Investigation of the Criminal and Conditional Release Profiles of Canadian Federal Offenders as a Function of Psychopathy and Age

Using the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R; R. D. Hare, 1991) diagnostic cutoff score of 30, the complete criminal career and community release profiles of 317 Canadian federal offenders (224 low scorers and 93 scoring within the psychopathic range) were investigated. Adult crimes were coded according to age at commission as well as either violent, nonviolent, or nonsexually violent. Changes in performance following release into the community also were examined. Results indicated that offenders scoring within the psychopathic range consistently committed more violent and nonviolent crimes than their counterparts for about three decades, spanning their late adolescence to their late 40s. Numbers of nonviolent criminal offenses committed by high PCL-R scorers declined considerably after age 30 relative to violent offenses, which declined and then rebounded in the late 30s before a major reduction was evidenced. Throughout adulthood, high PCL-R scorers failed during community release significantly faster than did low scorers. Importantly, from a risk management perspective, the release performance of low PCL-R scorers improved with age, whereas the opposite was seen for high scorers. Further, offenders scoring high on the PCL-R did not show a lower charge to conviction ratio with age, suggesting that they may not have been getting better at manipulating the legal system.     

The Chechen Exception: Rethinking Russia's Human Rights Policy

Orthodox interpretations of human rights policies and practices in post-Soviet Russia are often construed by external critics through a historicist lens of tsarist and Soviet-era authoritarianism. Contemporary Russia's adherence to emerging international human rights norms is commonly judged in sole reference to its human rights disaster in Chechnya. In this article, we contest the notion that human rights abuses in Chechnya fully illustrate Russia's stance on international human rights. We suggest that Chechnya is the exception in the post-Soviet era, and that Russia has increasingly brought its human rights standards in line with the West. We use a historical comparative context as well as Russia's discursive response to NATO's intervention in Kosovo and its UN Security Council voting record as empirical evidence for our argument. ¹     

Men's attitudes toward affirmative action: Justice and intergroup relations at the crossroads

Two studies were conducted to examine some factors that may motivate support of or opposition to affirmative action programs for women. In the first study, a sample of 96 French-speaking male managers and professionals were presented with one of three versions of an affirmative action program to benefit women in blue-collar jobs. The men were asked about their endorsements and beliefs about the program described to them and (using a neosexism scale) about sex equity. Results indicate that neosexist attitudes influence support of the program presented, and articulating adherence to a merit principle in affirmative action influences perceptions of fairness. The second study evaluated reactions to an affirmative action program targeting jobs similar to those of the participants. Four conditions were designed to determine which element or combinations of elements of information presented in the first merit condition might have a stronger impact on fairness evaluations. A total of 131 francophone male managers and professionals participated in this study. Results reveal that neosexist attitudes influence level of support for the program. Both neosexism and the four conditions had an impact on evaluations of fairness.