Representative bureaucracy: linguistic/ethnic aspects in Canadian public policy

Abstract. This paper explores the historical background, logical contours and policy implications of recent attempts by the Government of Canada to achieve the ‘effectively balanced participation’ of francophones in the federal public service. Historically, various crucial events concerning French Canadian participation in the federal bureaucracy are recounted with an eye to understanding both the roots of present policies and the distinctive inherited elements which shape them. Logically, the generic concept ‘representative bureaucracy’ is employed as a prism for shedding light on its Canadian variant, ‘balanced participation’: the logic of representative bureaucracy and the arguments for and against it are explicated, with concern for how these pertain to the Canadian case. Finally, the foregoing historical and logical elements are brought to bear on the question of sociological proportionality in the federal public service, especially as it might involve the use of quotas. It is maintained that sociological heterogeneity in the federal bureaucracy is a positive value, and that recruitment and promotion procedures should strive to attract people with manifold backgrounds, perspectives and talents. The use of legislated quotas, however, is viewed as an inefficacious and potentially destructive means for addressing this task. With respect to the issue of francophone participation specifically, the adoption of legislated quotas would be superficial and anachronistic.     

Forensic odontology lessons: multishooting incident at Port Arthur, Tasmania

On Sunday 28 April 1996 a lone gunman killed and injured many people at the historic penal settlement ruins at Port Arthur in South Eastern Tasmania, Australia. Thirty-two victims were shot dead and 19 were injured in a short time inside a cafe and along the roadway leading to the site entrance. The gunman then took one hostage to a nearby guest house which was occupied by a married couple. Police stood siege during the night. Early the next day the cottage began to burn and a man suspected to be the gunman eventually ran unarmed from the building with his clothes alight and was arrested. The house burned to the ground. Three bodies were later located in the burnt ruins.Forensic odontology played a role in the retrieval of evidence and identification of the incinerated victims. Lack of antemortem dental records for one victim necessitated the reliance on a single CT scan radiograph for matching with the remains. Fire scene procedures, evidence collection and other issues were reviewed.The overwhelming scale of this tragedy and its adverse effects on the Tasmanian community, especially the victims’ families and survivors, cannot be overestimated. While acknowledging this, it is important that lessons are learnt from tragedies such as these. This paper is presented with a view to assisting forensic odontologists in the investigation of complex incidents.     

Indian Citizenship and the Discourse of Hygiene/Disease in Nineteenth‐Century Peru

Citizenship had become conflated with 'race' in late nineteenth century Latin America partly on account of the new language of biological science. This article focuses on the contest between rights of belonging and rights of citizenship as played out in a provincial town in Andean Peru during the late nineteenth century. In particular, it explores how by drawing on a discourse of hygiene/disease a provincial elite was able to restrict access to public space in the town and thus deny 'Indians' the possibility of participating as citizens in urban political life.     

Multi-technique comparison of source and primary transfer soil samples: an experimental investigation by D Croft and K Pye. A comment.

The Croft and Pye paper has a story to tell about the differentiation capabilities of four analytical techniques. It is not however, the whole story. This may be due in part to the lack of reproducibility in the generation of results, and also in the effort to match soil samples and thus infer that the results provide stronger conclusions than is possible to make with this sort of analysis. More research must be done to establish in what instances these techniques and others provide reliable, reproducible, representative and accurate results, and in what capacity such results can be presented. As they stand, the results from this paper should be treated with great caution and not extrapolated to any other forensic case work until greater reliability of these and other techniques has been established.     

Dissecting the relationship between mental illness and return to incarceration

Purpose

We examine all releases to parole supervision in a single state over a period of four years to consider how a diagnosis of mental illness is associated with return to incarceration.

Methods

We use survival methods and Cox regression to understand patterns of and influences on return to prison. Our measure of mental illness is based on in-prison clinical diagnoses. Data include a rich set of administrative variables with demographic, criminal history and institutional controls.

Results

Our findings suggest that (1) there is a statistically significant relationship between having a DSM diagnosis and reincarceration, (2) substance-related disorders account for most of that relationship, and (3) there are some important variations among types of disorders examined.

Conclusions

Research that examines mental illness and recidivism without controlling for substance use disorders/problems is likely to be uninformative and misleading. Findings provide qualified support for the notion that programming addressing criminogenic risks and needs may be as important, or more so, than therapeutic programming focusing on mental illness when recidivism reduction is the goal.     

Child Abuse,Social Support,and Social Functioning in African American Children

This study examined the relationship among child abuse (physical, emotional, and sexual), social support from friends and family, and social functioning in a sample of low-income African American children (N?=?152). With the exception of the association between sexual abuse and peer support, all of the correlations among study variables were significant. The relationship between child physical and emotional abuse and social functioning were mediated by both family and peer support; however, only family (not peer) support was a significant mediator in the sexual abuse-social functioning link. Additionally, there was no difference found in the strength of mediation via family support versus peer support. Results suggest that mental health professionals should inquire about and attempt to increase children’s levels of social support from family and peers when working with abused youth in order to promote healthy psychological and psychosocial outcomes.