Kirk H. Beattie

A 2-phase procedure for scaling the importance of enforcement objectives and developing seriousness scores for violations of wildlife and natural resource laws is presented. During the first phase, 6 first-order wildlife law enforcement objectives were developed by the authors anil submitted to enforcement personnel of the Virginia Commission of Game and Inland Fisheries for pair,ed comparisons scaling. An interval scale of importance was established for the 6 objectives. Responses from a sample of 10 individuals indicated that enforcement personnel were consistent when making paired...

A readership preference survey was conducted among subscribers to Virginia Wildlife. The survey was designed to determine the relative preference of subscribers for major types of articles and more specific articles within major types. Based on median responses, hunting articles were most preferred by subscribers, followed by fishing, wildlife management, natural history, outdoor equipment, wilderness adventure, environmental issues, history-nostalgia, wildlife arts and crafts, and boating articles. A Kruskal-Wallis I-way analysis of variance on ranks procedure was employed to determine if...

Two identical hunting satisfaction questionnaires were published in Virginia Wildlife (VW) and Colorado Outdoors (CO), both state wildlife agency conservation magazines. State resident hunter-subscribers responded to each of II dimensions of hunting satisfaction (identified by Potter et al. 1973) on a 5-point Likert-type category rating scale. The means of responses of VW and CO hunter-subscribers on each dimension of hunting satisfaction were compared statistically using 2-tailed t-tests. The means of responses of the 2 hunter-subscriber samples differed significantly (P <0.05) on the...

An 11-question wildlife law enforcement objectives questionnaire was mailed to all state enforcement divisions during January 1977. Five follow-up reminders mailed at approximately 2-wk. intervals resulted in the return ofquestionnaires from 45 divisions. Twenty-seven of 45 states reported having explicit, written objectives; 7 ofthe 18 states without objectives reported they did not anticipate formulating objectives. Fifteen of the 27 states reporting objectives also reported having 1 or more objectives with associated measurement criteria. Eight of the 15 states reporting 1 or more...

An ll-question wildlife law enforcement objectives questionnaire was mailed to all state enforcement divisions during January 1977. Five follow-up reminders mailed at approximately 2-wk. intervals resulted in the return ofquestionnaires from 45 divisions. Twenty-seven of 45 states reported having explicit, written objectives; 7 ofthe 18 states without objectives reported they did not anticipate formulating objectives. Fifteen of the 27 states reporting objectives also reported having 1 or more objectives with associated measurement criteria. Eight of the 15 states reporting 1 or more...

MQnetary fines have been routinely assessed wildlife law violators for almost 2 centuries in the United States. Due to the humanizing of statutory law, sanctions for wildlife law violations have progressed from mutilation and deportation to monetary fines and short-term confinement. Misdemeanor case material compiled in recent years suggests that sanctions may have some deterrent effectwhen the certainty ofimposition is reasonably high. It is suggested that most wildlife law transgressions be referred to as "violations" and not "crimes." The ability to make conceptually feasible and...

A methodology for deciding how to deploy law enforcement personnel is proposed. A workload model is used. The methodology is consistent with the concept of management by objectives (MBO) and could serve as a focal point for achieving improved effectiveness in an enforcement division. Use of this model may require the creation of a statewide information system describing the geographical distribution of wildlife agent workload. Although primarily envisioned as an administrative decision aid at the statewide scale, the workload model could be integrated into deployment planning at the...

Data gathered by Morse in 1968, 1972, and 1976 surveys of state enforcement divisions were subjected to correlation and multiple regression analysis. Correlation analysis resulted in 75 significant (PS 0.05) correlations between pairs of enforcement variables. Man-years offisheries and wildlife law enforcement was the most frequently occurring variable in the 75 bivariate correlations. Multiple regression analysis was used to gain insight into the relative strength of the relationships between proposed independent variables and a dependent variable (either arrests or arrests per 1,000...

A self-administered questionnaire survey of 104 Mississippi game law cooperators (i.e. persons who report wildlife violations) was conducted in 1975. In addition, violation reports received from cooperators were analyzed. Generally, cooperators thought game law enforcement was "ineffective" but "fair," and that agents made "too few" arrests. Most cooperators felt "good" toward game laws but thought fines levied against violators were "too low. "All cooperators opposed violators. The majority of cooperators reported that "a lot" of violations occurred in their residence county. All...

A survey of Wildlife Law Enforcement Directors throughout the United States was used in assessing the status of anti-poaching campaigns. Thirty-five of the 45 state wildlife agencies returning the questionnaire have an anti-poaching campaign in progress. Personal contact is the medium most frequently used (34 of 35 agencies). Six (17.1%) agencies reported that they had been able to evaluate the effectiveness of their anti-poaching campaigns in eliciting the cooperation of citizens in reporting wildlife violations. Fear of involvement and of being called as a witness was the most frequently...