THE PROBABILITY OF PLACEMENT BY THE PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT SERVICE

In a typical year, the United States Employment Service places over 4 million persons from among 16 million applicants. This investigation of which applicants are most likely to be placed shows that placement occurs in two labor market segments, corresponding roughly to the primary and secondary labor markets described in the economic literature. The equity and efficiency implications o f devoting a substantial percentage o f Employment Service resources t o secondary labor market placements are considered. Several states currently use Employment Service data as a source of local labor market information. An argument is made that these states are misusing this data and suggestions for improvements are offered.     

PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL CAPACITY,HOMELESSNESS, AND CRIME AND ARREST RATES*

As a result of developments in pharmacology, stricter standards for involuntary commitment, and changes in public expenditures, there has been a dramatic decline in the capacity of public psychiatric hospitals to maintain America's most severely mentally ill. Psychiatric deinstitutionalization has led to an increased presence of persons with mental illness in urban areas, many “falling through the cracks” of community‐based services. This is hypothesized to have contributed to homelessness, crime, and arrests. Individual‐level research has documented disproportionate and increasing numbers of mentally ill persons in jails and prisons. It has also found higher rates of violence and arrest among persons with mental illness compared to the general population. This study takes a macro‐level social control approach and examines the relationships between psychiatric hospital capacity, homelessness, and crime and arrest rates using a sample of eighty‐one U.S. cities. I find that public psychiatric hospital capacity has a statistically significant negative effect on crime and arrest rates, and that hospital capacity affects crime and arrest rates in part, through its impact on homelessness. In addition, I find no crime‐reducing effect of private and general psychiatric hospital capacity.     

Modern Art in an Ancient Setting——Beijing's Red Gate Gallery

A SCENDING the ancient stone steps to Red Gate Gallery reveals the quintessential Beijing pan orama. The gallery is housed in Dongbianmen Watchtower, a Ming Dynasty structure straddling the last crumbling vestiges of Beijing＇s city wall. Like a besieged bastion of the city＇s imperial past, the watchtower is hemmed in by railway lines and Beijing＇s Second Ring Road. The glass and steel edifices of the CBD loom in the distance. It＇s appropriate that this ancient fortress, surrounded by a cornucopia of modern development, houses a gallery that has long been a cultural bastion of a more contemoorary kind.     

Lessons for the Study of Policy Implementation: Project Renewal in Israel

This article attempts to clarify some of the issues in the debate over the study of policy implementation, in particular the disagreements between proponents of the top-down versus bottom-up approaches. It proposes use of a modified top-down perspective which bridges the assumed dichotomy between policy formulation, enactment, and an implementation process and addresses many of the concerns of the bottom-up research strategy. This new perspective portrays implementation as part of a single ongoing process in which policy is formulated, enacted and continually readjusted and adapted before and after implementation at the local level. The article is based on an analysis of the findings of a case study of the implementation of Israel's Project Renewal, a comprehensive community renewal and development program – a hybrid resembling the American Urban Renewal, Model Cities and the War on Poverty programs. Rather than evaluate the success of this Israeli program, the intent here is to ask what the research findings teach about the study of policy implementation.     

Canadian Cold Front

Good old days for Canada-China relations are gone with Ottawa caught in a China policy dilemma     

SOCIAL-DEMOGRAPHIC ATTITUDES AND VIOLENCE*

In this study, we examine the relationships among social-demographic characteristics, attitudes, and violence, drawing on cultural theories. Structural equation modeling techniques are employed to examine data from a representative sample of the general population and a sample of ex-offenders. The findings indicate that age, gender, and SES are related to attitudes toward retribution and courage and to disputatiousness. Further, attitudes toward courage and retribution have significant effects on disputatiousness and violence, which explains a substantial portion of SES effects. The results suggest that lower-class persons are more likely to engage in violence to a large extent because they are more punitive and place greater emphasis on showing courage in conflicts.