SOCIAL PROGRAM INNOVATION AND DISSEMINATION: A STUDY OF ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE PROCESSES

The dissemination of social program innovations that have been demonstrated to be effective through rigorous evaluation is an important issue. The classical dissemination framework emphasizes the position that programs implemented with fidelity to the original model are most likely to produce the positive outcomes demonstrated in the model's evaluation phase. However, critics suggest that local programs that are extensively modified are more likely to meet local goals and, therefore, are more likely to be sustained within the organization. The present research examined the implementation, effectiveness, and routinization of seven innovations replicated in a nationwide sample of organizations. The innovations were diverse in both content and implementing context and were located in a variety of sites, including schools, courts, prisons, police departments, and social service agencies. The results suggest that the innovations were replicated with acceptable levels of fidelity to the disseminated program models, and that higher-fidelity implementations tended to be more effective than those implemented with lower fidelity. The implications of the findings for social program dissemination policy are discussed and the authors propose an expansion of Berman's contingency model of innovation dissemination.     

Criminal justice and the nineteenth-century paradigm

This article examines the influence of psychological individualism on nineteenth-century law and criminal justice policy. The nineteenth century—a formative period both for American law and for human sciences—was dominated by a single overarching conception of human behavior. This article explores the implications and consequences of that domination by first examining the general conditions under which individualism flourished in the United States, and then focusing on specific criminal justice policies that were pemised on this individualistic paradigm. It suggests that individualistic assumptions about human behavior were incorporated into what became intractable legal and institutional forms. The article also develops the relationship between law and human science during this period, and the way in which criminal justice policies were advanced as scientific doctrines. Finally, it concludes with a brief discussion of the role played by psychology in criminal justice policy since the nineteenth—century, and the recent resurgence of psychological individualism.     

National Styles of Worker Protection in the United States and Japan: The Case of the Automotive Industry

This paper compares and contrasts the national styles or approaches to the regulation and management of occupational safety and health distinctive of the United States and Japan within the context of the automotive industries of these two countries. Referring to comparative workplace injury and illness experience and data on safety and health regulatory activities, strengths and weaknesses of the two approaches are considered. It is suggested that an optimal strategy would contain elements of both approaches. Elements of the two approaches that might be adapted cross-nationally are identified and discussed.     

Detecting Manipulation in Futures Markets: The Ferruzzi Soybean Episode

Manipulation—the exercise of market power in a futuresmarket—is a felony, but recent court and regulatory decisionshave made conviction of a manipulator problematic. Instead,regulators attempt to prevent manipulation. Deterrence by convictionis more efficient than prevention if manipulations can be detectedwith high probability. An analysis of the Ferruzzi soybean episodeof 1989 demonstrates how to detect manipulation with standardstatistical techniques. It is exceedingly unlikely that theprice and quantity relations observed in May and July 1989 werethe result of competition; they instead reflect market power.The ability to detect manipulation reliably suggests that existingregulation of manipulation in futures and securities marketsis inefficient because it relies on costly prevention ratherthan deterrence.     

The power to make war: Congress' search for an effective role

In the heat of Vietnam and Watergate, Congress sought to develop a more effective role in decisions about the use of the armed forces in combat or in potential combat situations. The War Powers Resolution passed in November 1973 was the solution Congress devised to this problem. But the War Powers Resolution has fallen well short of the hoped-for partnership; the most momentous issue to confront the nation-to wage war or not to wage war-still does not effectively engage Congress. Whether such a role is possible for Congress in a system that is built on checks and balances is quite uncertain. Some improvements over the present situation are proposed; but it remains evident that the power to make war will rest primarily in the office of the president.     

An ounce of prevention...

A major theme in the apparent transformation of the criminal justice system in recent years is the commitment to shifting away from reactive responses to crime in favor of proactive prevention practices. This paper raises the question of whether the rhetoric of prevention has been translated into real substantive changes. The author argues that the activity which has occurred in response to the rhetoric of prevention is more significant as an ideology of practice and control than as a ‘solution’ to the problem of crime. For the moment, it is unlikely that an ounce of prevention will produce more than a few grams of cure.