Aggressive and Non-Aggressive schizophrenics: Symptom profile and neuropsychological differences

Abstract

The present experiment examined the ability of fifty-two uniformed police officers to detect deception. The experiment differed from previous experiments into detecting deceit because of its high stake lies scenario. The judges were exposed to videotaped press conferences of people who were asking the general public for help in finding their relatives or the murderers of their relatives. They all lied during these press conferences and they all have been found guilty of killing their own relatives. The judges did not perform better than could be expected by chance. Additional analyses showed that accuracy was unrelated to confidence, age, years of job experience in the police force, or level of experience in interviewing suspects. There was, however, a significant positive correlation between having experience in interviewing suspects and being confident in detecting deception. Finally, men were better at detecting deception than women.     

The Use of Rental Housing Assistance by Immigrants in the United States and New York City

Abstract

The large influx of immigrants to the United States and New York City from poorer countries has sparked considerable debate as to whether immigrants are becoming a “public charge” to American society. Most arguments have centered around immigrants’ use of cash assistance programs. This article compares immigrants’ receipt of rental housing assistance with that of native‐born Americans.

Bivariate analyses reveal that immigrants, as a group, are no more likely than native‐born households to use any form of rental housing assistance. Indeed, in most instances immigrants are less likely than native‐born households to receive assistance, with two exceptions: immigrants who have been in the United States since 1970 and immigrants from the former Soviet Union in New York City. Multivariate analyses reveal similar results, except that immigrants who have been in the United States since 1970 are no more likely than other immigrants to receive housing assistance when we control for other factors.     

Is referendum voting distinctive? Evidence from three UK cases

The study of referendum voting follows much the same format as for general election voting. Influences on vote, however, are likely to differ significantly. Referendums decide issues, while general elections determine which party or parties will form the government. Parties are often divided on referendum issues and these issues tend to be of low salience. General elections, however, are contested by long-established parties on highly salient issues. Using panel data from the British Election Study and the 2011 Alternative Vote Referendum Study, we find that voters place different weights on party identification, issue positions, government and leader evaluations when voting in general elections and referendums, but the evidence for differential campaign effects is limited.     

Interpreting Injury Mechanisms of Blunt Force Trauma from Butterfly Fracture Formation

According to biomechanics of fracture production during blunt impact, tubular bones are subject to compressive (impact site) and tensile (opposite impact site) forces; this causes bones to break in tension before compression, producing Y-shaped fracture patterns with breakaway (butterfly) fragments. In current forensic models, the side of the bone exhibiting the breakaway fragment is designated the impact side, with initial breakage occurring opposite. Fracture production and patterning of blunt impacts to 255 sheep femora were analyzed. Contra the existing model, only 60% of complete butterfly fractures exhibited impact side breakaway fragments. Although fractures initiated on the tension, nonimpact side, butterfly fragments formed on either compression or tension sides. Using newly defined breakaway fragment shape criteria, impact side was estimated with 98% accuracy for both complete and partial butterfly fractures. Furthermore, the results suggest that the impact site is the located on one of the Y-fracture's arms, not the butterfly fragment's center, as previously modeled.     

‘Madness is a Woman’: Constance Kent and Victorian Constructions of Female Insanity

Puerperal insanity has attracted significant academic attention in cases of Victorian child killing when mothers killed their young children. This article expands the focus of the puerperal insanity narratives in order to address how, or whether these discourses influenced the wider realm of female insanity. By using the Constance Kent case as an exemplar the article explores how medical and legal ‘tests’ translated into a social conception of female insanity. The preponderance of press reports and the decisions reached suggest insanity came to be a ready social answer when women killed children.     

Age estimation from the human os coxa: a test on a documented Italian collection*

Current standards for age at death estimation from the pelvis are based on Americans of European and African ancestry. Our limited understanding of population variability hampers our efforts to apply these techniques to the various skeletal populations around the world, especially in global forensic contexts. However, documented skeletal samples are rare, limiting our ability to test our techniques. This study tested the Suchey-Brooks pubic symphysis aging method and the auricular surface method originally developed by Lovejoy et al. on a large sample (n = 404) of known sex and age from the Sassari Collection, housed at the Museum of Anthropology at the University of Bologna, Italy. The results indicate that for both methods, bias and inaccuracy increased with age and actual age tended to be underestimated over the age of 40. The auricular surface method performed slightly better, exhibiting slightly lower levels of bias and inaccuracy, especially for males.     

‘One Can Only Guess What Might Have Happened if the Worker Had Not Intervened in Time': the Liverpool Vigilance Association,moral vulnerability and Irish girls in early- to mid-twentieth-century Liverpool

In early- and mid-twentieth century Britain, members of the Liverpool Vigilance Association (LVA) unofficially policed those who entered Liverpool's port and railway stations. The organisation feared that Irish female newcomers in particular lacked the social wherewithal necessary to maintain their perceived purity within a city such as Liverpool. Whilst the supposed innocence of Irish women was a respectable quality, the LVA believed it also made them vulnerable to exploitation. Consequently the young, Irish, female traveller was central to Liverpudlian social purists' notions of urban moral danger and their belief in the importance of preventative patrol work.     

Thermal Imaging as a Lie Detection Tool at Airports

We tested the accuracy of thermal imaging as a lie detection tool in airport screening. Fifty-one passengers in an international airport departure hall told the truth or lied about their forthcoming trip in an interview. Their skin temperature was recorded via a thermal imaging camera. Liars’ skin temperature rose significantly during the interview, whereas truth tellers’ skin temperature remained constant. On the basis of these different patterns, 64% of truth tellers and 69% of liars were classified correctly. The interviewers made veracity judgements independently from the thermal recordings. The interviewers outperformed the thermal recordings and classified 72% of truth tellers and 77% of liars correctly. Accuracy rates based on the combination of thermal imaging scores and interviewers’ judgements were the same as accuracy rates based on interviewers’ judgements alone. Implications of the findings for the suitability of thermal imaging as a lie detection tool in airports are discussed.