Trace DNA success rates relating to volume crime offences

In this study, 252 trace DNA samples (from handled surfaces) from 201 burglary, robbery and drugs cases were compiled to assess success rates and to interpret the value of trace DNA evidence in volume crime investigations. The average amount of DNA recovered from the trace DNA samples collected was 1.7 ng. Full or major (12 or more alleles) profiles were recovered from 14% of samples. Samples from firearms and burglary points of entry were the least successful. Mixtures were recovered from 21% of samples, presenting a case for the collection of more elimination profiles to enable more samples to be used for database purposes. The research highlighted the difficulties in collecting data relating to the success rates of samples. Computerised automation of this process would be extremely beneficial in the assistance of policy development, method application, training, and investigative usefulness.     

Federal Employees’ Job Satisfaction: Does Transformational Leadership Matter? The Case of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Morale among U.S. federal employees has increased but remains low compared to the private sector and in certain agencies, including the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), which has experienced scandal and management challenges, including a crisis of leadership. Using data from the 2015 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, this article examines the influence of transformational leadership (TFL) on job satisfaction/commitment among VA employees. Regression analysis reveals a positive association between satisfaction/commitment and each of the four TFL dimensions, controlling for the other dimensions and sociodemographic characteristics. Employees who perceive leaders as fostering creativity, empowerment, trust/respect, and clear goals/expectations are more satisfied/committed.     

Neoliberal governing through social enterprise: Exploring the neglected roles of deviance and ignorance in public value creation

This article makes a case for paying greater attention to how informal relationships between government officials and civil society practitioners impact processes of public value creation. Drawing on data from a five‐year qualitative longitudinal study, we illuminate how civil society practitioners deviate from the formal objectives of social enterprise policies in order to create what they see as having public value. Through a process of theory elaboration, we demonstrate how government officials’ wilful ignorance of, or informal collaboration in, such deviance, precipitates forms of public value that are consistent with wider political objectives. Our analysis adds nuance and granularity to the debate on public value by drawing attention to the arcane ways it may be informally negotiated and created outside of the public sphere. This opens up new empirical and theoretical opportunities for understanding how deviance and ignorance might be symbiotically related in processes of public value creation.”     

The Impact of Health Insurance on Preventive Care and Health Behaviors: Evidence from the First Two Years of the ACA Medicaid Expansions

The U.S. population receives suboptimal levels of preventive care and has a high prevalence of risky health behaviors. One goal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was to increase preventive care and improve health behaviors by expanding access to health insurance. This paper estimates how the ACA‐facilitated state‐level expansions of Medicaid in 2014 affected these outcomes. Using data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, and a difference‐in‐differences model that compares states that did and did not expand Medicaid, we examine the impact of the expansions on preventive care (e.g., dental visits, immunizations, mammograms, cancer screenings), risky health behaviors (e.g., smoking, heavy drinking, lack of exercise, obesity), and self‐assessed health. We find that the expansions increased insurance coverage and access to care among the targeted population of low‐income childless adults. The expansions also increased use of certain forms of preventive care, but there is no evidence that they increased ex ante moral hazard (i.e., there is no evidence that risky health behaviors increased in response to health insurance coverage). The Medicaid expansions also modestly improved self‐assessed health.     

Covid19, Brexit and much more in 2020: A Bad Year for Animal Welfare?

Liverpool Law Review -     

The Mediating Roles of Stress and Maladaptive Behaviors on Self-Harm and Suicide Attempts Among Runaway and Homeless Youth

Runaway and homeless youth often have a constellation of background behavioral, emotional, and familial problems that contribute to stress and maladaptive behaviors, which, in turn, can lead to self-harming and suicidal behaviors. The current study examined the roles of stress and maladaptive behaviors as mediators between demographic and psychosocial background characteristics and self-injurious outcomes through the lens of the stress process paradigm. The model was tested in a sample of runaway and homeless youth from Los Angeles County (N = 474, age 12–24, 41 % female, 17 % White, 32.5 % African American, 21.5 % Hispanic/Latino). Background variables (gender, age, sexual minority status, parental drug use history, and emotional distress) predicted hypothesized mediators of maladaptive behaviors and recent stress. In turn, it was hypothesized that the mediators would predict self-harming behaviors and suicide attempts in the last 3 months. Females and LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) youth were more likely to have self-harmed and attempted suicide; younger participants reported more self-harming. The mediating constructs were associated more highly with self-harming than suicide attempts bivariately, although differences were modest. Maladaptive behaviors and recent stress were significant predictors of self-harm, whereas only recent stress was a significant predictor of suicide attempts. All background factors were significant predictors of recent stress. Older age, a history of parental drug use, and greater emotional distress predicted problem drug use. Males, younger participants, and participants with emotional distress reported more delinquent behaviors. Significant indirect effects on self-harming behaviors were mediated through stress and maladaptive behaviors. The hypothesized paradigm was useful in explaining the associations among background factors and self-injurious outcomes and the influence of mediating factors on these associations.     

The life satisfaction approach to valuing public goods: The case of terrorism

Terrorism has large social costs that are difficult to quantify for the well-known problems of eliciting people’s preferences for public goods. We use the LSA to assess these costs in utility and monetary terms. Based on combined cross-section time-series data, we estimate the costs of terrorism for France and the British Isles. We find large negative effects of terrorism on life satisfaction that translate into considerable compensating surpluses for a hypothetical reduction in terrorism, in particular for the serious conflict in Northern Ireland. The effects of terrorism are robust and differ across groups in accordance with prior expectations.