The Responsible Administrator Has The Ethics Edge

Books reviewed:
Terry L. Cooper, The Responsible Administrator: An Approach to Ethics for the Administrative Role
Evan M. Berman, Jonathan P. West, Stephen J. Bonczek, eds., The Ethics Edge     

The Death of Freddie Gray and Its Impact on Homicides in Baltimore and Maryland

This study evaluated the impact that Freddie Gray’s death on April, 19, 2015, had on homicides within Baltimore, Prince George’s County, and the rest of Maryland. The numbers of these deaths were compared in the 2 years prior and after his death. The average number of homicide per month in Baltimore and Prince George’s County, but not the rest of Maryland, showed a statistically significant increase in the 2 years after his death, with a sudden spike in homicides in Baltimore immediately following his death. Spatial density (“heat”) maps of homicides showed an increase in clustering of deaths after Freddie Gray’s demise in portions of Baltimore, particularly near his arrest site. Hot spot maps showed a massive expansion of statistically significant clusters of homicides in areas of West and East Baltimore after his death. An emerging hot spot analysis revealed consecutive hot spots in large areas of West Baltimore with new hot spots prominent along the southern edge of this area. A review of the history of Baltimore, as well as discussions with Baltimore homicide detectives, revealed that prior socioeconomic and political trends likely primed Baltimore for the protests and violence that occurred after Freddie Gray’s death. It is probable that a perceived “overcharging” of officers involved in his death by the State’s Attorney resulted in a “pullback” from policing that directly led to increased homicides in Baltimore.     

Mum's the Word: the cycling career of Beryl Burton, 1956–1986

The English cyclist, Beryl Burton, was one of the few women athletes whose performances matched and sometimes surpassed those of men. Despite the potential threat to hegemonic gender relations thus posed, Burton was, with the important exception of a well‐publicised disagreement with her fellow‐cyclist daughter, Denise, an uncontroversial figure and much respected within the male sporting community. While many personal and sporting factors contributed, this was largely the result of her highly public performance of her roles as wife and mother. However, those roles were also skilfully constructed so as to generate the maximum space for her development as an elite athlete. As a woman and as an amateur, she received less media attention than she deserved in her lifetime and, despite being one of the greatest athletes of all time, has received little serious scholarly or wider public attention since her death.     

School Climate for Transgender Youth: A Mixed Method Investigation of Student Experiences and School Responses

Transgender youth experience negative school environments and may not benefit directly from interventions defined to support Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual (LGB) youth. This study utilized a multi-method approach to consider the issues that transgender students encounter in school environments. Using data from two studies, survey data (total n = 2260, 68 transgender youth) from study 1 and focus groups (n = 35) from study 2, we examine transgender youth’s experience of school harassment, school strategies implemented to reduce harassment, the protective role of supportive school personnel, and individual responses to harassment, including dropping out and changing schools. In both studies, we found that school harassment due to transgender identity was pervasive, and this harassment was negatively associated with feelings of safety. When schools took action to reduce harassment, students reported greater connections to school personnel. Those connections were associated with greater feelings of safety. The indirect effects of school strategies to reduce harassment on feelings of safety through connection to adults were also significant. Focus group data illuminate specific processes schools can engage in to benefit youth, and how the youth experience those interventions.     

Women and Penal Reform: Two Steps Forwards,Three Steps Backwards?

Since publication of the Corston Report in 2007, initiatives with regard to women and criminal justice in England and Wales have been marked by positive steps on the one hand, but reversal and failure on the other. A central element to this narrative has been the enthusiastic development of community‐based services for women, only to be followed by the subsequent dissipation of government energy, a diminution of interest, and a decline in funding. In this article, some of the complexities of the reforms are considered, a detailed reading is provided of the various initiatives as an historical record, and the context(s) in which the steps forward and backward can be understood is reflected on. In light of the evidence, it is argued that if women's centres are to be successful in facilitating and supporting movements away from crime, then there is an urgent need for a consistent strategy derived from evidence‐based research and experience.     

The new outlawry and Foucault’s Panoptic nightmare

Michel Foucault seized upon Bentham’s “Panopticon” prison design as a metaphor to illustrate the mechanisms of social control in post-industrial society. In our recent rush to invent alternatives to incarceration, we have created a new and burgeoning class of outlaws, persons for whom privacy is not a legally cognizable right. Combined with Supreme Court decisions finding surveillance of even innocent citizens to be constitutionally benign, our well-intentioned efforts to reduce prison populations are close to bringing Foucault’s metaphor to literal reality.