Cocaine,the contras,and the United States: How the U.S. government has augmented America's drug crisis

A study of Washington's connections to Honduran and other contra supporters in the illicit drug traffic shows that such gray alliances for covert operations are themselves a major part of this country's drug problem. It is true that the U.S. has arrested contra supporters on drug charges; but, time after time, these drug arrests have come after the U.S. has ceased to promote the contra faction which those arrested had been supporting. The new Bush drug strategy seems unlikely to affect the window of drug smuggling opportunity opened by Washington's relations with the corrupt Honduran military, and may well open new such windows by new grey alliances with the corrupt right-wing forces in the Andean countries of origin.

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Routes to Scholarly Success in Public Administration: Is There a Right Path?

The Successful Scholars Project examined the determinants of successful public administration scholars. We surveyed the top 89 public administration scholars alive today (nominated by leaders of five national organizations) and asked them to rank a set of characteristics and behaviors that may have helped them achieve their success. We then analyzed the curricula vitae of 63 of the scholars. This article reports our study's findings and the recommendations of our successful scholars. Scholars heralded good methodological training and quality mentoring as significant. For research, choosing important, cutting-edge issues to write about, not following fads, being oneself, and publishing quality works were touted as important. Presenting research at national conferences also was highly recommended (while chairing committees and serving as discussants were not). Most scholars recommended steering away from administrative positions and university politics. We conclude with lessons for budding public administration scholars as well as lessons for designing public administration doctoral programs.     

Three ecologies, transversality and victimization: the case of the British Petroleum oil spill

A number of critiques of the burgeoning field of green criminology have recently been articulated in the literature. The aim of this article is to begin to demonstrate what green criminological work responsive to these critiques might look like. The two primary critiques we are concerned with here are (1) that there has been little intellectual sharing between the fields of green criminology and victimology, and (2) that green criminological work has failed to be reflexive about the modernist assumptions it has largely adhered to. In response to these critiques, we draw on the theorizing of poststructuralist Felix Guattari to analyze the various interrelated layers of victimization in the 2010 British Petroleum oil spill case in the Gulf of Mexico.     

EMPOWERMENT,INNOVATION, AND SERVICE: LAW SCHOOL PROGRAMS PROVIDE ACCESS TO JUSTICE AND INSTILL A COMMITMENT TO SERVE

Law schools around the country seek to fill the legal needs of their communities in ways that are both innovative and mutually beneficial to clients and students. This article describes five pro bono and clinical programs, at the University of Richmond School of Law, The Earle Mack School of Law at Drexel University, Catholic University Columbus School of Law, the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, and Vermont Law School, where law students, under the supervision of law professors or community professionals, provide assistance or legal representation to underserved and often marginalized populations needing help with family law problems, including parents accused of abuse and neglect, youth aging out of foster care, homeless families, survivors of domestic violence, homeless veterans with addiction problems, and female prisoners. To develop their programs, the five law schools from the outset collaborated with partners in the community, and they continue to do so as their programs expand and evolve. In addition to helping and empowering clients, these law schools are providing experiential learning opportunities that are transformative for their students. The authors hope that these programs will be instructive for law schools, other academic institutions, the legal community, and community organizations in developing creative collaborations to ensure better access to justice.     

The Relationship Between Confidence and Accuracy in Clinical Assessment of Psychiatric Patients' Potential for Violence

The authors studied the relationship between confidence and accuracy in clinical assessments of psychiatric patients' short-term risk of violence. At the time of entry to the hospital, physicians (N = 78) estimated the probability that each of 317 patients would physically attack other people during the first week of psychiatric hospitalization. The clinicians also indicated the degree of confidence they had in their estimates of violence potential. Nurses rated the occurrence of inpatient physical assaults with the Overt Aggression Scale. The results showed that when clinicians had a high degree of confidence, their evaluations of risk of violence were strongly associated with whether or not patients became violent. At moderate levels of confidence, clinicians' risk estimates had a lower, but still substantial relationship with the later occurrence of violence. However, when clinicians had low confidence, their assessments of potential for violence had little relationship to whether or not the patients became violent. The findings suggest that the level of confidence that clinicians have in their evaluations is an important moderator of the predictive validity of their assessments of patients' potential for violence.