Philadelphia's ``Black Mafia': Assessing and advancing current interpretations

In the history and the study of organizedcrime, the validity and reliability ofsources have been particularly problematicmatters. Governmental fact-finding bodiesare frequently cited in this research area,including the now-defunct PennsylvaniaCrime Commission. For example, studiesoccasionally reference Philadelphia's``Black Mafia,' and each of these inquiriesrelies upon the work of the PennsylvaniaCrime Commission for ``analysis' of thegroup. In this article, the Commission'sfindings are presented and then critiqued. Significant Black Mafia activitiesunder-researched by the Commission are nextanalyzed, adding context to the currentunderstanding of the group. The articlechallenges current assumptions, places thegroup's history in context, and illustratesthe utility of primary source research.     

Crime prevention through environmental design: financial hardship, the dynamics of power, and the prospects of governance

Borrowing from Foucault (Governmentality. In G. Burchell, C. Gordon, & P. Miller (Eds.), Governmentality: The Foucault effect: Studies in governmentality (pp. 87–104). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991) and Foucault and Gordon (Power-knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings, 1972–1977. Hassocks: Harvester Press, 1980) and the work of governmentality scholars in general, this paper examines Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) as a strategic form of governance. Using qualitative data gathered from semi-structured interviews with CPTED practitioners and supporters, I argue that the putative availability of expendable capital mediates, although does not necessarily negate, a practitioner’s ability to secure the conduct of conduct through the sharing of CPTED expertise. The importance of shifting power dynamics are examined before evaluating the data vis-à-vis contemporary scholarship in the areas of governmentality and crime and criminal justice research.     

Russian Terror/ism and Revisionist Historiography

Interest in the violence of the Soviet regime has been a concern primarily of more conservative historians, while those on the Left have either been discomforted by the excessive brutality of the Russian Civil War and Stalinism or have looked for rationalizations for the necessity of violence. One tendency in the historiography has been to see violence as deeply embedded in the Bolshevik project, part of the Marxist or Leninist effort to transform the world or perfect the human being. Revolutionary and Stalinist violence are seen as similar or intimately linked, and differences between them have been largely effaced. This essay argues that the violence and terror of the Civil War years is best understood as part of wartime exigencies as well as choices made by the Bolsheviks and their enemies, while Stalinist violence was much more the product of the will of Stalin and his closest collaborators in their consolidation of autocratic power, and was far more gratuitous and irrational than the violence of the fledgling Soviet regime.     

Metropolitan Planning Organizations and the New Regionalism: The Case of Louisville

This article outlines the new regionalism movement and its metropolitanagenda, reviews federal efforts to promote new regionalism underISTEA and TEA–21, considers how the new federal policieschanged the role of metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs)in transportation planning by examining the MPO for the Louisvillemetropolis, and assesses the MPO process in Louisville. Thelocal decision of whether to build a new bridge across the OhioRiver was a major test of the enhanced MPO process. Federaltransportation policies enhanced regional coordination and cooperationin transportation planning in the Louisville metropolis resultingin a consensus plan to build two bridges across the Ohio River.However, the MPO process did not lead to the development ofa metropolitan-wide interest or perspective. Moreover, the newregionalist agenda was not advanced because sprawl was not afactor in the decision on whether and where to build the bridges.     

THE SUCCESS of the 1993 BUDGET RECONCILIATION BILL at REDUCING the FEDERAL BUDGET DEFICIT

This article discusses the process by which President Clinton achieved a budgetdeficit reduction package in Congress and the implications of this process. It concludes that future administrations will have more flexibility in debating whether the federal government should increase its scope or reduce taxes.