Empirical analysis of civil litigation determinants: The Case of Spain

This paper analyses the determinants of civil litigation in Spain drawing on the Law and Economics approach. Using a panel data for 50 Spanish provinces, this study makes a first exploratory approach to empirically investigate the effect of the 2000 Civil Procedural Law Reform on the demand for civil justice over the period 1995–2010, controlling for other determinants of litigation such as the economic growth, the expansion of the Bar, the number of judges, and other socio-demographic characteristics. According to the results, the growing number of civil cases filed in Spain in recent years seems to be a consequence of the combination of the law reform, relevant socio-economic factors, and most importantly the economic recession.     

Assessment of walkway tribometer readings in evaluating slip resistance: a gait-based approach

The purpose of this study was to assess the viability of using slip risk (as quantified during human subject walking trials) to create a reference standard against which tribometer readings could be compared. First, human subjects (N=84) were used to rank objectively the slipperiness of three different surfaces with and without a contaminant (six conditions). Second, nine tribometers were used to independently measure and rank surface slipperiness for all six conditions. The slipperiness ranking determined from the walking trials was considered the reference against which the tribometer measurements were compared. Our results revealed that only two of the nine tribometers tested (Tortus II and Mark III) met our compliance criteria by both correctly ranking all six conditions and differentiating between surfaces of differing degrees of slipperiness. These findings reinforce the need for objective criteria to ascertain which tribometers effectively evaluate floor slipperiness and a pedestrian's risk of slipping.     

Proactive Policing: a Summary of the Report of the National Academies of Sciences,Engineering, and Medicine

This paper provides a summary of our report for the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine on proactive policing. We find that there is sufficient scientific evidence to support the adoption of many proactive policing practices if the primary goal is to reduce crime, though the evidence base generally does not provide long-term or jurisdictional estimates. In turn, we conclude that crime prevention outcomes can often be obtained without producing negative community reactions. However, the most effective proactive policing strategies do not appear to have strong positive impacts on citizen perceptions of the police. At the same time, some community-based strategies have begun to show evidence of improving the relations between the police and public. We conclude that there are likely to be large racial disparities in the volume and nature of police–citizen encounters when police target high-risk people or high-risk places, as is common in many proactive policing programs. We could not conclude whether such disparities are due to statistical prediction, racial animus, implicit bias, or other causes.

     

Reactions to Crime as a Hierarchy Regulating Strategy: The Moderating Role of Social Dominance Orientation

Across two studies, we demonstrated that support for group-based hierarchies differentially affects evaluation of ingroup and outgroup criminal offenders and that this effect generalizes to overall evaluations of their respective groups. Drawing on social dominance theory, our results show that differential judgments of national ingroup and immigrant outgroup offenders reflect hierarchy regulating strategies. Study 1 (N = 94) revealed that egalitarians (low on SDO) were more lenient toward outgroup offenders and their ethnic group (Arab immigrants) when compared to ingroup offenders and their national group (Swiss citizens). The opposite was true for social dominators (high on SDO). Study 2 (N = 88) replicated the results of Study 1 and further demonstrated that the socio-economic status of the perpetrator did not affect perpetrator group evaluations suggesting that the arbitrary sets of ethnicity or nationality, not education level and employment status, were the important cues for hierarchy-regulating judgments of criminal offenders.     

Competition in procurement

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Twelfth Annual Research Conference, Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, October 18–20, 1990, San Francisco, California. I would like to thank Richard Stubbing, Patrick Larkey, and an anonymous referee for many useful comments. All errors are the responsibility of the author.     

Participatory methodologies and the product development process: the experience of Mixtec craftswomen in Mexico

This paper presents a product development methodology for use with indigenous rural workers. It is based on the revival of cultural and social values, with a focus on the conservation of natural resources. Illustrated by the case of Mixtec craftswomen in Mexico, this paper shows how poor groups can improve their living conditions through innovation and the diversification of their products. The process combines techniques of product development based on marketing, with a participatory focus and continuous improvement, in order to develop a unique and high‐quality product that can be more successfully marketed. The craftswomen are now able to plan their production and can evaluate and commercialise their products.     

Book reviews

DANIELE CONVERSI, The Basques, The Catalans and Spain: Alternative Routes to Nationalist Mobilization (Hurst, London, 1997), 312 pp., ISBN 1–85065–268–6 (pb)

LEO PANITCH and COLIN LEYS, The End of Parliamentary Socialism: From New Left to New Labour (Verso, London, 1997), 341 pp., ISBN 1–85984–109–0 (pb)

MARK MATTERN, Acting in Concert: Music, Community, and Political Action (Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, 1998), 185 pp., ISBN 0–8135–2484–9 (pb)

RICHARD J. GOLSAN (ed), Fascism's Return: Scandal, Revision and Ideology since 1980 (University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London, 1998), 330 pp., ISBN 0–8032–7071–2

KATHERINE FIERLBECK, Globalizing Democracy. Power, Legitimacy and the Interpretation of Democratic Ideas (Manchester University Press, Manchester, 1998), 216 pp., ISBN 0–7190–4995–4 (hb)