High Costs and Segregation in Subsidized Housing Policy

This article examines the public policies determining the distribution of subsidized housing in the Twin Cities metropolitan area of Minnesota, the resulting distribution of subsidized housing, and the comparative costs associated with building in the region's central cities or in suburbs. The analysis concludes that current policies are clearly not meeting the region's responsibility to affirmatively further fair housing. The metropolitan area abandoned its role as a national leader in this area decades ago. The result is an affordable housing system that concentrates subsidized housing in the region's poorest and most segregated neighborhoods. This increases the concentration of poverty in the two central cities, in the region's most racially diverse neighborhoods, and in the attendance areas of predominantly nonwhite schools. In the long run, this hurts the regional economy and exacerbates the racial gaps in income, employment, and student performance that plague the Twin Cities.     

People with special needs and sexual behaviour problems: balancing community and client interests while ensuring effective risk management

Abstract

Deinstitutionalisation movements of the mid-1900s led to changes in policy and practice in the management of people with special needs (defined for this article as people with severe and persistent mental illness, intellectual disabilities and high levels of personality factors that interfere with treatment participation). Although the majority of clients with special needs receive care in community settings and interact more with family, friends and others in the community, some such clients require more rigorous case management. For clients who have offended, especially sexually, community-based services are scarce, and concerns regarding reoffence potential often supersede traditional understandings of diminished capacity. Recent reports suggest that jails and prisons have replaced hospitals as the institutions-of-choice for clients with special needs who engage in inappropriate conduct. This paper examines policies and practices regarding community risk management of people with special needs who have sexually offended. Vignettes are provided to illustrate how some clients and agencies have been affected, and suggestions are made to ensure best practices in risk management and public safety.     

Sex offender (re)integration into the community: realities and challenges

Abstract

This paper explores the benefits of engaging with self-defined communities in Northern Ireland on the issue of sexual offending and argues the case for building on existing community structures, by identifying people with leadership skills and by empowering them with the knowledge, and with connections to statutory services, that will support public protection. We address the historical context in terms of the impact of the conflict on these communities and describe the role and experience of NIACRO working in Northern Ireland, in particular its Base2 project supporting people under threat. We reference the development of current statutory arrangements for Public Protection Arrangements for Northern Ireland (PPANI) and argue the case for preparing people in the community to receive and understand the messages promoted through PPANI on the basis of our belief that public education is most effective when the people receiving it are receptive.     

Community-based forensic child and adolescent mental health services in England,Scotland and Wales: a national mapping exercise

Aim: We sought to ascertain the current nature of specialist community mental health provision for young people presenting with risk of harm to others or involvement with the youth justice system in England, Wales and Scotland. Methods: Questionnaire-based survey. Results: Fifty-five services were contacted, 48 responded and 35 of these were found to be providing some form of community mental health provision to high-risk young people. Thirteen services provided comprehensive community forensic child and adolescent mental health (FCAMH) services, whilst the remainder offered more ad hoc clinical input. Amongst the comprehensive FCAMH services, staffing, function, commissioning arrangements and population served varied widely. Conclusions: There is patchy geographical provision of comprehensive community FCAMH services across England, Scotland and Wales with heterogeneous commissioning arrangements, staffing and function. Development of a national commissioning strategy for community FCAMH services is required to ensure that the complex needs of high-risk young people are adequately addressed.     

Promoting empowerment? The World Bank's Village Investment Project in Kyrgyzstan

This article examines the extent to which the World Bank's community-driven Village Investment Project empowered people to influence the choice of local investments (micro-projects) and to exact accountability from their leaders. It is based on qualitative interviews and group discussions in 16 rural communities. The research demonstrates that the project provided an effective mechanism for responsive infrastructure delivery to address local priority needs. However, it did not improve accountability either within or outside the micro-project boundaries. The project's bottom-up development model was not by itself sufficient to enable people to exercise power over local government officials and informal leaders in the absence of effective horizontal accountability institutions within the state.     

The Politics of Jurisdiction

Jurisdiction is a central concept in the framing of the legal world but it has received short shrift in mainstream legal theory. This article examines the prevailing conceptual forms of jurisdiction in order to retrieve space for the political. The study of jurisdiction is also the study of the political community that it invokes and authorises. The first part of the article examines the three forms that jurisdiction takes in contemporary scholarship (territory, community, governance) to show that each form overlooks some implication of the political community that is tethered to jurisdiction. The second part of the article flips the inquiry to demonstrate the oversight of jurisdiction in theories of sovereign exception. The emergent understanding of jurisdiction as political provides an anchor for the study of jurisdiction going forward and highlights the potential role for jurisdictional arrangements in contemporary public law and constitutional law settings.     

Behavior Research: Improving Social Services for Young People in the Community

This research is based on a social community centre for young people. Researchers have been working together with social workers in carrying out the practical research. Using a process of problem solving, making improvement plans, applying theories into practice, feedback evaluation, and seeking further questions, we are continuously working to improve the quality of social services for young people. We also hope to improve social work methods and the professionalism of social workers.     

刑事司法实践视角下的“人民团体”概念探析

人民团体在我国政治和法律中都是比较重要的概念,在刑事司法方面也多有体现.在97刑法中共有七个条文提及"人民团体"的概念,但令人遗憾的是,对人民团体的概念和具体含义至今都没有权威的解释和准确的阐述.因此,司法实践中如何界定现实生活中的"人民团体"的就成了困扰我们办案人员的一个问题.在文章中,作者从理论解读与司法实务分析两个层面,对人民团体的概念及相关问题作了探讨.     

构建和谐社区的法律思考

社区是社会的细胞,社区和谐是社会和谐的基础之一,构建社会主义和谐社会应从建设和谐社区入手。构建社会主义和谐社区,是一项系统工程,应在把社区自治作为和谐社区建设和发展方向的基础上,建立完善、系统的社区自治法律制度。积极稳妥地推进民主选举、决策、管理及监督。依法加强居委会组织队伍建设和社区基础设施建设,逐步实现社区居民自我教育、自我服务、自我管理、自我监督,创建管理有序、民主和谐的自治型和谐社区。