Recidivism as a feedback process: An analytical model and empirical validation

A feedback model of the criminal justice system (CJS) incorporates the continuing input of people arrested for the first time (virgin arrests) and the recycling of individuals with prior arrests (recidivists). Such a model is needed to enable CJS planners to assess the impact of possible actions on the future arrests and system workloads. Using an empirically determined estimate of the number of virgin arrests in the U.S. as input to a feedback model of the CJS, recidivism parameters, probability of rearrest, and average time between arrests were estimated by matching the output of the model to the total arrests in the U.S. in the period 1960–70. The average deviation between the model output and total U.S. arrests was minimized at less than 4% when the probability of rearrest is equal to 0.875 and the average time between arrests equal to 1.1. years. The relative sensitivity of total arrests to changes in virgin arrests and the probability of rearrest are also presented.     

Pathologies of Accountability: ICANN and the Challenge of "Multiple Accountabilities Disorder"

Accountability is a core concept of public administration, yet disagreement about its meaning is masked by consensus on its importance and desirability. This article proposes a five-part typology of accountability conceptions. Transparency, liability, controllability, responsibility, and responsiveness are defined as distinct dimensions of accountability, providing an improvement on the current state of conceptual fuzziness. The typology provides a vocabulary for the core argument: that conflicting expectations borne of disparate conceptions of accountability undermine organizational effectiveness. This phenomenon—labeled multiple accountabilities disorder—is illustrated with a case study. ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, is a nascent organization charged with administering the Domain Name System, the Internet's address directory. In its four-year history, ICANN has been the object of much criticism. Conflicting accountability expectations have been a source of difficulty for ICANN's leaders as they have steered the organization through its early years.     

E-Mail Communication and Group Cooperation in Mixed Motive Contexts

Two empirical studies are presented that explore how and why e-mail communication (versus face-to-face communication) influences cooperation in mixed motive group contexts. Results indicate that, relative to those engaging in face-to-face interaction, those who interacted via e-mail were (1) less cooperative and (2) felt more justified in being noncooperative. Feelings of justification mediated the relationship between communication media and the decision to cooperate or not.

Coup Risk,Counterbalancing, and International Conflict

Contrary to the literature on rallies-around-the-flag, this article argues that, in some circumstances, leaders may use international conflict to promote domestic divisiveness. More specifically, the threat of a military coup generally prompts leaders to divide their militaries (a practice known as counterbalancing), and even to engage in international conflict to ensure that various branches of their own armed forces remain distrustful of one another. Two empirical tests of these claims are offered: a large-N statistical analysis that examines whether coup risk leads to counterbalancing, and whether counterbalanced nations engage in more low-level military conflict (controlling for other causes of conflict); and a case study of Georgia shortly after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Both empirical studies support the arguments advanced by the authors.

     

USSR's Third World orphans: Deterring desperate dependents

Making the Most of the Least: alternative ways to development. Edited by Leonard Berry and Robert W Kates, New York: Holmes &; Meier. 1980. 282pp. £17.25

The Study of Political Adaptation. James N Rosenau, London: Frances Pinter. 1981. 235pp. £15.00. £6.00pb

Perspectives on World Politics. Edited by Michael Smith, Richard Little and Michael Shackleton, London: Croom Helm. 1980. 431pp. £12.95

Vodka‐Cola: the explosive cocktail of detente. Charles Levinson Horsham, England: Biblias. 1980.328pp. £9.95

White Supremacy: a comparative study in American and South African history. George M Fredrickson, New York: OUP. 1981. 356pp. £12.50

The Third World Calamity. Brian May, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. 1981. 274pp. £8.95

Reflections on Economic Development and Social Change: essays in honour of Professor V K R V Rao. Edited by C H H Rao and P C Joshi, Oxford: Martin Robertson. 1979. 486pp. £19.50

Circle of Poison: pesticides and people in a hungry world. David Weir and Mark Schapiro San Francisco: Institute for Food and Development Policy. 1981. 101pp. $3.95pb

United States Food Aid in a Global Context. Mitchell B Wallerstein, London: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1980. 299pp. £21.00

The World of States. J D B Miller, London: Croom Helm. 1981.179pp. £12.50

The Development Gap: a spatial analysis of world poverty and inequality. J P Cole Chichester, England: John Wiley. 1981. 454pp. £16.80

Agribusiness in the Americas. Roger Burbach and Patricia Flynn, London: Monthly Review Press. 1980. 314pp. £3.25

A Plough in Field Arable: western agribusiness in Third World agriculture. Sarah Potts Voll London: University of New Hampshire. 1981. 213pp. £7.25

Food Policies. John R Tarrant Chichester, England: John Wiley. 1980. 338pp. £15.00

The Political Economy of EEC Relations with African, Caribbean and Pacific States: contributions to the understanding of the Lomé Convention on North‐South relations. Edited by Frank Long, Oxford: Pergamon. 1980. 192pp. £10.50

EEC and the Third World: a survey. Edited by Christopher Stevens, London: Hodder &; Stoughton. 1981. 150pp. £5.00pb

A Framework for Development: the EEC and the ACP. Carol Cosgrove Twitchett, London: George Allen &; Unwin. 1981. 160pp. £12.00

The EEC's Generalised Scheme of Preferences and the Yaoundé and Other Agreements: benefits in trade and development for less developed countries. Delsie M Gandia Montclair, US: Allanheld Osmun. 1981. 178pp. $20.00

The Trade Union Movement in Africa: promise and performance. Wogu Ananaba, London: C Hurst. 1979. 260pp. £9.00

Organise... or Starve: the history of the South African Congress of Trade Unions. Ken Luckhardt and Brenda Walls, London: Lawrence &; Wishart. 1980. 520pp. £7.95. £3.50pb

Conflict and Intervention in the Horn of Africa. Bereket Habte Selassie, London: Monthly Review Press. 1980. 211pp. £8.00

The Development of Corporate Capitalism in Kenya 1918–77. Nicola Swainson, London: Heinemann Educational. 1980. 306pp. £3.95pb

Soviet and Chinese Aid to African Nations. Editd by Warren Weinstein and Thomas H Henriksen, New York: Praeger. 1980. 184pp. £13.00

Nepal in Crisis: growth and stagnation at the periphery P Blaikie, J Cameron and D Seddon, Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1980. 311pp. £17.50. Electoral Politics in the Middle East: issues, voters and elites. Edited by Jacob M Landau, Ergun Özbudun and Frank Tachau, London: Croom Helm &; Stanford: Hoover Institution. 1980. 335pp. £19.95

Survey of Economy, Resources and Prospects of South Asia. M L Qureshi Colombo: Marga Institute (in association with Third World Foundation). 1981. 274pp. np

Sociology of Southeast Asia: readings on social change and development. Edited by Hans‐Dieter Evers Oxford University Press. 1981. 292pp. £17.50.

State Manufacturing Enterprise in a Mixed Economy: the Turkish case. Bertil Walstedt, London: John Hopkins (for the World Bank). 1981. 354pp. £6.00

The Political Economy of Income Distribution in Turkey. Edited by Ergun Özbudun and Aydin Ulusan, London: Holmes &; Meier. 1980. 533pp. £22.95

Minangkabau Social Formations: Indonesian peasants and the world economy. Joel S Kahn, Cambridge University Press. 1980. 228pp. £15.00

Industrial Growth, Employment and Foreign Investment in Peninsula Malaysia. Lutz Hoffman and Tan Siew Ee Oxford University Press. 1980. 322pp. £19.50

Egypt: economic management in a period of transition. Khalid Ikram, London: John Hopkins University Press. 1980. 444pp. np

Korea: a decade of development. Edited by Yunshik Chang Seoul National University Press. 1980. 312pp. $10.00

Pakhtun Economy and Society. Akbar S Ahmed, London: Routledge &; Kegan Paul. 1980. 416pp. £15.00

Chinese Educational Policy. Jan‐Ingvar Lofstedt Stockholm: Almqvist &; Wiksell. 1980. 203pp. SKr 185

The Caribbean Issues of Emergence: socio‐economic and political perspective. Vincent R McDonald, Washington DC: University of America. 1980. 356pp. $21.25. $11.95pb

The Structure of Brazilian Development. Edited by Nuema Aguiar New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Books. 1979. 258pp. $14.95

Literacy and Revolution: the pedagogy of Paulo Freire. Edited by Robert Mackie, London: Pluto Press. 1980. 166pp. £3.50pb

Theories of Imperialism. Wolfgang J Mommsen, London: Weidenfeld &; Nicolson. 1981. 180pp. £8.50

Colonialism 1870–1945: an introduction. D K Fieldhouse, London: Weidenfeld &; Nicolson. 1981. 151pp. £8.95     

Misconceived bioethics?: The misconception of the "therapeutic misconception"

Bioethics needs to include study of the social and historical context in which ethical meanings in medical encounters make sense. It needs to do this in order to remain relevant, vibrant, and aware of how it might unwittingly facilitate the agendas of others. As an illustration, this paper critiques some of the accepted meanings and purposes of the idea of the Therapeutic Misconception (TM) which has been an increasingly attractive concept with which to organize thinking about experimentation ethics. By considering the history of alternative viewpoints against which TM was offered as a replacement, this paper suggests that TM, and bioethics more generally, may contribute to increasingly technocratic and standardized practices in medicine.