The Regulatory Craft: Controlling Risks, Solving Problems, and Managing Compliance

Malcom Sparrow is an author who combines his experiences as a police officer with his perspective and suggestions for regulators and the places they work. Some of the book can be very detailed for the layman, but if you're in any medical compliance class, or working for a regulatory agency, the book's words will be familiar and understandable. PS, the book is searchable on google books, with a few pages you can open, but mostly it's just a good tool to search the book then thumb over to the page you need if you're looking for a specific phrase or concept. Comes in handy in class!!!

Excellent resource for changing the regulatory enforcement paradigm from mindless zero defects to risk-based analysis of what enforcement should be about - reducing the risk the regulations were intended to address. Too many people working in the compliance field walk in with the perspective that they are policing - when instead the focus should be on effective reduction of risk - by addressing the leading indicators of risk. After 30 years in the regulatory compliance field, this is still my "go-to" for helping new professionals gain a useful, pro-active perspective on what their role should be, as well as how best to accomplish legitimate compliance goals....

The book was informative and helped me with class. Some of Sparrow's theoretical explanations required more clarity and less verbosity.I would recommend it as a textbook.

Again another great book from Malcolm. Great concepts with rich source of references.

A powerful and clear combination of theoretical and practical analysis of the regulatory work, with useful insights and tools to be used and developed.

Author Malcolm Sparrow suggests something so simple about the role of government that it's revolutionary -- agencies should be in the business of finding important problems and fixing them.Simple -- but difficult.Anyone who works in government would tell you they solve problems all the time. But most objective looks at government show that government's primary job is to "implement programs." Those programs often deftly solve problems. Yet they leave much undone. It is the undone problems that Sparrow's book deals with.Sparrow is an old cop, turned top-level educator. He's got a doctorate and teaches at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. He is a recognized expert in results-based reform of government. Personally, he is glib and practical.His experience with policing seems to drive his philosophy. At the crux is this quote from his mentor, Herman Goldstein:"...policing becomes more effective if police, rather than processing 911 calls one after another and in isolation, could learn to identify underlying patterns and then fashion tailor-made solutions that prevent recurrences." (page 72)Sparrow shows how identifying patterns and fashioning tailor-made solutions is the crux for most government -- not just police. He ampley cites examples from environmental agencies, customs, OSHA and others to show this. He tells the real-life obstacles to achieving this, too (page 112). Overall, he tells how government could do better and who's doing it.The book implies a unique slant on deterrence. While getting tough may achieve a deterrence effect, too often it happens after the evil deed. Sparrow suggests that government deter before the deed. How? Analyze patterns of unsolved problems, then tailor interventions to deter BEFORE the problem happens. This is not to rule out enforcement punch -- just to focus it on those against whom it's most effective. He shows that it can be done using case studies.Sparrow's thinking should appeal to the pragmatist. This book is not pie-in-the-sky theory. It blends top-level thinking and on the ground experience. If you think government could be doing better, you could do worse than picking up a copy of "The Regulatory Craft."

Malcom is a well read and experienced person in the area of regulatory practice. Not a lawyer, but cop and enforcer with a practical eye on the operations and how to leverage your people to produce better regulatory outcomes for the community.I was particularly interested in his concepts on the supporting IT systems. No legalese or socio-political analysis, just a practical insight into regulatory practice. I think it's a worthwhile book for anyone in the regulatory industry, be it punitive or administrative enforcement.

Well written and researched in it’s day. Lots of great insights around improving the efforts of regulators. The book is now almost 20 years old, the tactics ring true but in the past 20 years what validating research has been done, where are the contemporary case studies based upon current users that have had 2 decades of time to refine the approach?

Fore anyone who has ever been involved with regulatory oversight of any kind, this is a must read. It very eloquently develops the concept of developing collaboration among different regulatory agencies to achieve common goals, avoiding the stovepipe approach to regulations. It also touches on using discretion in enforcement- an intelligent approach that is available but often underutilized.

Very thoughtful clues for regulatory reforms are introduced in this book.