Risk and Public Protection: Responding to Involuntary and ‘Taboo’ Risk

Growing media, political and public concern with high‐risk offenders in the community has focused policy attention on the concept of ‘public protection’. A notion that the public has the right to be protected, particularly from ‘monstrous’ offenders such as predatory paedophiles, has infiltrated much recent legislation and penal policy. This article will explore the critical factors in the ‘public protection’ trend and the framing of risk and risky offenders that has ensued. In particular, attention will be given to the new surveillance and intervention mechanisms under the Multi‐Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) and whether these arrangements manage risk or displace it. To what extent are they driven by the ‘precautionary principle’ and defensive responses to risks that are over‐inflated? To what extent does this result in ‘perverse incentives’ to over‐manage certain risks and to over‐concentrate on restrictive risk management techniques such as electronic tagging, satellite surveillance and curfews rather than treatment? Does the system represent effective risk management or a system for dealing with risk anxiety – both of the public(s) and of politicians?     

Fat government,thin populace? Is the growth of obesity prevalence lower in more generous welfare states?

In the last few decades, the prevalence of obesity has expanded rapidly and now constitutes a grave public health concern across the developed world. Obesity is negatively associated with, among other factors, education and healthcare quality, which are factors that governments can and do influence through welfare policies. This study investigated to what extent the change in the prevalence of obesity is lower in more generous welfare states. Based on pooled time series cross‐section regressions for 15 developed countries over 25 years, we found that the more generous are transfer payments, health policy and education policy, the lower is the increase of obesity prevalence. These findings have important implications for public policy formation and the public health and welfare state literatures.     

Who's Minding the Kids? Pollucion,Public Schools,and Environmental Justice in Los Angeles

Objective . Although previous environmental justice research has focused on analysis of the disproportionate burden of environmental hazards on minority residents, few studies have examined demographic inequities in health risks among children. This article evaluates the demographic distribution of potentially hazardous facilities and health risks associated with ambient air toxics exposures among public schoolchildren in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Methods . We combine Geographic Information System analysis with multivariate statistics to compare enrollment and demographic information for students who attend district schools with the spatial pattern of land use, locations of toxic emissions and facilities, and calculated indices of estimated lifetime cancer risk and respiratory hazards associated with exposures to toxic air emissions. Results . District schools are more likely to be located in census tracts containing potentially hazardous facilities; however, these tracts actually have slightly lower cancer and respiratory health risks associated with air toxics when compared to other tracts in the district. Demographic comparisons among school sites indicate that minority students, especially Latinos, are more likely to attend schools near hazardous facilities and face higher health risks associated with outdoor air toxics exposure. Conclusions . These patterns of hazard exposure and health risk should be considered both in the process of siting new schools to house the rapidly growing regional student population and in remediation efforts at existing schools.     

New avenues to be opened for social protection in the Arab world: the case of Egypt*

This article looks at social protection in the Arab world. Giving the example of Egypt, it asks why poverty is so widespread and why – despite the country's numerous social protection systems – social risks are a major contributing factor to it. It concludes that reforms are due. The existing systems are well funded but inefficient and more to the benefit of the better‐off than the poor. A reform approach is proposed which builds on both conventional and more innovative strategies: campaigns should be launched to raise public awareness of social risks; social assistance spending should be increased; and the operating public pension schemes should be reformed. At the same time, new avenues have to be opened to meet the specific needs of informal sector workers who have extreme difficulty in being covered by social insurance or social assistance. To this purpose, micro‐insurance is a promising approach for the Arab‐world region.     

Social risks and public pension in South Korea

This study investigated how traditional and new social risks have emerged in South Korea and how policies have coped with them, focusing on the public pension program. Using national statistics data and publicly published government reports, factors such as marital status, economic activity, and the insurance trend of the public pension by age and gender for the last decade were examined. Main results are as follows. Women's labor force participation has slightly increased; however, career discontinuity remains and new family risks have increased. Second, women's public pension coverage as a percentage of the employment rate has substantially increased, implying that old labor market risks have largely been reduced for female workers. Third, the public pension insured rate among male workers has decreased to a small degree, which implies that new labor market risks are increasing for male workers. Consequently, the gender gap in risk has been reduced; however, policies established to deal with new risks have introduced some gender effects     

Is Sweden Being Torn Apart? Privatization and Old and New Patterns of Welfare State Support

This article examines the potential impact of institutional change on popular welfare support. The encompassing welfare state of Sweden provides an interesting case where the privatization of social service delivery has been widespread over the last decades. We use survey data from five rounds of the Swedish Welfare State Survey (1992, 1997, 2002, 2006 and 2010) in order to study how public preferences for the financing and organization of welfare services have changed over time. Based on a theory describing an ideal‐typical pattern of public support for an encompassing welfare model, we derive three types of public preferences: support for a pure state model, a pure market model and a mixed model (welfare services are funded by taxes but provided by private firms). We begin by tracking the development of these ideal‐typical attitude patterns between 1992 and 2010. We then investigate how preference patterns vary across municipalities displaying different degrees of privatization of social service delivery. Our results show that welfare support among Swedes over the last decades is better characterized as dynamic rather than stable. Swedes seem to take an overall more ideologically based position on the role of the welfare state over time. The share of respondents expressing such ideologically based preferences has increased from 54 per cent in 1992 to 78 per cent in 2010. This change is principally manifested in increased support for the state and mixed models. This trend seems to be parallel to the increasing share of private welfare service providers over the last decade. We also find a link between the municipal degree of privatization and support for our three ideal‐typical welfare models. Public support for a mixed welfare model and, to some extent, a market model, is comparatively stronger in municipalities where welfare services to a large extent are carried out by private actors. Conversely, data shows that public support for the traditional Swedish state model is more widespread in municipalities having a low degree of welfare services privatization. Lastly, we discuss some theoretical implications of our findings.     

Food Safety and Consumers: Constructions of Choice and Risk

This paper argues that food safety did not arise as a "new" obsession at the end of the twentieth century, but has been an intermittent object of public and policy concern over the last two hundred years in the UK. However, the nature of food policy has shifted over that period, from an orientation towards protecting a largely ignorant public from fraud, through controlling the risks potentially arising from negligence in food–handling, to informing rational consumers to enable them to "choose" the right foods. Most recently, the public have had a nominally more active role in food policy, as citizens consulted on the content of the policy agenda. Drawing on histories of food policy in the UK and social science research on consumers, this paper explores the links between the changing risks and publics addressed by British food policy.     

Pawns or Pioneers? The Logic of User Participation in Anti‐poverty Policy‐making in Public Policy Units in Belgium

Since anti‐poverty policy‐making in Belgium is embedded in a logic of user participation, social policy has shown interest in employing users with experience of poverty as experts in public policy units in order to implement and monitor anti‐poverty policies. In this article, we discuss this recent development as a relevant case for contemporary public service delivery in the European context. In the light of the ambiguous practices of user participation in Belgium, the enacted logic of involving service users in public service delivery is discussed, and potential risks and opportunities identified: do these individuals function as pawns or as pioneers? In search of opportunities for the implementation of anti‐poverty policies, we explore different ways in which public policy units can act upon the participation of employed service users in public service delivery. On the level of public service delivery, we argue that the participation of expert users risks their use as a mere blind, de‐responsibilizing those who work in public policy units in providing high‐quality services and being responsive to all service users including those living in poverty. On the level of these individual experts, we argue that the employed service users risk becoming pawns, acquiring a tragic‐optimistic outlook on life. We conclude that enabling service users to participate as pioneers requires the joint and mutual responsibility of the employed service users and those who work in public policy units for implementing and monitoring anti‐poverty strategies rather than exclusive responsibility assigned to individual service users.     

Predicting Material Hardship Among Former Welfare-to-Work Participants: An Income- and Resource-Packaging Model

ABSTRACT

Material hardship is of concern because it refers to physical deprivation related to meeting the basic needs of food, housing, utilities, and other items. This study tests a predictive income- and resource-packaging model of material hardship using survey data collected from 459 former welfare-to-work program participants. Logistic regression results show that receiving social support in the form of living rent-free decreased the odds for experiencing material hardship. The predictors of working in the informal economy, being sanctioned while on public assistance, having mental health issues, and having transportation problems all increased the odds for experiencing material hardship. The measures of formal employment income, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families income, work-first program participation, sharing living expenses, monetary social support, and assistance from nonprofit organizations were unrelated to predicting material hardship experiences. Policymakers interested in improving conditions for needy families should question the use of sanctions and carefully monitor material hardship among those sanctioned. Future programs and future research should consider the extent to which low-income women participate in the informal economy to make ends meet, rely on social networks to live rent-free, and struggle with poor health and transportation problems.     

Trends in Violent Crime and Public Concern

Socially, the most damaging of all the effects of violent crime was said to be its indirect ‘terrorising’ effect, generating public fear and disrupting the functioning of the community. The blame for aggravation of this effect is often placed on over-reporting and sensationalization by the mass media. The study aimed to determine if there is an objective basis for a growing public concern about increases in crimes of violence in New South Wales, or if this concern is a product of certain forms of publicity given to violence, and to identify targets for social intervention. A formal analysis of a decade's trends in violent crimes against the person and property crimes showed the following: among adults more males commit murder and major assault, and more females major assault; among juveniles, more males commit assault, serious robbery, and malicious damage, and more females assault and malicious damage; more offences of major assault, robbery, and arson are reported to the police, but there is no increase in reported rapes and known homicides; there is no increase in the vandalization of school property; the only judicial reflection of public concern about violent crime is a slight increase in the length of sentence given for robbery. In a critical discussion of the findings, increases in violent crime reported to the police were singled out as justifying public concern. The most serious concern, however, is warranted by the increasing juvenile violence which is consistent with trends observed in most Western countries. The difficulty was pointed out of translating this concern into social action, in the absence of any coherent theoretical or empirical framework within which to identify priority targets. There is a need for a multifactorial approach to provide a rational basis for dealing with the problem of violent crime.     

移民的呼声——户籍如何影响了公共意识与公共参与

本文利用CGSS2010的调查数据,考察了户籍身份对城市居民公共意识与公共参与的影响。研究发现,户籍身份对移民的公共意识有一定的负面影响,这种影响并没有随着移民收入或教育水平的提高而明显减弱。在公共参与方面,移民表现得更为消极,其中部分原因是由于现有制度对他们的公共参与形成制约。但在群体性事件参与和面临政府不公对待的态度方面,不同户籍身份人群之间却没有显著的差异。虽然收入水平或教育水平更高的居民的确具有更强的公共意识,但并不明显具有更高的公共参与度。     

我国气象防灾减灾能力建设与实践

在全球气候变化背景下,我国气象灾害及其影响已产生新的特点。近年来,包括气象灾害监测、预报预警、预警信息发布、风险管理、减灾手段和科技支撑等方面在内的气象防灾减灾综合能力建设逐步加强,“政府主导、部门联动、社会参与”的气象防灾减灾机制日渐完善。未来,面对气象防灾减灾的新挑战,我国应更加注重防御极端天气气候事件,化解经济社会发展的气候风险,完善气象防灾减灾体系,增强全民防灾减灾的知识水平。     

Age Differences in the Correlates of Perceived Dominance*

Previous evidence indicates that the correlates of dominance vary over studies. We hypothesized that one source of this variability is that dominance shifts with age from being associated with aggression to being more associated with prosocial behavior and sociometric status. To test this, we examined 10 vs. 13 year-old boys' perceptions of dominance, using a measure that assessed the perceived outcomes of dyadic agonism. In a sample consisting predominantly of lower- and middle-SES boys from public schools attending a racially integrated summer program for youths with behavior problems, we examined the relation between perceived dominance, sociometric status, and measures of social behavior, including physical and verbal aggression. Perceived dominance was associated with hitting and bullying among 10 year-olds, whereas among 13 year-olds it was more closely associated with sociometric status. The measure of perceived dominance we present produced rigidity scores comparable to those found using behavioral measures of dominance.     

Factors associated with the preventive healthcare service use among older adults in Korea: Focusing on age variation

The importance of preventive health examinations for older adults has been well emphasized due to an increase in chronic diseases associated with age. In this study, we estimated the preventive health examination participation rate and its associated factors among the elderly with specific focuses on the moderating effects between age and socioeconomic status. We used data drawn from the first to sixth waves (4164 people) of the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging for the elderly aged 65 and over. A generalized linear model was used to address research questions. The results showed that the participation rate decreased as older adults age. The interaction between age and education was also significant, indicating that older adults with higher education were more likely to use a preventive health examination compared to those with lower education. There were no significant interaction effects between income and age. Based on the findings, implications for theory and practice were discussed with specific focuses on age‐specific approaches in preventive healthcare services for older adults.     

Journalists as first responders

ABSTRACT

Covering terrorist attacks has posed numerous challenges to mainstream media across the world. Bringing information to the public quickly remains a primary goal for news media, but the journalistic duty to tell the truth comes with an increased responsibility for the accuracy of reports. When news is broken by civilian eyewitnesses and is posted by social media before it has even gone through the barest of verification checks, news media editors struggle to fulfil the task of informing the public while reporting on stories that hold the potential to alarm the audience. This paper offers some insights into the ways the New Zealand news media organised reporting on the March 15th terrorist attack in Christchurch. Based on face-to-face interviews with selected editors of major news organisations in New Zealand, it investigates the ways they operated in this situation. It explores key moments in editorial decision making on 15 March 2019, the first day of coverage of the terrorist attack. It focuses on the ‘first responder’ elements of news media work – speed and accuracy in providing information about the mosque attacks – to identify how journalistic norms are adapted and changed to report this breaking news.     

Beliefs about Deliberation: Personal and Normative Dimensions

Democratic deliberative theory has long emphasized the importance of citizen deliberation as a form of political participation and a centrally important component of any vital democracy. Public deliberation and discourse among citizens has been less frequently investigated as a form of political participation than more standard indicators such as voting or volunteering for political organizations. This research examines the extent to which internalized beliefs about deliberation are associated with deliberation outcome measures among a national sample of high school students participating in a year-long deliberation forum, Project 540. Using a multilevel analysis, the research specifically tested the extent to which scales of personal and normative deliberation beliefs, independently and moderated by Project 540 participation, predict key deliberative outcomes (e.g., civic skills, intention to participate in civic affairs). We find that predeliberation endorsement of both personal and normative beliefs predicts increases in certain positive deliberative outcomes, and that these effects are not moderated by participation in Project 540. The implications of these findings for deliberative democracy theory and for developing effective citizen deliberation forums are discussed .     

公众对转基因作物的接受度及其影响因素:基于六城市调查数据的社会学分析

本文利用一项大规模的入户抽样调查数据,分析了中国公众对转基因作物的接受度问题。与以往基于“消费者行为研究”框架而采取“个体决策行为模型”的研究不同,本文从风险社会学的理论视角出发,试图发展一个“社会行动模型”的理论框架,以解释个体在“风险社会”中面对一项新技术时的决策行动受到哪些社会性因素的影响。结果显示,中国公众对推广种植转基因大米的接受度不高,与2002年相比有明显下降;传统的“个体决策行为模型”有一定的解释力,但其决策行为是基于有限知识基础上的“有限理性选择”,大众媒体的影响、对“专家系统”的制度性信任都是重要的影响因素。     

Race, racial resentment, attentiveness to the news media, and public opinion toward the Jena Six

Objective. We outline the role of race, racial resentment, and attentiveness to news in structuring public opinion toward the prosecution of the Jena Six, the name given to six African-American high school students who beat a white student, five of whom were subsequently charged with attempted second-degree murder.Method. We rely on a telephone survey of 428 registered voters collected in the aftermath of the protests in Jena, Louisiana.Results. Public reactions were heavily filtered by race and associated with measures of racial resentment. African Americans followed news about the protests more closely, believed race was the most important consideration in the decision to prosecute, and believed the decision to prosecute was the wrong decision. Racially conservative white respondents were less likely to believe race was the most important consideration in the decision to prosecute and were more likely to believe that the decision to prosecute was the right decision. Consistent with theories of agenda setting and framing, attentiveness to the news influenced perceptions regarding the importance of race in the decision to prosecute but not whether the decision was the right decision.Conclusions. At least within the context of the Deep South, race and racial attitudes continue to be an important predictor of public reactions to racially charged events. Attentiveness to the news influenced the lens through which events were interpreted, but not perceptions of whether the outcome was the right decision.     

When Does the Public's Issue Agenda Affect the Media's Issue Agenda (and Vice-Versa)? Developing a Framework for Media-Public Influence*

Objective. The agenda-setting literature has demonstrated the media's ability to set the issue agenda for the public. One byproduct of this work is that researchers have produced some evidence suggesting that the audience will, on occasion, set the issue agenda for the media. Given disparate sets of findings, researchers do not have a framework to better understand on which issues the media will set the agenda for the public and on which issues the public will set the agenda for the media. It is the goal of this article to provide empirical support for a framework suggesting that the events comprising issue areas predetermine the direction of influence between the media's and the public's issue agendas. Methods. I construct a historical data set comprised of 35,000 stories from the nightly network news and responses to Gallup's Most Important Problem question. I look for evidence of causal influence between news issue content and public issue concerns using Granger analysis and vector autoregression. Results. Issue areas comprised of spectacular events, such as defense, will be reported by the media and subsequently affect the salience the audience assigns to those issues. In issues not normally comprised of spectacular and singular events, such as energy and environment, public issue concerns appear to drive issue coverage in the news. Issues such as transportation and education, which comprise few spectacular events and little public concern, will receive sparse coverage in the media. Conclusion. The findings provide support for a framework based on events; the types of events that typically comprise issue areas will affect the likelihood of those issues coming on the news agenda. This then affects the direction of influence between the public and the media. The framework supported here allows for the integration of the media effects and media content literatures. This has implications for understanding how the news agenda is constructed and how the commercial media meets democratic ideals.     

A Study of the Organizational Effectiveness of Clinics Serving the Poor

This paper reports on a study of the organizational effectiveness of small human service organizations serving indigent clients. Four important organizational activities of public health clinics were evaluated, namely providing services acceptable to clients, obtaining and retaining clients, resolving tension and conflict among the members of clinic staff, and maintaining organizational flexibility. Within a goal framework based on the dual-goal concept, the activities were identified either as externally -or internally-oriented goal activities. The extent to which the clinics carried out these activities was investigated by administering questionnaires to 709 indigent clients and 133 members of clinic staffs at 18 clinics. Findings concern the attainment of organizational goals, the interrelatedness of achievements of various effectiveness measures, and structural and human characteristics of the clinic organizations associated with the achievements.