The Characterization of 3,4-Dimethylmethcathinone (3,4-DMMC)

Analogs and derivatives of traditional illicit drugs are ever increasing in variety and creativity. Staying abreast of the new developments is a constant challenge for every forensic laboratory. Recently, a seizure from Australian Customs Service presented our laboratory with the designer cathinone 3,4-dimethylmethcathinone (3,4-DMMC). Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS), liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, infrared (IR) spectroscopy, and ultraviolet (UV) spectrophotometry were employed to analyze the spectroscopic characteristics of this cathinone. As an analog, 3,4-DMMC exhibits similar if not identical IR and UV profiles to mephedrone (4-MMC) and methcathinone; however, the retention time from GC is unique as expected, and the electron impact fragmentation pattern is consistent with the fragmentation pattern of other cathinones. The chemical shifts of the carbons and hydrogens were assigned by both one- and two-dimensional NMR techniques, while the molecular weight was confirmed by LC/MS.     

Evaluating the Violence Prevention Program: group and individual changes in aggression,anger, self-control,and empathy

While youth violence reduction program is a necessity to prevent long-term criminal and violent offending, its effectiveness in youth violent offenders is not well researched. This study investigated the effectiveness of the Violence Prevention Program (VPP) in addressing the aggression, anger, self-control, and empathy of youth violent offenders. One hundred and seventy youths (mean age 15.8 years) who completed VPP from 2008 to 2014 completed self-report measures on study outcomes both before and after the intervention. Repeated measures analyses revealed significant improvement in youths’ anger, aggression, and self-control at post-treatment, but changes in youths’ empathy were not significant. Subsequent analysis found that only youths with lower empathy scores at pre-treatment showed significant increase in empathy post-treatment. Overall, the results suggest that VPP can reduce aggression and mitigate the criminogenic needs of youth offenders. But its effect on empathy may be contingent on youths’ pre-treatment profiles. Limitations and implications for future studies are discussed.     

Evaluating Stranger and Acquaintance Rape: The Role of Benevolent Sexism in Perpetrator Blame and Recommended Sentence Length

In most jurisdictions, the law does not recognize the distinction between stranger and acquaintance rape. However, these two types of rape seem to elicit different responses from both lay observers and legal practitioners. Two studies investigating the role of benevolent sexism (BS) in accounting for participants' responses to acquaintance vs. stranger rape perpetrators are reported. Participants were presented with vignettes describing either an acquaintance rape or a stranger rape. As predicted, relative to low-BS individuals, participants who scored high in BS attributed less blame (Study 1) and recommended shorter sentences (Study 2) for the acquaintance rape perpetrator. Benevolent sexism was unrelated to reactions to the perpetrator in the stranger rape condition.     

Different views: The impact of sex,area of residence,and victimization on teenagers' explanations for delinquency

It was hypothesized, following attribution theory, thatpsychological closeness (such as familiarity, similarity, and physical proximity) to the perpetrators of delinquency would lead to its being explained in terms of external (environmental and situational) factors. In contrast, since being a victim of delinquent acts imbues one with personal relevance it should promote internal (dispositional and personal) explanations. Consistent with these hypotheses, the 15-year-olds in the present study endorsed less individualistic explanations and stressed the social functions of delinquency more than did older subjects in an earlier study (A. Furnham and M. Henderson [1983] Lay Theories of Delinquency,European Journal of Social Psychology, 13: 107–112). Moreover, males, those living closer to the city center, and nonvictims favored external explanations more than did females, those living on the outskirts of the city and in rural areas and victims. It is concluded that social explanations for delinquency are informed both by group membership and by the context and quality of experiences of delinquency.This research was conducted by the second author as a part of her undergraduate dissertation while all three authors were at the Department of Psychology of the Bristol University.He has a Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Kent at Canterbury, and is currently researching self-awareness and self-presentation in intergroup behavior.She is currently employed by the Inland Revenue.He has a Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Bristol, and is currently conducting research into social identity and social influence.     

Estimating policy positions of local parties in elections with multi-vote ballots

This paper investigates the potential for estimating policy positions from electoral results in elections with multiple votes. When voters can spread their votes across multiple party lists in open list elections, they are more likely to select candidates from parties with similar policy positions. The electoral results can therefore be exploited to infer parties’ preferences based on the structure of vote combinations. The proposed data provide a valuable tool for analysing party behaviour in circumstances where ordinary methods for estimating policy positions fail, most importantly in electoral contexts with local competitors. Applying an ideal point model for count data, party preferences are estimated for a German municipality.     

Heirloom rice in Ifugao: an ‘anti-commodity’ in the process of commodification

We analyse the marketing of ‘heirloom rices’ produced in the Cordillera mountains of northern Luzon, the Philippines, as the commodification of a historical ‘anti-commodity’. We contend that, historically, rice was produced for social, cultural and spiritual purposes but not primarily for sale or trade. The Ifugaos were able to sustain terraced wet-rice cultivation within a system of ‘escape agriculture’ because they were protected from Spanish interference by the friction of terrain and distance. ‘Heirloom rice’ is a boundary concept that enables social entrepreneurs to commodify traditional landraces. We analyse the implications for local rice production and conservation efforts.     

Electoral terms and terrorism

Many terror attacks occur at the beginning of electoral terms. We present a game theoretical model with incomplete information to account for this empirical pattern. Both terrorists and governments can be of weak or strong types. We find that the risk of terror attacks is highest at the beginning of electoral terms, because striking early allows the terrorists to collect valuable information about the government’s type, and also because terrorists know that even initially weak governments sometimes retaliate to show toughness closer to an upcoming election. The model’s predictions are consistent with anecdotal evidence.     

The Role of Violent Media Preference in Cumulative Developmental Risk for Violence and General Aggression

The impact of exposure to violence in the media on the long-term development and short-term expression of aggressive behavior has been well documented. However, gaps in this literature remain, and in particular the role of violent media exposure in shaping violent and other serious antisocial behavior has not been investigated. Further, studies of violent media effects typically have not sampled from populations with confirmed histories of violent and/or nonviolent antisocial behavior. In this study, we analyzed data on 820 youth, including 390 juvenile delinquents and 430 high school students, to examine the relation of violent media use to involvement in violence and general aggression. Using criterion scores developed through cross-informant modeling of data from self, parent/guardian, and teacher/staff reports, we observed that childhood and adolescent violent media preferences contributed significantly to the prediction of violence and general aggression from cumulative risk totals. Findings represent a new and important direction for research on the role of violent media use in the broader matrix of risk factors for youth violence.

Pivotal Failure

<正>Former U.S.president leaves behind an unsubstantial legacy in the Asia-Pacific Back in April 2007 at the very first Democratic presidential primary debate of the 2008 U.S.general election,an up-and-coming Illinois Senator was questioned on the United States’most important     

Looking East The reemergence of a multi-polar world

For millennia, Chinese society, one of Earth's greatest and most advanced, subsisted just fine on its own set of values. Chinese politi-cal philosophy is rooted in the ancient teachings of Confucius. A key tenet of this is filial piety.