Developing the Capacity to Understand and Prevent Homicide

Excerpt from the Authors' Abstract: 

The Milwaukee Homicide Review Commission (MHRC) was established in May 2004 to address the city’s persistent lethal violence problem. The MHRC is a multi-tiered intervention with four levels, each of which involves participation by a different set of agencies and stakeholders. A key assumption underlying the four levels of MHRC review, and driving its decision to include stakeholders outside of the traditional criminal justice arena, was that the development and implementation of homicide prevention strategies is a complex and multi-faceted process that can be strengthened by input and buy-in from stakeholders throughout the community. The goal of the MHRC was to foster and support innovative homicide prevention and intervention strategies using the emerging tool of strategic problem analysis.

National Criminal Justice Reference Service

Download full pdf: Developing the Capacity to Understand and Prevent Homicide: An Evaluation of the Milwaukee Homicide Review Commission

Are Countries Moving Towards More Equitable Education Systems?

From EducationWeek:

Several countries that consistently top U.S. performance in the Program for International Student Assessment also have more equitable education systems, but American schools are making progress, according to a new study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which administers the PISA.

The study, "Are Countries Moving Towards More Equitable Education Systems? (pdf)" found that in 2009, countries often held up as educational role models, including Finland, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, had significantly higher PISA reading performance as well as smaller socioeconomic gaps. Socioeconomic status of the 15-year-old test-takers was measured using an index of parents' education and careers, as well as educational and other resources available in the children's homes.

Source: EducationWeek Inside School Research

Download pdf report: "Are Countries Moving Towards More Equitable Education Systems?"

The Affordable Care Act: The Value of Systemic Disruption

Abstract

It is important to recognize the political and policy accomplishments of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), anticipate its limitations, and use the levers it provides strategically to address the problems it does not resolve. Passage of the ACA broke the political logjam that long stymied national progress toward equitable, quality, universal, affordable health care. It extends coverage for the uninsured who are disproportionately low income and people of color, curbs health insurance abuses, and initiates improvements in the quality of care. However, challenges to affordability and cost control persist. Public health advocates should mobilize for coverage for abortion care and for immigrants, encourage public-sector involvement in negotiating health care prices, and counter disinformation by opponents on the right. 

Source: Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print February 14, 2013: e1-e4. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2012.301180 via eScholarship Repository

Download pdf publication of : The Affordable Care Act: The Value of Systemic Disruption

Neuroeconomics: Eyes, Brain, Business

From the introduction:

Humans are often delighted by objects with vaguely humanoid characteristics—think Pet Rocks, toy robots, or sock puppets. But there is a point at which an object looks almost human, yet not quite human enough, and the result is disturbing. It's called the uncanny valley. And for Christine Looser, it's the starting point for a line of research aimed at discovering how our brains detect life, and how we distinguish the cognizant from the mindless.

Source: Harvard Business School : Working Knowledge

Read full paper:  Neuroeconomics: Eyes, Brain, Business online

Children with brain lesions able to use gestures important to language learning

Abstract:

Children with pre/perinatal unilateral brain lesions (PL) show remarkable plasticity for language development. Is this plasticity characterized by the same developmental trajectory that characterizes typically developing (TD) children, with gesture leading the way into speech? We explored this question, comparing eleven children with PL – matched to thirty TD children on expressive vocabulary – in the second year of life. Children with PL showed similarities to TD children for simple but not complex sentence types. Children with PL produced simple sentences across gesture and speech several months before producing them entirely in speech, exhibiting parallel delays in both gesture + speech and speech-alone. However, unlike TD children, children with PL produced complex sentence types first in speech-alone. Overall, the gesture–speech system appears to be a robust feature of language learning for simple – but not complex – sentence constructions, acting as a harbinger of change in language development even when that language is developing in an injured brain.

Source: Journal of Child Language / Volume 40 / Special Issue 01 / January 2013, pp 69-105 Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0305000912000220

Download pdf of Gesturing with an injured brain: How gesture helps children with early brain injury learn linguistic constructions

Compare50.org : database for comparing economic indicators across 50 States

Info:

Supported by the nonprofit Next 10 foundation, [David] Neumark and [U.C. Irvine] economics graduate student Jennifer Muz compiled data on fundamental economic measures – including economic growth, job growth, layoffs and unemployment, earnings, income distribution and poverty – from 1990 to 2011 for all 50 states. Sources included the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Quarterly Census of Employment & Wages and Current Population Survey.

Compare50.org is a Next 10 project. Next 10 is focused on innovation and the intersection between the economy, the environment, and quality of life issues for all Californians. We create tools and provide information that fosters a deeper understanding of the critical issues affecting all Californians. Through education and civic engagement, we hope Californians will become empowered to affect change.

Go to: Compare50.org

National Institute of Justice Firearms Studies

Two technical reports on firearms are made available to the public through the National Criminal Justice Reference:

New Approaches to Understanding and Regulating Primary and Secondary Illegal Firearms (pdf, 177 pages)

Authors: Glenn Pierce, Anthony Braga, Garen Wintemute, Matthew Dolliver

Abstract:

This report confirms previous study results demonstrating the usefulness of trace data in policing illicit firearms. The data show that jurisdictions with gun regulations appear to recover fewer illicitly distributed weapons compared to jurisdictions without regulations. The authors present conclusions suggesting more regulation will reduce the availability and distribution of illicit firearms. 
The findings have some limitations. The unit of analysis is limited to guns recovered by law enforcement and submitted to ATF for tracing between 2003-2006, but the system of tracing has changed significantly in recent years. Also, the guns submitted in this study generally are referred to in the report as “crime guns” although the data indicate that more than 75 percent of the weapons in the study were not used directly in the commission of a crime, but were recovered in the process of law enforcement apprehension, investigation or Search & Seizure, buy backs, and other confiscations.

Strategies for Disrupting Illegal Firearms Markets: A Case Study of Los Angeles (pdf, 92 pages)
Authors: Greg Ridgeway, Glenn L. Pierce, Anthony A. Braga, George Tita, Garen Wintemute, Wendell Roberts
Authors' Abstract:
In 2001, with the support of a grant from the National Institute of Justice, RAND initiated a research and program-development effort to understand the nature of illegal gun markets operating in the city of Los Angeles, California. The primary goal of this project was to determine whether a data-driven, problem-solving approach could yield new interventions aimed at disrupting the workings of local, illegal gun markets serving criminals, gang members, and juveniles in Los Angeles.
The authors created a new software tool to help law enforcement analyze patterns in crime-gun data and identify and trace illicit pathways by which criminals acquire guns. Second, the findings were incorporated into an interagency working-group process that developed a community-based intervention designed to disrupt the illegal flow of guns to Los Angeles-area criminals; this intervention may had an impact on straw purchasing. Key participants in the working group included the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; the Los Angeles Police Department; the U.S. Attorney's Office; state and city prosecutors; academics; and other criminal-justice agencies. Finally, they assessed the utility of retail ammunition-purchase records in identifying prohibited firearm possessors, recommending a cost-benefit analysis on this measure. 

Source: National Institute of Justice (United States)

Patenting Prosperity: Invention and Economic Performance in the United States and its Metropolitan Areas

From the online overview:

This report examines the importance of patents as a measure of invention to economic growth and explores why some areas are more inventive than others. Why should we expect there to be a relationship between patenting and urban economic development? As economist Paul Romer has written, the defining nature of ideas, in contrast to other economic goods, is that they are non-rival: their use by any one individual does not preclude others from using them. Although useful ideas can be freely transmitted and copied, the patent system guarantees, in principle, temporary protection from would-be competitors in the marketplace (i.e. excludability). Thus, one would expect regions to realize at least some of the value of invention, as has been shown for individual inventors and companies that patent. Yet there is no guarantee that patents generated in a specific location will generate wealth in that same location—a set of conditions (the presence of a skilled and diverse labor force, an “ecosystem” of businesses providing complementary goods and services, financing and marketing capabilities among them) have to be met for invention to be commercialized. Research has established that patents are correlated with economic growth across and within the same country over time.

Source: Brookings Institution
Authors: Jonathan Rothwell, José Lobo, Deborah Strumsky and Mark Muro

Download: Patenting Prosperity: Invention and Economic Performance in the United States and its Metropolitan Areas

Also Available: Appendix, Interactive Feature

Immigration of Temporary Lower-Skilled Workers: Current Policy and Related Issues

U.S. employers in various industries argue that they need to hire foreign workers to perform lower-skilled jobs, while others maintain that many of these positions could be filled by U.S. workers. Under current law, certain lower-skilled foreign workers, sometimes referred to as guest workers, may be admitted to the United States to perform temporary service or labor under two temporary worker visas: the H-2A visa for agricultural workers and the H-2B visa for nonagricultural workers. Both programs are administered by the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (DHS/USCIS) and the Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration (DOL/ETA).

Source: Congressional Research Service (via Federation of American Scientists)
Download full pdf of "Immigration of Temporary Lower-Skilled Workers: Current Policy and Related Issues"

New Resource: The Civil Rights Movement as Theological Drama

From the Press Release:

The University of Virginia’s Project on Lived Theology has launched a new online resource, The Civil Rights Movement as Theological Drama, that brings together hundreds of firsthand accounts of how religious convictions played a multifaceted role in the Civil Rights Movement.

“During that extraordinary period in American history, white conservatives, civil rights activists, black militants, black moderates and Klansmen all staked their particular claims for racial justice and social order on the premise that God was on their side,” said Charles Marsh, director of the Project on Lived Theology and professor of religious studies in the College of Arts & Sciences.

The new digital archive includes full-length interviews, newspaper articles, field reports, letters, court filings and other primary sources from the Civil Rights Movement – much of which is drawn from the Project on Lived Theology’s paper archive and Marsh’s decades of research – and organizes everything by actors, scenes, themes and keywords, to show how people lived out their theological beliefs in the world, said Kelly West Figueroa-Ray, manager of the new resource and a doctoral student in religious studies.

Link to online resource:  The Civil Rights Movement as Theological Drama

Public School Graduates and Dropouts from the Common Core of Data

Highlight:

 Seventy-eight percent of high school students, nationwide, graduated on time; an increase of 2 percentage points from the previous year. This graduation rate is based on the Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate calculated from enrollment and graduation counts reported to the National Center for Education Statistics at the Institute of Education Sciences, part of the U.S. Department of Education. This report presents the latest release of the Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate (AFGR) and the Event Dropout Rate. These rates are disaggregated by year, race/ethnicity, gender, and, where applicable, grade.

Description:

This report presents the number of high school graduates, the Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate (AFGR), and the dropout data for grades 9–12 for public schools in school year 2009–10 as reported by State Education Agencies to the NCES Common Core of Data Universe Survey of public elementary and secondary institutions.

Source: National Center for Education Statistics

Download full pdf publication | Link to online description and file download site

Redefining Information Warfare Boundaries for an Army in a Wireless World

Abstract:

In the U.S. Army as elsewhere, transmission of digitized packets on Internet-protocol and space-based networks is rapidly supplanting the use of old technology (e.g., dedicated analog channels) when it comes to information sharing and media broadcasting. As the Army moves forward with these changes, it will be important to identify the implications and potential boundaries of cyberspace operations. An examination of network operations, information operations, and the more focused areas of electronic warfare, signals intelligence, electromagnetic spectrum operations, public affairs, and psychological operations in the U.S. military found significant overlap that could inform the development of future Army doctrine in these areas. In clarifying the prevailing boundaries between these areas of interest, it is possible to predict the progression of these boundaries in the near future. The investigation also entailed developing new definitions that better capture this overlap for such concepts as information warfare. This is important because the Army is now studying ways to apply its cyber power and is reconsidering doctrinally defined areas that are integral to operations in cyberspace. It will also be critical for the Army to approach information operations with a plan to organize and, if possible, consolidate its operations in two realms: the psychological, which is focused on message content and people, and the technological, which is focused on content delivery and machines.

Source: RAND Corporation of California

Download full pdf of  "Redefining Information Warfare Boundaries for an Army in a Wireless World" | Download pdf Summary only

White Paper: "Understanding the distracted brain: Why driving while talking on hands-free phones is risky behavior"

While many people know texting while driving increases crash risk, cell phone conversation while driving is also risky. Talking on hands-free or handheld cell phones requires the brain to multitask – a process it cannot do safely while driving.

To explain what happens to the human brain when talking on cell phones while driving, NSC has a white paper, “Understanding the distracted brain: Why driving while talking on hands-free phones is risky behavior.”

 Source: National Safety Council, United States

Download white paper "Understanding the distracted brain: Why driving while talking on hands-free phones is risky behavior” | Link to NSC page on Distracted Driving

Gun Violence in U.S. Cities Compared to the Deadliest Nations in the World

Via the Atlantic

The sad reality is that many American cities have rates of gun homicides comparable to the some of the most violent nations in the world.

 Link to: Gun Violence in U.S. Cities Compared to the Deadliest Nations in the World

Making Legal: The Dream Act, Birthright Citizenship, and Broad-Scale Legalization.

Abstract: 

Some of the most controversial topics in immigration and citizenship law involve granting lawful immigration status—or citizenship itself—to persons who might otherwise be in the United States unlawfully. In this Article, I examine arguments for and against three ways to confer lawful status: (1) the DREAM Act, which would grant status to many unauthorized migrants who were brought to the United States as children; (2) the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, under which almost all children born on U.S. soil are U.S. citizens; and (3) broad-scale proposals to grant lawful immigration status to a substantial percentage of the current unauthorized population. I first explain how arguments both for and against the DREAM Act reflect some mix of fairness and pragmatism. Though birthright citizenship seems different from the DREAM Act, the arguments are similar. I next show that although children figure much more prominently in the DREAM Act and birthright citizenship, similar patterns of argument apply to broad–scale legalization, and the arguments in favor are just as strong. Finally, I explain that the “rule of law” is a highly malleable concept that provides no persuasive case against any of these ways to confer lawful immigration or citizenship status. Rule of law arguments in favor of conferring status are stronger than rule of law arguments against doing so.

Source: (2013). UC Los Angeles: UCLA School of Law. Author: Motomura, Hiroshi. Retrieved from: http://escholarship.org/uc/item/7wv3v5z5

Download pdf of Making Legal: The Dream Act, Birthright Citizenship, and Broad-Scale Legalization.

Inaugural Address by President Barack Obama - 2013

My favorite paragraph:

It is now our generation’s task to carry on what those pioneers began.  For our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts.  Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law -- for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.   Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote.   Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity -- until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country.   Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia, to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for and cherished and always safe from harm. 

Source: The White House

Link to full text

Statewide Law Enforcement/Mental Health Efforts: Strategies to Support and Sustain Local Initiatives

Abstract:

This report examines how states have developed structures and standards to make police encounters with people with mental illnesses safer for all involved and to produce better mental health and criminal justice system outcomes. The report offers a starting point for policymakers, practitioners, and others interested in planning or enhancing a statewide initiative that will support such local-level specialized policing responses as crisis intervention and law enforcement/mental health co-response teams.

Source: Bureau of Justice Assistance, United States Department of Justice

Download full pdf publication

Pew Forum research package on Abortion in 2013

A Pew Forum research package includes results from a new public opinion survey, a slideshow on how opinion differs among various demographic groups, a discussion of the legal issues and a summary of religious groups' positions.

Source: Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life

Link to online research package at Pew

Compensation Matters: The Case of Teachers

Research Brief from Boston College, Center for Retirement Research

The brief’s key findings are:

• Many public sector pension plans have recently cut pension benefits for new hires, thereby reducing compensation.

• The analysis looks at how such cutbacks could affect the quality of teachers.

• One proxy for teacher quality is the average SAT score at a teacher’s undergraduate institution.

• The analysis finds that school districts with higher wages and/or higher pensions are able to hire teachers from institutions with higher SAT scores.

• These results suggest that cutting compensation for new teachers is not costless, as it will likely reduce applicant quality.

 Download pdf brief

New Pew Report: Library Services in the Digital Age

Key Findings:

...a notable share of Americans say they would embrace even wider uses of technology at libraries such as:

• Online research services allowing patrons to pose questions and get answers from librarians: 37% of Americans ages 16 and older would “very likely” use an “ask a librarian” type of service, and another 36% say they would be “somewhat likely” to do so.
• Apps-based access to library materials and programs: 35% of Americans ages 16 and older would “very likely” use that service and another 28% say they would be “somewhat likely” to do so.
• Access to technology “petting zoos” to try out new devices: 35% of Americans ages 16 and older would “very likely” use that service and another 34% say they would be “somewhat likely” to do so.
• GPS-navigation apps to help patrons locate material inside library buildings: 34% of Americans ages 16 and older would “very likely” use that service and another 28% say they would be “somewhat likely” to do so.
• “Redbox”-style lending machines or kiosks located throughout the community where people can check out books, movies or music without having to go to the library itself: 33% of Americans ages 16 and older would “very likely” use that service and another 30% say they would be “somewhat likely” to do so.
• “Amazon”-style customized book/audio/video recommendation schemes that are based on patrons’ prior library behavior: 29% of Americans ages 16 and older would “very likely” use that service and another 35% say they would be “somewhat likely” to do so.

When Pew Internet asked the library staff members in an online panel about these services, the three that were most popular were classes on e-borrowing, classes on how to use handheld reading devices, and online “ask a librarian” research services. Many librarians said that their libraries were already offering these resources in various forms, due to demand from their communities.
These are some of the key findings from a new national survey of 2,252 Americans ages 16 and older by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project and underwritten by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The interviews were conducted on October 15-November 10, 2012 and done on cell phone and landlines and in English and Spanish.

 Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project

Download full pdf report | Download topline questionnaire | Link to online summary