CHINA’S WATER PROBLEMS

This article looks at the problems facing China in regard of its water supply and usage. It considers China's available water resources and their uses, the growing water pollution, and the water management system adopted by China to secure the country's future. This includes small and large-scale projects, dams, the South-to-North Water Diversion Project/South-North Water Transfer Project (SNWDP/SNWTP) or <italic>Nanshuibeidiao</italic>, and the Sponge Cities Initiative. It also looks at some of the policy issues and relevant legislative frameworks developed to respond to the problem. This article argues that despite the measures taken by the Chinese government, water remains an area of concern for China.     

Police Strategies and Suspect Responses in Real-Life Serious Crime Interviews

This research focuses exclusively on real-life taped interviews with serious crime suspects and examines the strategies used and types of questions asked by police, and suspects’ responses to these. The information source was audio-tape-recorded interviews with 56 suspects. These recordings were obtained from 11 police services across England and Wales and were analysed using a specially designed coding frame. It was found that interviewers employed a range of strategies with presentation of evidence and challenge the most frequently observed. Closed questions were by far the most frequently used, and open questions, although less frequent, were found to occur more during the opening phases of the interviews. The frequency of ineffective question types (e.g. negative, repetitive, multiple) was low. A number of significant associations were observed between interviewer strategies and suspect responses. Rapport/empathy and open-type questions were associated with an increased likelihood of suspects admitting the offence whilst describing trauma, and negative questions were associated with a decreased likelihood.     

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.