regimes is stressed.     

The Heterogeneous Effects of a Food Price Crisis on Child School Enrolment and Labour: Evidence from Pakistan

Using a panel survey, this paper investigates how food price increases in Pakistan in 2008–2010 affect children’s school enrolment and labour. The causal identification relies on the geographical variations in food (wheat) price. The results show that the negative impacts of food price increase on school enrolment differ by gender, economic status and the presence of siblings. The negative effects on school do not directly correspond to the increase in child labour because the transition from being idle to labour activity or from school to being idle is significant, particularly among poor girls. The results also show that children in households with access to agricultural lands are not affected by higher food prices. The analyses reveal a more dynamic picture of the impact of food price increase on child status and contribute to broader policy discussion to mitigate the impact of crises on child education.     

The Lawfulness of U.S. Targeted Killing Operations Outside Afghanistan

Targeted killing operations conducted outside Afghanistan have prompted debate regarding their lawfulness. For opponents of targeted killing operations, the debate tends to center on the number of civilians killed. Proponents respond by questioning the credibility and validity of the methods employed to determine the number of civilian casualties. This debate is important, but it also obscures the fact that the lawfulness of targeting killings is not determined by whether civilians were killed alone, while also lending legitimacy to unsubstantiated claims that the United States is engaged in an armed conflict with Al Qaeda and “associated forces.” This article classifies the hostilities in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia. It then applies the applicable body of law to targeted killing operations in each of these respective states based on how the hostilities were classified.