Release on Recognizance: Substantive or Superficial Reform?

In the early 1960s, release on recognizance was hailed as a method through which inequities inherent in the system of monetary bail could be reduced. This goal was to be accomplished through the revision of the criteria on which pretrial release decisions were made; the defendant's ties to the local community and not his financial status were to be emphasized. Although the use of release on recognizance has become an accepted practice, these programs have escaped close examination. Using logit analysis, this article investigates the factors upon which release on recognizance was based in a western city. The findings suggest that decisions to release on recognizance were made more in accord with traditional criteria rather than those espoused by this reform movement.     

CHANGES IN PUBLIC SERVICE BARGAINS: MINISTERS AND CIVIL SERVANTS IN DENMARK

The concept of public service bargain (PSB) has been reintroduced in recent times to the study of public administration to analyse the division of roles between ministers and the civil service in the context of public service reforms ( Hood 2000, 2001, 2002 ; Hood and Lodge 2006 ). The empirical investigation of the concept of PSB in general and changes in PSBs in particular is, however, limited. This article addresses this limitation by investigating what causes changes in public service bargains, particularly with respect to the provision of advice. As argued by Hood, we demonstrate how changes in PSBs can be explained by a combination of changes in the environments of ministries as well as the interests of the political actors. Furthermore, we point to the professional qualifications of civil servants as well as their interests as causes of change which, until now, have not received sufficient attention in the PSB literature. The article is based on a longitudinal case study of PSB between ministers and the permanent civil service in Denmark.     

TACKLING HEALTH INEQUALITIES IN POST‐DEVOLUTION BRITAIN: DO TARGETS MATTER?

Since devolution in 1998, many aspects of public policy in Great Britain have diverged between England, Scotland and Wales, including how targets and performance assessment are used in the National Health Service and local government. Health inequality is an example where all three countries have recognized a need to act but approaches to performance assessment differ. Based on interviews with senior managers, the complexity of health inequality as an object of local intervention is explored and compared. Despite contrasting approaches to targets, local discourses in all three countries had significant similarities. Health inequality had to compete against a preoccupation with improving access to acute services generally and balancing budgets over the short term. There was a bias in the interventions described towards targeting health behaviours, but with limited use of evidence about efficacy, and indications that measuring progress with reducing health inequalities was starting to lead to an emphasis on ‘quick wins' from pharmacological interventions.     

The Influence of Police Actions on Victim Satisfaction in Burglary Investigations

This paper is concerned with the satisfaction of burglary victims with the service provided by the U.K. police. The study, funded by the U.K. Home Office's Police Research Group, was conducted in the West Midlands and considers the role of police actions, victims' characteristics, and victims' perceptions in shaping victim satisfaction. Victim satisfaction, which was lower than in a number of previous studies, depended on how well police actions and outcomes of cases met victims' expectations. Satisfaction was dependent to a great extent on the manner of the first officer to reach the burglary scene, and also on keeping victims informed about the outcome of investigations, activities which the force can readily address. Improved detection rates and better property recovery would also boost satisfaction, but these are influenced in part by factors both under police control, and are less likely to be easily achieved. Methodologically, the study demonstrates the importance of relating police records to victims' expressed satisfaction, and their perceptions of police actions when framing policies aimed at meeting victims' preferences.