Privatization morphs into 'publicization': businesses look a lot like government

Private companies become like public agencies because competition for contracts is keen and they must be perceived by the contacting agent, government, as being agreeable with the government's demands in order to be contracted with again. Government makes suggestions, sets requirements, and provides recommendations to private companies which, over time, cause the private companies/facilities to look more and more like government agencies – and company managers are left pressed between their need to re-contract and the business instincts and acumen for which they've presumably been contracted with in the first place.
This paper will briefly visit the common arguments for and against privatization. Additionally, the results of a limited study of the effect of publicization on private prison companies operating nationally in the US will be examined.     

Who should I look at? Eye contact during collective interviewing as a cue to deceit

Pairs of liars and pairs of truth tellers were interviewed and the amount of eye contact they made with the interviewer and each other was coded. Given that liars take their credibility less for granted than truth tellers, we expected liars to monitor the interviewer to see whether they were being believed, and to try harder to convince the interviewer that they were telling the truth. It was hypothesised that this monitoring would manifest itself through more eye contact with the interviewer and less eye contact with each other than in the case of truth tellers. A total of 43 pairs of participants took part in the experiment. Truth tellers had lunch in a nearby restaurant. Liars took some money from a purse, and were asked to pretend that instead of taking the money, they had been to a nearby restaurant together for lunch. Pairs of liars looked less at each other and displayed more eye contact with the interviewer than pairs of truth tellers. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Risk,reconviction and “sexually risky behaviour” in sex offenders

Abstract

The Challenge Project is a community assessment and treatment programme in southeast London. The Project has been evaluated extensively in relation to community failure, with consideration of static risk prediction tools and the role of key developmental variables. This current paper is an extension of earlier evaluations, considering an extended range of outcomes with a longer-term follow-up period of more than nine years at risk in the community. The official sexual reconviction rate for this sample of sex offenders (of whom 275 were at risk in the community) was 12%. A wider definition of “sexually risky behaviours” as an outcome variable, drawn from a range of police intelligence, suggested a “truer” sexual re-offending rate of 20%. Although static tools were moderately predictive of community failure, the accuracy of risk prediction was enhanced if static tools were considered in conjunction with developmental variables.     

A comparison of curfew and noncurfew violators using a self-report delinquency survey

The present study examines one city’s experience with a juvenile curfew ordinance. It compares characteristics of youths detained by the police for curfew violation with teenagers who did not have such police contact. Selfreport data reveal curfew violators admit committing more minor and serious delinquency, as well as status offenses, than noncurfew violators. Curfew violators also disclose higher victimization levels. Implications deriving from these observations are discussed.     

Journalists Writing Australian Political History

There has been a considerable increase in the number of political histories written by journalists since the 1960s. Three types of journalistic political histories have emerged in this period: the quickie, the longer history and the investigative work, and the works of Warren Denning, Alan Reid and Paul Kelly have been particularly influential in the development of the genre's present characteristics and concerns. This article finds that the genre's increase is the result of a combination of factors: the expansion of a tertiary-educated readership; the introduction of university training for journalists; increasing economic pressures faced by publishers, and the rise of celebrity culture.     

Racial Socialization and Racial Identity: African American Parents’ Messages About Race as Precursors to Identity

This study uses two waves of data to examine the relationships among patterns of racial socialization experiences and racial identity in a sample of 358 African American adolescents (60% female and 40% male). Using latent class analyses, we identified three patterns of adolescent-reported racial socialization experiences: High Positive, Moderate Positive, and Low Frequency. Adolescent-reported racial socialization experiences at Wave 1 were associated with Wave 2 adolescent racial identity approximately one year later. Specifically, High Positive and Low Frequency racial socialization were associated with racial centrality, assimilationist ideology, and nationalist ideology. These findings suggest that various patterns of racial socialization practices play an important role in the developing significance and meaning that African American adolescents ascribe to race.