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This chapter differentiates the effect of solicited credit ratings (SCRs) and unsolicited credit ratings (UCRs) on bank leverage decision before and after the credit rating change. We find that banks with UCRs issue less debt relative to equity when the credit rating changes are approaching. Such findings are also prominent when bank credit rating moves from investment grade to speculative grade. After credit rating upgrades (downgrades), banks with unsolicited (solicited) credit ratings are inclined to issue more (less) debt relative to equity than those with solicited (unsolicited) credit ratings. We conclude that SCR and UCR changes lead to significantly different effects on bank leverage decision.

The authors use their university and its writing program as a case study to interrogate established wraparound support systems for foster youth and the role that additional, volunteer faculty – led support services can play in retention and graduation rates. This chapter first provides research on college-going foster youth in the United States. Then, it considers the foster youth population and established support programs at the University of California, Riverside. Next, this chapter reviews the benefits of faculty – student mentoring and tutoring, specifically in composition studies, and how those benefits can contribute to a successful college-going experience. The chapter then shifts to offering a model for those interested in establishing a similar program. Using business, communication, composition, education, and psychosocial theory to ground the discussion, the authors provide a detailed account of the proposal, implementation, and ongoing programmatic administration processes, including the rationale undergirding decision-making. Ultimately, they show how equitable supplemental academic support led by composition faculty can bridge the gap between existing foster youth services and outstanding needs, an innovative approach that relies on the natural mentoring relationships which organically evolve from faculty–student interaction.

Recent federal legislation and numerous public policy debates have relied heavily on estimates of the number of police agencies and police officers in the USA. Historically, these estimates have been problematic, varying tremendously over time, across different sources, and using different methodologies. Currently, the two main sources of agency‐level data for estimating these numbers are the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports and the Census Bureau’s Law Enforcement Directory Survey. While there is a great deal of overlap between these two databases, each contains thousands of departments not listed in the other. Also, among those departments listed in one or more of these databases, there is tremendous variation in the number of police officers recorded. While some of the disparity can be explained by banal differences in counting and record‐keeping methods, much is rooted in differing definitions of what constitutes a “police officer” and a “police agency”. In this study, we closely examine both databases in an effort to account for the differences between them. In addition, we introduce a new data source derived from the records of the Justice Department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS). Based on a thorough exploration of all three databases, we discuss the impact of their differences on criminal justice policy and police research. We first develop our own estimate of the number of police departments and police officers in the USA that differs substantially from other current estimates. We then estimate the number of police officers that the COPS office and future evaluators should use as the baseline for measuring the Clinton Administration’s success at adding 100,000 officers to the streets of America. Finally, we offer a modest set of recommendations for achieving greater uniformity across separate police agency databases.

The paper aims to provide a critical review of how variations in the conceptualization and contextualization of hate crime across US cities might impact how their individual law enforcement agencies collect hate crime data. Media reports and political discourses present hate crime as a prevalent problem in the USA. However, this representation of hate crime in the public sphere is not reflected in the relatively low national numbers of hate crimes published annually by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Drawing primarily on the national hate crime data for the period 2008–2018, this author conducted a secondary research study of the concept, context, extent and law enforcement collection of hate crime data in five cities in the USA.

This paper is a product of some of the findings of the study, which include the definition of hate crime at the federal, state and city levels and the contextualization of hate crimes at these levels. The findings show inconsistencies in how the five cities and associated law enforcement agencies conceptualize hate crime and in how they collect and report hate crime data at local and national levels.

Through its analysis of how five US cities and the associated law enforcement agencies interpret and respond to hate crime data collection, with recommendations of best practices for hate crime data collection by law enforcement agencies, the paper contributes to the academic and nonacademic debate on hate crime.

Focuses on the development of an appropriate Web presence for the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (CHASS) at the University of California, Riverside (UCR), the largest college on the UCR campus, with nineteen academic departments, four formal research centers, offering 55 majors and more than 40 minors. Outlines the vision and the strategy, and summarises the benefits of the project.

We often know what comes next from the first few words of a conversation or interaction. If the interaction is in the context of a service encounter, whether for the customer or the service provider, those first few words may lead to satisfactory or unsatisfactory perceptions of service quality. This paper presents a communications perspective on the initial interaction of the service encounter in order to suggest a new way service quality issues may be addressed It examines the service encounter from the perspective of uncertainty reduction (UCR) theory. Interpersonal communication theories can inform service system designers and service managers with regard to the service encounter. Reducing uncertainty between customers and service workers in the service encounter should increase perceived service quality experiences. The twelve propositions presented represent the types of issues that might be addressed by future empirical studies.

Police-reported incidents of cybercrime appear to vary dramatically across Canadian municipal police services. This paper explores cybercrime reporting by police services in eight of Canada's largest municipalities, assessing (1) variation over time; (2) variation across jurisdictions; and (3) correlates of reporting volumes.

Data was collected from a combination of national Uniform Crime Report statistics and annual reports by police services. Two repeated one-way ANOVA tests and a Pearson's r correlation matrix were used to assess variation and correlation.

Findings suggest that police-reported cybercrime varies significantly across jurisdictions but not over time. Moreover, negative relationships were observed between police-reported cybercrime incidents per 100,000 residents and calls for service per 100,000, as well as number of sworn officers per 100,000.

The study assessed a small sample of cities (N = 8) providing 32 data points, which inhibited robust multivariate analyses. Data also strictly represents calls to police services, therefore excluding alternative resolutions such as public–private interventions.

Canadian provincial and federal governments should consider engaging in high-level talks to harmonize cybercrime reporting strategies within frontline policing. This will mitigate disparity and provide more accurate representations of cybercrime for future policy development. Additionally, services should revisit internal policies and procedures, as it appears that cybercrime is deprioritized in high call volume situations.

This paper introduces previously unreported data about police-reported cybercrime incidents in Canada. Furthermore, it adds quantitative evidence to support previous qualitative studies on police responses to cybercrime.