Two heads are better than one? How to effectively use two interviewers to elicit cues to deception

Background. We examined the effect of a second interviewer's demeanour on cues to deception. We predicted that a supportive demeanour would be the most beneficial for eliciting verbal cues to deceit, as it would encourage truth tellers, but not liars, to say more. In addition, we examined the extent to which interviewees deliberately made eye contact with the interviewers. Liars take their credibility less for granted than truth tellers, and therefore have a greater drive to be convincing. Liars are thus more likely to monitor the interviewer to determine if the interviewer appears to believe them. Method. Participants appeared before two interviewers: the first asked all the questions and the second remained silent. The second interviewer exhibited either a supportive, neutral, or a suspicious demeanour. Results. Truth tellers provided significantly more detail than liars, but only in the supportive second interviewer condition. The effect of a second interviewer's demeanour on detail was perhaps remarkable given that the interviewees hardly looked at the second interviewer (less than 10% of the time). Liars displayed more deliberate eye contact (with the first interviewer) than truth tellers did. Conclusions. A supportive second interviewer has a positive effect on interviewing. We discuss this finding in the wider contexts of investigative interviewing and interviewing to detect deception.     

How to understand China's approach to central bank digital currency?

China's central bank digital currency (CBDC), digital yuan or e-CNY, is likely to profoundly affect the international financial system. China's CBDC is fast evolving. Understanding the influencing factors of China's CBDC will likely be crucial to explore its future direction. Major influencing factors include (i) China's perception and conception of regulation and technology, (ii) complementarity between China's preferences and CBDC development, (iii) domestic and international legitimacy, and (iv) institutional development. This paper argues that these influencing factors contribute to China's likely approach of selectively reshaping the international financial system. Given the potential wide-ranging implications of the introduction of CBDC globally, China's approach may be significant in the next evolution of money.     

Applying the Responsibility to Protect to the ‘Arab Spring’

The doctrine of the responsibility to protect, since its inception in the ICISS report of 2001, has been the subject of considerable discussion. Arguably its most publicised component is the principle that the international community has the responsibility to protect civilian populations against severe suffering where the relevant national authorities are unable or unwilling to do so. Consequently, the main focus of discourse upon the responsibility to protect has centred on its impact upon the approach of the international community to intervention in respect of situations posing considerable humanitarian crises. The events of the Arab Spring, in which full blown conflict in some states gave rise to serious human suffering, provided a real opportunity for the international community to evaluate the role of the responsibility to protect in decision-making over responding to such instances, and potentially to develop it into a practical and meaningfully implementable concept. However, due to political flaws inherent in the doctrine, and its arguably overstated significance, the doctrine at best played a minimal role in guiding the international response to developments in the Arab World. Nonetheless, responses to the Arab Spring do allow certain conclusions to be drawn in respect of the future relevance of the doctrine.     

Interviewing to Detect Deception: When to Disclose the Evidence?

Research shows that there are few objective cues to deception. However, it may be possible to create such cues by strategic interviewing techniques. Strategic Use of Evidence (SUE) is one such technique. The basic premise of the SUE technique is that liars and truth tellers employ different counter-interrogation strategies, and that the evidence against the suspect can be used to exploit these differences in strategies. This study examined the effect of the timing of evidence disclosure (early vs. late vs. gradual) on verbal cues to deception. We predicted that late disclosure would be most effective in differentiating between liars and truth-tellers, and that cues to deception in the gradual disclosure condition would progressively disappear due to the suspects’ realization that evidence against them exists. That is, we expected that liars in the gradual presentation condition would become more consistent with the evidence over time. A sample of 86 undergraduate students went through a mock-terrorism paradigm (half innocent, half guilty), and were subsequently interviewed using one of three disclosure strategies: early, gradual, and late disclosure. We measured statement-evidence inconsistencies as cues to deception . Results supported our predictions in that cues to deception were most pronounced in the late disclosure condition. Contrary to our expectations, the results suggested that presenting the evidence gradually may put innocent suspects at a higher risk of misclassification as they seem to adopt a strategy that is more similar to guilty suspects.     

Is it lawful to use Medicaid to pay for circumcision?

Since 1965, tens of millions of boys have been circumcised under the Medicaid program, most at birth, at a cost to the United States Federal Government, the States and taxpayers of billions of dollars. Although 18 States have ended coverage since 1982, the United States Government and 32 States continue to pay for non-therapeutic circumcision, even though no medical association in the world recommends it. Many cite American medical association policy that the procedure has potential medical benefits as well as disadvantages, and that the circumcision decision should be left to parents. This article shows that Medicaid coverage of circumcision is not a policy issue because it is prohibited by federal and State law. As American medical associations concede, non-therapeutic circumcision is unnecessary, elective, cosmetic surgery on healthy boys, usually performed for cultural, personal or religious reasons. The fundamental principle of Medicaid law is that Medicaid only covers necessary medical treatments after the diagnosis of a current medical condition. Physicians and hospitals face severe penalties for charging Medicaid for circumcisions. Medicaid officials and the Federal and State Governments are also required to end coverage. It is unlawful to circumcise and to allow the circumcision of healthy boys at the expense of the government and taxpayers.     

The President’s power to withhold assent to Bills of Parliament

In terms of Article 64 of the Namibian Constitution, the President may withhold his or her assent to a Bill passed by Parliament on constitutional grounds, and may refer such Bill to a competent court for a decision. The strength of Article 64 is rooted in the fact that legislative proposal, which is not yet law, can be challenged for constitutionality. The power of the President is comparable with systems in South Africa, Ireland and India. This article examines the extent to which the executive, represented by the President, acts as a constitutional check on the legislative, represented by Parliament.     

From Apalachin to the Buffalo Project: Obstacles on the path to effective federal responses to organized crime, 1957–1967

The Apalachin meeting of recognized underworld leaders from cities across the USA was held in upstate New York on November 14, 1957. The event, well known to historians and justice system officials, has become a textbook case rarely examined for its larger context of how American government officials learned to confront the organization and strength of the American Mafia, later called La Cosa Nostra (LCN). From 1957 to 1967, three presidents, four attorneys general, and hundreds of federal agents and prosecutors traveled an obstacle-filled path toward investigating, indicting, prosecuting, and convicting Apalachin attendees and their successors. Steps were taken to challenge the power of the mob during the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations, but they were consistently plagued by false starts, frustrations, and side steps. Each obstacle further instructed policy makers, however, on the need for an intensive and coordinated effort grounded in common goals and interagency cooperation. This article considers six key obstacles to the decade-long quest for a concerted federal initiative against organized crime. It examines how the characteristics and the impact of each obstacle contributed to a meandering and slothful federal response to the Mafia’s power. Lessons learned about how to effectively attack the mob were finally implemented in May 1966 when President Johnson institutionalized Executive agency cooperation, making the Attorney General (AG) the focal point in the war on organized crime. One element in this new initiative was known as the ‘Buffalo Project,’ an experiment commencing officially in January 1967 in Buffalo, New York to concentrate intelligence, investigations, and prosecutive resources working across bureaucratic lines to pursue guilty pleas or convictions. The Project, a closely supervised operation directed by the Justice Department’s Organized Crime and Racketeering Section (OCRS), was conceptualized as a small team of supervisory federal investigators and experienced prosecutors who built cases against local Mafia associates and leaders to withstand the scrutiny of the federal justice system. Assistance was also rendered by state, local, and international organizations. The Project formed a template for the DoJ Criminal Division’s Strike Force program.

TRIPS from Doha to Cancún ... to Ottawa: global developments in access to treatment and Canada's Bill C-56

In November 2003, Canada introduced legislation to amend the Patent Act so that manufacturers could obtain licences to make generic versions of patented pharmaceutical products for export to countries lacking sufficient capacity to produce their own. Bill C-56 aims to implement an August 2003 decision of the World Trade Organization (WTO) that relaxes its rules on pharmaceutical patents to allow this kind of measure. While the bill is a welcome development, it contains several serious flaws that will undermine the initiative and render it largely meaningless. Civil society organizations, including the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, have called on the Canadian government to remedy the flaws before Bill C-56 is enacted. This article provides an overview of recent global developments leading up to Canada's initiative, as well as an analysis of Bill C-56 itself.     

Response to “Methodological Sensitivities to Latent Class Analysis of Long-Term Criminal Trajectories”

This response to Methodological Sensitivities to Latent Class Analysis of Long-Term Criminal Trajectories is intended to make three key points: (1) the data sensitivities that are explored in that paper are examples of two generic data problems that transcend the specific methodology used to analyze longitudinal data, (2) while real sensitivities are identified, the overall stability of results is also noteworthy, and (3) the groups must be understood to be approximations.     

Is it acceptable for a psychiatrist to break confidentiality to prevent spousal violence?

Study questionWhen is it acceptable for a psychiatrist to break confidentiality to protect the wife of a potentially violent patient?Methods153 lay persons, 13 nursing personnel, 10 physicians, and 10 psychologists in France indicated this acceptability in 48 scenarios. The scenarios were all combinations of 5 factors: gravity of threat (death or beating), certainty of mental illness (certain or not), time spent talking with patient (considerable or little), his attitude toward psychotherapy (rejection, indecision, or acceptance), and whether the physician consulted an expert.ResultsLay people favored breaking confidentiality more than did nursing personnel or psychologists. Consulting an expert had greatest impact. Lay participants were composed of groups that found breaking confidentiality “always acceptable” (22 participants), “depending on many circumstances” (106), requiring “consultation with an expert” (31), and “never acceptable” (27).ConclusionLay people in France are influenced by situational factors when deciding if a psychiatrist should break confidentiality to protect a patient's wife.     

From offender to situation: the 'cold' approach to sexual violence prevention?

Many commentators have pointed to the monstrous nature of sexual violence, with its related sense of pollution and disgust. In response, post-release regulation has a ‘hot’ quality: in the USA, sexually violent predator statutes, residency requirements, GPS satellite monitoring, and variations on the theme of community notification all speak of the expressiveness of the response. ‘Hot’ signifies and has embedded within it an ‘individualist’ rather than ‘structural’ account of action, emphasises a dramaturgical reading of the social world, and privileges the political rather than the problem-solving sphere. What has been far less explored, until recently, is research and prevention policy related specifically to the sexual violence itself, or the situation in which the offense occurs. By contrast to the ‘hot’ response, elision from offender to situation appears to betoken a ‘cold’ quality. This paper analyses the conceptual and empirical underpinnings of such a ‘cold’ situational approach, evaluates existing studies across settings, and assesses the implications of this problem-solving process for prevention policy and practice. It concludes by embedding the analysis within a broader precautionary politics of ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ control.