Making Disarmament Work: The Implementation of the International Disarmament Provisions In the League of Nations Covenant, 1919–1925

This article argues that, despite the eventual failure of the League to deliver the international disarmament that may believed would create peace, the early inter-war years showed signs of great promise. The League's early, often modest, efforts to establish the foundations of international disarmament, deserve greater credit than they are usually afforded because they have been overshadowed by the collapse of the World Disarmament Conference in 1934.     

Does Ambivalent Sexism Influence Verdicts for Heterosexual and Homosexual Defendants in a Self-Defense Case?

The current research examined the role of defendant and participant sex, presence or absence of expert testimony of the “battered person syndrome”, and sexual orientation of the defendant on perceptions of guilt in a self-defense case. The role of sexism in judgments of culpability was also examined. A sample of 442 participants read a self-defense case scenario and responded to questions pertaining to verdict, defendant culpability, legal element ratings, and sexist attitudes. Results revealed a four-way interaction, showing female participants prescribed the lowest guilt ratings to heterosexual female and homosexual male defendants who received expert testimony of the battered person syndrome. When heterosexual male defendants received expert testimony, ratings of guilt significantly increased. A multiple regression was conducted to determine whether legal and extra-legal factors predicted defendant culpability. Sexist attitudes (benevolent sexism towards men and women) and certain legal elements were predictive of defendant culpability. Limitations and implications are discussed. Study findings were presented in a poster at the annual meeting of the American Psychology-Law Society (APLS), Jacksonville, Florida (March, 2008).     

Health system performance reporting in Canada: Bridging theory and practice at pan‐Canadian level

Public reporting is increasingly used to enhance accountability and transparency and stimulate performance improvement in the public sector. In Canada performance reporting in the health sector is still in development, and involves a large number of actors. This article reports on the results of a recent intervention by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) to develop a platform for pan‐Canadian performance reporting ( http://www.yourhealthsystem.cihi.ca ). It describes approaches taken to: develop a conceptual framework; engage the public in the definition of performance reporting priorities; and select indicators for public reporting. This article also discusses conceptual, methodological and operational challenges as well as a proposed evaluation strategy.     

Family violence and depressive symptomatology among incarcerated women

This study examines the potential association between witnessing parental violence as a child and later adult depressive symptomatology within a population that has received limited attention in the scientific literature, namely, incarcerated women. The Conflict Tactics Scale and the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale were administered to 60 women incarcerated in a maximum security prison in North Carolina. A majority of the women reported that they had witnessed verbally aggressive or physically violent interactions among the adult members in their families. Seventy percent of these women suffered from clinically relevant levels of depressive symptomatology. Stepwise multiple linear regression analysis revealed that increasing levels of reasoning conflict resolution strategies used in the women's families of origin were associated with decreasing levels of depressive symptomatology of the women, whereas increasing levels of physically violent conflict resolution strategies were associated with increasing levels of depressive symptomatology.     

Perceptions of Sexual Harassment: The Effects of Gender,Legal Standard,and Ambivalent Sexism

This research tests the possibility that the reasonable woman as compared to the reasonable person test of hostile work environment sexual harassment interacts with hostile and benevolent sexist beliefs and under some conditions triggers protectionist attitudes toward women who complain of sexual harassment, We administered to a sample of undergraduates the ambivalent sexism inventory along with the fact patterns in two harassment cases and asked them to make legally relevant decisions under either the reasonable woman or person standard. We found that those high in hostile sexism, and women, found more evidence of harassment. However, those high in benevolent sexism did not exhibit the hostile sexism effects. Although men were less sensitive to the reasonable woman standard than women, under some conditions the reasonable woman standard enabled both genders to find greater evidence of harassment. The results are discussed from the perspectives of law and psychology.     

Affect Regulation and the Cycle of Violence Against Women: New Directions for Understanding the Process

The process of the intergenerational transmission of violence is not well understood. A risk and resilience model of criminal violence against women was investigated using secondary data. The sample was composed of adolescent male juvenile delinquents who had been physically abused by their parents, and who were followed up at ages 25 and 31. A series of structural equation models were fit to investigate whether dysregulated affect mediated the effects of attachment and family chaos on the adult perpetration of violence against women. These models support the hypothesis that affect dysregulation may act as a mediator. Results raise new ideas about the mechanisms by which violence may be transmitted across generations.     

Influence of Perpetrators' Account on Nurses' Recognition and Reporting of Child Abuse

Suspected perpetrators may attempt to influence the professional's recognition and reporting of child abuse by providing an account that explains or justifies their behavior or the child's injury. A factorial survey design was employed in which a random sample of nurses (N = 1038) judged vignettes that included systematic variations of types of accounts and selected case characteristics. In comparison to the other characteristics of the case, perpetrator accounts had little impact on nurses recognition and reporting of child abuse. Only two types of accounts influenced the nurses' responses, and from the perspective of the suspected perpetrator they backfired, resulting in greater recognition and reporting of abuse. Interaction terms constructed of accounts and situational variables had little impact on nurses' judgments when sexual abuse was involved, but resulted in both higher and lower recognition and reporting scores when physical and emotional acts were judged.