The importance of self-beliefs on relational aggression of college students

This study examined the interrelationships among mattering to friends, self-esteem, spirituality, and perpetration of relational aggression in friendships among 457 college students. While the three self-belief variables were positively related to each other, only spirituality and mattering to friends discriminated between men and women. Women reported higher spirituality and mattering to friends, and men reported slightly higher self-esteem. Perpetration of relational aggression was negatively related to mattering to friends and self-esteem and was not related to spirituality. Findings are discussed in light of Erikson's theory of adolescent development and Gilligan's theory of interpersonal relationships.     

An Experimental Investigation of Electoral Delegation and the Provision of Public Goods

How effectively do democratic institutions provide public goods? Despite the incentives an elected leader has to free ride or impose majority tyranny, our experiment demonstrates that electoral delegation results in full provision of the public good. Analysis of the experimental data suggests that the result is primarily due to electoral selection: groups elect prosocial leaders and replace those who do not implement full contribution outcomes. However, we also observe outcomes in which a minimum winning coalition exploits the contributions of the remaining players. A second experiment demonstrates that when electoral delegation must be endogenously implemented, individuals voluntarily cede authority to an elected agent only when preplay communication is permitted. Our combined results demonstrate that democratic delegation helps groups overcome the free‐rider problem and generally leads to outcomes that are often both efficient and equitable.     

The Evidence-Based Policing Matrix

The next phase of evidence-based policing requires both scholars and practitioners to move from lists of specific studies about “what works” to using that information strategically. This requires developing generalizations or principles on the nature of effective police strategies and translating the field of police evaluation research into digestible forms that can be used to alter police tactics, strategies, accountability systems, and training. In this article, we present a tool intended for such use: the Evidence-Based Policing Matrix. The Matrix is a consistently updated, research-to-practice translation tool that categorizes and visually bins all experimental and quasi-experimental research on police and crime reduction into intersections between three common dimensions of crime prevention—the nature of the target, the extent to which the strategy is proactive or reactive, and the specificity or generality of the strategy. Our mapping and visualization of 97 police evaluation studies conducted through December 31, 2009, indicate that proactive, place-based, and specific policing approaches appear much more promising in reducing crime than individual-based, reactive, and general ones. We conclude by discussing how the Matrix can be used to guide future research and facilitate the adoption of evidence-based policing.     

The information gained from witnesses' responses to an initial "blank" lineup

Wells ("The psychology of lineup identifications," Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 1984, 14, 89-103) proposed that a blank lineup (an initial lineup of known-to-be-innocent foils) can be used to screen eyewitnesses; witnesses who chose from a blank lineup (initial choosers) were more likely to make an error on a second lineup that contained a suspect than were witnesses who rejected a blank lineup (initial nonchoosers). Recent technological advances (e.g., computer-administered lineups) may overcome many of the practical difficulties cited as a barrier to the use of blank lineups. Our research extended knowledge about the blank lineup procedure by investigating the underlying causes of the difference in identification performance between initial choosers and initial nonchoosers. Studies 1a and 1b (total, N = 303) demonstrated that initial choosers were more likely to reject a second lineup than initial nonchoosers and witnesses who did not view a blank lineup, implying that cognitive biases (e.g., confirmation bias and commitment effects) influenced initial choosers' identification decisions. In Study 2 (N = 200), responses on a forced-choice identification test provided evidence that initial choosers have, on average, poorer memories for the culprit than do initial nonchoosers. We also investigated the usefulness of blank lineups for interpreting identification evidence. Diagnosticity ratios suggested that suspect identifications made by initial nonchoosers (cf. initial choosers) should have a greater impact on estimates of the likely guilt of the suspect. Furthermore, for initial nonchoosers, higher confidence in blank lineup rejections was associated with higher diagnosticity for subsequent suspect identifications. These results have implications for policy to guide the collection and interpretation of identification evidence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

The Programme de recherche en démographie historique: past,present and future developments in family reconstitution

The Programme de recherche en démographie historique (Historical Demography Research Programme) (PRDH), founded in 1966 and based at the Département de Démographie of the Université de Montréal, has since its inception featured a central project, a family reconstitution database of Quebec’s Catholic population from 1621 to 1799 named the Registre de la population du Québec ancien (Population Register of Historic Quebec) (RPQA). This article, which marks the fiftieth anniversary of the project, explores the development of the RPQA over the five decades in the context of similar international databases, explains the current state of the database as well as our record linkage methodology, describes an important collaboration now underway to build a larger Quebec historical data infrastructure, outlines new and renewed international collaborations, and summarizes research conducted using these data as well as future research possibilities. The particular geographic context, historical development and manageable colonial population size of Quebec favoured family reconstitution of the whole colony from the beginning of the project. Today, the RPQA comprises 438,193 individual biographies and 74,000 family files encompassing up to nine generations. To reconstitute families, we must identify and incorporate into the database all demographic events, including those whose existence can only be inferred through other sources. Future efforts to link nineteenth-century parish acts will need to deal with large case counts, mixed Catholic–Protestant marriages, and increased geographic and social mobility. The integration of complementary data will provide information on household co-residence, occupations, help track the destinies of mixed-religion persons and persons outside nuclear families and provide additional points of observation.     

The Adaptation of License-plate Readers for Investigative Purposes: Police Technology and Innovation Re-invention

Scholarship has focused on the use of license plate readers by patrol officers as a rational instrument for accomplishing key policing goals, including recovering stolen vehicles. In contrast, this paper applies the theoretical framework of innovation reinvention to explain how license plate readers are being used by criminal investigators in more novel ways. This perspective provides insights into the practical benefits of an enhanced version of this technology. More significantly, it helps illuminate the innovation attributes and the organizational determinants that contribute to its adaptation. In our case study of an agency with extensive deployment of license plate readers, we found that factors contributing to their reinvention included their widespread availability and compatibility with other information systems, their lack of complexity, the characteristics of their users, and the role of leadership in promoting their use. These findings have implications for advancing knowledge about the complex nature of the innovation process.     

Postmortem exsiccation of the fingertips--results of a systematic quantitative and qualitative experimental study

To date there have been no results published on qualitative and quantitative time-related changes with regard to desiccation of human fingertips post mortem. The fingertips of 52 hands from 36 corpses were qualitatively examined soon after death (2-6 h) to 120 h post mortem. The quantitative investigations were confined to the tips of the middle fingers. The width of three adjoining ridges of the skin was measured in four defined areas of the middle fingertips, and photographs were taken at intervals of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 20, 26, 32, 44, 50, 60, 72, 84, 96 and 120 h p.m. Concerning the qualitative test results, four time-related stages were classified macroscopically and by a pocket lens (X25). Desiccation stage IV correlates to the period 72 h after death in bodies found in apartments. Besides the rough, wrinkled, and brown or black surface of the fingertips, microwrinkles of the epidermis occur on the skin ridges, which have so far not been described. The quantitative results did not show any changes in the width of the skin ridges, independent of age, sex, right or left hand.