Predicting police behavior: Ecology,class, and autonomy

Social ecological theories of crime have recently been extended to explain spatial variation in police behavior. Although these theories successfully identify community characteristics affecting local policing, they fail to acknowledge the class-based origins of formal social control and the relative autonomy of the police. This paper addresses the neglected class issue by integrating social ecological and critical theories in a model of police behavior. Cross-sectional data was obtained from twenty-five police agencies’ vice divisions and their corresponding jurisdictions to test the integrated hypothesis. Four social ecological variables and a fiscal measure of relative autonomy are examined as police behavior predictors. Findings reveal that both the autonomy measure and three of the social ecological variables explain significant variance in police behavior, thus supporting the inclusion of structural Marxism in a general theory of police behavior.     

CHILD SUPPORT REFORMS

The use of the Australian equivalent to the Internal Revenue Service is described and the far-reaching efforts of the Australian government to collect. Readers from other countries will recognize similar themes: noncompliance with orders, establishing orders in a majority of cases, providing an efficient means for modifying support awards, creation of two classes of enforcement—for those receiving public support and for those who are entitled to support and do not receive pensions, the use of statistics regarding compliance, and many others. This article documents the common concerns for all modern, industrialized nations in ensuring adequate support for children.     

The treating psychiatrist as forensic evaluator in release decisions

In a previous paper, the author argued that clinicians who perform initial forensic evaluations might be better able to assume subsequent treating relationships with those they have evaluated than independent evaluators. In this paper, the author discusses the problems involved when clinicians who have established treatment relations with patients are then called upon to testify in release hearings. He concludes that the conflicts potentially are more significant in this situation, and that treating clinicians should not evaluate their patients for release.     

Prearraignment forensic evaluation: the odyssey moves east of the Pecos

Although the ethical guidelines of both the American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law explicitly prohibit the forensic examination of criminal defendants before appointment of counsel, except for the purpose of providing emergency medical care and treatment, the practice continues in many parts of the country. This article presents a recent case in which this practice was challenged on appeal, to serve as a focus for discussion of the evolution of, and rationales for and against, these ethical positions. It will also serve as a focus to examine the legal views concerning such examinations, derived from the appeal of the decision in the case itself as well as decisions in similar cases.     

A re-examination of an Irish popularity function

This paper focuses on replication in the sense of Herrnson (1995). It re-examines the only study of an Irish popularity function (Borooah and Borooah, 1990) in the light of recent developments in econometric methodology and in Irish politics. Using error correction models the analysis provides an alternative account of the relationship between economics and government popularity to that provided by Borooah and Borooah. The findings indicate that the short-term impact of the economy is weaker than, and different from, that suggested by them. Economic influences at most set the general level of government approval rather than determine the quarter-by-quarter fluctuations.