Views of Male University Students About Social Gender Roles; An Example From East of Turkey

Social gender roles refer to the roles that are traditionally associated with women and men. Social gender role includes the personal attributes and behaviors which are culturally assigned to women and men. This study was conducted to determine the views of male students at Caucasian University Health School on social gender roles at work, social life, marriage, and family life. The study was conducted on male students studying at Kars Health School, Nursing and Health Officers Department during 2007–2008 academic year. The students were given 24 statements relating to work life, social life, marriage, and family life to determine their views on social gender roles. Results indicated that 30.2% of the male students stated that women could work in a paid job, 56.9% believed in equality of women and men, 44.8% approved honor killing, 40.5% said the girls should receive education as far as they can go, 54.3% said the role of the women was to “provide moral support to their husband and children”, 37.1% stated that husbands could beat their wives under certain circumstances, 52.6% said they witnessed violence in their family at some stage of their lives, 51.7% said the women’s environment should be decided by the spouses together, 25% said the women should engage in sexual intercourse with their spouses even if they did not want to. Men who thought the role of the women was to do housework/giving birth to children/looking after the elderly members of the house, and who approved honor killing and disapproved working of their spouses, and who did not believe in equality of women and men, were found to support violence to women by men. Moreover, the students who witnessed violence at some stage of their lives supported this view as well. It was considered that the students should be educated on the definition of violence and situations involving violence, and directed to consultant services.     

The prevalence of mental disorders in prisoners in the city of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

The number of individuals affected by serious psychiatric disorders in Brazilian prisons is unknown. This cross-sectional study was conducted in prison complexes within the city of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. The sample consisted of 497 prisoners, and the outcome measure was the Brazilian Portuguese version of the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview. The prevalence rates found in the closed and semi-open prison systems, respectively, were as follows: depression 17.6% and 18.8%; bipolar mood disorder 5.2% and 10.1%; anxiety disorders 6.9% and 14.4%; borderline personality disorder 19.7% and 34.8%; antisocial personality disorder 26.9% and 24.2%; alcohol addiction 26.6% and 35.3%; drug addiction 27.9% and 32.4%; psychosis 1.4% and 12.6%; attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in childhood 10.3% and 22.2%; and ADHD in adulthood 4.1% and 5.3%. This study revealed higher rates of substance-related disorders and lower rates of psychotic and mood disorders compared to other prevalence studies carried out in prison populations.     

Automated region segmentation on cartridge case base

One of the significant problems encountered in criminology studies is the successful automated matching of fired cartridge cases, on the basis of the characteristic marks left on them by firearms. An intermediate step in the solution of this problem is the segmentation of certain regions that are defined on the cartridge case base. This paper describes a model-based method that performs segmentation of the cartridge case using surface height image of a center fire cartridge case base. The proposed method detects the location of the cartridge case base center and specific circular contours around it iteratively by projecting the problem to a one-dimensional feature space. In addition, the firing pin impression region is determined by utilizing an adaptive threshold that differentiates impression marks form primer region surface. Letters on the cartridge case base are also detected by using surface modeling and adaptive thresholding, in order to render the surface comparison operation robust against irrelevant surface features. Promising experimental results indicate the eligibility of the proposed method to be used for automated cartridge case base region segmentation process.     

On choosing the alternative with the best median evaluation

The voting rule proposed by Basset and Persky (Public Choice 99:299?C310, 1999) picks the alternative with the best median evaluation. This paper shows that this MaxMed principle is equivalent to the MaxMin (so-called Rawls??) principle, with the proviso that one can discard half of the population. In one-dimensional, single-peaked domains, the paper compares the MaxMed rule with majority rule and the utilitarian criterion. The MaxMed outcome is rejected by a majority of voters in favor of outcomes that are also utilitarian improvements.     

Does punishment of minor sexual offences deter rapes? Longitudinal evidence from France

Using original French panel data, this paper investigates the relevance of the broken windows theory in case of an offence category featured by the absence of monetary benefits. Estimates from random and fixed effects models highlight the deterrent effect of sanctions for rapes and minor sexual offences. The enforcement activity of rapes is the most deterrent factor both for rapes and other sexual offences, compared with the rapes- and minor sexual offences-reducing impact of an increase in the enforcement activity for minor sexual offences. Our results cast doubt on the broken windows theory. From a normative perspective, it would be more efficient to deter the authors of rapes rather than those of less severe sexual offences.     

Childhood Trauma,Type of Marriage and Self-Esteem as Correlates of Domestic Violence in Married Women in Turkey

The aim of this study is to determine childhood trauma, the type of marriage, and level of self-esteem as correlates of domestic violence in married women in Turkey. The study sample consisted of 750 women aged 20 and over, selected through face to face interviews. Results More than half the women were exposed to domestic violence, which increases with factors like lower economic status, teenage and arranged marriages and a large number of children. According to the logistic regression model, arranged marriages, sexual problems and physical abuse during childhood lead to an increase in the occurrence of domestic violence, while this decreases as the partners age. The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale scores were significantly lower in women subjected to domestic violence and this decrease became statistically significant as the level of abuse experienced during childhood increased.     

The Prevalence of Domestic Violence Against Women Among a Group Woman: Ankara,Turkey

This study determines the frequency of the spousal domestic violence among 1,178 married women who applied to some first level medical institutions located in Ankara, the capital of Turkey. 77.9% (n = 918) of the women who participated in the study have stated that they have been exposed to at least one of the types of spousal violence during their lifetime. The most reported type of domestic violence suffered by women throughout their lives is economic violence (60.4%). The prevalence of controlling behaviors, emotional violence, physical and sexual violence are 59.6%, 39.7%, 29.9% and 31.3% respectively.     

Sudden Death by Spontaneous Epiglottic Hematoma Secondary to High Blood Levels of Warfarin

A 67‐year‐old man was found dead, at his home. On external examination, we found a voluminous purplish black ecchymosis of the anterior neck area. On internal examination, we found a voluminous epiglottis hematoma completely obstructing the upper airway. It was associated with other sites of intra‐abdominal hemorrhage. Toxicological studies revealed the presence of warfarin at a concentration of 8.4 mg/L in peripheral blood, which supposes an INR well above 4.5. To conclude, we supposed death was due to asphyxia secondary to a spontaneous epiglottic hematoma caused by a high blood concentration of warfarin. Hemorrhage in the epiglottis is very rare. To our knowledge, our patient is the only case of “sudden death” reported with spontaneous epiglottic hematoma due to high blood concentration of warfarin. In forensic practice, an anterior neck ecchymosis, without trauma, may suggest hemorrhage into soft airway tissues. Pathology findings make it possible to exclude exogenous trauma.     

Psychometric properties of the inventory of callous-unemotional traits short version (ICU-12) among detained female juvenile offenders and community youths*

The presence of callous-unemotional (CU) traits delineates a subgroup of male youth with severe conduct problems and antisocial behavior. To date however, existing research into these features among females is markedly limited. Drawing on 377 female adolescents (103 selected from forensic settings and 274 selected from school settings) from Portugal, the current study is the first to simultaneously examine the psychometric properties of the 12-item shortened version of the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits (ICU-12) in incarcerated and community female youth. Results provide support for the construct validity and reliability of the ICU-12 among this unique sample. Findings from this study also reveal evidence of convergent and discriminant validity with a number of theoretically relevant constructs (e.g. psychopathic features, aggression, and substance use). Clinical implications for using the ICU-12 with females are discussed.     

Cold-blooded women can detect lies with greater accuracy than other women

Lies are notoriously difficult to detect. But it appears that some people are better at accomplishing this task than others even though the factors contributing to deception detection accuracy are not well understood. This study explored the influence of empathy on the detection of deception as a function of the detectors’ gender while dark personality traits were statistically controlled. Eighty men and 80 women were requested to judge whether individuals viewed in videos were giving their true opinion or not on current debatable issues (50% truthful and 50% deceptive narratives). Judges were divided into four groups according to their gender and their degree of empathy, as assessed using the Questionnaire Measure of Emotional Empathy. It was found that women with lower levels of empathy distinguished false from true opinions better than women with higher empathy, whereas no such difference was found in men. These results suggest that the degree of empathy in women influences their ability to detect deception and supports recent studies showing that emotional skills negatively affect deception detection ability. We suggest that less empathic women are less affected by emotional contagion and thus may be more able to focus on non-emotional cues that might reveal deception.