Examining the Relationship Between the Structural Characteristics of Place and Crime by Imputing Census Block Data in Street Segments: Is the Pain Worth the Gain?

Objective

The current study proposes unique methods for apportioning existing census data in blocks to street segments and examines the effects of structural characteristics of street segments on crime. Also, this study tests if the effects of structural characteristics of street segments are similar with or distinct from those of blocks.

Methods

This study compiled a unique dataset in which block-level structural characteristics are apportioned to street segments utilizing the 2010 U.S. Census data of the cities of Anaheim, Santa Ana, and Huntington Beach in Orange County, California. Negative binomial regression models predicting crime that include measures of social disorganization and criminal opportunities in street segments and blocks were estimated.

Results

The results show that whereas some of the coefficients tested at the street segment level are similar to those aggregated to blocks, a few were quite different (most notably, racial/ethnic heterogeneity). Additional analyses confirm that the imputation methods are generally valid compared to data actually collected at the street segment level.

Conclusions

The results from the street segment models suggest that the structural characteristics from social disorganization and criminal opportunities theories at street segments may operate as crucial settings for crime. Also the results indicate that structural characteristics have generally similar effects on crime in street segments and blocks, yet have some distinct effects at the street segment level that may not be observable when looking at the block level. Such differences underscore the necessity of serious consideration of the issues of level of aggregation and unit of analysis when examining the structural characteristics-crime nexus.

     

A Retrospective Study of the Investigation of Homicidal Childhood Asphyxial Deaths

As one of the leading causes of traumatic deaths in newborns, infants, and young children, there is no anatomic or microscopic feature that is pathognomonic for asphyxial deaths. Instead, pathologists rely on investigation information, including confessions and/or witness statements, and potential evidence at the scene. Twenty cases of homicidal newborn, infant, and young children asphyxial deaths were reviewed, which included death and police investigation reports and autopsy reports, as well as histology slides of lung sections. This series of homicidal asphyxial deaths highlight that, in a vast majority of such cases, the final cause and manner of death rulings are dependent on confession by the perpetrator. Furthermore, this series highlights the possible role of histology to help forensic pathologists better certify asphyxial deaths. Finally, this series emphasizes important investigation points and considerations at autopsy during the investigation of asphyxial deaths in newborns, infants, and young children.     

A comparison of curfew and noncurfew violators using a self-report delinquency survey

The present study examines one city’s experience with a juvenile curfew ordinance. It compares characteristics of youths detained by the police for curfew violation with teenagers who did not have such police contact. Selfreport data reveal curfew violators admit committing more minor and serious delinquency, as well as status offenses, than noncurfew violators. Curfew violators also disclose higher victimization levels. Implications deriving from these observations are discussed.     

Thyroid Cartilage Ossification and Multislice Computed Tomography Examination: A Useful Tool for Age Assessment?

Abstract: Many authors have studied the thyroid cartilage ossification process using radiographic features for age estimation of individuals. Their results were various: Sugiyama reported excellent correlation coefficients between ossification rates and civil age, unlike most other authors. We hypothesized that recent advances in imaging techniques would enable more precise evaluation of the ossification of the thyroid cartilage. We retrospectively analyzed the CT scans of 312 French patients using postprocessing software to examine the pattern of thyroid cartilage ossification, calculating the ossified volume of the cartilage on 3D reconstructions. Pearson’s correlation coefficients for volume were 0.73 for men and 0.75 for women (standard error 18.02 and 17.06), indicating considerable inter‐individual variability. Although a correlation between civil age and morphological changes was found, these methods based on thyroid cartilage ossification were not accurate enough for the assessment of individual age.     

Obstacles and Opportunities for Sustaining Performance Management Systems

Measuring performance in public organizations has been a growing trend for several decades. Designing, adopting, and implementing this style of management system have been the topic of much practitioner and academic deliberation. One struggle those determined to adopt performance measurement and management systems have faced, though, is the ability to sustain them over time and actually engrain them into their decision-making frameworks. Countless barriers to long-term success exist for public organizations and this article seeks to identify and categorize them. Using a mixed-method survey design, this research shows which factors are the most important to organizations hoping to build a performance system that can stand the test of time. Capacity, knowledge, and buy-in limitations pose serious threats to these reforms and it takes a concerted effort to cultivate not only support from employees and management to pursue performance management but the technical and conceptual capacity to design the right system for the organization.     

Burdened or Efficacious? Subgroups of Chinese American Language Brokers,Predictors, and Long-Term Outcomes

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Despite growing research on youth language brokering in immigrant families, evidence regarding its developmental outcomes remains mixed. This study took a...     

To Tell the Truth: Ad Watch Coverage,Ad Tone,and the Accuracy of Political Advertising

This study examined the relationships among newspaper ad watch coverage, ad tone, and the accuracy of political advertising. A sample of political advertisements (N = 160) was drawn from the Campaign Media Analysis Group (CMAG) database and other sources for eight U.S. Senate races. Two experts on each race evaluated the ads’ accuracy and their ideological portrayals of candidates, while trained coders analyzed other aspects of the ads. Ad watch coverage from these races (ad watch N = 109) also was content-analyzed. The number of ad watches overall in a race and the number that explicitly criticized ads were positively related with the level of accuracy of political ads and with a tendency to portray their favored candidates closer to their actual ideological position—but the overall number of ad watches also was positively related with a tendency for ads to portray opponents as more extreme than their positions warranted. Ad watches usually tend to scrutinize negative ads more, but ad watch coverage in this study was unrelated with ad tone and with the number of negative ads in a race. Positive ads were rated as more accurate but also more prone to exaggerate the supported candidates’ centrism compared to other ads. Normative and practical implications are discussed.

We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers.

— Neil Newhouse, pollster for the Mitt Romney 2012 campaign     

Trade at the margin: Estimating the economic implications of preferential trade agreements

Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs) have become the most prevalent form of international trade liberalization in recent decades, even though it remains far from clear what their effects on economies and their key units, firms, are. This paper evaluates the distributional consequences of trade liberalization within industries differentiating two distinct aspects in which trade liberalization could result in higher trade flows: the intensive vs. the extensive margin of trade. In particular, we analyze whether trade liberalization leads to increased trade flows because either firms trade more volume in products they have already traded before (intensive margin) or because they start to trade products they have not traded previously (extensive margin), or both. We test these arguments for the Dominican Republic–Central America–United States Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) and exporting firms based in Costa Rica for the time-period 2008–2014. The results of our study suggest that the effects of CAFTA-DR depend not only on whether we analyze the extensive versus the intensive margin of trade but also whether the product in question is homogenous or differentiated and whether the exporting firm under analysis is small or large. In particular, we find support for the theoretical expectation that firms exporting heterogeneous products, such as textiles, gain from trade agreements, such as CAFTA-DR, in that they can export more varieties of their products. Yet at the same time, they tend to lose at the intensive margin by a reduction in their trade volume while the opposite pattern occurs for firms exporting homogenous products.     

Executive-legislative competition in agenda setting: an analysis of longitudinal changes in South Korea

The historical patterns of executive dominance in national policymaking have undergone a rapid transformation in South Korea. In the context of an emerging institutional rivalry between the executive and legislative branches in forming national policies, this study examines a causal nexus among the agenda power parity, jurisdictional complexity, and the scope and diversity of the national agenda space. A series of data analyses on various original measures of the key variables reveal that the two dimensions of the national agenda space have been reshaped via different causal processes. While the rise of the legislative power in agenda setting and the complexity of legislative jurisdictions tend to increase the scope of the national agenda space, democratic transition subsumes the influence of all other factors in increasing the diversity of the national agenda space.