Impairment based legislative limits for driving under the influence of non-alcohol drugs in Norway

Bloodstains at crime scenes are among the most important types of evidence for forensic investigators. They can be used for DNA-profiling for verifying the suspect's identity or for pattern analysis in order to reconstruct the crime. However, until now, using bloodstains to determine the time elapsed since the crime was committed is still not possible. From a criminalistic point of view, an accurate estimation of when the crime was committed enables to verify witnesses' statements, limits the number of suspects and assesses alibis. Despite several attempts and exploration of many technologies during a century, no method has been materialized into forensic practice. This review gives an overview of an extensive search in scientific literature of techniques that address the quest for age determination of bloodstains. We found that most techniques are complementary to each other, in short as well as long term age determination. Techniques are compared concerning their sensitivity for short and long term ageing of bloodstains and concerning their possible applicability to be used on a crime scene. In addition, experimental challenges like substrate variation, interdonor variation and environmental influences are addressed. Comparison of these techniques contributes to our knowledge of the physics and biochemistry in an ageing bloodstain. Further improvement and incorporation of environmental factors are necessary to enable age determination of bloodstains to be acceptable in court.     

Homogeneity and Smallness: Dahl and Tufte Revisited

In their well-known volume on 'Size and Democracy' (1973), Robert Dahl and Edward Tufte argue that small units are likely to be more homogeneous, whereas larger units are likely to exhibit more diversity. This study of the microstates of the world and of selected control groups of states supports this view only in part. In terms of attitudinal diversity, smaller units are indeed more homogeneous. In terms of ethnic and religious diversity, however, no significant differences emerge between small states and large states. This suggests that categoric differences are transformed in larger units to a greater extent into attitudinal differences. Bearing in mind that most microstates are island states, the capacity of microstates to manage ethnic diversity may in several cases be due to the intimacy of island communities which binds members together in mutual solidarity.     

Regional Governance Networks: Filling In or Hollowing Out?

The debate on what effect networks have on the existing institutions of representative democracy is highly polarized. On one hand, networks are regarded as means to ‘fill in’ where traditional institutions fail, and on the other, networks are viewed as arrangements draining or ‘hollowing out’ traditional institutions of power and legitimacy. In this article, filling in and hollowing out are treated as two distinct dimensions, opening up for the possibility that networks may both fill in and hollow out member organizations. The argument is that networks, to be able to fill in, must be ‘strong’ (autonomy, resources), but the stronger they become, the higher the probability that they also hollow out their individual members. This thesis is empirically illuminated by studying political governance networks in Norway (i.e., voluntary cooperation between municipalities creating a regional council). Main findings conclude that these networks only to a very moderate degree fill in and hollow out, indicating that the networks play a largely symbolic role. However, there are variations between networks, and the data indicate that the degree of hollowing out depends on both the strength of the network (size and asymmetry) and its individual members (i.e., their population size).     

Disclosure of child sexual abuse: expressed emotions and credibility judgments of a child mock victim

Both lay persons and professionals believe that the emotions displayed by a child witness during disclosure of sexual abuse are a factor of importance when judging the child's credibility. Unfortunately, not all children display emotions according to expectations, leading to misjudgments, and possible miscarriage of justice. In the present study, we examined how lay people's credibility judgments were influenced by a child's displayed emotions during the disclosure of sexual abuse. Participants (n?=?119), viewed video recordings of a mock police interview of an 11-year-old child actor disclosing sexual abuse, displaying one of four emotional expressions (angry, sad, neutral, and positive). Results showed that participants were strongly influenced by the emotions displayed; in particular, the display of strong negative emotions (anger) or positive emotions during disclosure significantly reduced judged credibility. The credibility ratings predicted the participant? judgments of the defendant's guilt and the willingness to pass a guilty vote in a hypothetical trial.     

Electing Mayors with the Supplementary Vote Method: Evidence from Norway

Both Norway and England have used the supplementary vote (SV) method to elect mayors. SV was intended to elect mayors with a broad popular mandate, and deemed easy for voters to use. Previous research on English mayoral elections focusing on the supply side of the elections has found that voters supporting minority candidates with their first vote face difficulties using the optional second vote to choose among the remaining two top-candidates in municipalities where there are many candidates in the race. A close race, on the other hand, seems to give voters a helping hand in making this choice. Drawing on these findings, we link data on the 48 Norwegian mayoral races to survey data to further explore how the supply side of the elections and individual voter resources affect effective voting and use of the optional second vote. We use both standard logistic regression and multi-level models as statistical tools. The result reveals that 27 out the 48 elected mayors in Norway came out as majority winners (more than 50 per cent of the votes). The analysis suggests that the supply side of the elections is of minor importance for whether voters use their second vote or not. The probability of using the second vote is reduced by age, and voters who claim to understand how the electoral system works use the second vote more frequently. The analysis also reveals considerable variation in the number of first and second votes for the top two candidates (effective votes) between municipalities, and the results suggest that this variability may be explained partly by the closeness of the elections. Voters in municipalities with competitive mayoral races are more likely to vote effectively than voters in municipalities with less competitive elections. At the individual level party members are more likely to vote ineffectively.     

Does Democracy Decrease Fear of Terrorism?

ABSTRACT

Fear is an integral part of terrorism. Fighting fear can thus be a crucial part of counterterrorist policies. In the case of terrorism, citizens look to the state for protection. Yet, most studies of terrorist fear emphasize individual-level factors. We lack studies that link fear to features of the state, especially whether democratic states are capable of reducing fear among its citizens. Our study aims to fill part of this research gap by asking whether democratic government reduces or increases fear of terrorism. We find that there is substantial cross-country variance in citizens’ fear of terrorism. The results suggest that fear is more widespread among citizens in non-democratic countries compared to citizens in democratic countries. Actual exposure to terrorist attacks has no impact on citizens’ fear of terrorism when we account for whether the country is a democracy or not. Hence, democratic government displays resilience towards fear mongering.     

Credibility of the Emotional Witness: A Study of Ratings by Court Judges

Previous studies have shown that the emotional behavior displayed during testimony may affect the perceived credibility of the witness. The present study compares credibility ratings by Norwegian court judges with those made by lay people. The participants viewed one of three video-recorded versions of a rape victim's statement, role played by a professional actress. The statement was given in a free-recall manner with one of three kinds of emotions displayed, termed congruent, neutral, and incongruent emotional expression. The results show that, in contrast to lay people, the credibility ratings of court judges and their votes for a guilty verdict were not influenced by the emotions displayed by the witness. Results are discussed in terms of professional expertise.     

Public Sector Growth: Comparing Politicians’ and Administrators’ Spending Preferences

The notion that appointed bureaucrats act as budget maximizers still stands strong within theories attempting to explain the growth in the size of the public sector. This paper reports the results of a case study that included local authority politicians and bureaucrats in 30 Norwegian municipalities and where differences in spending preferences was empirically investigated. Counter to the original theory, bureaucrats seem to be less expansive than their political counterparts. The most expansive were found to be members of political left‐wing parties, the more peripheral politicians and administrators, women, those with lower education and those working in the public sector. Nevertheless, there is some support given to a modified hypothesis that administrators have stronger preferences for ‘slack’ (that is, organizational slack in terms of spending more money on internal administration) than politicians. The data also strongly support the notion that within a specialized sector, both politicians and administrators have similar preferences for higher spending to their specific sector.