Islamophobia pre- and post-September 11th, 2001

Although much academic research has addressed racism, religious discrimination has been largely ignored. The current study investigates levels of self-reported racial and religious discrimination in a sample of 222 British Muslims. Respondents indicate that following September 11th, 2001, levels of implicit or indirect discrimination rose by 82.6% and experiences of overt discrimination by 76.3%. Thus, the current work demonstrates that major world events may affect not only stereotypes of minority groups but also prejudice toward minorities. Results suggest that religious affiliation may be a more meaningful predictor of prejudice than race or ethnicity. General Health Questionnaire scores indicate that 35.6% of participants likely suffered mental health problems, with significant associations between problem-indicative scores and reports of experiencing a specific abusive incident of September 11th-related abuse by respondents. The dearth of empirical work pertaining to religious discrimination and its effects is a cause for concern.     

The court for sexual offences: perceptions of the perpetrators of sexual offences

This article explores the largely hereunto-ignored perceptions of the offenders within the specialist sex-courts in Bloemfontein, Free State, South Africa. Various factors potentially affecting such perceptions within this group of individuals are identified by way of theoretical orientation. Respondents were inclined to view the Court for Sexual Offences as biased in process and excessively punitive with regard to sentencing. The specialist sex-court was also perceived to be inefficient and slow. Female prosecutors were judged to be overly involved in cases to the extent that their objectivity was impaired. The need for additional research in various related areas is also explored.     

Epidemiology of homicide-suicide events: Oklahoma, 1994-2001

In Oklahoma, all nonnatural deaths must be reported to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (ME), whose trained investigators report cause of death using a centralized, statewide, standardized reporting system. The purpose of this study was to determine temporal trends of Oklahoma homicide-suicide events and characterize the epidemiology of these events. By reviewing all ME reports of homicides and suicides from 1994 through 2001, we identified 73 homicide-suicide events resulting in 73 suicides and 89 homicides. Suicidal perpetrators of homicide-suicide events were most often white men aged >or=30 years who killed a current or ex-spouse or intimate partner. Homicide victims tended to be younger women the same race as their killer. Firearms were the predominant method of death in both homicides and suicides, with handguns used most frequently. Divorce/estrangement was the main contributing factor to these events, and the most common relationship type was possessive. The existence of a statewide, centralized, and computerized ME system and the ability to access the detailed information in the ME narratives were critical to identifying homicide-suicide events and obtaining the type of detailed information necessary to fully investigate these events.     

Jail drug and alcohol treatment program reduces recidivism in nonviolent offenders: a longitudinal study of Monroe County, New York's, Jail Treatment Drug and Alcohol Program

Substance abuse treatment has become the new fashion for reducing recidivism among inmates. But the question is, does this work? Various studies have been done tracking the same cohort of inmates over time to assess the validity of treatment. This study assesses one treatment program's success over 5 years to determine if drug and alcohol treatment reduces recidivism among nonviolent, short-term (sentence of less than a year) inmates. Monroe County's drug treatment program demonstrates that for 1 year after receiving the treatment, three different cohorts of nonviolent, short-term inmates (1995, 1998, and 2000) were found to be substantially less likely to be recidivists than control group inmates.     

What's looks got to do with it? Instructor appearance and student evaluations of teaching

Some studies suggest that instructors' looks are important determinants of their Student Evaluations of Teaching (SET) results. Yet the studies examining this proposition leave out many independent variables that have been found to be important determinants of SETs in the SET literature. This study adds in most such factors and finds that, controlling for these other factors, attractiveness has no effect in our data. We conclude that earlier findings indicating that instructor appearance is important are likely due to omitted variable bias. © 2005 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management     

Public management reform and organizational performance: An empirical assessment of the U.K. Labour government's public service improvement strategy

We present the first empirical assessment of the U.K. Labour government's program of public management reform. This reform program is based on rational planning, devolution and delegation, flexibility and incentives, and enhanced choice. Measures of these variables are tested against external and internal indicators of organizational performance. The setting for the study is upper tier English local governments, and data are drawn from a multiple informant survey of 117 authorities. The statistical results indicate that planning, organizational flexibility, and user choice are associated with higher performance. Conclusions are drawn for the theory and practice of public management reform. © 2006 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management     

American Federalism: From Johnson to Bush

Intergovernmental developments for more than twenty-five yearshave produced a nation-centered federalism—strongly sofrom 1964 to 1978, somewhat less so from 1969–1988, anda little more so during the past two years. The reasons forthis fundamental systemic transformation include: (1) the demiseof the earlier, 150-year old, confederative party system andthe rise of a new political system with weak federative parties,but other more powerful political actors; (2) an operationaland local representational renaissance of the states, but alsoa concomitant decline of state and local political influencein Washington; (3) a steadily centralizing Supreme Court, withonly a few pro-state decisions until 1989; and (4) a rapid risein national preemptions and of a "new social regulation" thatwas aimed at state and local governments as much as at the privatesector, even as the states were used to implement them. Theonly real constraint on national activism since 1982 has beenbudget-driven federalism, not planned reform efforts. The currentsystem then requires political, representational, judicial,and constitutional reforms if the centralizing, cooptive, andpermissive features of contemporary federalism are to be corrected.     

Determinants of the probability and timing of commercial casino legalization in the United States

The adoption of lotteries by state governments has received significant attention in the economics literature, but the issue of casino adoption has been neglected by researchers. Casino gambling is a relatively new industry in the United States, outside Nevada and New Jersey. As of 2007, 11 states had established commercial casinos; several more states are considering legalization. We analyze the factors that determine a state’s decision to legalize commercial casinos, using data from 1985 to 2000, a period which covers the majority of states that have adopted commercial casinos. We use a tobit model to examine states’ fiscal conditions, political alignments, intrastate and interstate competitive environments, and demographic characteristics, which yields information on the probability and timing of adoptions. The results suggest a public choice explanation that casino legalization is due to state fiscal stress, to efforts to keep gambling revenues (and the concomitant gambling taxes) within the state, and to attract tourism or “export taxes.”