Exploring the Urban–Rural Incarceration Divide: Drivers of Local Jail Incarceration Rates in the United States

ABSTRACT

A large body of research has focused on understanding mass incarceration in the United States through the lens of federal and state prison growth. However, local jail systems, with 11 million admissions each year, have received less research attention despite their broad impact on communities. Preliminary analysis conducted by the Vera Institute of Justice (Vera) uncovered geographical disparities in county jail incarceration rates. Contrary to assumptions that incarceration is an urban phenomenon, Vera discovered that, in recent decades, pretrial jail rates have declined or remained flat in many urban areas, whereas rates have grown in rural counties. In an effort to uncover factors contributing to continued jail growth in rural areas, Vera joined forces with Two Sigma’s Data Clinic, a volunteer-based program that leverages Two Sigma employees’ data science expertise. Determinants of local jail rates from 2000–2013 were examined using a generalized estimating equations (GEE) model to account for correlations within counties over time. Results revealed that county-level poverty, police expenditures, and spillover effects from other county and state authorities are significant predictors of local jail rates. Investigation of model residuals revealed clusters of counties where observed rates were much higher than expected conditioned upon county variables.     

Faster,harder, longer,stronger – management at the threshold between work and private life: The case of work place health promotion

This paper studies Work Place Health Promotion at two international corporations as an example of an unobtrusive control that targets employees’ lifestyles. It uses Michel Foucault's concepts of neoliberal governmentality and post-disciplinary control to show how Work Place Health Promotion breaks with the disciplinary logic of control most commonly associated with studies of unobtrusive controls in organizations. While discipline is centripetal, correcting employees’ misconduct so that they freely keep within prescribed norms, Work Place Health Promotion is centrifugal, targeting employees’ lifestyles and promoting those existing faculties and inclinations that may increase their activity, performance and their health. It hereby emerges as less restrictive than organizational discipline, but also as more discriminating. For not only does it subject employees’ lifestyles to an economic logic of investment and disinvestment, it also contributes to an exclusion of employees that fail in this regard in the name of their lack of health.     

On voters’ attitudes towards unemployment insurance subsidies across regions: a Canadian simulation

The Canadian unemployment insurance program is designed to reflect the varying risk of joblessness across regions. Regions that are considered low-risk areas subsidize higher-risk ones. A region’s risk is typically proxied by its relative unemployment rate. We use a dynamic, heterogeneous-agent model calibrated to Canada to analyze voters’ preferences between a uniformly generous unemployment insurance and the current system with asymmetric generosity. We find that Canada’s unusual unemployment insurance system is surprisingly close to what voters would choose in spite of the possibilities of shirking and self-insurance through asset buildup.

Estimation du comportement asymptotique des autocovariances et autocorrelations empiriques de processus multivariéeas

Statistics based on the sample autocovariances are widely used in time-series analysis. Estimators of the asymptotic covariance between the sample autocovariances are commonly derived from the so-called Bartlett's formula. However, this formula essentially holds for linear processes. This entails that for a wide range of nonlinear time series the above-mentioned estimators are not suitable. In this paper the behaviour of an alternative estimator is studied within the framework of centered or uncentered multivariate strongly mixing processes. Applications to differential functions of sample autocovariances, such as the sample autocorrelations, are considered.     

Work Motivation: The Incorporation of Self-Concept-Based Processes

This paper proposes a metatheory of workmotivation incorporating theories of self-concept thathave been proposed in the sociological and psychologicalliteratures. Traditional theories of work motivation are reviewed, and the self-concept-basedsources of motivation are presented. How theself-concept influences behavior in organizations isexplained and used to develop a metatheory ofmotivational sources. Both research and managerial implications ofthe model are presented.     

The Termination of Public Organizations: Theoretical Perspectives to Revitalize a Promising Research Area

While many studies deal with comparative public sector reform, the fundamental question of whether and to what extent states are actually able to abolish parts of their administrative structure remains untackled. Despite some efforts to solve this puzzle, the topic remains underestimated. This article identifies the main conceptual and theoretical problems associated with existent research on the termination of public organizations. Furthermore, the article systemizes various causal factors of termination into two broad dimensions: “organizational stickiness” and “political incentives.” Taken together, these constitute a typology, which is able to guide future empirical investigation of the termination of public organizations.