Effects of face-to-face restorative justice on victims of crime in four randomized,controlled trials

The growing use of restorative justice provides a major opportunity for experimental criminology and evidence-based policy. Face-to-face meetings led by police officers between crime victims and their offenders are predicted to reduce the harm to victims caused by the crime. This prediction is derived not only from the social movement for restorative justice, but also from the microsociology of interaction rituals (Collins, 2004). Four randomized, controlled trials of this hypothesis in London and Canberra, with point estimates disaggregated by gender, tested the prediction with measures of both successful interaction ritual (apologies received and their perceived sincerity) and the hypothesized benefits of the ritual (on forgiveness of, and reduced desire for violent revenge against, offenders, and victim self-blame for the crime). The meta-analyses of the eight point estimates suggest success (as victims define it) of restorative justice as an interaction ritual, and as a policy for reducing harm to victims.     

The EDNAP mitochondrial DNA population database (EMPOP) collaborative exercises: organisation, results and perspectives

This paper presents an overview of the organisation and the results of the collaborative exercises (CE) of the European DNA Profiling (EDNAP) Group's mitochondrial DNA population database project (EMPOP). The aim of the collaborative exercises was to determine whether uniformity of mtDNA sequencing results could be achieved among different laboratories. These were asked to sequence either the complete mtDNA control region or the two hypervariable regions HVI (16024-16365) and HVII (73-340) from DNA extracts, buccal swabs or bloodstains, proceeding in accordance with the protocol and strategies used in each individual laboratory. The results of the collaborative exercises were employed to identify possible sources of errors that could arise during the analysis and interpretation of mtDNA profiles. These findings were taken as a basis to tentatively make suitable arrangements for the construction of a high quality mtDNA database. One hundred fifty mtDNA profiles were submitted to the evaluating laboratory, and disaccording profiles were classified into four groups corresponding to the source of error: clerical errors, sample mix-ups, contaminations and discrepancies with respect to the mtDNA nomenclature. Overall, 14 disaccording haplotypes (16 individual errors) were observed. The errors included 10 clerical errors, 3 interpretation problems, 2 cases of sample mix-up and 1 case of point heteroplasmic mixture, where the 2 sequencing reactions brought inconsistent base calls. This corresponds to an error rate of 10.7% in a virtual mtDNA database consisting of the collaborative exercise results. However, this estimate is still conservative compared to conclusions drawn by authors of meanwhile numerous publications critically reviewing published mtDNA population databases. Our results and earlier published concerns strongly emphasize the need for appropriate safety regulations when mtDNA profiles are compiled for database purposes in order to accomplish the high standard required for mtDNA databases that are used in the forensic context.     

Using STR analysis to detect human DNA from exploded pipe bomb devices

This study investigated the possibility of recovering a bomb assembler's DNA from an exploded pipe bomb device. Metal and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipes were examined to determine if one surface type would allow better DNA recovery than the other. Ten subjects each handled components of one metal and one PVC pipe bomb. The bombs were exploded, the fragments were collected and swabbed using the double swab technique, and the samples were extracted, quantified, amplified, and genotyped using polymerase chain reaction/short tandem repeat (PCR/STR). Of the 20 bombs handled by the subjects, four bombs gave reportable results that matched the subject's known DNA profiles. An additional eight profiles, also matching the subject's known DNA profiles, were generated but were below the reportable threshold. There was no difference in the success rate of obtaining DNA profiles related to the use of either PVC or metal in the manufacture of the pipe bomb. The variables that appeared to have the greatest influence on the success of generating a DNA profile were the amount of fragmentation and subsequent recovery of the bomb fragments. It is suspected that successful DNA profiling could also be dependent upon the bomb assembler's propensity to slough skin cells on objects they handled.     

What's looks got to do with it? Instructor appearance and student evaluations of teaching

Some studies suggest that instructors' looks are important determinants of their Student Evaluations of Teaching (SET) results. Yet the studies examining this proposition leave out many independent variables that have been found to be important determinants of SETs in the SET literature. This study adds in most such factors and finds that, controlling for these other factors, attractiveness has no effect in our data. We conclude that earlier findings indicating that instructor appearance is important are likely due to omitted variable bias. © 2005 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management     

A comparison of adjustment methods to test the robustness of an STR DNA database comprised of 24 European populations

An aim of the European Network of Forensic Science Institutes (ENFSI) is to produce a DNA database of second generation multiplex (SGM) STR profiles that is representative of the resident cosmopolitan populations. To achieve this, data were collected from 24 different populations. All of the data were combined to form one database of 5700 profiles from which allele proportions were calculated. The robustness of this combined European database was tested by estimating parameter d for every DNA profile, where d=log(10)(Pm(c)/Pm(E)) Pm(c) is the match probability of the profile calculated from its cognate database and Pm(E) is the match probability of the combined European database. Overall there was a small tendency for Pm(c)>Pm(E) primarily because of sampling bias. This bias was removed by the simple expediency of applying an adjustment factor to the calculation of Pm(E). These were selected from the Balding size bias correction, the Balding and Nichols Fst correction, a minimum allele proportion (between 0.01 and 0.02), an upper bound of a 95% confidence interval (CI) and a lower bound on the genotype match probability. It was demonstrated that a single European database is a feasible proposition. A combination of different adjustment methods can be used to ensure that the result is conservative relative to the cognate database, and their effect measured by parameter d.     

Community Development Block Grant Spending Revisited: Patterns of Benefit and Program Institutionalization

This article analyzes Community Development Block Grant (CDBG)spending by local governments between 1988–1992. We addressfour issues examining actual expenditure patterns in a smallcentral city and five satellite cities in Michigan: changesin CDBG expenditure patterns; levels of social targeting; theextent of institutionalization of expenditure patterns; andthe level of privatization of CDBG spending. We conclude thatwhile spending for housing and public works is related to thefiscal health of cities, expenditures for economic developmentand social services are related to political characteristics.Further, local governments exceed federal social targeting guidelines.Finally, while there is little privatization, the communitiesstudied evidence modest levels of program innovation in thelater years of the CDBG program.     

Breadth and Intensity of Youth Activity Involvement as Contexts for Positive Development

Research has linked youth activity involvement to positive development. However, past studies have confounded at least two separable dimensions of involvement: breadth (number of activities) and intensity (participation frequency). Theory and the limited available evidence suggest that these dimensions may make independent contributions to development. Based on self-reports from 7430 high school students, this study assessed whether breadth and intensity dimensions were related to each other, to a typical aggregate measure of involvement, and to various indicators of positive development. Breadth and intensity were moderately interrelated and, in combination, they explained the majority of the variance in the typical involvement measure. Both dimensions were positively related to each development index. When examined simultaneously, only breadth had a unique relation with each developmental index. Further, evidence of nonlinear effects was found. Findings were consistent across age levels. Implications for measurement of involvement and interpretations of the extant research are discussed.

Interpreting reproductive rights: institutional responses to the agenda in the 1990s

This article reviews the way in which three very different international organisations concerned with reproductive health policy responded to the reproductive rights agenda during the 1990s. The intention is not to evaluate these responses but to describe how these organisations saw their roles with respect to establishing and promoting reproductive rights in developing countries. We seek to explore their different strategies of defining and interpreting rights, to examine the imperatives behind these strategies and to consider how these variously fed into the practical actions and agendas with which these organisations were engaged. The organisations included were the Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights, the International Federation of Family Planning Associations and the UK's Department for International Development. Their diverse understandings about implementing reproductive rights contribute to a plural political environment in which these rights and their interpretation are debated. For all the three, their particular conception of reproductive rights is an important organising principle through which their efforts around reproductive health are given wider meaning. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Justice for All? A Cross‐Time Analysis of Toxics Release Inventory Facility Location

This paper contributes to the environmental justice literature by addressing several outstanding issues in a single study. Using a cross-time data set that allows us to control for the prevalent "chicken-and-egg" or "which-came-first" problem, we analyze the relative importance of poverty and race/ethnicity in an analysis that includes economic costs, potential legal costs, and potential collective action. Because the most appropriate functional form is not obvious, we use several methods, including Tobit, Poisson, and ordinary least squares, on different forms of the dependent variable. In every case, controlling for the population present at the time of disamenity location and controlling the other factors mentioned, we find evidence of disproportionate collocation based on race/ethnicity, but not on poverty alone. We also find that the potential for collective action decreases the likelihood of receipt of the studied disamenities.