A study of amnesia in homicide cases and forensic psychiatric experts' examination of such claims

About one third of defendants in homicide cases claim amnesia during the time of their alleged act. Examining the authenticity of claimed amnesia is a special challenge for forensic experts. Because the experts' conclusions have legal implications, it is useful to study the characteristics of defendants who claim amnesia regarding a homicidal act and how forensic experts assess these defendants' claims. The forensic psychiatric reports from 2001 to 2007 on 102 Norwegian defendants charged with homicide were assessed quantitatively with a structured rating form. Due to multiple comparisons p of .003 was chosen. Twenty-six defendants claimed partial and 17 claimed total amnesia. No significant differences in the characteristics of the defendants were found between the partial, total, and no amnesia claiming groups. Claims of partial or total amnesia did not change the procedures and content of the forensic experts' examination. A memory test was applied in only one case. Despite the seriousness of the crime and the difficulty of assessing amnesia, the experts did not apply psychological testing of memory function or appropriate tests of possible malingering. Guidelines or standardized procedures for evaluation of defendants who claim amnesia should be developed. This could eventually contribute to more reliable and valid evaluations by forensic experts and increase the probability of just court outcomes.     

Quantitative differences in think tank dissemination activities in Germany,Denmark and the UK

In recent years, the study of policy advisory systems has been advanced conceptually and analytically through studies of externalisation and politicisation. Still, the understanding of institutional variation in how organisations supply policy advice remains limited. The contribution adds to recent research on think and the study of policy advice by arguing for a focus on the dissemination of policy advice by asking how the dissemination activities of think tanks vary across different policy advisory systems and what this implies for the study of policy advice. This question is explored in a quantitative design which compares publications, events and newspaper mentionings of samples of think tanks from a coordinated (Germany), liberal (UK) and mixed (Denmark) system in 2012. The analysis indicates that think tanks in the UK have the highest level of dissemination on all three activities when controlled for the number of full-time staff. The study indicates that factors beyond the policy process such as developments of funding and media environments should be analysed further as they are likely to be important for how and where think tank disseminate their policy advice.     

Parties and institutions: empirical evidence on veto players and the growth of government

Does the effective number of veto players in a political system explain the rate of government growth? Panel data analyses are conducted in order to test several measures of veto players against each other, and these results are compared with similar analyses of government fractionalization. The analyses indicate that veto players and especially government fractionalization exert a constraining effect on changes in the size of government, but also that the effect is not consistent over time: neither veto players in general nor fractionalization of government in particular exerted any constraining effect during the decades of rapid government growth due to welfare state creation and expansion in the 1960s and 1970s. The strength of government fractionalization vis-a-vis the veto player measures in explaining changes in the size of government suggest that the constellation of partisan veto players within coalition governments matters, while the effect of institutional veto players remains uncertain.     

Review essay / against legal paternalism

Joel Feinberg, Harm to Self Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986, xxiii + 412 pp.     

Building Regions on Economic Success: Prosperity and Regionalism in Rogaland

This article presents a political economy perspective on the growth of regionalism in Rogaland, where ever more political issues have been viewed through a regional lens over the last fifteen years. Rogaland has also experienced an economic boom since the 1970s, when it became the hub of Norway's oil adventures in the North Sea. The question is whether these developments are connected, and more specifically, whether the newfound economic prosperity can explain the growth of regionalism. After discussing the main political economy theories of regionalism, the capacity of each theory in explaining the developments in the case at hand is assessed. In particular, the article presents the theoretical argument behind the idea that economic prosperity could lead to regionalism, referring to cases such as Catalonia, Slovenia and Northern Italy. The growth of regionalism in Rogaland is demonstrated by a quantitative content analysis study, which shows that the growth in regionalism corresponds closely to the economic growth over the period 1960–2000. This leads to the conclusion that economic prosperity is the best explanation for the developments in Rogaland. The article then goes on to show specifically how the region's economic prosperity has been applied by political elites in the creation of a regionalist discourse, with examples of how regional elites have been using the region's prosperity in discussions over infrastructure investments, government representation and regional government.     

Development of a harmonised method for the profiling of amphetamines: III. Development of the gas chromatographic method

This study focused on gas chromatographic analysis of target compounds found in illicit amphetamine synthesised by the Leuckart reaction, reductive amination of benzyl methyl ketone, and the nitrostyrene route. The analytical method was investigated and optimised with respect to introduction of amphetamine samples into the gas chromatograph and separation and detection of the target substances. Sample introduction using split and splitless injection was tested at different injector temperatures, and their ability to transfer the target compounds to the GC column was evaluated using cold on column injection as a reference. Taking the results from both techniques into consideration a temperature of 250 degrees C was considered to be the best compromise. The most efficient separation was achieved with a DB-35MS capillary column (35% diphenyl 65% dimethyl silicone; 30 m x 0.25 mm, d(f) 0.25 microm) and an oven temperature program that started at 90 degrees C (1 min) and was increased by 8 degrees C/min to 300 degrees C (10 min). Reproducibility, repeatability, linearity, and limits of determination for the flame ionisation detector (FID), nitrogen phosphorous detector (NPD), and mass spectrometry (MS) in scan mode and selected ion monitoring (SIM) mode were evaluated. In addition, selectivity was studied applying FID and MS in both scan and SIM mode. It was found that reproducibility, repeatability, and limits of determination were similar for FID, NPD, and MS in scan mode. Moreover, the linearity was better when applying FID or NPD whereas the selectivity was better when utilising the MS. Finally, the introduction of target compounds to the GC column when applying injection volumes of 0.2 microl, 1 microl, 2 microl, and 4 microl with splitless injection respectively 1 microl with split injection (split ratio, 1:40) were compared. It was demonstrated that splitless injections of 1 microl, 2 microl, and 4 microl could be employed in the developed method, while split injection and splitless injections of 0.2 microl should be avoided.     

Development of a harmonized method for the profiling of amphetamines. I. Synthesis of standards and compilation of analytical data

Reference material was synthesised for 21 substances that are frequently present as synthetic impurities, i.e. by-products, in illicitly produced amphetamine. Each of these substances is a typical by-product for at least one of the three approaches most often used to synthesise amphetamine, namely, the Leuckart, the reductive amination of benzyl methyl ketone, and the nitrostyrene routes. A large body of data on the substances was recorded, including the following: mass spectra, ultraviolet spectra, Fourier transform infrared spectra, infrared spectra in gas phase, and 1H NMR and 13C NMR spectra.