Citizen Perceptions of Channels for Urban Service Advocacy

Citizen recognition of channels for advocating change in policeservice is explored in the light of factors that might leadto recognition of a citizen organization rather than to a directcontact with a public official. Hypotheses to be tested usedboth individual and contextual factors that may influence whetheran advocacy channel is recognized and what channel is recognized.Sense of political efficacy is used as an intervening variable.The analysis shows that the poor, the less educated, minorities,and residents of large cities are all less likely to recognizea channel for advocating police service change. The data providelimited support for a "compensatory" interpretation of the roleof citizen organizations in urban service advocacy.     

Respondent Burden: A Test of Some Common Assumptions

With an experimental design, the correlates of respondent burdenwere measured in 500 households in the suburban portion of thePhiladelphia SMSA. The research design provided for variationin the length of the instrument, the effort required to answersome of the questions, and the administration of a second interviewapproximately one year after the first. Respondent burden wasmeasured using behavioral indicators and responses to a self-administeredreaction form. Instrument length was the only experimental variablewhich yielded statistically significant (although generallysmall) differences in burden perception. Two attitudinal factors—beliefin the usefulness of surveys and denial of the privacy-invadingcharacter of survey questions—were strongly associatedwith low burden perception.     

Research on Environmental Health Interventions: Ethical Problems and Solutions

This article reviews a variety of ethical issues one must consider when conducting research on environmental health interventions on human subjects. The paper uses the Kennedy Krieger Institute lead abatement study as well as a hypothetical asthma study to discuss questions concerning benefits and risks, risk minimization, safety monitoring, the duty to warn, the duty to report, the use of control groups, informed consent, equitable subject selection, privacy, conflicts of interest, and community consultation. Research on environmental health interventions can make an important contribution to our understanding of human health and disease prevention, provided it is conducted in a manner that meets prevailing scientific, ethical, and legal standards for research on human subjects.