Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Teaming Up For Safer Cities: A Report From The Implementation Assessment Of The National Forum On Youth Violence Prevention (2012), Jeffrey A. Butts, Caterina Gouvis Roman, Kathleen A. Tomberg

Publications and Research

The efforts inspired by the National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention will take time to develop, but survey results from the first 15 months of implementation suggest that the initiative may be generating some important changes. In five communities, survey respondents report a number of potentially valuable improvements. The results imply that the cities involved in the National Forum may be increasing opportunities for youth and improving the extent to which violence prevention approaches draw upon the perspectives and expertise of a broad range of community members. There are also indications that some cities are developing better overall capacity to …

Violent Youth Crime Plummets To A 30-Year Low, Jeffrey A. Butts

Publications and Research

FBI crime data show a considerable drop in violent youth crimes between 2010 and 2011, with arrests for murder and nonnegligent manslaughter dropping 20 percent in one year. Violent crime arrest rates in 2011 were 30 percent lower than in 2008. This databit shows the percent change in violent offenses charged against youth under 18 between 2010 and 2011 and the youth violent crime rate since 1981.

Homicide By Neighborhood: Mapping New York City’S Violent Crime Drop, Preeti Chauhan, Lauren Kois

Publications and Research

Researchers, scholars, and policymakers interested in the falling rate of violent crime in New York City (NYC) have attempted to pinpoint causes of the welcome trend. Discovering the causes of the city’s crime drop may lead to important lessons for the city itself and may influence policy and practice throughout the state, nation, and perhaps other countries. Researchers have suggested a host of mechanisms that may explain the dramatic decline in violence, but two factors—misdemeanor policing and the transformation of drug markets—continue to receive the most attention. This report focuses on these factors in relation to gun-related homicide rates. It …

Increasing Drug Arrests After 1980 Had Disproportionate Effect On Women, Jeffrey A. Butts

Publications and Research

Drug arrests increased faster for adult women and were nearly double the rate for men of the same age from 1980, though men still outnumber women in this category. This databit shows the arrest rates for women from 1980 to 2010 for youth, young adults, and older adults in drug sales/manufacture and possession.

Pioneers Of Youth Justice Reform: Achieving System Change Using Resolution, Reinvestment, And Realignment Strategies, Douglas N. Evans

Publications and Research

In the past three decades, state and local governments implemented various reform strategies to reduce the youth justice system’s reliance on confinement facilities and serve as many youths as possible in their own homes or at least in their own communities when removal from the home is warranted. The various reform strategies may be conceptualized as relying on three distinct but interrelated mechanisms: resolution, reinvestment, and realignment (Butts and Evans 2011). Resolution refers to the use of managerial authority and administrative directives to influence system change; reinvestment entails using financial incentives to encourage system change, and realignment employs organizational and …

The French Prison System: Comparative Insights For Policy And Practice In New York And The United States, Lila Kazemian, Catrin Andersson

Publications and Research

Despite many differences between French and American correctional practices, the two countries have common challenges as well. This report offers a brief overview of the French prison system and describes how the elements of that system compare with the policies and practices of corrections agencies in New York and the United States.

Less Serious Offenses Account For 90 Percent Of The Growth In Juvenile Placements, Jeffrey A. Butts

Publications and Research

The largest increases in juvenile placements were seen in cases involving obstruction of justice, simple assault, drug law violations, vandalism, and disorderly conduct. This databit looks at the percentage and change in placement cases for juveniles from 1985 to 2008.

Mental Health And Drug Disorders Less Common At Early Stages Of Juvenile Justice, Jeffrey A. Butts

Publications and Research

Youth in the juvenile justice system are at a higher risk for mental health disorders and substance abuse problems, but these differences in risk are often misunderstood. This databit looks at the prevalence of mental health and substance abuse and makes recommendations for early intervention and prevention programs.

Violent Crime Rates Continue To Fall Among Juveniles And Young Adults, Jeffrey A. Butts

Publications and Research

Violent crime (murder, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault based on the FBI Violent Crime Index) declined per capita for ages 10 – 17 after 2004. This databit looks at the arrest rates for these four offenses between 1994 and 2004.

Transfer Of Juveniles To Criminal Court Is Not Correlated With Falling Youth Violence, Jeffrey A. Butts

Publications and Research

Though it may seem that transferring youth to criminal court should lower youth violent crime, this analysis shows no relationship. This databit looks at the transfer rate and violent crime declines in the six states that reported juvenile arrests to the FBI.

School Crime Has Declined Sharply Since The 1990'S, Jeffrey A. Butts

Publications and Research

Between 1994 to 2010, the rate of violent victimizations at American schools dropped, with a sharp fall after 1994. This databit looks at property and violent crimes in schools from the early 1990s to 2010.

Recent Increases In Drug Arrests Were For Possession, Not Sales, Jeffrey A. Butts

Publications and Research

Between 1991 and 2006, arrests for drug sales and manufacturing dropped while arrests for possession grew, with the largest growth seen in youth under 18. This databit looks at drug-related arrests for youth under 18, young adults 18 – 24, and adults 25 and older.

As Serious Juvenile Crime Declined, Police Made More Arrests For Less Serious Offenses, Jeffrey A. Butts

Publications and Research

Arrests by law enforcement for youth under 18 reached a 30-year low in 2012. Arrests for the eight serious offenses included in the FBI crime index decreased by almost half from 1995 to 2010. This databit looks at juvenile arrests in total and by offense from 1980 to 2010.

A Swot Model Of The Challenges And Benefits Of Volunteer Involvement In Us Non-Profit Organisations During Times Of Fiscal Stress, Helisse Levine, Maria J. D’Agostino

Publications and Research

As a result of the current fiscal crisis, the US Federal Government is calling on non-profit organisations and communities across the country to contribute their service through volunteering. This study uses qualitative data retrieved from a purposive sample of New York City non-profit administrators to determine the challenges and benefits of volunteer involvement in US non-profit organisations during the economic downturn that began in 2008. Findings conclude that although US Federal Government initiatives, including $50 million of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act allocated to the strengthening communities fund provided non-profits the opportunity to draw on an influx of a …

Challenging Technicism: Space For The Individual Bureaucrat In Public Administration Theory And Practice, Nicole M. Elias

Publications and Research

Participation in PAT-Net 2011 led me to rethink some basic assumptions surrounding public administration theory and what constitutes knowledge in public administration scholarship and practice. My reflection responds to the major questions posed during the Ph.D. Student Workshop on "Writing Theory in a Technicist Field": specifically, why a technicist attitude is so pervasive in a democratic society and what alternatives have been posited for confronting technicism to advance theoretical and critical scholarship.

Leveraging Learning To Improve Disaster Management Outcomes, Denise D. P. Thompson

Publications and Research

Disaster management agencies should be exemplars of learning given the volatility of their operating environment. However, there are cognitive, social, and organizational barriers that prevent these organizations from learning. The purpose of this article is to use the Caribbean Disaster and Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) as an example of an organization that achieves double-loop learning in spite of known barriers. This research shows significant learning variations in the CDEMA organization from the regional to the national level. The results demonstrate that the CDEMA Coordinating Unit and a few national member agencies achieve double-loop learning, while the opposite is true for …

Heil Studies Terrorism, Sex Trafficking In U.S, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Razing Lafitte: Defending Public Housing From A Hostile State, Leigh Graham

Publications and Research

The contentious politics of the demolition of Lafitte public housing in post- Katrina New Orleans and its replacement with mixed-income properties is a telling case of the strategic conflicts housing advocates face in public housing revitalization. It reveals how the qualified outcomes of HOPE VI interact with local institutional and historical circumstances to confound the equity and social justice goals of housing and community development advocates. It shows the limits to public housing revitalization as an urban recovery strategy when hostile government leadership characterizes a region, and the state is recast as an adversary rather than revitalization partner. This case …

Whose Budget? Our Budget? Broadening Political Stakeholdership Via Participatory Budgeting, Celina Su

Publications and Research

In this thought piece, I attempt to contextualize New York City’s inaugural participatory budgeting (PB) process in the larger landscape of American political participation. I discuss how the bottom-up way in which stakeholders wrote the process’s rules in the first place, alongside the core role played by the two lead organizations, helped to broaden notions of stakeholdership among constituents. Ultimately, the first year’s primary achievement regarding political participation was not a specific set of outcomes, but a debut as an unfinished form of governance—one that began to engage traditionally marginalized constituents, to trigger their political imagination, and to prompt them …

Advancing The Human Right To Housing In Post-Katrina New Orleans: Discursive Opportunity Structures In Housing And Community Development, Leigh Graham

Publications and Research

In post-Katrina New Orleans, housing and community development (HCD) advocates clashed over the future of public housing. This case study examines the evolution of and limits to a human right to housing frame introduced by one nongovernmental organization (NGO). Ferree’s concept of the discursive opportunity structure and Bourdieu’s social field ground this NGO’s failure to advance a radical economic human rights frame, given its choice of a political inside strategy that opened up for HCD NGOs after Hurricane Katrina. Strategic and ideological differences within the field limited the efficacy of this rights-based frame, which was seen as politically radical and …

Siue Students Visit Joplin One Year Later, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Explaining Success And Failure In Climate Policies: Developing Theory Through German Case Studies, Roger Karapin

Publications and Research

Theories of environmental outcomes have been developed mostly through large-N cross-national studies, which have a structuralist bias and do not include the mechanisms through which inferred causes operate. Structured, focused case studies can help overcome those limits by incorporating political processes and identifying causal mechanisms. Here, comparisons of climate policy outcomes within Germany are used to test and develop theory, by explaining the differences among nine cases with the help of process tracing. The findings suggest that environmental-outcome theories should be modified to include: external events and advocacy-coalition formation as key processes; multiple causal paths through which green parties improve …

Climate Policy Outcomes In Germany: Environmental Performance And Environmental Damage In Eleven Policy Areas, Roger Karapin

Publications and Research

Germany has reduced its emissions of greenhouse gases more than almost any other industrialized democracy and is exceeding its ambitious Kyoto commitment of a 21% reduction since 1990. Hence, it is commonly portrayed as a climate-policy success story, but the situation is much more complex. Generalizing Germany's per-capita emissions to all countries or its emissions reductions to all industrialized democracies would still very likely produce more than a two-degree rise in global temperature. Moreover, analyzing the German country-case into eleven subcases shows that it is a mixture of relative successes and failures.

This illustrates several major problems with the literature …

Citizen 2.0: Public And Governmental Interaction Through Web 2.0 Technologies (Preface), Kathryn Kolby, Maria J. D'Agostino

Publications and Research

Preface to Citizen 2.0: Public and Governmental Interaction Through Web 2.0 Technologies