Police Witness Identification Images: A Geometric Morphometric Analysis*

Abstract: Research into witness identification images typically occurs within the laboratory and involves subjective likeness and recognizability judgments. This study analyzed whether actual witness identification images systematically alter the facial shapes of the suspects described. The shape analysis tool, geometric morphometrics, was applied to 46 homologous facial landmarks displayed on 50 witness identification images and their corresponding arrest photographs, using principal component analysis and multivariate regressions. The results indicate that compared with arrest photographs, witness identification images systematically depict suspects with lowered and medially located eyebrows (p = <0.000001). This was found to occur independently of the Police Artist, and did not occur with composites produced under laboratory conditions. There are several possible explanations for this finding, including any, or all, of the following: The suspect was frowning at the time of the incident, the witness had negative feelings toward the suspect, this is an effect of unfamiliar face processing, the suspect displayed fear at the time of their arrest photograph.     

Equity and purpose in financing universities: the case of Nova Scotia

Abstract: Nova Scotia has struggled with the funding of its universities ever since it introduced provincial grants in 1963. This is because some of its rather large number of universities and colleges are in very different situations as compared with others. How is an equitable distribution to be achieved under such circumstances? The longstanding solution has been to combine fixed grants based on a historically determined base allocation, with a variable component based on enrolment. But this grew increasingly problematic as the original institutional patterns evolved and, especially, when the province adopted a formula of fixed shares combined with actual reductions in funding. A new formula was required and this article tells the story of its development by the Nova Scotia Council on Higher Education. This article explores both the issues that had to be addressed and resolved and the institutional dynamics and personalities that shaped their resolution. In the end, it became apparent that an equitable redistribution of grants to Nova Scotia's universities could be achieved through this process only if additional resources were forthcoming. Sommaire: La Nouvelle‐Écosse se débat avec le problème du financement de ses uni‐versités depuis l'adoption des subventions provinciales en 1963, éant donné la situation très particuliére de plusieurs de ses nombreux colléges et universités. Comment réaliser une répartition équitable dans de telles circonstances? Pendant longtemps, la solution fut de combiner des subventions fixes s'appuyant sur une allocation de base établie de longue date, avec une composante variable fondée sur le nombre d'inscrip‐tions. Mais, cette méthode est devenue de plus en plus problématique face à l'évolu‐tion des modèles institutionnels et, en particulier, lorsque la province a adopté une formule de parts fixes combinée à des coupures de financement. II a fallu alors trou‐ver une nouvelle formule, et cet article présente l'historique de son élaboration par le Conseil de l'enseignement supkérieur de la Nouvelle‐Écosse. II explore à la fois les questions qu'il fallait régler et la dynamique institutionnelle ainsi que les personna‐lités qui ont influé sur leur résolution. En dernière analyse, il devint évident qu'une redistribution équitable des subventions aux universités de la Nouvelle‐Écosse ne pouvait se réaliser par l'entremise de ce processus qu'avec l'allocation de ressources supplémentaires.     

Local economies and national economic evaluations

Underlying the phenomena of economic voting are voters’ perceptions of economic conditions. But from where do these evaluations originate? This work examines the effects of three types of factors influential to the formation of national economic evaluations: predispositions (such as age, gender, income, partisanship), information and attentiveness, and objective local economic conditions (local unemployment rates). Our findings fit with earlier work, broadly confirming the influential role each set of factors plays in shaping national economic perceptions. We then extend the literature - demonstrating that the impact of the local economic environment is conditional on attention to media, political information and education. Using a combined dataset of the 2006 Canadian Election Studies with neighbourhood level economic indicators drawn from Canadian Census data (2006), our findings show that, in developing perceptions of the national economy, more attentive, more informed and more educated individuals are less influenced by local economic conditions than their less attentive, less informed and less educated counterparts. These findings contribute to our understanding of how local economic conditions influence the formation of national economic evaluations.     

Beyond the ‘At Risk’ Individual: Housing and the Eradication of Poverty to Prevent Homelessness

A prevention framework represents one of the fundamental means of the Australian Government's contemporary drive to achieve permanent reductions in homelessness. Consistent with prevailing policies in the UK and US, Australia has approached homelessness prevention through identification and early intervention of individuals ‘at risk’ of homelessness. In this article we suggest that prevention strategies focused on the risk factors that individual pose obscures efforts to address the underlying structural factors that contribute to homelessness, or to reduce the prevalence of homelessness at the overall population level. The article examines the efficacy of increasing the supply of affordable housing to prevent homelessness, but suggests that the provision of housing alone may be insufficient to realising related well‐being objectives. In turn, it is proposed that policy which focuses on poverty reduction has the capacity to achieve the sustainable prevention of homelessness ambitions.     

‘Whatever It Takes’

Despite European leaders’ efforts to address fearsover the euro, there is no quick solution to the crisis While most of Europe goes on holiday or sits glued to the London Olympics,