How much does it cost to be a scientist?

We examine the academe–industry wage gap. Once self-selection and different personal characteristics of academic and industrial scientists have been taken into account the wage gap narrows from 28 to 13 %. The counterfactual wage faced by an academic scientist increases with time spent on development and decreases with time spent on research. This finding challenges the idea of a solely negative relationship between science and wages. We further find that preferences for science augment the relationship between research orientation and wages. Overall, the results have implications for policy makers that aim to increase development oriented research activities at universities, individual scientists thinking about whether to pursue a career in industry or academe, and managers trying to hire academic scientists.     

Are there lessons to be learned from a more scientific approach to mental condition defences?

The timing of the English Law Commission's consideration of reform to the law of insanity coincides with increasing scientific and in particular neuroscientific understanding of the brain. The work of researchers is leading to a greater comprehension of what had been termed irresistible impulses to commit crime and of the impact of brain damage, particularly evidence of brain lesions and frontal lobe damage on behaviour. There remain problems in establishing causal relationships which might diminish or eliminate criminal responsibility for crimes committed by those suffering from pre existing mental conditions at the time they commit a criminal offence. This is especially the case where those mental conditions are of short duration. However, the law should not ignore the best available scientific knowledge. Neuroscientific advances are already informing court deliberations in England and Wales: assisting in considerations of guilt, fitness to plead and in sentencing. In terms of the insanity defence the questions that the law seeks to address are not necessarily the most medically or scientifically pertinent questions. They remain grounded in 19th century scientific understanding. It is argued that the more nuanced Dutch approach to mental condition defences warrants very serious consideration by those charged with making proposals to reform the English law.     

How do drug courts work?

Journal of Experimental Criminology - We report the results of a multilevel structural equation model of the Multisite Adult Drug Court Evaluation that empirically tests theoretical pathways to...     

Why is it a Crime to be Poor?

This article considers the historical development of certain aspects of poor relief in England and Wales and their connection with the treatment of vagrants. It will argue that it is the historical link between early statutes controlling both the movement of labourers and the destitute in the fourteenth century and the later parochial responsibility for the relief of poverty which led both to the inclusion of vagrancy provisions within the 1601 Poor Relief Act, and the continuing quasi-legal connection between vagrancy provisions and the relief of poverty. A nexus of punishment was created within the operation of the poor law by the two-fold role of justices of the peace; these officials not only adjudicated the settlement laws, but were also responsible for the legal control of vagrancy. The article will argue that this contributed to the harshness of the 1834 poor law reforms, and continues with contemporary approaches to the relief of poverty via Social Security legislation which prioritises the control of claimant fraud above the rights of the individual to relief from want. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

For whom does prison-based drug treatment work? Results from a randomized experiment

Objectives

Prison-based therapeutic community (TC) drug treatment followed by community aftercare is widely recognized as the most effective treatment paradigm for drug-dependent offenders. However, few randomized experiments have addressed this question and fewer studies have examined how interactions between treatment modality and individual characteristics may explain variations in outcomes.

Methods

Using a randomized experimental design, this study examined the effects of treatment modality [TC vs. Outpatient (OP) group counseling], individual psychosocial characteristics (e.g., risk, negative affect), and interactions on reincarceration over a 3-year follow-up period. Survival analysis using Cox regression with covariates was used to analyze data obtained from 604 subjects at a specialized drug treatment prison.

Results

The expected advantage of TC failed to emerge. Critical and heretofore unexamined interactions between treatment modality (TC vs. OP), inmate levels of risk, and negative effect help explain these unexpected findings.

Conclusion

The superiority of prison TC to less intensive OP counseling was not supported. The effects of TC appear to be conditioned by critical responsivity factors that have received little empirical attention.     

It is the worst time in living history to be a law graduate: or is it? Does Australia have too many law graduates?

According to the Australian legal profession and media, law schools are producing too many graduates relative to the number of vacancies within the profession. This claim, however, is hardly new. This paper identifies a number of junctions at which there has been concern about the overproduction of law graduates, showing that this discourse appears during periods of major economic stress. It also shows that until the most recent episode of concern, the perception that there are too many law graduates relative to employment opportunities has not been supported by empirical evidence. In the past, the increasing supply of law graduates has been met with increasing demand. However, the legal profession is now facing unprecedented market competition and restructure, and opportunities in the profession for new graduates have declined. This still does not mean that the law schools are producing too many graduates. The current cohort of graduates is likely to continue into a professional occupation, although not necessarily in private legal practice, and there is a lack of lawyers working in disadvantaged communities.     

Is there a need to regulate mediation? The English and Welsh case study

The use of mediation in England and Wales is nowadays an accepted and common practice within the alternative dispute resolution industry. Credited professionals have been performing the duties of a mediator in different fields of legal disputes; however, despite the positive perception of mediation, this area remains unregulated. So far, the rules applying to mediation in England and Wales originate from case law and contract between the parties. Such a scenario is not shared by other countries in which mediation has been regulated through an Act covering either private or judicial mediation. This article examines the current mediation scenario in England and Wales to assess whether there is a need to give it a statutory character in a similar manner to other jurisdictions.     

Science wars—How much risk should soldiers be exposed to in military experimentation?

With the threat of biological war becoming a more and more distinct possibility, there is a growing need for vaccines and cures for diseases. As warfare moves from the battlefield to the laboratory, the military must adapt its tactics in order to preserve national security. At the moment, soldiers consent to the risk associated with combat, but with the changing nature of war, the need may arise for soldiers to put themselves at risk not only through combat, but also through scientific experimentation, in order to produce vaccines or cures and ultimately maintain national security. By allowing soldiers to trade risk on the battlefield with risk in the laboratory, deeper research can be made into diseases and biological agents, and this would therefore lessen the threat of biological war or terrorism.     

How do firms use innovations to hedge against economic and political uncertainty? Evidence from a large sample of nations

The Journal of Technology Transfer - Using data on 135 countries, this paper studies the determinants of process innovation introduction, focusing on the impacts of economic and political...     

How voluntary must treatment of addicted patients be?

As for each medical treatment the principle of voluntariness also applies to the therapy of drug addicts. Indeed, under current drug influence or in an acute withdrawal situation a free will decision could not be possible. Also an excessive drug consumption over a longer period of time can lead to a severe personality disturbances. But from an--unreasonable--drug abuse one cannot conclude a general inability for making decisions of free will. For this reason the expressed will of the drug addict remains decisive. This applies also to juvenile addicts. Besides, one has to call in the parents as legal representatives. In case of consent to the therapy one should not be very exacting on the internal therapy readiness). It can also be awoken within the course of therapy (therapy to the therapy readiness). In case of a briefing in a withdrawal or penal institution a readiness to therapy is not required. But then there is only a state-obligation to offer therapies; for the single therapeutic measure the right of self-determination of the drug addict is further on valid.     

How Much Can a Forensic Laboratory Do to Discriminate Questioned Ink Entries?

Questioned document examiners are frequently required to determine whether the questioned ink entries on a document are written with the same ink, either for forged document identification or relative ink dating. How many methods are sufficient to discriminate potentially different inks? In this paper, 18 blue ballpoint inks were first nondestructively examined with a video spectral comparator. The ink entries were subsequently extracted with organic solvents for analysis of the volatile solvents and dyes by GC/MS, TLC, and LC‐MS/MS. The 18 ink samples were divided into 10, 9, 12, and 14 categories by these four methods, respectively. With the combined results, there were only two inks that remained indistinguishable, but they were further differentiated by microscopy. Therefore, to achieve effective discrimination of ballpoint ink entries, the authors suggest that a complete examination should include an analysis of their optical features, volatile solvents, and dyes as well as the ink quality.