Police Officer Attitudes Toward Muslims and Islam: “Worlds Apart”?

American Muslims may be the most diverse group of Muslims in any country in the world. There are an estimated 5–7 million Muslims in the United States. They represent a number of different nationalities, ethnicities, and interpretations of Islam. Moreover, over the past few years there appears to be an increase in the immigration of Muslims to the United States. Law enforcement agencies are currently concerned with the danger of “homegrown” terrorists and terrorism in the U.S. American Muslims likely represent the best source of information regarding those who have been dangerously radicalized within their various communities. To cull important information from the community, police agencies need to contact and communicate with their Muslim population. The ability to achieve these goals would seem to be shaped by both organizational and individual officer understanding and perception of both Muslims and Islam. Organizations and officers with accurate views would likely find efforts at communication and information exchange more fruitful. The current research seeks to assess the knowledge of and attitudes toward Muslims and Islam among our sample of American police officers. Four general areas will be explored in the survey. First, we examine the respondents’ general understanding of many of the basic tenets of Islam. Next, we wish to explore some of the respondents’ attitudes regarding Muslims and Islam. Third, we explore the respondents’ perception of media treatment of Muslims and Islam. Last, the level of officer contact with Muslims is examined.     

Delivering Science into Public Policy: An Analysis of Murray‐Darling Basin Sustainable Yields Assessment as a Model for Impact

The desire to base policy at least in part upon scientific information is a clear trend in Australian governance. The growing literature on how to facilitate this intent highlights a few important principles complemented by examples from the application of social sciences. An example from a very large research project based on physical sciences responding to a national crisis is presented in the context of how it approached delivery to policy‐makers. The Murray‐Darling Basin Sustainable Yields Assessment, widely considered an outstanding success in both scientific terms and for its impact, is reviewed with respect to how the scientific challenge of assessing the future security of water resources in Australia's most important and politically contentious catchment translated into the policy domain. The lessons learned offer a potential template for science with policy intent.     

Improving the Effectiveness of the International Law of Human Trafficking: A Vision for the Future of the US Trafficking in Persons Reports

In 2000, the United States Congress passed the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act requiring its State Department to issue annual Trafficking in Persons Reports (TIP Reports) describing “the nature and extent of severe forms of trafficking in persons” and assessing governmental efforts across the world to combat such trafficking against criteria established by US law. This article examines the opportunities and risks presented by the TIP Reports, tracing their evolution over the past decade and considering their impact on the behavior of states. In looking to the future, the article focuses on how this influential unilateral compliance mechanism could improve its legitimacy, respond to negative impacts, and better contribute to the international legal regime around trafficking.     

On special protections for rescuers and helpers

There is something intuitively correct about singling out emergency workers for legal protection, and for criminalizing not just assault, but obstruction. Moreover, at least one sophisticated theory of right and wrong – Scanlon’s—indicates some deep reasons for endorsing these intuitions. After applying Scanlon’s theory in the relevant way, I want to argue that the same grounds it provides for recent Scottish legislation and UK sentencing guidelines can also be given for punishing more seriously offences that current English law trivialises.

Ventilatory and metabolic demands during aggressive physical restraint in healthy adults

We investigated ventilatory and metabolic demands in healthy adults when placed in the prone maximal restraint position (PMRP), i.e., hogtie restraint. Maximal voluntary ventilation (MVV) was measured in seated subjects (n=30), in the PMRP, and when prone with up to 90.1 or 102.3 kg of weight on the back. MVV with the heaviest weight was 70% of the seated MVV (122+/-28 and 156+/-38 L/min, respectively; p<0.001). Also, subjects (n=27) were placed in the PMRP and struggled vigorously for 60 sec. During the restrained struggle, ventilatory function (V(E)/ MVV) was 44% of MVV in the resting PMRP. While prone with up to 90.1 or 102.3 kg on the back, the decrease in MVV was of no clinical importance in these subjects. Also, while maximally struggling in the PMRP, V(E) was still adequate to supply the ventilatory needs.     

‘You didn't take Lucy's skirt off’: The effect of misleading information on omissions and commissions in children's memory reports

Purpose. The current study explored how misleading information affects children's omissions and commissions over time. Method. Fifty‐nine younger (M_age = 4.16) and fifty‐nine older (M_age = 9.44) children were instructed to remove three pieces of clothing from a puppet. Half of them were provided with false evidence that they had removed only two items, while the other half were provided with false evidence that they had removed a fourth piece of clothing. In three neutral interviews separated by 1‐week intervals, children had to report which pieces of clothing they had removed. Results. Overall, omission and commission errors significantly decreased over time, although this pattern was more pronounced for omission errors. Younger and older children were equally likely to make omission errors, whereas commission errors were more typical for younger than for older children. Also, we found that commission errors more readily occur than omission errors. Conclusion. Even when children's memory reports pertain to an event in which they actively participated, misleading information may elicit omission and commission errors, with especially the latter category being very persistent over time.     

Cranial Backspatter Pattern Production Utilizing Human Cadavers

A backspatter pattern results from blood drops that travel retrograde to an applied external force. Historically, an array of animals and nonhuman objects have been used to create and study backspatter patterns. In this study, backspatter patterns captured on foam core targets that were placed 45.72 cm (18 in) behind the impact site (occipital area of the skull) were produced by cranial gunshots to human cadavers that were reinfused with fresh defibrinated bovine blood. These patterns were compared to the backspatter patterns produced by shooting blood‐soaked sponges, a typical simulant used in controlled studies of backspatter pattern production and characteristics. The backspatter pattern produced by shooting an actual human head was found to be different than those of blood‐soaked sponges in the number of stains produced, the size and size range of the stains, and the stain dispersion patterns.     

Welfare Administration Reform Between Coordination and Specialization

This article identifies transboundary coordination practices and related modes of specialization in welfare administration reforms. We describe how the 2005 reform of the welfare administration in Norway started as a process of integration involving merger and partnership, but later, following the 2008 reorganization, introduced re-centralization and re-specialization. The main research questions are how we can explain this change of administrative reform? Why was the integrative administrative reform not sustainable and reorganization through re-specialization seen as a better answer to the “wicked issues” of welfare services? To answer these questions we apply a structural-instrumental perspective and a cultural-institutional perspective.