CHARGING FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT SERVICES: A COHERENT PHILOSOPHY

This article reviews and critically appraises the alternative rationales and methodologies for local authority charging practice which have been proposed in the past. It goes on to advocate a charging rationale based on customized value-added services. This is argued to be a coherent charging philosophy which can realistically fit into the evolving policy, management and decision-making framework of local government. It allows for individual choices within a wider framework of collective choice and provision of services. It is capable of blending efficiency and equity criteria within a system of practical charging policies for local government services. Whilst retaining consistency of rationale, the proposal can be moulded to suit both the objectives and the particular characteristics of individual services. Practical examples are given, specific criticisms addressed and implementation is considered. The essential point is that it is compatible with the institutional framework within which it is applied.     

Are Teen Courts An Answer to Our Juvenile Delinquency Problems?

Teen courts are being implemented across the country at a speed that surpasses the celerity with which research of program effectiveness can be performed. This study attempts to evaluate the effectiveness of the Dona Ana County, New Mexico, Teen Court by looking at the rate of recidivism for, program participants as well as possible influential factors upon the rate of recidivism. The subjects were 478 randomly selected participants who were traced though the Juvenile Probation and Parole Office to detect any referrals following teen court participation. The study found a recidivism rate of 25% between 1994 and 1998, which was affected by several factors, including gender, age, prior offenses, and program completion. The study was not a comprehensive evaluation, but it did reinforce the need for further research in the area.     

CORRELATES OF VIOLENT POLITICAL EXTREMISM IN THE UNITED STATES*

Although research on terrorism has grown rapidly in recent years, few scholars have applied criminological theories to the analysis of individual‐level political extremism. Instead, researchers focused on radicalization have drawn primarily from political science and psychology and have overwhelmingly concentrated on violent extremists, leaving little variation in the dependent variable. With the use of a newly available data set, we test whether variables derived from prominent criminological theories are helpful in distinguishing between nonviolent and violent extremists. The results show that variables related to social control (lack of stable employment), social learning (radical peers), psychological perspectives (history of mental illness), and criminal record all have significant effects on participation in violent political extremism and are robust across multiple techniques for imputing missing data. At the same time, other common indicators of social control (e.g., education and marital status) and social learning perspectives (e.g., radical family members) were not significant in the multivariate models. We argue that terrorism research would benefit from including criminology insights and by considering political radicalization as a dynamic, evolving process, much as life‐course criminology treats more common forms of crime.     

Detention Decision-Making in a Predominantly Hispanic Region: Rural and Non-Rural Differences

This study examines the implementation of juvenile detention policy by comparing decision making in two jurisdictions where Hispanics represent the numerical majority of the population. One jurisdiction is rural and the other is a jurisdiction with over 1000,000 population. Interviews with juvenile justice probation and parole officers and judges are combined with a quantitative analysis of official records from 1994. Detention decision making is different in these jurisdictions. There is more formal processing and detention of juveniles in the rural jurisdiction. This is attributable to a perception of the community as heterogeneous rather than homogeneous, and a lack of alternatives as compared to the non-rural jurisdiction.     

Securing the Future of Higher Education in England

This article reviews the IPPR commissioned report ‘Securing the Future of Higher Education in England’. It is argued that the report identifies key shortcomings in contemporary higher education policy, and develops some important recommendations for shaping the sector in the future. However, several of the proposed recommendations would create new divisions in the sector and reinforce existing ones. Moreover, the report maintains and reproduces the ideological status quo of contemporary higher education policy, which can broadly be described as the organisation and provision of higher education along ‘quasi‐market’ lines. Crucially, although the report advocates reform based on social justice, in the contemporary context of fiscal retrenchment, the majority of recommendations are underpinned by, arguably necessary, economic rationales.