Agency Practices Research Articles

The new Bedlam: a legal and ethical analysis of commercial mug shot websites

ABSTRACT Legal and ethical concerns have been raised since the inception of the commercial mug shot website industry in the United States. These issues include the violation of the presumption of innocence, privacy interests, humiliation, extortion, and sensationalizing crime. These websites lend comparison to Bedlam asylum, which allowed visitors to mock and humiliate the patients. The popularity of these websites renders it essential that the legality and ethics of these websites be reevaluated. The deontological and utilitarian perspectives offer converging assessments regarding the need to regulate the industry and to modify the practices of law enforcement agencies and news organizations.

Bank Supervision and Administrative Law

This article presents a systematic consideration of how administrative law doctrines apply to banking supervision, an unusual form of administrative practice. First, it describes the rationales for, and process of, bank supervision. Key here is an explanation of why financial regulation that is optimal in a narrow efficiency sense includes a supervisory function entailing considerable discretion. The relative opacity of some important features of this administrative practice has made it difficult for legal scholars to obtain a sufficiently informed understanding of the process to evaluate it against relevant legal norms and standards. Second, the article uses recent administrative law arguments lodged by banking interests against key supervisory practices as the springboard for an analysis of how our largely “trans-substantive” administrative law can be problematic in the context of specific mandates given by Congress to administrative agencies. It argues that courts considering how administrative law doctrine applies to agency practices must consider more fully the substantive law the underpins the mission and organization of the agency. In the context of banking supervision, Congress has regularly included in its amendments to banking law clear acknowledgement of the supervisory function, and has at times created expectations for how that function will advance safety and soundness regulation. When these statutory provisions are taken appropriately into account, arguments that supervisory practices are consistent with administrative law requirements are considerably strengthened. Third, the article demonstrates how even a more tailored application of contemporary administrative law doctrines would miss a critical feature of banking supervision – that it is premised on an ongoing relationship between banks and supervisors. Judicial review of agency action usually focuses on discrete agency actions, thereby eliding this critical fact. As a result, administrative law doctrines such as the “practically binding” test for agency guidance peculiarly inapposite. The last part of the article offers a tentative proposal for shifting the administrative law review of supervisory actions to focus on the iterative nature of the supervisory relationship.

72 Years of Homemaking in Waiting Zones: Lebanon's "Permanently Temporary" Palestinian Refugee Camps.

The “permanently temporary” Palestinian refugee community, present in Lebanon since 1948 with no solution in sight, has the highest rate of abject poverty within all five areas of operation of United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinians in the Near East (UNRWA), and it still occupies the same limited geographic space it did 72 years ago. This harsh reality stems from the refugees' statelessness but is also worsened by the local conditions imposed by the Lebanese legislation and (non)settlement policy aimed at preventing refugees from becoming permanent. Within this situation, we look at practices of agency enacted by camp dwellers to provide lacking life necessities and improve living conditions in the camps. This paper will identify and analyze coping mechanisms and homemaking practices undertaken by Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, operating within the framework set by Brun and Fábos (2015), which conceptualized home and homemaking for people in protracted displacement through identifying a refugee's “home, Home and HOME.” Building on Donna Haraway's concept of situated knowledge, this paper uses data collected from participant observations, interviews, ethnographic and autoethnographic recordings analyzed through the lens of my own positioned rationality as a Palestinian refugee from Lebanon. Further, the paper will explore how Palestinian refugees establish camp spaces as a “home-Home-HOME,” despite their uncertain futures, through vertical expansion of buildings, stories and family bonding, in addition to trading and micro-markets. The paper will also deduce how refugees' informal coping mechanisms offer a way of strengthening community bonds, making home in those, otherwise, uncomfortable “waiting zones,” and finally, envisioning new ideas for restructuring the camp beyond the rule of formal institutions.

The Characteristics of Locally Led Development in the Pacific

There is a growing recognition of the effectiveness of locally led processes of social change and development. However, most of the case studies that have been discussed in the literature are focused on <em>programs</em> run by international development agencies. This article examines three locally led <em>processes</em> of change in the Pacific. These include the Simbo for Change Initiative in the Solomon Islands, the Voice in Papua New Guinea and a regional process led by the Green Growth Coalition. We explore how local understandings of leadership, preferences for informal ways of working, holistic ways of thinking, the importance placed upon maintaining good relationships and collective deliberation fundamentally shaped each of the cases. We note how these preferences and ways of working are often seen, or felt, to be at odds with western modes of thought and the practice of development agencies. Finally, we conclude by exploring how these initiatives were supported by external agencies, and suggest further research of this type might provide benchmarks by which Pacific citizens can hold their governments and development agencies to account.

Masculinities in Africa beyond crisis: complexity, fluidity, and intersectionality

Rapidly changing and divergent everyday realities on the African continent call for a more differentiated examination of the complex experiences and representations of men than is offered by the discourse on the ‘crisis of masculinity’, which depicts men as being criminal, violent, dominant, and irresponsible. By contrast, this introduction to the themed section ‘Masculinities in Africa beyond Crisis: Complexity, Fluidity, and Intersectionality’ aims to engage critically with the concept of hegemonic masculinity and argues that multiple images of masculinities co-exist in Africa and beyond. To comprehend new discourses and practices around masculinities, we must consider the question of how masculinities emerge. Discourses and practices relating to masculinities and manhood are situationally and relationally adopted, contested, transformed, and reconfigured. In this special issue, we closely analyse individual’s daily efforts ‘to be “good men”, as well as “good at” being men’ (Inhorn and Isidoros 2018, 2) in times of political, social, and economic transformations. We aim at examining how ideas and practices of masculinities shape individual and collective agency on social, economic, political, and cultural levels. Paying attention to the historical, geographical, and cultural diversities of masculinities in African countries, we discuss how images of masculinities evolve and become manifest in everyday life and analyse how these imaginations circulate within translocal and transnational spaces. We thereby pay close attention to how gender intersects with other identities, such as age, class, race, ethnicity, and sexuality.

Porous asphalt concrete: A review of design, construction, performance and maintenance

Porous asphalt concrete (PAC) is an open-graded friction course that is specifically designed to have high air void contents for removing water from the pavement surface. PAC surfaces, which include open-graded friction courses, permeable friction courses, and drainage asphalt pavements, have increasingly gained acceptance among agencies and industry in the world. PAC might be susceptible to freeze-thaw damage in cold climates and require winter maintenance practices. The life span of PAC pavements shows a large variation depending on climates, traffic volumes and loadings, design and construction practices. The objective of this paper was to review design, construction, and performance that could maximize the advantages and minimize the disadvantages associated with the use of PAC mixtures. A consolidated review of the worldwide literature on PAC applications was conducted, with attention to the use of PAC in agency practices, and specifications for PAC from the world were evaluated. Based on an analysis of the results of this review, two key features were emphasized: (1) a recommended practice for material selection and design of PAC, and (2) a recommended practice for PAC construction and maintenance. Key points include a careful assessment of the PAC drainage and an adequate asphalt content to improve the performance of the pavement surface. A proper binder content stabilized by additives such as fibers and polymers is essential to ensure sufficient film thickness that is critical to the durability of the PAC mix in the long run.

Wolf Delisting Challenges Demonstrate Need for an Improved Framework for Conserving Intraspecific Variation under the Endangered Species Act.

Recent advances in genomics have increased our understanding of geographic patterns of intraspecific variation and the importance of this variation in enhancing species’ potential to adapt to novel threats. However, as part of an effort to limit the scope of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the US government has proposed the removal of the gray wolf from the list of protected species on the basis of a claim that the statute permits a species to be declared recovered given the existence of a single presently secure population. We rebut this interpretation and propose a framework for the conservation of adaptive potential that builds on current agency practice in delineating subspecific recovery units and reconciles the definition of significance in the statute's “distinct population segment” and “significant portion of range” clauses. Such a coordinated policy would enhance the ESA's effectiveness in stemming loss of biodiversity in the face of climate change and other factors altering Earth's ecosystems.

Using Activity Theory to Review Internet Technology Engagement by Real Estate Negotiator in Malaysia towards Agency Best Practice

Real estate is a revelatory industry for the study of ICT uses because it is information-intensive and realtors are information intermediaries between buyers and sellers. As agents, buyers and sellers increase their uses of ICT, they also change how they approach their daily work. Information intensive industries, by their nature, show the greatest impacts due to ICTs that enable information sharing and the bypassing of traditional information intermediaries. However, while the effects and uses of ICT are often associated with organizations (and industries), their use occurs at the individual level. In other words, it is changes to individual work related to the use of ICTs that reshape both organization and industry structures, and vice-versa. In this study, we use activity theory to provide an analytic perspective within the setting in Malaysia. Data reveal historical structures of this industry guiding the day-to-day work of agents, buyers, sellers and the role of agency. Many of these structures are embodied in a set of explicit contracts that reify existing structures and legitimize realtors’ actions. While looking from the agencies practices, we explain possible improvement in the real estate industry following the advancement of internet & mobile technology, viewing the possibilities towards the use of IOT in real estate industry.

Legal Principles of Procedural Activity and Interaction of Employees of Operative Divisions at Execution of Instructions of Interrogators, Investigators, Prosecutors in Regard to Carrying out Secret Investigative (Search) Actions

The author of the article provides a retrospective analysis of the provisions of legislative acts of Ukraine, decisions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine and the European Court of Human Rights, as well as some national criminal procedural legislation and departmental regulations on legal grounds for procedural activities and interaction of operative units to execute written instructions of interrogators, investigators, prosecutors on investigative (search) actions and secret investigative (search) actions. The author has made a retrospective analysis of the introduction of this amendment to the Criminal Procedural Code of Ukraine since 2012, as well as the legal grounds for its use in pre-trial investigation and has focused on the conclusions about its significant prevalence in law enforcement activities of pre-trial investigation, and in connection with recent amendments in the legislation also in the initial practice of the inquiry agencies of the National Police of Ukraine. The author researched positions of scholars and representatives of scientific schools in relation to the conceptual apparatus and the essence of the concept of “interaction” in general, as well as “interaction” between pre-trial investigation and inquiry agencies and operative police units in this direction. Special attention has been paid to the study of the peculiarities of forms of interaction and its subjects in criminal proceedings, as well as the existing legislative and practical issues concerning the compliance with operative deadlines of police orders of interrogators, investigators and prosecutors and has suggested the ways to solve them in practice and, in particular, at the legislative level.
 Additionally, it has been established, substantiated and focused on theoretical and applied improvement of the use of such a feature in law enforcement activities that operative staff, in carrying out written instructions of interrogators, investigators and prosecutors on the conduction of investigative and secret investigative actions, has procedural rights of the investigator and interrogator. Based on this, the author also offers propositions and recommendations in this area.

Major Decisions and Career Attractiveness among Criminal Justice Students

Criminal justice programs have grown dramatically in recent decades. Yet, relatively little is known about what motivates students to choose criminal justice as a major and what their career goals are after graduation. In light of current uprisings and demands for criminal justice reform, this study investigates the relationship between undergraduate students' personal characteristics and the criminal justice careers to which they are attracted. Findings can inform criminal justice curriculum development and student retention, as well as recruitment and hiring practices for criminal justice agencies.

Is Childhood Obesity a Child Protection Concern?

AbstractChildhood obesity is a key public health concern. Obesity has an impact on morbidity and mortality, child development, and has links to child sexual abuse. The costs of childhood obesity on the health service and society are well recognised. Whether childhood obesity should also be a child protection concern has divided commentators and professionals. They pose a juxtaposition questioning whether childhood obesity is a consequence of neglect and obese children should potentially be removed from parents who do not seek to reduce their child’s weight, whilst expressing resistance to a role focused on bodily surveillance. This research sought to identify existing practice, through interviews (N23) and focus groups (N3:24) with key professional stakeholders, from social care, health and education, in one area in the UK. The research aimed to explore the decision-making, views and experiences of those working with obesity and the child protection system. The data were subject to Framework Analysis. Key findings include multi-agency working, personal and professional standpoint, and the complex and nuanced impact of individual and agency thresholds on practice. The research demonstrates how the tensions surrounding a child protection paradigm impact on individual and agency practice, potentially inhibiting the support offered to service users.

Emergency medical services targeting opioid user disorder: An exploration of current out-of-hospital post-overdose interventions.

ObjectiveThe opioid epidemic continues to escalate, and out‐of‐hospital emergency medical services (EMS) play a vital role in acute overdose reversal, but could serve a broader role post‐incident for follow‐up, outreach, and referrals. Our objective is to identify the scope and prevalence of community‐based, post‐opioid overdose EMS programs across the United States.MethodsWe used a narrative review of prior studies in PubMed and Scopus for the last 20 years (1999–2020) to identify relevant medical literature and a web search to identify gray literature of EMS interventions involving opioids.ResultsOut of nearly 22,000 EMS agencies across the United States, we found evidence of only 27 programs published in medical or gray literature involving post‐overdose interventions. They were most commonly found in the north and eastern region of the country. Although most of these programs incorporate harm reduction and education, other more innovative aspects such as linkage to outpatient addiction treatment or peer support services, are much less common. The most comprehensive programs involved combinations of innovative outreach, specialized referrals, integration with police and criminal justice, peer support, and even treatment initiation.ConclusionsOut‐of‐hospital emergency care has the potential to provide more comprehensive care after drug overdose, but many programs either do not currently have such an intervention in place, or are not disseminating their practices for other agencies to assimilate. EMS protocols and policies that encourage greater adoption of active community paramedicine practices for opioids should be encouraged.

Comparing the Responses of US Higher Education Institutions to International and Undocumented Students in the Trump Era

Tensions over borders lie at the center of a growing global debate. But while politicians argue, some US higher education institutions (HEIs) have made education and protections possible for displaced students. Using securitization theory and social movement theory to examine the role of HEIs as they responded to immigration policies attempted by the Trump Administration, this article compares interventions in the United States for undocumented “DREAMers” and at-risk international students primarily from Muslim-majority countries. Both populations have been singled out as security threats by anti-immigration rhetoric and new restrictive policies. While priorities and practices of US HEIs and related agencies toward these at-risk populations indicate competing values, interests, and roles, they also evidence a humanitarian impulse to help. This article investigates the range of responses documented and concludes with recommendations for further research.

Assessment of California’s Continuously Reinforced Concrete Pavement Practice and Performance

Around 2009, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) adopted continuously reinforced concrete pavement (CRCP) as the preferred pavement type for high-volume truck corridors across the state. Over the last decade, Caltrans has constructed more than a dozen CRCP projects in different climates and exposure to different truck volumes. Caltrans was interested in assessing early CRCP performance and identifying potential areas where design, materials, plans, and specifications, and/or construction practices warranted improvement. This project included a review of national CRCP practice, documentation of Caltrans’ statewide practice, and condition assessment of select CRCP projects statewide. For the most part, Caltrans’ CRCP practice is similar to national guidance and other state highway agency practice. A condition assessment of 14 CRCP projects revealed a wide range of performance with various degrees of distresses (i.e., transverse, cluster, and Y-cracking, and punchouts). However, pavements with average transverse crack spacing below Caltrans’ desired lower limit of 3 ft appeared to have acceptable performance. Excessive map cracking, a high percentage of cluster cracking, and initial development of punchouts was evident in sections that appeared to be performing poorly. General recommendations are provided to advance Caltrans’ CRCP practice.

Zakah and its Utilization as Working Capital for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises

Zakah is an obligation that is directly mandated by Allah in the holy Quran. Zakah is assumed as a solution to overcome the poverty in Indonesia if it is well organized and well utilized. The focus of this study is how to empower zakah productively by distributing zakah fund in the form of working capital to mustahik. This study uses descriptive method that is decribing the condition or facts finding with proper interpretation. The result of the study shows that they are many zakah management agencies practice productive zakah model by distributing the working capital to mustahik so that they are able to change their social status to be muzakki. It can be concluded from this study that productive zakah by giving working capital for the micro, small and medium enterprises is an alternative way and effective effort which get them out of the poverty chain to be independent in economic matters.

INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE IN COUNTERING TERRORISM

The article deals with issues relating to international cooperation in countering terrorism and using the positive experience of foreign countries in ensuring security. Terrorism and extremism are estimated by the authors as the main threats not only to national, but also to international security. Recognizing the global nature of these threats, the international community seeks to develop a common policy of struggle, since the effectiveness of anti-terrorism measures can only be achieved with active interstate cooperation. Currently, at the level of the United Nations, a number of conventions and protocols have been adopted, aimed at unifying legal concepts in the sphere of countering terrorism and extremism, creating unified mechanisms for preventing and suppressing crimes of a terrorist nature. The paper analyzes the main provisions of these international conventions and evaluates their importance for ensuring security throughout the world. Considering that the Republic of Kazakhstan has not so great practical experience in countering terrorism, the issues of researching legislation and practice of the law enforcement agencies of foreign countries that have been fighting for many years against terrorism and extremism are of particular relevance. The authors, analyzing the modern legal framework and the practice of joint activities of the competent authorities of various states in countering terrorism, justify their proposals for the further development of international cooperation in this field. The study of foreign experience, its systematization, adaptation to the conditions of Kazakhstan will help optimize the activities against terrorism and extremism and avoid possible mistakes in the choice of means and methods of such a struggle. Key words: terrorism, extremism, international experience, international cooperation, countering terrorism, national security.

Dual Agency Practices in Islamic Financial Institutions: A Fiqh Perspective

Bay al-tawarruq is increasingly adopted by Malaysian Islamic financial institutions (IFIs) in creating both deposit and financing products. The contract involves sequences of trading between three parties namely client, IFIs and brokers. However, in order to simply the operation and to minimize client’s involvement, the actual trading are conducted between IFI and brokers only. IFI will act on behalf of the client and execute all trading transactions. The practice triggers fiqh issue because the IFI (as agent of client) will sell and purchase commodity to himself. The present article discusses the issue by assessing Muslim jurists’ view pertaining to dual agency practices. The article adopts juristic analysis method in which classical and contemporary scholars arguments are analysed before a preferred opinion (tarjih) is concluded. Understanding the issue is vital to avoid misunderstanding about the legality of Islamic financial products particularly products that used the organized bay’ al-tawarruq as the underlying contract.

Strategic Planning in Emergency Management: Evaluating the Impacts on Local Program Quality

Abstract This study examined the strategic planning practices of county-level emergency management agencies (EMAs), with a specific focus on strategic planning adoption and its relationship to local program quality. The study utilized a descriptive, cross-sectional survey design to collect planning- and program-related data from more than 300 county-level EMAs across the United States. The study findings revealed that most of the county EMAs included in the final sample had previously engaged in strategic planning activities, with nearly all of them continuing to use strategic planning as part of their general management practice. The study findings further revealed that strategic planning had a direct and significant impact on the overall quality of local emergency management programs, and that the strategic planning EMAs had significantly higher mean quality scores across all program dimensions when compared to the non-strategic planning EMAs.

Safe Storage Policies and Practices for Firearms Issued to Law Enforcement Officers in Washington State

Law enforcement officers play an important role in promoting the safe storage of firearms. However, the safe storage practices of law enforcement agencies and officers themselves are not well characterized. This study examined the issuance of locking devices and safe storage policies among law enforcement agencies in Washington State. This is an observational survey study of agency policies. One hundred and six agencies responded to a brief survey. Seventy-six percent of agencies reported issuing locking devices for agency-issued firearms, and 76% of agencies also reported offering training in safe storage of firearms. Half (52%) of agencies offered cable locks, 36% provided gun safes, and 31% of agencies provided more than one type of locking device. These findings suggest the need for expanding the routine issuance of locking devices among agencies in Washington State and enhancing the types of locking devices available to law enforcement officers.

Determining Reliable and Precise Execution Time Bounds of Real-Time Software

Embedded-control systems in transportation, medical instruments, and manufacturing are often time critical, that is, they have to fi nish execution within their period or they have to respond to sensor input within a given deadline. Both period and deadline are dictated by the physics of the system. Examples for sensor-actuator control are the airbag and the automatic brake control in cars. Clearly, if the airbag controller fails to inflate the airbag in time, the driver will hit the steering wheel. Flight control and guidance, collision-avoidance, or ground proximity warning systems in airplanes are examples from the aviation domain. Deadlines in airplanes are often in the order of milliseconds, while crankshaft-synchronous tasks in cars often have periods on the order of microseconds. A rigid verification of time-critical software should include a static timing verification. Measurement-based methods cannot guarantee to hit the worst case and to determine its execution time (WCET) because the number of cases to consider is too large to allow exhaustive methods. Certification rules and practice of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) requires the use of static timing analysis in the certification of time-critical plane components.