The Direction of Deception: Neuro-Linguistic Programming as a Lie Detection Tool

There is a myth in popular psychology, often echoed in police literature, but as yet untested, that specific eye movements pertain to lying and truth telling. According to this line of thought, eye movements to the sender??s right indicate lying, as the sender??s eyes are drawn to the side of his/her brain where their fabrication is being created. We have put this hypothesis, derived from ??Neuro-Linguistic Programming?? to the test in two experiments. In Experiment 1, a total of 204 participants (all air passengers) were interviewed at an international airport about their forthcoming trip. All participants answered one question truthfully and one question deceptively. Some participants answered a third question truthfully, whereas others answered the same question deceptively. No conclusive evidence was found for a relationship between specific eye movements and deception. In Experiment 2, a total of 31 participants discussed their real occupation in one interview and a pretend occupation in another interview. Only three of the 31 participants revealed the eye movement pattern predicted by NLP. Reasons for the existence of the myth that liars display specific eye movements are discussed.     

Jurisdiction and Scale: Rent Arrears,Social Housing,and Human Rights

This article draws on the recent work of Mariana Valverde on jurisdiction and scale to frame a study of the interaction between mandatory possession proceedings brought by one particular type of social housing provider – housing associations – and national as well as human rights law. It was the explicit political choice to focus social housing provision on housing associations, as opposed to local authorities, which opened up the mandatory possession jurisdiction. The essence of the argument is that, despite the apparent incommensurability of these different scales and jurisdictions, they are able to accommodate each other quite happily. Two sets of texts are used to develop this argument. First, consideration is given to the legal technicality through which mandatory possession proceedings might be challenged. Second, we draw on data from a study of housing associations practices and policies on the use of one particular mandatory ground of possession for rent arrears, demonstrating the way in which scale and jurisdiction, political rationality and technologies intertwine.     

Female Defendants and Criminal Courts in Taiwan: An Observation Study

It has long been contended that the criminal justice system extends the influence of patriarchy in society. Feminist and critical criminologists have produced countless examples of the male domination in the criminal justice system. Critics of law and criminal justice point out that the system treats women the same way as does the mainstream society (MacKinnon 1989, 1991; Smart 1989). Therefore, criminal justice cannot be expected to remedy injustices legally before they are recognized as injustices socially. Sociological studies in crime and delinquency have also neglected gender issues. By employing the qualititaive research approach of field observation, this study focuses on how practitioners in three criminal courts in Southern Taiwan interact with female defendants. The findings point out that the court system was unbending in treating the observed defendants in a condescending manner, and expedited the trial process to pronounce the defendants’ guilt. The study aims to offer explicit and nuanced empirical evidence of how gender complicates courtroom interaction. Evidence from this study also forms the basis for policy recommendations and future reform in the criminal justice system.     

A Time-Series Analysis of Terrorism: Intervention,Displacement, and Diffusion of Benefits

This paper discusses the perception that displacement in terrorism is inevitable; that antiterrorism efforts merely relocate terrorism in some way. Using quarterly time-series data from the Global Terrorism Database (1994–2013) and the vector autoregression framework, we test the following hypothesis: the target-hardening efforts within the United States (US) after September, 11, 2001 reduce attacks on domestic US targets, but increase attacks on US targets abroad. To provide a more comprehensive test, we also provide dynamic impact factors and variance decompositions. The results of this intervention analysis show no support for displacement, and instead provide support for a diffusion-of benefits hypothesis. We also discuss how criminological and especially crime-prevention knowledge can guide and encompass the study of terrorism.     

INTEGRATING COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES INTO LOCAL JAILS: A POLICY PERSPECTIVE

Across t h e nation, the number o f mentally ill inmates in local jails has increased over the past decade. Moreover, mentally ill inmates are not typically receiving adequate services from either the jail or mental health service systems. In response to the problem, several jurisdictions are attempting to utilize community mental health (CMH) services to provide treatment for these inmates. This paper discusses organizational problems inherent to integrating CMH services into jails and recommends approaches for dealing with those problems. Much of the information and thinking in this paper is based upon the recent experience of the authors with the Michigan Department of Mental Health and local jails as trainers and consultants in integrating CMH workers into jail settings.     

Anti-depressants, suicide, and drug regulation.

Policymakers are increasingly concerned that a relatively new class of anti-depressant drugs, selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRI), may increase the risk of suicide for at least some patients, particularly children. Prior randomized trials are not informative on this question because of small sample sizes and other limitations. Using variation across countries over time in SSRI sales and suicide, we find that an increase of one pill per capita (a 13 percent increase over 1999 levels) is associated with a 2.5 percent reduction in suicide rates, a relationship that is more pronounced for adults than for children. Our findings suggest that expanding access to SSRIs for adults may be a cost-effective way to save lives, although policymakers are right to remain cautious about pediatric use of SSRIs.     

Uses of Macro Social Theory: A Social Housing Case Study

This article reflects on the use of macro social theoretical perspectives to explain micro social issues, using social housing allocations as a case study. In contrast to a number of social theoretical examinations of social housing allocation schemes in recent years, spanning socio‐legal studies, we argue that ‘cookie‐cutter’ theories may overlook other positions and counter‐factual scenarios. We draw on a sample of local authority allocation schemes to reflect on the growing category of households (commonly termed ‘unhouseables’ by housing officers) which are excluded from appearing on such schemes because of their former housing deviance or some other disqualification. We offer a set of reflections grounded in our data, which focus on sustainability. Thus, rather than point to particular rationalities or the like, we offer particular housing issues as explanatory factors – including the declining stock and financial ‘competitiveness’ of social housing management – as well as a rise in punitiveness.     

Between Identity Quest and Risk Aversion: lessons from the Chen Shui-bian presidency for maintaining cross-strait stability

This article argues that how President Chen Shui-bian's provocative initiatives have impacted cross-strait stability since 2003 generates crucial lessons, not available in the past, for understanding the propelling and constraining dynamics of a cross-strait military conflict in the long run. The lessons are grounded in three interrelated sets of interactive logic: between the Chen Administration and the Taiwan electorate; between Taiwan people's aspiration for an exclusive national identity and their risk-averse proclivity in the face of China's military threat; and between Washington's and Beijing's acts of signaling toward Taipei. Specifically, this article demonstrates that Taiwan's voters at first backed the Chen Administration's provocative initiatives in order to seek a national identity instead of de jure independence, and that such popular support receded dramatically once such initiatives came to be perceived, amidst domestic and international developments, by the voters as drifting away from the identity quest and toward evoking their choice between the status quo and independence. The risk-averse voters turned away from the altered character of the initiatives and thus restrained the reckless politicians, largely because of both Washington's signaling which highlighted the change and the ensuing risk of war, and Beijing's refraining from saber rattling toward Taiwan. The voters' decisions foiled the 2004 and 2008 referenda, and forestalled the DPP in 2004 from acquiring a parliamentary majority necessary for legislating its provocative initiatives such as renaming the country and creating a new constitution.     

The Business of Peace: Raiding and Peace Work Along the Kenya Uganda Border (Part I)

Peace-building NGOs are frequently at work along the Kenya–Ugandaborder. But in this desolate region, results have been extremelysparse. This article contends that this is due to the inadequaciesof contemporary understandings of cattle raiding. Most NGOsand many academics ascribe cattle raids to a familiar arrayof factors such as resource scarcity, small arms proliferation,and generational conflict. While each issue is obviously ofsome relevance, such explanations are too cumbersome to reallyenhance our knowledge of cattle raiding. This article proposesa new approach to the problem by utilizing popular conceptionsof ethnicity and criminal responsibility for raids. Given thatmost major raids originally stem from seemingly insignificantthefts, the process of retaliation is seen as crucial to understandingwhy violence escalates in certain situations and defuses inothers. The failure of NGOs engaged in peace work to addressthis important issue in a meaningful way is the reason theyhave failed to achieve much success along the Kenya–Ugandaborder. This is in turn responsible for the widespread cynicismand corruption that has crept into their work, and is the subjectof the second part of this article. The author would like to acknowledge the Killam Trust, the SocialSciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and DalhousieUniversity for their generous support during the writing ofthis article. Special thanks are owed to Andrew Juma, MilcahAchola, Rachel Andiama, Kelly-Jo Bahry, Rob Blunt, MichelleBourbonniere, Kim de Vries, Gary Kynoch, Mark Longole, GabrielleLynch, Friederike Mieth, and Danielle Walters, as well as twoanonymous reviewers.