Observer determination of the make,model, and year of questioned vehicles

Often, criminal acts involving a vehicle are caught on digital video surveillance systems. While potentially useful for an investigation, the recording conditions are typically less than optimal for the extraction of key information for the identification of the perpetrator, such as a license plate. Providing the make, model and year of a questioned vehicle is a common request for examiners, to narrow the field of potential suspect vehicles. This study seeks to compare the performance of a nonpeer-reviewed make, model, and year determination between two separate groups, specifically, trained forensic image examiners and nontrained individuals. Results show that even with varied image capture conditions and quality, the trained forensic image examiners more correctly and completely identified the test group of questioned vehicles make, model, and year.     

Indian spies inside Pakistan: South Asian human intelligence across borders

This article examines India’s historical efforts to spy inside Pakistan from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s. It draws from memoirs of notable Indian spies who were jailed for espionage in Pakistan and spy ‘fiction’ written by former Indian intelligence and military officers who allege their writing is based on actual cases. The article highlights commonalities among Indian spies using the words of Indian officers to better understand human intelligence efforts inside Pakistan. It finds that Indian spies in these books have initially been Hindus or from multi-religious families, from the Indian-Pakistan border and have been poorly treated by the Indian government and its intelligence services.     

Town twinning and political support

Does town twinning foster citizens’ political support of the European Union? This study investigates the relation, which is maintained in politics and academics but still calls for empirical evidence. We distinguish between two levels of analysis, namely individual and context level, and differentiate in accordance with David Easton’s modes of political support specific from diffuse support. The corresponding hypotheses are tested with a unique dataset, which embraces survey findings of more than 12,000 respondents from 28 randomly selected municipalities in Germany. The main conclusions that emerge from the analysis are: First, town twinning does promote political support of the European Union on the individual level. Second, there are positive effects on specific and diffuse support. Thirdly, there is no relationship between local activity in twinning affairs and political support.     

How people organise cultural attitudes: cultural belief systems and the populist radical right

Political scientists generally agree that all individuals structure their cultural attitudes in the same unidimensional fashion. However, various populist radical right parties remarkably combine moral progressiveness with conservatism regarding immigration-related issues. This suggests that the structuring of cultural attitudes among the electorate may also be more complex than typically assumed. Applying Correlational Class Analysis to representative survey data, the study uncovers three cultural belief systems. For individuals adhering to an integrated one, all cultural attitudes are interdependent, as typically assumed. However, two alternative belief systems are also uncovered: intermediate and partitioned. In the latter, positions on one cultural attitude (e.g. ethnocentrism) are barely related to positions on others (e.g. rejecting Islam or opposing homosexuality). The existence of multiple cultural belief systems challenges the widely held assumption that all people organise their cultural attitudes similarly. Both political party agendas and individuals’ education level and religion appear key to understanding variation in belief systems.     

广东省企业参与中国—东盟自由贸易区经贸合作的战略考量

中国—东盟自由贸易区如期建成近两年,在三大协议影响下的货物贸易、服务贸易以及投资等经贸合作活动呈现出何种特征,值得我们关注和总结,以期为进一步的合作提出阶段性建议。本文主要针对广东与东盟国家优势产业间的竞争性进行了定量研究,并为广东如何进一步参与中国—东盟自由贸易区的经贸合作提出了建议。     

有关官员财产申报观点的评析

官员的个人财产隐私权应让位于带有公共利益性质的公众知情权已经是学界达成的共识。但是，官员财产申报制度程序上的粗漏、执行力度的薄弱、司法追究的缺乏使得我国的该项制度基本上流于形式。基于对学界出现的“条件不足”、“时机成熟”、“自上而下”、“自下而上”等几种关于官员财产申报制度的观点进行客观分析可知，其建设和推广不可能一蹴而就，但也绝不能以配套制度尚未完善为由而停滞不前，不是条件不足，也不是时机不成熟，利害关系才是关键。因此，应以公共利益为先，本着崇高的公共服务精神，尽快将官员财产申报制推广开来，落到实处。     

未成年人犯罪行为的心理分析——以“四少年冷漠杀人案”为例

未成年人违法犯罪的某些行为是由未成年人的心理特点决定的。处于这一阶段的未成年人由于思维不成熟、自我意识高涨、反抗心理强烈,再加上社会化不完整,常常导致道德发展滞后、人格存在缺陷,从而诱发了未成年人的违法犯罪。因此,家庭教育和学校教育应相互配合、相互拟补,共同做好未成年人违法犯罪的预防工作。     

校内创业实践的调查与分析——以常州建设高职校为例

创业实践是职业学校开展创业教育的重要环节,是增强创业体验、提升创业认识、增强创业知识、培养创业能力的主要途径。在职业学校大力开展创业教育的背景下,以常州建设高职校学生为对象,通过问卷的形式对参与创业实践的学生进行了调查统计分析,提出了职业学校实施创业教育实践的建议。     

政府创新的类型与特征——基于“中国地方政府创新奖”获奖项目的多案例研究

尽管关于中国地方政府创新积累了大量案例研究,但关于政府创新的属性、特征与类型的认识和理解仍然有待于进一步深化。利用"中国地方政府创新奖"五届共计100多个入围项目的内容分析,对中国地方政府创新的类型、特征与分布进行了经验研究。分析显示,管理创新、服务创新与合作创新是中国地方政府创新的主要类型,而技术创新与治理创新的重要性在逐步提升。东部地区的地方政府获得创新美誉的比例多于西部地区,其次是中部地区。党政机构仍然是中国地方政府创新的主力军,越来越多的社会团体和非营利组织也在加入创新的队伍。相比其他行政层级,地市和区县政府的创新精神更强。     

瓦格纳定律之英国实证检验及其对中国公共财政建设的启示——新公共管理运动背景下的探索

新公共管理运动的兴起,从理论上看财政规模弱化不可避免。英国作为新公共管理运动的发源国之一,其行政管理改革充分贯穿和系统展现了新公共管理理念的精髓。以英国新公共管理运动以来(1979—2006)的财政数据为依据,对瓦格纳定律进行实证检验,具有显著的代表意义。根据英国财政数据的研究结果与新公共管理理念高度吻合,表明瓦格纳定律在英国的适应期已经结束。有理由认为,只要推行新公共管理运动,瓦格纳定律就难以得到支持。鉴于新公共管理运动的世界性,及其不断推进的必然性,应当重新审视瓦格纳定律的客观性。有鉴于此,中国应该顺应世界新公共管理运动的潮流,立足于中国现实和中国社会经济转型的发展趋势,本着服务型政府的内在要求,适时调整财政政策。