Paul Jesilow

Public attitudes toward the police

Surveys attitudes to police (ATP) in Santa Ana, California by asking respondents what they most like or dislike about police. Finds inter alia that the primary indicator of ATP is how people feel about their location. Contrasts sharply with previous research in finding that ethnicity is not a very good predictor of ATP. Points out that unrealistic expectations for law enforcement may be ameliorated by community policing, which involves citizens in decision making and neighborhood improvement.

The use of claims data in healthcare research.

Background: Claims-based studies have become common during the past 15 years. The electronic records of millions of transactions include information entered on bills (claims) submitted by healthcare providers to third-party payers. They are an attractive data source to researchers; however, they contain many weaknesses that threaten the integrity of many studies that utilize them.

It's not the old ball game: Three Strikes and the courtroom workgroup

In 1994 California enacted legislation commonly known as “Three Strikes.” According to the conventional wisdom concerning the effect of “get tough” sentencing enhancements, the most draconian provisions are undermined by prosecutors, judges, and defense attorneys, who resist the changes in the “normal” way of doing business. The research reported here uses data derived from interviews and surveys of courtroom members, and finds that Three Strikes has significantly disrupted the efficiency of the workgroup and has made the prediction of case outcomes difficult.

THE EFFECT OF POLICE MISCONDUCT ON PUBLIC ATTITUDES: A QUASI-EXPERIMENT

ABSTRACT This article uses data derived from more than 1,000 interviews in an effort to disentangle the effects of the Rodney King beating and its aftermath on public attitudes towards the police. Although the conclusions we draw from our analyses of the data are speculative, we suggest that those who lived in neighborhoods, characterized by some crime and disorder, had their attitudes little affected by the incidents, while the college educated were most affected.

Weeding Criminals or Planting Fear: An Evaluation of a Weed and Seed Project

This study employed a quasi-experimental design to test the effect of a “Weed and Seed” program in a Santa Ana, California, neighborhood. The authors were specifically interested in learning how it affected the residents’attitudes about their neighborhood and their fear of crime. Interviews were conducted before and after a major “gang sweep” and Seeding in a targeted community. The results of the analyses failed to reveal any positive effects of the program on residents’ attitudes and may have had the unintended consequence of enhancing citizens’ fears of gang activity and crime.

Evaluating problem‐oriented policing: a quasi‐experiment

Problem‐oriented policing has been widely implemented during recent years, but researchers have conducted few controlled evaluations to assess its effectiveness. This paper presents a quasi‐experiment designed to test the effects of one such programme. Interviews with Santa Ana residents before and after the introduction of problem‐oriented policing in the city’s developmental district suggest that the archetype can lessen citizens’ complaints about their neighbourhoods.

A Demographic Portrait of Physicians Sanctioned by the Federal Government for Fraud and Abuse Against Medicare and Medicaid

? From the Public Policy Research Organization, University of California, Irvine, California. Supported by a grant from the National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice (82-1J-CX-0035). An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Meetings of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, Chicago, IL, March 28, 1984. Address correspondence to: Henry N. Pontell, PhD, Program in Social Ecology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92717.

Community policing as peacemaking

This article reviews the establishment of community policing within the United States. It discusses the characteristics of the model and the prognosis for its successful implementa‐tioa In particular, we link community policing to ‘peacemaking criminology’ and suggest that the evolving police style may be a means to introduce the new criminológica] model. Evidence from studies of Santa Ana, California and its police department are presented.

The Effects of Fraud on the Evaluation of Health Care

Studies on health care practices, financing, and organization increasingly rely on Medicare and other expanded data sets. These studies are of critical importance for public policy and for the development of strategies to contain escalating health care costs, but they often use data that have been corrupted by fraud and abuse. Mistaken conclusions, as to the effectiveness of policy and procedures, are likely being reached in studies that have used corrupted data. Researchers need to consider the suspect nature of results obtained from the corrupted data, and determine methods for making the data more valid.

Tort Reform and Physician Sanctioning

This article examines the relationship between changes in tort rules and the sanctioning of physicians by state medical boards. It compares the sanctioning rates for doctors in states that have passed tort reforms with the rates in states that have not made legislative changes. It concludes that alterations to the joint liability rule may have increased sanctioning, while the addition of pre-trial screening panels and regulation of attorney fees may have limited the number of physicians who receive punishment.