Performance measurement is not an end in itself. So why should public managers measure performance? Because they may find such measures helpful in achieving eight specific managerial purposes. As part of their overall management strategy, public managers can use performance measures to evaluate, control, budget, motivate, promote, celebrate, learn, and improve. Unfortunately, no single performance measure is appropriate for all eight purposes. Consequently, public managers should not seek the one magic performance measure. Instead, they need to think seriously about the managerial purposes to which performance measurement might contribute and how they might deploy these measures. Only then can they select measures with the characteristics necessary to help achieve each purpose. Without at least a tentative theory about how performance measures can be employed to foster improvement (which is the core purpose behind the other seven), public managers will be unable to decide what should be measured. Everyone is measuring performance. 1 Public managers are measuring the performance of their organizations, their contractors, and the collaboratives in which they participate. Congress, state legislatures, and city councils are insisting that executive-branch agencies periodically report measures of performance. Stakeholder organizations want performance measures so they can hold government accountable. Journalists like nothing better than a front-page bar chart that compares performance measures for various jurisdictions—whether they are average test scores for the city’s schools or FBI uniform crime statistics for the state’s cities. Moreover, public agencies are taking the initiative to publish compilations of their own performance mea

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Why Measure Performance? Different Purposes Require Different Measures

The Society of Captives

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Managing in a Time of Great Change

Criminal Violence, Criminal Justice.

Although juvenile courts have always administered punishment to youthful offenders, parens patriae and the individual treatment mission have historically assigned an ambivalent role to sanctioning. In the absence of a coherent sanctioning framework, a punitive model has recently gained dominance over dispositional decision making in juvenile court. This article examines the limitations of sanctioning choices presented by both the individual treatment mission and what some have referred to as a “retributive justice” paradigm. We then consider the implications of an alternative model—restorative justice—as a framework for a new approach to sanctioning consistent with a revitalized juvenile justice mandate.

Rethinking the Sanctioning Function in Juvenile Court: Retributive or Restorative Responses to Youth Crime

A number of parolees are returning to the community with programming needs that may not have been addressed during their incarceration; these unmet needs may subsequently affect their successful reintegration into the community. Although there is an increasing female parole population, there has been a paucity of research concerning female parolees. The current study examines the types of needs identified at intake from a sample of 546 female parolees. The results revealed the following. First, if a parolee was employed, had stable living arrangements, and was assessed as needing and receiving some type of drug and/or alcohol program intervention, she was less likely to fail on parole. Second, many of these women were underassessed for having needs for drug and alcohol treatment as well as employment, housing, and other assistance. This underassessment may be because of an increasing emphasis on parole supervision (i.e., custody) rather than treatment in parole agencies.

Supervision Strategies and Approaches for Female Parolees: Examining the Link Between Unmet Needs and Parolee Outcome

While young adult offenders have traditionally been characterized as making a poor adjustment to institutional life, the juvenile incarcerated in an adult facility represents a potentially greater problem. This study examined adjustment after separating the young violent offenders into two groups: those who committed their crimes prior to age 17 and those who committed crimes between 17 and 21. Juvenile inmates were almost twice as likely to be problem inmates, resulting in their not working or earning good-time credit. They were also three times more likely than their slightly older counterparts to be in the most restrictive custody grades. With current legislation enabling the continued incarceration of juveniles in adult facilities, administrators should adopt strategies to manage this special population more effectively.

The Prison Adjustment of Juvenile Offenders

Traditional victimology has not yet tapped the potential of radical criminology to assist in the explanation of social reactions to crime and crime victims. From the theoretical perspective of the radical framework it is possible to explore society's preference for truly innocent victims and the limited ability of the system to avenge them (i.e., through victim assistance programs). Other avenues of analysis from this perspective include the role of the victim in furthering the interests of police and prosecution agencies, as well as the interests of the media and capitalist business enterprises. A radical victimological approach can also be used to analyze the extended victimization of the offender's family by the criminal justice system.

Radical Victimology: A Critique of the Concept of Victim in Traditional Victimology

Many pronouncements have been made in the process of site selection for new prisons. A review of the research literature on the effect of prisons on communities reveals that most of this information is unsupported by good research design. This essay presents a critique of the methodological and research design problems of prison impact studies. Various threats to validity are explored and two complementary methodologies, a single-site time series and multisite time series, are proposed for prison impact studies. Strict attention to internal-validity concerns will provide better answers to causal mechanisms and outcomes than is currently the case.

Prison Impact Studies: Some Comments on Methodological Rigor:

This study reports on a statewide random sample of 4,047 California paroleesߞgang members and non-gang membersߞand their recidivism levels, defined as reincarceration. Data were derived from interviews with parole agents and administrators, and other sources. Findings revealed that gang members have higher recidivism rates than non-gang members whether controls are exercised or not. For both age and commitment offense categories, gang membership resulted in negative parole outcomes across all categories. When gang membership was included among standard parole classification variables, it maintained an independent, but lesser, effect.

Frank P. Williams

Papers

Supervision Strategies and Approaches for Female Parolees: Examining the Link Between Unmet Needs and Parolee Outcome

The Prison Adjustment of Juvenile Offenders

Radical Victimology: A Critique of the Concept of Victim in Traditional Victimology

Prison Impact Studies: Some Comments on Methodological Rigor:

The effect of gang membership on parole outcome