Botswana: Industrial Court tackles HIV testing in the workplace

The Botswana Industrial Court recently decided two cases regarding mandatory HIV testing in the workplace. One case addressed constitutional rights of HIV-infected people, expanding the reach of the Bill of Rights to the private sphere and potentially offering wide protection to people living with HIV/AIDS. Both cases highlight the glaring need for HIV-related legislation in Botswana.     

Bureaucratic Neutrality among Competing Bureaucratic Values in an Ethnic Federalism: The Case of Ethiopia

This article uses Kaufman's theory of competing bureaucratic values as a foundation for studying bureaucratic values in a developing society. It discusses civil service reform within a socio-bureaucratic-political exchange, as well as characteristics associated with bureaucratic values and ethnic federalism. The inherent conflicts between a civil service grounded in the values of bureaucratic neutrality, representativeness, or executive leadership and practices within a government structured on the basis of ethnicity are explored. Factors related to Ethiopia's postconflict status, which further complicate the governance environment, are identified, and building blocks for postconflict governance are suggested.     

Central nervous system consequences of an unusual body disposal strategy: case report and brief experimental investigation

The body of a 73-year-old man was dismembered by his female companion for the purpose of covert disposal. The method employed included skillful separation of body parts with hacksaw and knife, piecemeal disposal of fragments, and prolonged boiling of the decapitated head. The latter treatment resulted in marked shrinkage of cranial dura mater, separation of dura mater from skull, and extrusion of brain fragments into the resultant enlarged epidural space through a dural defect due to the disproportionately greater shrinkage of dura mater compared to brain parenchyma. This resulted in curd-like brain fragments filling an enlarged epidural space and overlying a shrunken, leathery dura mater. The cranial dura mater, still adherent to the skull base, resembled a "shrunken brain" in contour but contained only the remnants of brain tissue not already extruded through the dural defect. This unusual thermal artifact is rarely illustrated or mentioned in forensic literature. The development of this postmortem artifact likely requires the presence of a specific combination of conditions which must be, but apparently rarely are, simultaneously present.     

The new economic credentialing: protecting hospitals from competition by medical staff members

This Article addresses hospitals' use of economic criteria to determine an individual's qualifications for staff privileges. Hospitals are resorting to economic conflict-of-interest credentialing policies in an attempt to ensure physician's loyalty and maintain their own economic viability. Physicians, however, argue that entrepreneurial activities are necessary for them to meet the economic challenges posed by declining reimbursements and rising insurance costs. The Article surveys the numerous legal theories that physicians (and, in some cases, the federal government) could employ in attacking these new types of credentialing policies and concludes that, on balance, hospitals should be able to implement their policies in ways that minimize liability in most jurisdictions. The Article concludes by discussing other issues that economic credentialing policies raise, including those implicating tax-exempt status and nonlegal considerations.     

Sexual Betrayal Among Late Adolescents: Perspectives of the Perpetrator and the Aggrieved

The present study investigates the occurrence and experience of sexual betrayal in adolescents and young adults from the perspectives of both the perpetrator and the aggrieved. Subjects (N = 216) who had been in monogamous relationships were asked whether they had ever cheated on their partner (by petting or having sexual relations with another) and whether their partner had ever cheated on them. Subjects also reported their motives and reactions and the consequences associated with these betrayals. Approximately two-thirds of the sample had experienced betrayal, as the perpetrator, the aggrieved, or both. Perpetrators typically know their betrayal partners and are motivated by sexual attraction, the regular partner's absence, and the influence of drugs or alcohol. Although 42% of betrayals are not discovered by the aggrieved, the majority of those that are discovered result from confessions by the perpetrator. As expected, those who are betrayed generally react with anger or sadness. Perpetrators often feel guilty, but also report a number of positive emotions, suggesting that betrayal may play an important role as adolescents struggle to establish their identities. Gender differences were absent in the incidence, motives, and experience of sexual betrayal. Results are interpreted in terms of competing demands of intimacy and identity formation.     

Violence and Gangs: Gender Differences in Perceptions and Behavior

Most research on violence has focused on males, but recent studies indicatethat females are also involved in violent crimes. Few studies, to date,have examined whether different or similar models explain male and femaleinvolvement in violent behavior. In the current research, we examine therelative contribution of social bond, self-control and social learningconcepts to the explanation of male and female violent offending. We alsoexplore the unique contribution of gang membership, school environment andprior victimization to these explanatory models. Using a multisite sampleof eighth-grade students, we find that results of a Chow test indicate theneed for separate theoretical models. Despite some similarities, differentfactors account for male and female rates of violent behavior.     

Does it pay to move from welfare to work?

The 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act requires welfare recipients to look for work and has made it more difficult for nonworking recipients to remain on the welfare rolls. In addition, the economic boom of the 1990s and changes in federal and state policies have raised the net income gain associated with moving from welfare to work. This paper analyzes data from a panel survey of single mothers, all of whom received welfare in February 1997. In 1999, those who left welfare and were working had a higher household income and lower poverty rate, experienced a similar level of material hardship, engaged in fewer activities to make ends meet, and had lower expectations of experiencing hardship in the near future than did nonworking welfare recipients. Estimations of fixed‐effect regressions of income that control for both observable and unobservable time‐invariant characteristics show that monthly net income increases by $2.63 for every additional hour of work effort. About 60 percent of the observed monthly income difference between wage‐reliant and welfare‐reliant mothers can be attributed to differences in their work effort. Thus, after welfare reform, it does pay to move from welfare to work. © 2002 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

Dimensions of publicness and performance in substance abuse treatment organizations.

Changes in funding, clientele, and treatment practices of public and privately owned substance abuse treatment programs, compelled in part by increased cost containment pressures, have prompted researchers' investigations of the implications of organizational form for treatment programs. These studies primarily probe associations between ownership status, patient characteristics, and services delivered and do not empirically link organizational form or structure to treatment outcomes. Data from the National Treatment Improvement Evaluation Study (NTIES) were used to study the relationship of ownership and other dimensions of publicness identified in the public management literature to patient outcomes, controlling for patient characteristics, treatment experiences, and other program characteristics. A few effects of organizational form and structure on substance abuse treatment outcomes are statistically significant (primarily improved social functioning), although the specific contributions of measures of ownership and publicness to explaining program-level variation are generally small.     

One size does not fit all: Matching breadth of stakeholder participation to watershed group accomplishments

The role of the public in US policy making has shifted substantially during the past several decades. This shift is particularly evident in environmental policy, where collaboration among multiple stakeholders is on the rise. Much of the literature on collaborative environmental management emphasizes the need for widespread community involvement, especially from private citizens. Many proponents of collaboration have argued that broad inclusion can lead to better environmental solutions while also establishing legitimacy, building social capital, and overcoming conflicts. Yet such broad inclusion may be costly in terms of time, energy, and resources, and it may not yield the desired results. Thus, a key question is how the breadth of public involvement is linked to collaborative group accomplishments. This study, using watershed groups in Ohio, demonstrates several links between group membership and results. Groups with a broader array of participants tend to excel in watershed plan creation, identifying/prioritizing issues, and group development and maintenance. In addition, groups comprised of a relatively balanced mix of governmental and non-governmental participants are more likely to list planning/research and group development and maintenance results than are groups comprised primarily of non-governmental participants. In contrast, groups with a narrower membership and groups that are composed primarily of non-governmental participants may focus more on pressuring government for policy change.