Elections with partially ordered preferences

Suppose an organization has a committee with multiple seats, and the committee members are to be elected by a group of voters. For the organization, the possible alternatives are the possible sets of individuals who could serve together. A common approach is to choose from among these alternatives by having each voter cast separate votes on the candidates for each seat. When this type of ballot is used, important characteristics of the set of individuals on the committee (such as what percentage of the members will be female) might not be explicitly considered by the voters. Another approach that has been used is to have each voter cast a ballot which ranks all possible sets of members. However, this approach can require the voters to weigh a relatively large number of alternatives. This paper considers group decisions where it is desirable to: (1) explicitly consider characteristics of alternatives and (2) have a relatively small number of options upon which a voter has to express his preferences. The approach that we propose has two steps: First voters vote directly on pertinent characteristics of alternatives; Then these votes are used to indirectly specify preferences on alternatives. The indirectly specified preferences are ones that are naturally modeled using partially ordered sets. We identify some specific methods that could be applied in the second step. In addition, by replacing the indirectly specified preferences in a suitable way, we suggest a technique that can use any positional, pairwise, or other voting method that accepts totally (or “completely”) ordered inputs to tally ballots. We also describe another way to potentially compute pairwise rankings from partially ordered alternatives and discuss some practical and theoretical difficulties associated with our approach.     

Who's in charge? Lessons in discerning the source of authority for a rural local government's decision to retain od help

In the face of increasing demand in this era of “fend for yourself federalism,” greater numbers of university-based organization development consultants will likely be working closely with city and county governments in the coming years. Questions of authority to engage the consultant and to implement any new policies which result from the OD intervention process are not always easy to answer. This paper describes an illustrative case study in which failure to answer these questions resulted in the premature termination of an ongoing intervention. Lessons learned from this “failure” and steps which might be taken to avoid similar outcomes in comparable circumstances are discussed.     

The three dimensions of online child pornography offending

Abstract

The internet has opened up opportunities for non-contact sex offending, such as the viewing of child pornography. This paper proposes a model for the classification of child pornography offenders as an aid for their assessment and treatment, deducted from empirical studies and existing typologies for child pornography offenders. Different subgroups of child pornography offenders may be described according to three dimensions: (1) type of offending, (2) the motivation behind child pornography offending and (3) the situational and social engagement in the offending behaviour. Distinct pathways of child pornography offending can be identified, related to differing criminogenic needs, severity of offending, and appropriate assessment and treatment strategies for the offenders.     

Policy-makers’ perceptions on their sex offender laws: the good,the bad,and the ugly

The views and attitudes that lawmakers have about sexual offenders and sexual victimization can be influential in criminal lawmaking. And given the popularity of sex offender laws, policy-makers are central players in how state justice systems respond to sex crimes. Therefore, state-level policy-makers from across the country, who sponsored and passed at least one sex offender law in their state, (n?=?61) were interviewed about sex offenders and sex crimes. Policy-makers believe sex offender laws are too broad. The laws extend to nonviolent offenses, low-risk offenders, and thus dilute the law enforcement potency of sex offender registries. Policy-makers view existing sex offender laws as necessary to enhance public safety and as proof that lawmakers are responding to the needs and concerns of the public. Sex offender laws were also discussed as a source of political capital; a way to help ensure reelection. The sexual victimization of children and the media’s coverage of sex crimes were instrumental in these state-level policy-makers’ decisions to sponsor sex offender laws. Policy and research recommendations are offered.     

Examining the Impact of Duration,Connection, and Dosage of Domestic Violence Services on Survivor Well-Being

Journal of Family Violence - Survivors of domestic violence (DV) have a wide range of needs when they seek help from DV programs. While there is growing evidence that advocacy and other supportive...