The Quality of Forensic Psychological Assessments,Reports, and Testimony: Acknowledging the Gap Between Promise and Practice

During the past decade, the field of forensic psychological assessment entered a period of standard setting, reflected in the publication of specialty guidelines for practice and in the proliferation of educational opportunities, training programs, and credentialing and certification procedures for forensic examiners. Representing significant efforts to advance the quality of psychological assessments in legal contexts, these developments foreshadow the promise of forensic assessment. During this same time period, new evidence emerged regarding the quality of forensic practice. This article reviews this evidence and evaluates current practice against the promise of forensic assessment. Forensic reports appear to be of higher quality than those described by commentators in the 1970s and early 1980s; nevertheless, the level of practice falls far short of professional aspirations for the field. The review identifies significant areas of weakness that demand the attention of professional organizations, accrediting agencies, educators, lawmakers, practitioners, and consumers.The truth is what is, not what should be.--Lenny Bruce     

The functioning of large-scale cooperative enterprise in the south: A case study from Nicaragua

This paper examines the functioning and performance of a large cooperative federation in Nicaragua, concerned mainly with retailing. Set up in late 1985, in response to undersupply to smallholders, especially those in the mountainous interior, it has followed a strategy of rapid expansion. By using a federal structure which has allowed middle and junior management freedom to take the initiative, and by adopting mostly simple, appropriate, and non-bureaucratic procedures, the federation has succeeded in mounting an impressively large operation, with over 190 shops selling a wide variety of goods. On the other hand, at the centre, sales have grown sluggishly since 1988, costs have risen, and liquidity has become a problem. Moreover, the organization has lost capital, largely through its pricing policy. These can be blamed partly on the federated structure, the lack of a medium-term strategy, and dependency upon external donors; and partly on the trading environment of recession and uncertainty. The case study illustrates the difficulties in establishing large-scale cooperative enterprise, and the need in the long run to realise comparative advantage.     

More Than One Trap: Problematic Interpretations and Overlooked Lessons from Thucydides

Popular rendition of the so-called Thucydides’ Trap focuses excessively on only one possible explanation of interstate wars to the exclusion of others. It also commits various acts of commission and omission that threaten the validity of its central proposition. This essay reviews some of the major problems pertaining to the logic of inquiry characteristic to this genre of analysis, its interpretation of historical evidence, and its neglect of alternative explanations of war – even those that Thucydides had written about in his account. There is a danger of self-fulfilling prophecy to the extent that leaders in Beijing and Washington are inclined to believe in an analogy to an ancient war that happened some 2500 years ago. Conventional invocations of Thucydides’ Trap fail to recognize that there are several possible pathways to war. Because they offer only a structural explanation based on interstate power shifts, they give short shrift to the role of human agency and fail to attend sufficiently to what leaders can do to avoid conflict.

     

Migration,Internal Security and the UK's EU Membership

A key part of the debate about the UK's membership of the EU is concern about levels of migration and the impact upon security. This paper assesses how much impact EU membership has on each of these issues, and examines the likely impact of leaving the EU in each of these areas.