Development Ballot Measures, Interest Group Endorsements, and the Political Geography of Growth Preferences

In response to rapid population and economic growth, many communities have turned to voter initiatives to resolve their land use disputes. We find that despite strong public concern about growth, voters often support measures that allow or encourage new development. We consider the sources of this support by analyzing patterns of voting on a range of prodevelopment ballot initiatives. These initiatives provide a valuable opportunity to understand how economic self-interest, geography, interest group endorsements, and public goods affect citizen support for development policies. We find that interest group endorsements significantly increase public support for new development. These endorsements help voters evaluate the personal impact of complex development proposals and allow voters to behave in ways that reflect a high degree of sophistication .     

Social goals and appropriate policy for corrections: An economic appraisal

This paper presents a logical approach to the problem of devising socially acceptable policy for the operation of a corrections system. As an alternative to considering separately the frequently mentioned, but conflicting goals of providing rehabilitation, retribution, detention of dangerous criminals, and general and specific deterrence of criminal behavior, the authors suggest that the goal be couched in terms of minimizing the social cost of crime. By developing a model which illustrates how the corrections process relates to the various facets of the criminal justice system, and by isolating the functional relationships which must be taken into account, the authors are able to show there is an optimal level of rehabilitation, detention, and deterrence associated with a socially optimal level of criminal activity and criminal justice control activity. Although much remains to be learned before such a model can be effectively implemented, considerable research has already pointed the way for learning how to more effectively balance the alternatives for policy. An enumeration of the policy implications of the model identifies targets for further research.     

Estimation of postmortem interval. Temperature-correction of extracellular abdominal impedance during the first 21 days of death

Extracellular impedance of the intact abdomen of rats increased from 79.0+/-7.4Omega, 1h postmortem (i.e. 0.04 day), to 130.5+/-14.4Omega at postmortem interval (PMI)=1 day. Impedance then decreased with time, reaching 64.2+/-9.9Omega at PMI=21 days. The time taken for mean abdominal impedance to decrease below the value at PMI=0.04 day averaged 16 days. It is therefore impossible, using extracellular abdominal impedance alone, to distinguish (in terms of interpolating PMI) between numerically equal impedances on the rising and falling phases of curves depicting impedance as a function of PMI.Correction of measured impedances to their theoretically-predicted values at an arbitrarily chosen temperature of 40 degrees C appreciably diminished the magnitude of the increase in impedance following death. Thus, temperature-corrected abdominal impedance increased from 56.2+/-4.8Omega at PMI=0.04 day to 59.5+/-6.2Omega at PMI=1 day. Impedance then decreased, reaching 29.2+/-4.1Omega at PMI=21 days. The time taken for mean, temperature-corrected abdominal impedance to decrease below the value at PMI=0.04 day averaged 3 days (as opposed to 16 days (see above) in the absence of temperature-correction).These findings are believed to improve the usefulness of extracellular abdominal impedance as a potential tool for estimation of postmortem interval.     

Hierarchy-Legitimizing Ideologies Reduce Behavioral Obligations and Blame for Implicit Attitudes and Resulting Discrimination

Three preregistered studies investigated people’s judgments of whether someone with implicit racial bias is obligated to change their bias and to avoid discrimination based on that bias. Two studies showed that hierarchy-legitimizing ideologies—Belief in a Just World, Social Dominance Orientation, and political conservatism—predict lower obligation judgments. One study showed that hierarchy-legitimizing ideologies predicted greater protection of a potential discriminator; in another, they also predicted lower protection of a person who may be discriminated against. Lastly, one study showed that greater obligation judgments predicted greater blame of a person who discriminated based on implicit bias. Taken together, these four studies address how people’s ideologies relate to their obligation judgments for implicit racial bias and how those obligation judgments are related to blame for discrimination resulting from implicit racial bias.     

The Salinity Crisis in Western Australia: A Case of Policy Paralysis

This article focuses on the Court government's development of a State Salinity Strategy during the 1990s which took nine years from the initial announcement to the final realease. Western Australia has 70 percent of the nation's dryland salinity, a figure widely regarded as representing a potential environmental disaster with significant flow-on economic and social impacts. The paralysis that has surrounded decision-making on this issue is examined as a case study in the lack of effectiveness of government policy-making capacity on the environment. The shortcomings of the Salinity Strategy examined in the article include a lack of a leadership role for government, inadequate resourcing and weaknesses in the supporting institutional arrangements.     

Supplementary markers for deficient immigration cases: Additional STRs or SNPs?

Analysis with commonly available STR kits can sometimes fail to produce sufficient information in immigration cases containing only one parent. In these cases, not only does paternity/maternity need to be assured, but also other possible relationships dismissed (e.g. avuncular relationships).We have taken more than 50 of these cases and investigated which type of additional marker produces the greatest benefits: 48 SNPs or 6 additional informative STRs (including 5 additional markers from the new European extended set). The results of this analysis show the SNPs to be of greater value.