Present but not prevalent: identifying the organizational correlates of researcher-practitioner partnerships in U.S. Law Enforcement

ABSTRACT

Federal funding streams, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, and policing executives and scholars alike have advocated for more researcher-practitioner partnerships in American law enforcement. While a few studies have explored the growth and prevalence of research partnerships in policing, less attention has been placed on the organizational correlates of such collaborative relationships. Using a nationally representative sample of US law enforcement agencies, the current study investigated participation in what we term ‘rigorous partnerships’ – more formal, long-term relationships between researchers and practitioners with increased opportunity for interactive knowledge exchange. Policy implications and directions for future research are discussed, with a specific focus on the barriers and impediments that both parties face for successful collaborative efforts and research translation.     

Process Matters: Conflict and Cooperation in Sequential Government-Dissident Interactions

Competing hypotheses on the relationship between government and dissident behavior emerge from both formal and empirical models. Yet, the current literature lacks a comprehensive theoretical account of such contradictory effects. This study develops a theory to account for a large number of competing hypotheses within a single framework. The theory explains various government and dissident tactical choices over the course of an internal political struggle by focusing on leaders, their motivations, and the link between their motivations and actions. The theory gives rise to a process model of sequential government-dissident interactions that is used to test several implied hypotheses. Empirical sequential time-series models of government and dissident behavior find support for most of the theory's implied hypotheses in Israel (1979–2002) and Afghanistan (1990–99).     

Clean Air the Natural Way: A Case for Harmonizing Global Auto Emissions Standards

Across the world, governments are grappling with the effects of global warming. Rising temperatures, increases in the number of natural disasters, and elevated sea levels are just some of the risks posed by Earth's weakening ozone. And yet solutions exist. This article discusses the contribution of auto emissions to global warming and proposes ways for manufacturers to adopt a single emissions standard across their fleets all over the world. As discussed, adopting a single standard based on the most stringent one available poses advantages for manufacturers and also promises to reduce the threat of global warming.     

Tracing the Flow of Policy Ideas in Legislatures: A Text Reuse Approach

This article proposes a new approach to investigating the substance of lawmaking. Only a very small proportion of bills become law in the U.S. Congress. However, the bills that do become law often serve as vehicles for language originating in other bills. We investigate “text reuse” methods as a means for tracing the progress of policy ideas in legislation. We then show how a focus on policy ideas leads to new insights into the lawmaking process. Although our focus is on relating content found within bills, the same methods can be used to study policy substance across many research domains.     

Judicial education on ‘gender awareness’ in Australia

In Australia, as elsewhere, cultural blindness to difference based on gender can affect the impartiality of judging. It is an important aspect of the unstated assumptions on which judges act and which they need to examine. This is especially so where the assumptions are a reflection of dominant social attitudes and values. Judges are expected to apply community values, so long as they are consistent with equality before the law. Blatant examples of gender bias tend to diminish as diversity increases, both within the judiciary and within the legal profession. Stereotyping assumptions can be explored through judicial education, but Australian experience suggests that programmes will only receive a receptive audience if sensitive to concerns about judicial independence. To that end, discussion may best be located within the boundaries of the broader topic of unconscious partiality. Steps being taken in New South Wales to raise gender sensitivity are noted.