Police oversight in the United Kingdom: The balance of independence and collaboration

A key feature of modern policing is external oversight of alleged police misconduct. The present paper focuses on the three UK oversight agencies: the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), the Police Complaints Commissioner for Scotland (PCCS); and the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland (PONI). Document analysis and interviews were utilized to highlight the different models of oversight with regard to the balance of responsibility for complaint investigations. The PONI exemplifies a model of regulatory independence that provides a strong challenge to the very limited PCCS model and intermediate IPCC model. An emerging trend was indentified of co-operation between external and internal agency personnel working towards police reform and areas in which oversight agencies can contribute to reform are presented.     

The business case for sustainability in retrospect: A Scandinavian institutionalism perspective on the role of expert conferences in shaping the emerging “CSR and corporate sustainability space”

This paper is concerned with the rise and, in retrospect, successful “positioning” of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate sustainability as a management idea. It answers to calls that more research is required into the “business case for sustainability,” especially the link between rhetoric and reality. We allow for a narrative-driven and dynamic perspective to frame the analysis of the discourse, rhetoric, and arguments in use during the emergence of “modern CSR” in Europe in the early 2000s. On the one hand, it shows that the European Union/Commission acted as an “enabler” of business case rhetoric. On the other hand, empirical evidence from two expert conferences series in Germany 2004–2008 leads to the conclusion that a wide coalition of interested parties continuously and progressively filled, shaped, and energized the early “CSR and corporate sustainability space” with presenting CSR as a rationale and progressive (management) idea.     

Domestic Violence, Couple Interaction and Children’s Health in Latin America

This paper examines the relationships between several measures of couple interaction and children’s health. We hypothesize that more maternal input in decision-making, joint discussion of health issues, and the absence of violence and male control are conducive to better child health. Mortality and nutritional status are used as measures of child health. Analyses are based on Demographic and Health Surveys in five Latin American countries (Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Haiti and Nicaragua). Violence is the best interaction predictor of poor nutrition and lack of female autonomy is the best predictor of higher mortality. Joint discussion of family planning and joint decision-making about household issues are also predictive of child health. Male controlling behavior did not have a strong relationship with health outcomes in most countries. Overall, findings indicate that positive couple interaction is associated with improved health outcomes for children.     

The Influence of Migration on Origin Communities: Insights from Polish Migrations to the West

This article sheds light on the impact of migration on origin communities by focusing on two case studies in different regions in Poland. Besides the economic consequences, the social and cultural consequences of migration for community cohesion and the lives of its members are highlighted, with reference to an emerging culture of migration in the communities. By presenting different migration patterns prevalent before and after Poland's accession to the European Union, the article demonstrates the important differences caused by ‘visible migration’ and ‘hidden migration’ in the communities of origin, taking into account especially the temporal dimension.     

Are repeatedly victimized households different?

Much recent victimization research has concentrated on predicting who will be victimized, with relatively little concern for the number of events suffered. This study turns to the latter issue by focusing attention on the prediction of repeat victimization. A statistical methodology is employed which allows for the explicit recognition that an initial victimization must occur prior to any repeat event. When applied to property crime information from the 1984 British Crime Survey, we find little evidence that repeat victims have distinctive characteristics compared with single victims. Nevertheless, households with characteristics which protect from victimization, in the sense of giving rise to a low initial risk, have this protection reduced for a subsequent event. Moreover, comparing two households with different risk characteristics, their repeat victimization probabilities are more similar than were those for the initial occurrence.