Drug Films,Justice, and Nationhood 1

This paper examines how drug traffickers, enforcement, nationhood, and space are represented in illegal drug films. Drawing from a sample of films produced in the United States between 1916 and 2005, this paper examines several drug films in order to explore how past and contemporary films on illegal drugs reflect conventional ideologies about law and order, the nation, and imperialism. Censorship and illegal drug films that challenge and rupture conventional ideologies will also be discussed.     

Gag orders: Shields or swords in the constitutional conflict between fair trial and free press?

In 1976, in Nebraska Press Association v. Stuart, the Supreme Court characterized gag orders as the “most serious and least tolerable infringement on First Amendment rights.”; Yet courts impose gag orders that restrict media coverage of courts and trial participants. Many groups believe the use of gag orders is increasing. However, no previous study has attempted to quantify the frequency of gag orders or to explore judicial attitudes about the issuance of such orders. This analysis of the case law and exploratory survey of judges in Florida suggests that courts issue gag orders to protect fair trials, participant safety and privacy, and the sanctity of the courtroom.

This article also suggests that conflict over gag orders arises because judges disagree about the core meanings of the First and Sixth Amendments. This research indicates that judges' individual interpretations of the Constitution color their determinations of whether indirect gags on trial participants, rather than on the media, are impermissible assaults on the First Amendment or are permissible shields of fair trials. Judges tend to be either First Amendment apostles or Sixth Amendment followers, and Sixth Amendment judges are more likely to impose and uphold gag orders. The authors suggest that this schism is unlikely to be resolved without guidance from the Supreme Court.     

Evaluation of the assessment and treatment of a child sex offender: A case study

Abstract

There is indisputable necessity for engaging child sex offenders in effective therapy to reduce recidivist rates. However, it is becoming increasingly recognised that, to do this, more contemporary psychological methods of treatment are being utilised instead of, or as well as, imprisonment.

To establish what constitutes effective therapy requires the constant search for new and successful treatments. To achieve this, it is advantageous to follow preexisting successful methods of treatment but to acknowledge that therapy must be adapted according to an individual's unique presenting difficulties and therapeutic needs.

This paper details assessment techniques, evaluation of psychological dysfunctions, the therapy plan and treatment outcome of a convicted child sex offender. Specifically, Mr X's background history, psychological dysfunctions and progress, using a functional analysis approach, are examined in detail with critical review of the therapeutic intervention.     

Actio Libera in Causa

The actio libera in causa doctrine, as originally formulated by various Enlightenment philosophers, concerns the imputation of responsibility to actors for actions unfree in themselves, but free in their causes. Like our Enlightenment counterparts, contemporary philosophers of criminal law, as well as most Western legal systems (both common law and civil), allow that persons can be responsible for acts that are not free when performed, provided they were free in their causes. The actio libera doctrine allows us to impute unfree actions to persons, provided they were responsible for causing the conditions of unfreedom that characterizes those actions when performed. This doctrine seems to be instantiated in a great many actual legal practices. But I argue that we must distinguish between two importantly different understandings of the doctrine itself and its application in law. On the one hand, the actio libera doctrine allows us to waive the voluntariness requirement that is generally needed for criminal liability. On the other hand, it disallows defendants to appeal to defences they would otherwise be entitled to use to block liability, if they culpably created the conditions of their own defence. The first case involves rules of imputation, while the second concerns culpability, and justifying the actio libera doctrine therefore faces different challenges in the two cases.     

From Contest to Content: The Impact of Public Journalism on New Zealand Election Campaign Coverage

Supporters of public journalism hope to reengage citizens with politics and overcome the shortcomings of contemporary political journalism. However, there has been little systematic study of how public journalism differs from mainstream journalism. During the 1996 general election campaign in New Zealand, the first under proportional representation, three newspapers, conscious of the challenges imposed by electoral changes, experimented with public journalism coverage. This presented an opportunity to study how coverage as a whole differed from coverage of the previous elections and what specific changes were the result of public journalism initiatives. The researchers analyzed 1,938 stories from a 12-day sample of the New Zealand general election campaign coverage in 1993 and 1996. A total of seven metropolitan and provincial papers were included. The results showed public journalism articles covered proportionally more policy issues and concentrated less on personality than conventional campaign stories. Public journalism stories also were less negative and more neutral in tone and were more inclined to be ''soft'' news, reflecting a tendency to cover issues rather than events. Public journalism articles also were less likely than conventional coverage to cover the campaign from a ''horse race'' angle. The findings provide support for the utility of public journalism in campaign reporting.     

The impact of functional responsibility and state legal constraints on the “revenue-debt” packages of U.S. Central cities

State governments have the power to restrict the revenue and debt sources available to their municipalities. States also have the power to assign functional responsibilities to their municipalities - - some of which can be extremely burdensome financially (educatin; welfare; hospitals). This research examines the effect of these state constraints on: (1) the revenue-debt use patterns; and (2) the fiscal condition of 243 U.S. central cities (FY 1974, FY 1975, 1976).

The results show that the revenue/debt use patterns of cities vary signigficantly according to the restrictions imposed by the state on their taxing, borrowing, and functional responsibility powers. In addition, revenue/debt use patterns differ among ciites experiencing varying levels of distriess. Severely distressed cities are more dependent on external revenue sources (federal, state). They are less capable of generating revenue at the local level and are less flexible in their use of local revenue soruces, depending more hevily on the property tax and less heavily on nonproperty tax and nontax revenue sources than healthier cities. They are also found to be more reliant on full faith and credit (property tax-backed) long-term debt and on short-term debt than the more prosperous cities.

Cities in states imposing heavy restrictions on use of property tax and full faith and credit long-term debt sources but imposing few restrictions on municipa; nonproperty taxing powers are generally the healthiest fiscally. Such state policies have effectively enhanced municipal diversification of both traditional revenue sources and debt sources.

The major significance of this research is the demonstration that state governments have within their policy-making power the ability to affect the fiscal dependency level of their respective municipalities. An activist role is necessary on the part of state governments if they wish to increase their role in municipal fiscal affairs relative to that of the federal government.     

Party subsidies and the freezing of party competition: Do cartel mechanisms work?

The number of countries offering public subsidies to political parties has vastly increased in recent decades, but there have been few attempts to assess how these subsidies affect political competition. Expectations about their likely impact vary widely. Some have described subsidies as key devices used by so-called ‘cartel parties’ to buttress their status and exclude new challengers. Others see subsidies as incentives that encourage new party formation and sustain fledgling parties that otherwise might disappear. The research reported here investigates the circumstances under which subsidies seem more likely to play one or the other of these roles by considering the development of party systems and party subsidies in European democracies. It finds little evidence that subsidies freeze out new parties, but there are signs that certain schemes may encourage party fragmentation.     

Judicious Incentives: International Public Policy Responses to the Globalization of Environmental Management

Public policymakers and regulators worldwide are grappling with the desire to improve environmental quality through appropriate regulation of business, while also streamlining government. Concurrently, environmentally conscience consumers are calling for improved environmental performance by industry. As a result of these pressures, regulators and lawmakers worldwide are attempting to craft effective policies that create adequate incentives for environmental protection on the part of firms, in the face of decreasing budgets and an increased demand for the use of market‐based incentives. To aid decision makers as they struggle with these concerns, this study provides a detailed case examination of the dilemmas and responses of national‐level regulators as they try to develop appropriate responses to the rise of international and “voluntary” management regimes. To accomplish these goals, this article compares the public policy responses of governments around the world to one such voluntary international environmental regime: ISO 14001. ISO 14001 is a form of industry self‐regulation in response to market forces calling for harmonization in environmental management and as a result of consumer and trade‐partner demands. This study examines the relationships between regulators and the regulated in order to understand if ISO 14001 certified firms are receiving regulatory relief or other forms of public policy/regulatory benefits as a result of their certification. It will also examine the impact that government incentives (or their absence) are having on the certification decisions of firms around the world. This information helps us to begin to understand how the trends toward smaller government and voluntary environmental regimes are affecting one another.     

Using strategic planning and organizational development principles for health promotion in an Alaska native community

Health promotion aims to support people in their efforts to increase control over factors that impact health and well-being. This emphasis on empowerment and contextual influences allows for a more holistic conceptualization of health and approaches to promoting health that are anchored in principles of community development and systems change. Piciryaratgun Calritllerkaq (Healthy Living Through A Healthy Lifestyle) is a collaboration between a Yup'ik village in rural Alaska and researchers from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The goal was to improve nutrition, increase exercise, and decrease stress. The project utilized elements of organization development and strategic planning to develop a local infrastructure and process and to promote local expertise. The project team developed goals, objectives, action, and evaluation plans that integrated local traditions, Yup'ik culture, and research.     

Assembling E‐Government Research Designs: A Transdisciplinary View and Interactive Approach

There is a growing recognition in the field of e‐government that improving the quality and impact of research requires taking into account their complex contexts and drawing on more interdisciplinary and collaborative research. Limited attention so far has been directed toward the conduct of such research, particularly in contract‐based research arrangements for developing e‐government policy. A four‐nation study of public e‐procurement policy is used here to make transparent the process of designing and conducting transdisciplinary and interactive research. Further sharing of research designs and accounts is needed to advance theory, policy, and practice, and to develop a history of ideas in the e‐government research field.