The impact of agency context, policies, and practices on violence against police

This study examined agency-level factors that impact the level of violence against police. The independent variables represented both agency context (e.g., violent crime rate, population characteristics) and agency policies and practices (e.g., backup and body armor policies) and were linked to constructs within routine activities theory. Information on agency policies and practices came from an agency survey. Data for the dependent variable―agency counts of officer killings and assaults over a three-year period―came from the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). Negative binomial regression was used to assess the impact of the independent variables on the dependent measure. Three of the independent variables—measuring body armor policies, agency accountability, and violent crime—had statistically significant relationships with violence against police.     

The overweight female body in Malaysian slimming advertisements: problem and solution

This study analyses image and text to investigate the way slimming advertising exploits women’s fear of being overweight to the extent that they feel obliged to do something about their own bodies. We show how Malaysian slimming advertisements construct certain types of female body which reinforce cultural stereotypes, namely the overweight body that exceeds culturally acceptable limits of desirable body size, and the desirable and attainable slim body with no excess fat. Three sample advertisements were selected from a Malaysian English newspaper and analysed using Jewitt and Oyama’s framework to identify the way images and text are used to give specific meanings relating to the female body. The images were examined in terms of representational, interactional and compositional meanings, and the analysis provides evidence of how the extremely overweight female body is pathologised, making it the focus of critical scrutiny. The advertisements use body images to illustrate the problem of being very overweight and the desirability of being slim, and the consumption of slimming services as a quick and easy solution to the problem.     

The Politics of Growth Management Reform in the States: A Comparative Analysis

This article seeks to advance our understanding of the politics of growth management reform in the American states. First, it builds on prior research on agenda processes in other policy arenas to identify four "ideal" types of growth management reforms with empirical referents in the states: quantum, emergent, convergent and gradualist. Next, the political dynamics associated with each type are culled from the experiences of eight states pursuing such reforms over the past three decades. The article concludes by reviewing the implications of these findings for future research and for those pursuing growth management reforms in the future.     

Tax Increment Financing

Tax Increment Financing (TIP) uses the increase in taxes resulting from an area's redevelopment to help subsidize the costs of redevelopment. The paper focuses on the mechanisms and problems of using real property tax increments under Illinois law. Two distinct methods of calculating tax increments, the "aggregate" and "parcel" methods, are examined. A briefcase study is provided.     

Evaluating the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa

Provides a review of Gibson’s (2004) evaluation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of South Africa. Offers a background to the TRC process then reckons with Gibson’s study in terms of his procedures, the context, the issue of “race”, the truth claims of the TRC, a digression on amnesty, and finally the link between truth and reconciliation. Concludes that this study offers substantial support for the TRC process. A review of James L. Gibson (2004) Overcoming Apartheid: Can Truth Reconcile a Divided Nation? New York: Russell Sage Foundation; Cape Town: HSRC Press, pp. 467.