'

fundamentals of regulatory design
fundamentals of regulatory design--Thai translation
handcuffed
character of harms
FAA Review
license to steal--2nd edition
regulatory craft
regulatory craft--chinese
license to steal--1st edition
imposing duties
beyond 911
ethics in government
fundamentals of regulatory design
fundamentals of regulatory design--Thai translation
handcuffed
character of harms
FAA Review
license to steal--2nd edition
regulatory craft
regulatory craft--chinese
license to steal--1st edition
imposing duties
beyond 911
ethics in government

Upcoming Events

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June 2024
"The Modern Regulator," an online Executive Seminar hosted by the Australia & New Zealand School of Government

Professor Sparrow will present an executive workshop, online over two half-days, on June 18th & 19th June 2024.  "The Modern Regulator" explores a range of contemporary ideas about what it means to be a "Risk-Based Regulator," and is hosted by the Australia & New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG). Visit the ANZSOG Course Website for information and registration information.
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July 2024
"Implementing Problem-Centric Work & Special Classes of Risk," a 2-part seminar,
hosted by The Hatchery, Australia (online)

On Tuesday 30th and Wednesday 31st July 2024, as part of The Hatchery's ongoing series of seminars on current issues facing regulators, Professor Sparrow will present a 2-part half-day online seminar entitled "Implementing Problem-Centric & Special Classes of Risk."  Details of the seminar, and regisration information, can be found here.

The Hatchery, based in Sydney, Australia, provides a series of webinars and other events for regulatory practitioners throughout Australasia. You can find The Hatchery's schedule of upcoming events here.
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September 2024
"Managing Regulation, Enforcement & Compliance", an Australia & New Zealand School of Government Executive Program

From 8th to 13th September 2024, in Sydney, Professor Sparrow will chair the ANZSOG one week executive program, "Managing Regulation, Enforcement & Compliance" [MREC]. This program is run by the Australia & New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG). Visit the ANZSOG Course Website for information, brochures, registration information, and an Explanatory Video describing the MREC 5-day program.
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September 2024
Harvard Kennedy School Executive Program "Strategic Management of Regulatory & Enforcement Agencies" (in person, at Harvard)

SMREA is a one-week executive program focusing on the distinctive strategic and managerial challenges that surround government agencies' regulatory and enforcement functions. The course will be offered (for the 47th time) in person from Sunday 22nd to Friday 27th September 2024. Professor Sparrow chairs the course, and other faculty teaching in it include Professors Mark H. Moore and Rob Stavins. Here you may view the Course Details & Description, obtain brochures and apply online.

The next online offering of SMREA is tentatively scheduled for 24th to 28th February 2025.
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Some Recent News/Events

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September 2023
National Regulators' Community of Practice (in Australia), Annual Forum in Melbourne featured Professor Sparrow as Keynote Speaker

During his September visit to Melbourne, Professor Sparrow delivered ANZSOG's five-day MREC course and the one-day "The Modern Regulator" introductory seminar.  He also delivered the Keynote presentation at the National Regulators' Community of Practice annual conference.  Information about NRCoP and their activities/events can be found here.  Information about the Australia & New Zealand School of Government, and their upcoming events, can be found here.
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Health Care Fraud: Recent media accounts featuring Malcolm Sparrow or citing his work include:

June 6, 2023: AARP: "$80 Million in Health Care Fraud Exposed After Patient’s Suspicious Death" Rene Ebersole
April 15, 2022: AARP: "Criminals Target Medicare Benefits to Reap Millions" Joe Eaton
September 13, 2021: The Harvard Law Record: "Land of the Lawless: How Power in America has turned the rule of law into a mere myth" Ralph Nader
July 30, 2021: Nader.Org: "Collapsing Federal Corporate Crime Enforcement" Ralph Nader
July 17,2021: Eurasia Review: "The Power Structure For Deadly Lag And The Prophetic Work Of Unsung Heroes" Ralph Nader
March 4, 2021: Nader.Org: "Reporter's Alert" (Nominated Issue Number 1 - Health Care Fraud), Ralph Nader
August 15, 2019: The Atlantic: "Why Some Doctors Purposely Misdiagnose Patients" Olga Khazan
May 30, 2019: Common Dreams: "Society is in Decay-When the Worst is First & the Best is Last" Ralph Nader
April 19, 2019: Politifact: "$50 Billion in Medicare Waste" Tom Kertsher
February 4, 2019: New Yorker: "The Personal Toll of Whistle-blowing" Sheelah Kolhatkar
October 25, 2018: PBS: "Playing by the Rules: Ethics at Work. (S2E3) Taking Advantage" Brian Myers. Examines the corporate use of exaggerated diagnoses and inflated risk scores in the Medicare Advantage Program.
March 29, 2018: AARP Bulletin: "Medicare Under Assault from Fraudsters" Joe Eaton
January 10, 2018: The Litchfield Country Times: "Corporate Coercion & the Drive to Eliminate Buying with Cash" Ralph Nader
July 2, 2017: National Review: "The Great American Rip-Off: We Must Get Control of Entitlement Fraud" Kevin D. Williamson
June 30, 2017: Forbes: "Reality Check: The Obama Medicaid Expansion Is Not Saving Lives" Chris Conover
June 22, 2017: The Economist: "An Improper Mess: Why cutting even wasteful spending is so hard" Doug Dowson
February 16, 2017: Legal News Online: "Abbott's move to exit Alere merger could set precedent" Tabitha Fleming
December 2, 2016: Dallas Morning News: "Bled Dry: How a hospital died under the direction of a Texas doctor" Miles Moffeit
August 10, 2016: Corporate Crime Reporter: "Why Corporate Fraud Demands Criminal Time" Robert Tillman
June 25, 2016: NPR: "The Ralph Nader Radio Hour" with Professor Sparrow as guest to discuss Health Care Fraud
June 22, 2016: NPR Marketplace: "Feds Make Arrests in Alleged Medicaid, Medicare Scheme" Dan Gorenstein
June, 2016: AARP Bulletin: "The War on Medicare Fraud: Medicare loses $60 billion each year to con artists. Here's why" Joe Eaton
March 31, 2016: Center for Investigative Reporting: "How California's health care system for workers forgot about fraud" Christina Jewett
January 11, 2016: Pacific Standard Magazine: "Glitch in the Machine" Joe Eaton
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May 2023
Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB), Annual Conference 2023, Minneapolis

Professor Sparrow delivered the opening Keynote Presentation at the FSMB's annual conference in Minneapolis on the morning of Thursday 4th May.  His talk was entitled "Defining and Measuring Success: The Art of Performance Measurement in a Risk-Control setting. Why “Customer-Service” isn’t quite it!"
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November 2021
Release of the Thai language translation of Professor Sparrow's book: "Fundamentals of Regulatory Design"

Professor Sparrow's 9th book, designed for regulatory practitioners, has now been translated into the (Central) Thai language.  The translation work was done by Pongpit Pinsai, Assistant Director of Thailand's Securities & Exchange Commission. Produced by Skybooks Co., Ltd., the translation is now available through the Khon Kahn University Bookshop in electronic and printed form.  A high-resolution image of the full cover design is available here.
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November 2020
Webinar: Professor Sparrow talks about his new book "Fundamentals of Regulatory Design"

Professor Sparrow described his book in an online webinar hosted by the Australian Regulators' Community of Practice (RCoP), first broadcast live on 27th October 2020.  An edited version is available through the RCoP YouTube channel.

Professor Sparrow made a similar presentation for the HKS Center for Business & Government's Regulatory Policy Program, on 17th September 2020, now available on the HKS RPP YouTube channel.
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August 2020
Professor Sparrow publishes his 9th book: "Fundamentals of Regulatory Design"

Full details are available here

This book is designed primarily for regulatory practitioners, but will be relevant for other professionals whose roles include risk-management and harm-reduction. In the public sector, this includes law-enforcement and public-safety organizations, as well as security and intelligence agencies. In the private sector it includes compliance managers, safety officers and risk-managers. In the not-for-profit sector this includes any organization that takes on, or contributes to, harm-reduction missions.

This book is designed, in the context of a pandemic, to substitute for five core lectures/discussions that would normally be delivered face-to-face in executive-level courses and workshops. Professor Sparrow offers these lectures here in a comfortably accessible and conversational style.  Each chapter describes a different dimension of choice, inviting readers to assess their own organization's history and habits as a precursor to figuring out whether, looking forward, some adjustment is warranted or desirable.
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October/November 2019
Professor Sparrow hosted by ANZSOG in Australia and New Zealand.

Professor Sparrow chaired the Australia & New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG) 1 week executive program Managing Regulation, Enforcement & Compliance in Canberra, Australia. Professor Sparrow also conducted seminars for the New South Wales Natural Resource Access Regulator, Agriculture Victoria (Biosecurity Division), the Victorian Legal Services Board & Commission, the (Australian) National Disability Insurance Scheme Qualilty & Safeguards Commission, and New Zealand's Civil Aviation Authority.
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August 2019
GRumbler Update: 21st August 2019. New version available for download.

Notice for MAC users (August 2019):

MAC users, using MAC OFFICE 2016 (versions 16.xx) have recently reported some compatability issues with earlier versions of the GRumbler. Error messages appear when launching the macro "Prepare Group Lists and Master List," which creates "Results" files containing group lists generated by a search. The GRumbler, and the GRumbler instructions file, have been updated to take care of these issues, and new versions (August 2019) posted on the GRumbler page of this website, along with more detailed explanation of these issues.

Please continue to let me know of any compatibility issues or error messages you encounter. Thanks, and Happy GRumbling. (malcolm_sparrow@harvard.edu).
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June 2018 Professor Sparrow delivered the Jerry Lee Lecture at the Stockholm Criminology Symposium, Sweden

On Thursday June 14th 2018, Professor Sparrow delivered the Jerry Lee Lecture, the capstone event of the annual Stockholm Criminology Symposium.

An edited version of the speech, Problem-oriented policing: matching the science to the art has been published (29th October 2018) in Crime Science (2018) 7:14.

The 2018 Stockholm Prize in Criminology was awarded during the 3-day Symposium to Professor Herman Goldstein, University of Wisconsin Law School, USA--widely regarded as the father of problem-oriented policing.

Professor Sparrow's lecture--entitled "Problem-Oriented Policing: Matching the Science to the Art"-- examines the significance of the Problem-Oriented approach and seeks to establish the right balance among, and appropriate role for, a broad range of diverse contributions that scholars and analysts can make to support effective problem-solving. In particular he explores the distinctive contributions of experimental criminology and program evaluation, and contrasts the inquiry techniques typically employed by social scientists and by natural scientists. The goal is to usefully "round out" the role that scholars are prepared to play in advancing best problem-solving practice.

The Jerry Lee Lecture in Experimental Criminology was established in 2012 by the Swedish National Council on Crime Prevention in honor of the founding donor of the Stockholm Prize in Criminology, Jerry Lee, on the occasion of its permanent endowment by the Swedish Ministry of Justice, Soderberg Foundations, and others.

Professor Sparrow's Jerry Lee lecture (and/or the published version of it) will be of interest to those concerned with “Evidence-Based Policy”, various types of science, forms of analytic support, development of the problem-solving art, the role of (and limitations of) program evaluation, and related issues. In that regard, the matters discussed are broadly applicable beyond the field of criminology/policing.
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June 2017
Annual Conference for NCARB--National Council of Architectural Registration Boards.

On Thursday 22nd June, 2017, Professor Sparrow delivered a keynote address and participated in workshops on regulatory strategy at the 2017 Annual Business Meeting of NCARB, held in Boston at the Fairmont Copley Plaza.
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August 2016
National Council of the State Boards of Nursing: Annual Meeting, Chicago.

The NCSBN held its annual conference in Chicago, August 17th-19th. Professor Sparrow delivered the Keynote Address on 18th, entitled "What is a Risk-Based Regulator, and would you like to be one?"
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August 2016
"Moving Beyond Bratton." New York Times, Op-Ed, Malcolm Sparrow, Monday 8th August 2016

Access online here or download a printable pdf version here
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July 2016
National Public Radio: Professor Sparrow interviewed on Airtalk, KPCC

Listen to "Handcuffed: What's the Primary Goal of Policing?" Malcolm Sparrow interviewed on KPCC's Airtalk, with host Larry Mantle (28th July 2016).  Extracts from the interview also available on the KPCC Airtalk website.
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July 2016
"The ever swinging police-community pendulum." New York Daily News, Op-Ed, Malcolm Sparrow, Sunday 10th July 2016

Access online here, or download a printable pdf version here.
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July 2016
New York Times Book Review of "Handcuffed: What Holds Policing Back, and the Keys to Reform" by Malcolm K. Sparrow

Listen to "Inside the New York Times Book Review," 1st July 2016 podcast with NYT Book Review Editor Pamela Paul interviewing reviewer Barry Friedman (edited to those sections of the program relating to Friedman's review of "Handcuffed")

The NYT review of "Handcuffed," 27th June 2016, is available here.
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June 2016
National Public Radio: Professor Sparrow interviewed on "The Ralph Nader Radio Hour"

On June 25th 2016 Ralph Nader welcomed Professor Sparrow as a guest on his weekly radio show to discuss Health Care Fraud. You can listen to, or download, the interview here.
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April 2016
“Handcuffed: What Holds Policing Back, and the Keys to Reform" published by Brookings Institution Press, Washington DC.

See Brookings Announcement: The Crisis in American Policing, by Malcolm Sparrow (25th April 2016)

Listen to "Re-Humanizing Policing," interview on Brian Lehrer Show, WNYC (16th May 2016)

Listen to "Brookings Now" Podcast interview (audio), Malcolm Sparrow with Bill Finan, Editor, Brookings Institution Press

See Salon Magazine: Why we can't reform our cops: Race, guns & the failure to police the police by Malcolm Sparrow (Sunday 1st May 2016)

See WGBH Forum Network video: (recording of the Harvard Book Store Event, Friday 20th May 2016, Cambridge, Massachusetts)

Professor Sparrow's 8th book examines the current crisis in policing, and traces its roots back to the fact that the reform ideas of community and problem-oriented policing--accepted as the conventional wisdom for police reformers in the 1990's--have failed to thrive. In this book Sparrow examines why, and lays out what needs to be done to get policing back on track.

For details, reviews, and information about placing advance orders, click here.
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January 2016
"Preventing Harm--A Discussion with Malcolm Sparrow"

A video interview recorded by the Victoria Managed Insurance Authority during Professor Sparrow's visit to Australia in November 2015 is presented via YouTube.
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