Crime and Sex in South Australia

Policing Images: Policing, Communication, and Legitimacy. Rob C. Mawby. Portland, OR: Willan Publishing, 2002. ISBN 1–903240 71–9. Hardback US $55.00. 214 pages.

Armed Robbery. Roger Mathews. Portland, OR: Willan Publishing, 2002. ISBN 1–903240–61–1. 162 pages.     

The Application of Dynamic-Analytic Techniques to Criminal Justice Planning and Evaluation

The general inadequacy of the sources of data in criminal justice for evaluation and planning has been apparent for some time. Among those factors which contribute to the inadequacy of much crime data are the following: (1) generally it is limited to one particular stage of criminal processing; (2) measurements are in the form of summary statistics; (3) it is specific to one agency in that each collects and reports its own summary tabulations; (4) the unit of count changes with different organizational structures. In sum, existing sources of data frequently measure only one temporal point and this fails to reflect the dynamic aspects of criminal processing. Similarly, many of the analytic techniques used for evaluation are static and do not reflect the dynamic aspect of the system.

In light of such considerations, this paper explores the utility of various dynamic-analytic techniques in conjunction with longitudinal sources of data. The following include some of the more important implications for future evaluation. First, the development of a sophisticated systems model to assist in the selection and verification of outcome measures. Second, a reconceptualization of the outcome measures normally used in evaluation studies in order to conceive of the total system as a critical outcome measure in evaluative studies. Third, the development of a model to assist in the planning process that precedes evaluation. This may be accomplished by providing a mechanism for the simulation of change, thus predicting the future impact of changes in the system.     

Gun Control in a Developing Nation: The Gun Court Act of Jamaica

Generally, the study of Third World crime can be approached from two acutely different theoretical perspectives. “Modernization” theory attempts to attribute crime in Third World societies to the rapid pace of industrialization and attempts to apply a variety of criminological theories that focus on the individual and the immediate social context of the actor. “Political economy/dependency” theory attempts to address the processes of imperialism and underdevelopment and the whole range of law violations and legal controls present in post-colonial societies.

This paper explains the Jamaican firearm crime problem, and the societal response to it, during the 1970's and early 1980's by applying the political economy/dependency theoretical framework. The legislative policy designed to curb increases in firearm crimes in Jamaica during the study period was the Gun Court Act. This mandatory piece of criminal legislation is examined in order to develop the connection between crime in underdeveloped nations and crime and social control.     

Biological Attack,Terrorism and the Law

ABSTRACT

According to President George W. Bush, we are living amidst ‘the first war of the twenty-first century’. How then should the United Kingdom react? It is suggested that at least two strands of legal policy and response should be considered. The first concerns the design of antiterrorism laws and policies. For the purposes of this paper, the remit will be confined to how antiterrorism laws have responded to the threat from biological attack. The second aspect concerns the laws and policies about terrorism risk management, part of the agenda of which takes us back to threats to health from biological attack.     

Inside the Autonomous State: Programmatic Elites in the Reform of French Health Policy

This article combines the methods of institutionalist analysis and the sociology of elites to look inside the black box of the French state. We identify key groups of policymakers in the social policy sector and track both their policy preferences and the results of their efforts from the mid‐1980s through the late 1990s. Our conclusion is that budgetary and ideological challenges to existing policies led to the consolidation within the Ministry of Social Affairs of what we label a “programmatic elite,” whose influence derived less from the positions held by its members than from the coherence and applicability of its state‐centered policy model. The competition for legitimate authority between such programmatic elites, we conclude, is an important but often overlooked endogenous source of policy change in situations of institutional stability.