Book reviews

Barton Whaley, Codeword Barbarossa. Cambridge, Mass, and London: The MIT Press, 1973. x + 376 pp. $10.00 £4.50.

Dietrich A. Loeber, Diktierte Option: Die Umsiedlung der Deutsch‐Balten aus Estland und Lettland 1939–1941. Neumünster: Karl Wachholtz Verlag, 1972. 787 pp. DM 96.—

N. Valentinov (Volsky), The New Economic Policy and the Party Crisis after the Death of Lenin. Reminiscences of my Work at the VSNKh during theNEP (in Russian). Edited by J. Bunyan and V. Butenko. With an Introduction (in English) by Bertram Wolfe. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University, Hoover Institution Press, 1971. (Foreign Language Series 7.) xix + 256 pp. $9.50.

William C. Fletcher, Religion and Soviet Foreign Policy 1945–1970. London. Published for Chatham House by OUP, 1973. x + 179 pp. £3.50.

Paul Dibb, Siberia and the Pacific. A Study of Economic Development and Trade Prospects. New York: Praeger Publishers and London: Pall Mall Press, 1972. xxii + 288 pp. £7.25.

Mervyn Matthews, Class and Society in Soviet Russia. London: Allen Lane The Penguin Press, 1972. xviii + 366 pp. £3.50.

Roger A. Clarke, Soviet Economic Facts 1917–1970. London: Macmillan, 1972. xi + 151 pp. £3.95.

Alan Abouchar, Soviet Planning and Spatial Efficiency. The Prewar Cement Industry. (Russian and East European Series, Vol. 39.) Bloomington and London: Indiana UP, 1971. x+134 pp. $5.50 (paperback). £2.60 (paperback).

Theodor Berthold, Die Agrarpreispolitik der DDR. Ziele, Mittel, Wirkungen. Osteuropastudien der Hochschulen des Landes Hessen Reihe I. Giessener Abhandlungen zur Agrar‐ und Wirtschaftsforschung des europaischen Ostens, Band 53. Berlin: In Kommission bei Duncker & Humblot, 1972. 295 pp. DM 45.— (paperback).

Geza Peter Lauter, The Manager and Economic Reform in Hungary. New York: Praeger Publishers and London: Pall Mall Press, 1972. (Praeger Special Studies in International Economics and Development.) xv ‐f‐189 pp. £6.25.

T. M. Podolski, Socialist Banking and Monetary Control. The Experience of Poland. London: Cambridge UP, 1973. xiii + 392pp. £9.50. $28.50.

Ryan C. Amacher, Yugoslavia's Foreign Trade. A Study of State Trade Discrimination. New York: Praeger Publishers and London: Pall Mall Press, 1972. (Praeger Special Studies in International Economics and Development.) xii + 185 pp. £5.75.

Institute for the Study of the USSR, Who Was Who in the USSR. Metuchen : Scarecrow Press, 1972. 677 pp.     

Sexual Assault Case Outcomes: Disentangling the Overlapping Decisions of Police and Prosecutors

The rape reform movement of the 1970s and 1980s was designed to improve the likelihood of prosecution and conviction in sexual assault cases. However, there is evidence that the attrition rate for sexual assaults reported to the police remains high, and that the locus of case attrition is arresting and charging decisions. In this paper, we analyze police and prosecutorial decision-making in sexual assault cases using quantitative data on sexual assaults reported to the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department in 2008. We argue that decisions made by police and prosecutors should not be examined in isolation from one another and that researchers who analyze arrest decisions by examining only cases that are formally cleared by arrest or who focus only on charging decisions that follow the arrest of a suspect may be ignoring important aspects of police and prosecutorial decision-making. This is confirmed by the results of our study, which reveal that a significant proportion of cases in which the police appear to have probable cause to make an arrest do not result in the arrest of the suspect and that a substantial number of cases are rejected for prosecution by the district attorney before an arrest is made. Moreover, the factors that predict arrest and charging vary depending upon the way in which the outcome is operationally defined. These results have a number of important policy implications for police and prosecutors handling sexual assault cases.     

Treaties and Intergovernmental Relations in Australia: Political Implications of the Toonen Case

This article explores the political implications of the Toonen case for studies of Australian federalism. The case involved a finding by the United Nations Human Rights Committee that Tasmania's anti-gay laws breached Australia's human rights obligations, and the subsequent passing of the Human Rights (Sexual Conduct) Act 1994 (Cth) designed to override sections of Tasmania's criminal law.
The Commonwealth's use of the external affairs power to ratify international treaties is outlined, and some questions regarding Commonwealth and state responsibilities and areas of concern flowing from treaty ratification are examined. The Privacy Act is discussed, and the character of intergovernmental relations and cooperation in this instance analysed.
The case raises the question of whether the Commonwealth's capacity to use and expand its powers is subject to effective checks and balances, or is limiting or eroding the powers of the states to the extent that the division and sharing of powers no longer represents that of a federal system. The article concludes that Australian federalism is dynamic and flexible, and reaffirms that a differentiation between the process and outcome of intergovernmental relations will enhance our understanding of its machinations.     

Club apples: a biology of markets built on the social life of variety

Abstract

Club apples are patented apple varieties, often grown by members of a co-operative who plan the production and marketing of the apples. Drawing on ethnographic work, this paper will use club apples as a case to demonstrate that varieties have shaped the development of the apple industry in ways that resist institutional pressures to commodify the biological features of the apple. Club apples extend social boundaries around varieties in ways that grant growers more control over the market life of the apple and more economic power. The productive opportunities availed in the aliveness of biological materials can be seen to shape competition and the contours of economic markets.     

Designing state aid formulas

This paper designs a new equalization‐aid formula based on fiscal gaps of local communities. When states are in transition to a new local aid formula, the issue of whether and how to hold existing aid harmless poses a challenge. The authors show that some previous studies and the formulas derived from them give differential weights to existing and new aid in filling the gap and hence effectively treat communities receiving greater amounts of existing aid more favorably than communities receiving less or no existing aid. As a fairer alternative, the authors propose a new approach that considers existing and new aid as completely equivalent in filling the gap by focusing on the equalizing impact of combined (new and existing) aid. In addition, unlike most previous research that focuses only on a single year's new aid distribution, the authors simulate the dynamics of aid distributions over multiple years using Massachusetts data. They further provide and compare several possible methods by which state policymakers could direct extra aid dollars to communities with larger unfilled gaps in dollar terms. Although the proposed aid formula is designed for municipal aid and tailored to Massachusetts, the authors note that foundation aid formulas for education implicitly treat existing aid in the same way and suggest that the framework, principles, and policy recommendations might also be applicable to other states. © 2009 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

Unfounding Sexual Assault: Examining the Decision to Unfound and Identifying False Reports

One of the most controversial—and least understood—issues in the area of sexual violence is the prevalence of false reports of rape. Estimates of the rate of false reports vary widely, which reflects differences in way false reports are defined and in the methods that researchers use to identify them. We address this issue using a mixed methods approach that incorporates quantitative and qualitative data on sexual assault cases that were reported to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) in 2008 and qualitative data from interviews with LAPD detectives assigned to investigate reports of sexual assault. We found that the LAPD was clearing cases as unfounded appropriately most, but not all, of the time and we estimated that the rate of false reports among cases reported to the LAPD was 4.5 percent. We also found that although complainant recantation was the strongest predictor of the unfounding decision, other factors indicative of the seriousness of the incident and the credibility of the victim also played a role. We interpret these findings using an integrated theoretical perspective that incorporates both Black's sociological theory of law and Steffensmeier, Ulmer, and Kramer's focal concerns perspective.     

Tax Code Knowledge and Behavioral Responses Among EITC Recipients: Policy Insights from Qualitative Data

We build on the robust quantitative literature on behavioral responses to the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) by using in‐depth qualitative interviews with 115 EITC recipients to examine how they understand and respond to its incentive structures regarding earnings, marriage, and childbearing. We find that respondents consider their tax refund as a whole, without differentiating the portion from the EITC; as a result, they cannot predict how their EITC refund would change if they altered their labor supply or marital status. Incentives for childbearing are better understood, but are not specific to the EITC; rather, parents respond to a combination of tax deductions and credits as a whole. Respondents would like to maximize their refunds, but most cannot or would not alter their behavior due to structural constraints they face in the labor and marriage markets. Rather than adjust work hours, defer marriage, or have additional children, respondents exhibit a different type of behavioral response to the incentive structure of the EITC: They alter their tax filing status in order to maximize their refunds. They routinely claim zero exemptions and deductions on their W‐4s, file their tax returns as head of household rather than as married, and divide children among the tax returns of multiple caregivers. Although some of these behaviors qualify as tax noncompliance, they emerge because the intricacies of the tax code conflict with the complexity and fluidity of finances and family life in low‐income households.     

Applying Behavioral Insights to Improve Postsecondary Education Outcomes: A Review of Obama Administration Efforts and Next Steps Under the Trump Administration

Amidst growing public concern in the United States over college access and affordability, federal policymakers have implemented many low‐cost, behaviorally‐informed strategies aimed at simplifying the college‐going process and reducing informational barriers. Our paper reviews recent U.S. federal policies and interventions that draw on insights from the behavioral sciences to help students navigate various stages of the college‐going process and summarizes empirical evidence of these efforts on college outcomes, highlighting variations across interventions and for various student populations. We conclude with up‐to‐date discussions of policy proposals and opportunities for behavioral science applications in postsecondary education.