What does cost-benefit analysis add to decision making? Evidence from the criminal justice literature

This paper asks whether undertaking a cost-benefit analysis provides additional information to policy makers as compared to an analysis solely of the effect of an intervention. A literature review identified 106 evaluations of criminal justice interventions that reported both an effect size and measures of net benefit. Data on net benefit and effect size were extracted from these studies. We found that effect size is only weakly related to net benefits. The rank order of net benefits and effect size are minimally correlated. Furthermore, we found that the two analytic methods would yield opposing policy recommendations for more than one in four interventions. These bi-variate findings are supported by the results of multivariate models. However, further research is needed to verify the accuracy of the standard errors on net benefit estimates, so these models must be interpreted with caution.

‘A Real Woman Waits’ – Heteronormative Respectability,Neo-Liberal Betterment and Echoes of Coloniality in SGBV Programming in Eastern DR Congo

ABSTRACT

Drawing on archival and field research, this article critically examines the production and distribution of gender roles and expectations in SGBV programming, in particular in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). We find the underlying currents in some of these programmes reinscribe heteronormativity and focus on individual betterment which resonates with regulating gender and sexuality during colonialism. In some cases, strongly western-inspired norms of individual agency have been introduced, disregarding structural constraints of people’s lives. To conclude, we explore alternative approaches to SGBV prevention, ones in which international approaches are re-defined and vernacularized for local use – but which also at times inform global understandings.     

干预，促进改变--“促进社会规范改变的工具与数据：终止针对妇女、女童暴力的亚太论坛”综述

2015年12月,为期两天的总结亚太地区终止针对妇女和女童暴力工作的会议在曼谷召开。会议认为：提高认识、改变规范和影响各界人士的行为,是消除针对妇女暴力的3个重要环节。会议总结了亚太国家过去多年的项目经验,其中三类项目受到格外关注。其一为长期的项目,因为规范改变需要几代人的努力,对长期项目效果的评估也受到重视;其二为校园中的干预行动,因为青春期是塑造青少年性别平等意识的重要时期,学校是进行反对性别暴力教育的重要场所;其三为在社区中进行的干预行动,一些有影响力的干预工具被推广。会议呼吁,要抓住联合国可持续发展目标提供的机遇,在未来15年加大反对针对妇女和女童的暴力的力度。     

Reforming and Performing the Informal Economy: Constitutive Effects of the World Bank's Anti-informality Practices in Kosovo

The World Bank has for over a decade tried to formalize the informal economy in Kosovo. However, local journalists and businessmen among others provide an alternative understanding of informality that problematizes the World Bank’s view and actions. Against this backdrop, the article analyses the constitution and the constitutive effects of the World Bank’s anti-informality operations in Kosovo between 1999 and 2014. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s power analytics, the article claims that the Bank’s agenda, and the economic ideas enacted through it, does structure and shape informal economic practices on the ground. Yet this structuring involves two forms of misrecognition. As a result, informality is paradoxically constituted (in novel ways) and reconstituted through the World Bank’s imposed anti-informality agenda. The article concludes with a discussion of how this underlines the need for policy solutions that depart from liberal peacebuilding’s subject–object distinction to form instead around an acknowledgement of informality as emergent and transforming throughout international interventions.     

The Importance of Improving Implementation Research for Successful Interventions and Adaptations

This special issue explores the theoretical underpinnings, triumphs, and challenges of implementing four early childhood education interventions. In doing so, each article highlights the importance of studying the implementation context as part of the evaluation process. This commentary reflects on the entire issue, ultimately arguing that future evaluations must continue to conduct—and improve on—implementation research. Specifically, to understand evaluation findings and scale up or adapt interventions effectively, researchers must examine implementation processes systematically, using both quantitative and qualitative methods. This includes: explaining how interventions were designed, theorizing the relationships between implementation processes and outcomes, defining the implementation phase under study, examining the validity and reliability of implementation measures, and using accessible language in reports.     

Paradoxical correlates of a facilitative parenting programme in prison—counter-productive intervention or first signs of responsible parenthood?

Parenting programmes are rarely part of prisoners' rehabilitation, and evaluations of such programmes are lacking.     

Toward a critical peace education for sustainability

This article proposes the need for peace education as a field to embrace critical power analysis of place in efforts toward social and environmental sustainability. Rather than status quo reproduction, a critical peace education for sustainability should both elucidate and transform the power dynamics inherent in structural violence and cultural violence. The inherent rights of people, plants, and ecosystems to live with dignity and to prosper are proposed. Practically speaking, the article offers perspectives from a critical pedagogy of place and an earth connections curriculum unit as vehicles for transformative education.     

Perspectives of young adult males who displayed harmful sexual behaviour during adolescence on motive and treatment

ABSTRACT

Few studies have examined the subjective experiences of young people following interventions for sexually abusive behaviour. To learn more about how this population experienced these interventions and how these interventions, affect their adult life, 22 adult males (m?=?22 years) who were assessed as teenagers (m?=?15 years) for sexually abusing children or peers were interviewed, on average six years after the assessment of their offence. Three main themes were identified: something sexual happened (recalling memories of the sexual acts and motives of the behaviour), societal actions (interventions offered), and life has been affected (memories and feelings associated with the abuse still being present). Seven respondents (32%), who all had a cognitive disability, had sexually reoffended by follow-up. If the respondents received interventions that focused on their abusive behaviour, they were likely to find the interventions helpful. Interventions that did not address abusive behaviour, were perceived as less helpful for dealing with their behaviour, and the short- and long-term consequences associated with this behaviour. Respondents reported feelings of sadness and guilt associated with their sexually abusive behaviour and these feelings remained into adulthood. These findings suggest that interventions for this population need to address the individual needs of the adolescent as well as sexual behaviour problems. In addition, interventions should include opportunities for follow-up.     

African American and Latino Youth and Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome

Abstract

Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD) is found more frequently in inner-city African American and Latino youth than in European American youth. Previous research on PTSD and its relationship with inner-city violence, minority youth, school violence and institutionalized oppression is examined. School counselor's roles and possible interventions are discussed and an interdisciplinary collaborative model for helping students with PTSD is introduced.