The deterrence hypothesis revisited

This study explores the causes of crime and the differences in deterrent effects of policing on crimes among rural, suburban, and urban communities. We hypothesize that certain numbers of all crimes are unaffected by policing due to their high net return; policing deters only marginal crimes. That is, unlike other research efforts, we recognize that there is a level of crime indigenous to a given type of community about which little can be done, although a particular community can affect deviations from this level. By introducing this ‘natural rate' of crime we are able to empirically reveal the deterrence effect of police expenditures upon all types of property crimes except robberies. The study analyzes 230 communities in a system of six simultaneous equations, using police, crime, and other socio-economic variables. The model can be used by state and regional policy-makers to more effectively allocate resources to the different types of communities under their jurisdiction and among the various police functions designed to deter specific types of crime.     

Comparing the impact of management support on police officers’ perceptions of discretionary power and engagement: Australia,USA and Malta

Abstract

This paper uses Social Exchange Theory as a lens for comparing the impact of management support upon police perceptions of discretionary power and employee engagement, across three countries. A survey-based, self-report process collected data from 193 police officers in Australia, 588 from the USA, and 249 from Malta. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data. The findings suggest a significantly different management support context across the three countries, as well as significantly different perceptions of discretionary power. Across the three countries, police perceived relatively poor satisfaction with organizational management support and only some engagement levels. However, USA police perceived significantly more discretionary power than the other country samples. These findings provide greater clarity about the link between management support, discretionary power and engagement for the police officers. Since employee engagement likely affects policing outcomes, the findings suggest that poor management support of police officers could negatively affect the provided service. Potential strategies to enhance police engagement include (a) training police managers about how to manage so as to promote greater engagement, and (b) modifying police managers’ performance indicators in line with achieving better police engagement.     

The impact of management on the engagement and well-being of high emotional labour employees

Australia, like many other countries, suffers high turnover of nurses and police officers. Contributions to effectively manage the turnover challenge have been called for, and there are few Australian studies of nursing/policing turnover intentions. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of supervisor–subordinate relationships and perceived organisational support (POS) upon engagement, well-being, organisational commitment and turnover intentions. Second, we examined the similarities and differences between nursing and policing work contexts. The retention of nurses/police has been investigated from traditional management perspectives; however, we used a different theoretical approach – social exchange theory – and evaluated its utility as a framework. Findings are from Australian data collected during 2010–2011 from 510 nurses and 193 police officers, using a survey-based, self-report strategy. Partial least squares path modelling was used to analyse these data. Results indicated that for both samples, engagement predicts well-being and then, well-being predicts affective commitment and intentions to leave. MANOVA results suggested that nurses had significantly higher levels of satisfaction with their supervisor–subordinate relationships, POS, engagement, well-being and affective commitment than police officers. Only the intention to leave was similar for both groups. Given that turnover can be influenced by supervisors/management, this study provides new knowledge about targeted retention strategies.     

A cost function study of the providers of TVA power

This paper examines these TVA power distributor issues: distribution of nonelectric utilities, municipal versus co-operative distributors, effects of high urbanization, marketing and customer recruiting (M&CR), conservation and load management (C&LM) programs, and service area boundary changes. A translog cost model is the basis for the analyses. The conclusions are: (1) TVA distributors experience electrical distribution inefficiencies when they distribute water and electricity, but when they also distribute gas, there are no additional effects; (2) TVA co-operatives enjoy electrical distribution cost advantages over TVA municipals; (3) the TVA municipals that serve the five largest metropolitan areas of the Tennessee River Valley have the highest electrical distribution costs; (4) M&CR efforts benefit TVA distributors; (5) the many TVA-sponsored C&LM programs produce varied fiscal effects for TVA distributors; (6) there are both diseconomies and economies to scale given proportional increases in output components brought about by hypothetical increases in TVA distributor service areas.     

Externalities, Indivisibility, Nonreplicability, and Agglomeration

In this paper we argue that the impact of external scale economies and diseconomies on city size is not nearly as clear-cut as it is tacitly believed in urban economics. Similarly, city-size distortions are not caused by externalities alone. Indivisibility and nonreplicability, which prevent establishing the “right” number of cities, may represent a source for city-size distortions which can be stronger than the standard resource misallocation resulting from external scale economies and diseconomies. It follows that a direct population dispersion policy is not just an inferior substitute to Pigouvian taxes and subsidies but rather a useful complement.     

Assessing the efficiency of Turkish secondary education: Heterogeneity, centralization, and scale diseconomies

This paper begins with a historical overview of the Turkish educational system. We then use Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and econometric methods to evaluate the system's efficiency. In doing so we identify scale diseconomies and relate them to underlying structural characteristics of the system. Selected suggestions on improving performance are offered. The roles of heterogeneity and centralization are also highlighted. Heterogeneity is modeled as an undesirable measure. The linkage between indicators of centralization and scale diseconomies was found to be statistically significant. The authors believe this to be the first study that investigates the impact of systemic characteristics such as heterogeneity and centralized structure on educational outcomes for Turkey. Since the country straddles the Middle East and the Balkans, culturally as well as geographically, it may be of interest to other countries in the region.     

Attitudes of police managers to different leadership roles in their jobs: An empirical study in Norway

The background for this study is the increased complexity in policing that has become more knowledge‐based and more professional in the past decade. The aim of this article is to present empirical results from a study of attitudes of police managers to different leadership roles in their jobs in two police districts in Norway. A questionnaire was developed and administered among police managers in two police districts in Norway. Participants in leadership programs were selected for this survey research. The Follo police district and Hedmark police district had a total of 130 participants in these programs, with 60 managers from Follo and 70 managers from Hedmark. The research was carried out in March and April 2010. The personnel leader role was found to be most important, followed by the resource allocator role. Responding police managers reported that they felt least competent in the liaison role.     

警方采访受害者的批评性语篇分析

社交采访一直都是批评性语篇分析家关注的重点。但是,警方采访鲜有研究,而通过分析警方采访可以发现社会秩序和语言研究方面的暗示。因此,进行批评性语篇分析时,我们值得对警方采访进行分析。本人研究的重点是分析警方和受害者之间的权力关系,同时讨论从资料中发现的其他问题。文中分析警方如何在采访过程中通过时间和地点安排、转移话题、话轮转换和较高嗓音等多种形式,行使其对于受害人的权力;警方为了消除权力分配不均给受害者造成的不安感,采取了礼貌策略;另外,本文讨论了由于受害者英语不熟练所产生的误解并分析了警方建议翻译出席的原因。     

Water losses and hydrographical regions influence on the cost structure of the Portuguese water industry

Despite the growing research about water utilities, some questions still remain to be solved on the supply side, which are frequently absent from empirical studies based on the estimation of cost functions. This paper aims to fill to some extent this gap in the literature by focusing the consequences of water losses reduction and the management of water resources based on their availability at an integrated river basin level. Major findings derived from the estimation of a multiproduct cost function suggest advantages from reducing water losses, given that an adjusted measure of economies of scope, adapting the fact that water lost cannot be sold, reveals that there are small diseconomies of scope. In addition, generally the variables related to the hydrographical regions used have significant effects on water costs. Since the outcomes also reveal the existence of economies of scale, more concentration in the Portuguese water industry at the retail level would be beneficial.     

Contested Development: Homeless Property,Police Reform,and Resistance in Skid Row,LA

Since the late 1990s, Downtown Los Angeles’ Skid Row has undergone private and state‐sanctioned policing practices within the fifty‐block neighborhood. These policing practices are fueled by increased commercial and real‐estate development to dispossess and contain the mostly Black homeless and housed residents. Grassroots organizations and residents have responded to gentrification‐induced policing by claiming a homeless right to property, transforming neighborhood politics. This article examines these neighborhood politics as a process of contested development. Contested development reveals the push‐and‐pull contradictions that occur when spatial difference is challenged and reproduced. Through the sphere of urban property, the contested development of property in Skid Row restores or resists the generation of spatial difference. In so doing, the claims of homeless residents and grassroots organizations to a right to property engender transformative police reforms while at the same time igniting revanchist policing methods.     

Production cost structure of us hospital pharmacies: Time-series,cross-sectional bed size evidence

There are current concerns about potential factor substitutions and their implications for factor employments and cost containment in US hospital pharmacies. A translog production cost model is estimated for these pharmacies, using 1981–9 times-series data consisting of seven cross-sectional bed size classes per year. Zellner's joint GLS estimation of three-factor cost share equations and the parent translog cost function reveals that pairwise factor substitutions are severely limited; production is non-homothetic, occurring in the range of scale diseconomies; biased and pure technical change effects dominate the scale-augmenting component. Implications of findings are rationalized in the context of the emerging biopharmaceutical technologies.     

基于“能力本位”的公安院校计算机教学改革初探

近年来,社会的信息化进程加速,计算机在更多的领域发挥了它的重要作用,公安部门也不例外。伴随着公安部门信息化水平的提升,对公安人员的计算机操作水平有了新的要求,只有掌握了较高的计算机技术,才能够胜任信息化条件下的公安工作。同时,也对公安院校的计算机课程的教学提出了新的要求。本文根据现代警务特点和警察职业所需,在计算机教学中引入"能力本位"的教学理念,为培养现代警务急需的计算机应用型人才提供了新思路,创建了新局面。     

Economic fluctuations,market power,and returns to scale: Evidence from firm-level data

Recent research on aggregate fluctuations, coupled with ongoing work in industrial organization, has renewed interest in the existence, magnitude, and cyclical pattern of market power and the extent of increasing returns to scale. By exploiting restrictions from dynamic theory and information from financial markets, we present a framework for generating quantitative evidence on market power and returns to scale. Tailoring the econometric model to firm-level panel data, we calculate the percentage differential between price and marginal cost (the Lerner index) in terms of the parameters from the econometric system. Results for firms in eleven industries indicate that there is a great deal of heterogeneity in the extent of market power. Industries with significantly positive Lerner indices tend to have substantial increasing returns in the production technology. We find that there is only a modest relation between our estimated Lerner indices and traditional measures of market power and that, when market power varies temporally, it is usually procyclical. Thus, variations in the markup of price over marginal cost may help dampen aggregate economic fluctuations.     

Predicting the geo-temporal variations of crime and disorder

Traditional police boundaries—precincts, patrol districts, etc.—often fail to reflect the true distribution of criminal activity and thus do little to assist in the optimal allocation of police resources. This paper introduces methods for crime incident forecasting by focusing upon geographical areas of concern that transcend traditional policing boundaries. The computerised procedure utilises a geographical crime incidence-scanning algorithm to identify clusters with relatively high levels of crime (hot spots). These clusters provide sufficient data for training artificial neural networks (ANNs) capable of modelling trends within them. The approach to ANN specification and estimation is enhanced by application of a novel and noteworthy approach, the Gamma test (GT).     

Economies of scale and scope in water supply

This study examines the multiproduct nature of water supply relative to economies of scale and scope. The water utility is viewed as a multiproduct firm providing residential and non- residential services with spatial variation. There are no significant economies of scale in the utility's overall operation. The utility, however, enjoys considerable economies for non- residential water supply but suffers from diseconomies in residential supply. The economies of scale achieved in water treatment are mostly lost in the distribution of water. The utility on the whole experiences economies of scope associated with joint production of the two services. Furthermore, water utilities have no perceptible tendency to behave as a natural monopoly.     

The effect of spatiotemporal resolution on predictive policing model performance

Being able to anticipate crime such that new crime events can be dealt with effectively or prevented entirely, leads police forces worldwide to look at applying predictive policing, which provides predictions of times and places at risk for crime, such that proactive preventative measures can be taken. Ideally, predictive policing models predict crime at a high spatio-temporal level, while also providing optimal prediction performance. The main objective of this paper is therefore to evaluate the impact of varying grid resolution, temporal resolution and historical time frame on prediction performance. To investigate this, we analyse home burglary data from a large city in Belgium and predict new crime events using a range of parameter values, comparing the resulting prediction performances. Given the potential prediction performance costs associated with prediction at a high spatio-temporal resolution, consideration should be given to balance practical requirements with performance requirements.     

Market domain and structure in regional manufacturing instability

A decomposition of regional sectoral manufacturing employment variances is used as a basis for allocating instability to the markets in which the instability originates, including national, regional and internal. The effects of such attributes of industry structure as market power and economies of scale upon manufacturing sector instability is also investigated. Using data for Arizona over the years 1965–1985, 43% of Arizona's manufacturing instability is attributable to instability in national markets. The hypothesis that Arizona's instability can be attributed to market power differentials is rejected, but the effect of scale economy differentials is supported.     

Efficient growth of an agglomerating regional economy

The focus of this study is on the efficient investment policy to be pursued by a regional or local economy, respectively. Localness will be expressed in terms of varying returns to scale which are due to economies and diseconomies of agglomeration. This particular setting of regional growth enters into a neoclassical calculus of variations model of intertemporal capital stock maximization. The general properties significant of efficient growth strategies relate to the turnpike discussion. A unique set of maximum balanced expansion paths will be proved to serve as the only guideline for efficient investment in the long run.     

劳动力转移对资本回报率影响的机制分析与实证研究

在新一届政府提出大力发展城镇化的背景下,我国资本回报率是否可以支撑城镇化将带来的大量固定资本投资？本文构造了一个两部门模型,并结合中国的省际数据和多重代理变量方法从理论机制和实证研究两方面证明了：由于劳动力从农村部门向现代部门转移,资本回报率有可能出现随资本存量增加而先递增后递减的趋势。即如果城镇化可以拉动劳动力的持续转移,那么固定资本投资在一段时期内将有较高的资本回报率作为支持。研究结果还表明,制造业规模、存贷比指标、非国有企业所占的比重以及产品市场的发育程度也会对资本回报率的产生一定的影响。     

Bertrand oligopoly in a spatial context: The case of quantity independent transportation costs

The theory of spatial competition [for a review, see Gabszewicz and Thisse (1985)] is usually based on the assumption of transportation costs which are proportionate to distance and quantity. In reality, however, there exist frequently considerable economies of scale, especially with respect to the conveyed quantity of goods. A good case in point is transportation cost incurred by a consumer patronizing a shopping area. Cost economies of scale will in general influence consumers' optimal choice with respect to quantities and best market places. In the extreme, consumers' outlays on transportation can be considered independent of the purchased quantity, but approximately proportionate to distance. In the present paper, the impact of this assumption on spatial competition is analysed. It will be shown, that existence and uniqueness of spatial oligopolistic equilibrium is restored. Furthermore, due to some residual monopolistic power, prices do not converge to the perfectly competitive equilibrium prices when the distance between the firms shrinks to zero. In conclusion the model exhibits a fundamental difference in the market structure, when the spatial aspect is incorporated.