Adolescents' response to nuclear threat: Before and after the chernobyl accident

This study investigated adolescent responses to nuclear threat during intervals preceding and following the Chernobyl disaster. The Nuclear Threat Index was administered to 96 Israeli subjects two months prior to and two months following the disaster. In addition, they were tested with Rotter's Locus of Control Scale. The data results indicate that on the whole there were differences in scores between the two administrations, especially with respect to self-reported activity (behavioral subscales). Adolescents reported significantly more past nuclear-related activity before the accident as well as fewer anticipated activities after the accident. Adjusted for the preaccident score differences data reveal that after the accident younger adolescents reported less pessimism and more previous activity than the older adolescents. In addition, males reported more nuclear-related activity than females; younger males reported more past activity and less pessimism than older males; external males reported more activity than internal males. Discussion focuses on possible explanations for the results, on limitations of the investigation, and on implications for further research.Received Ph.D. in school counseling from Tel Aviv University. Research interests: evaluation of primary prevention programs, crisis intervention in mass disasters, and death studies.Received D.Sc. from the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology) Department of Management Science. Research interests: Statistics.Received M.A. in Education from University of Haifa, School guidance and counseling, Haifa, Israel.     

When it pays to be insane: three unusual legacies of insanity

Although the law generally does not permit an individual to profit by his own wrongdoing, that equitable principle may be inapplicable in the case of an individual who has been adjudicated insane (and therefore has not committed a wrong in the eyes of the law). This paper discusses three unusual legacies of a determination of insanity: the inheritance cases (permitting the insane killer to inherit from his own victim), the life insurance cases (permitting the beneficiary to recover when the insured commits suicide while insane), and the effect of insanity on publication rights agreements in sensational criminal cases.     

The Impact of Russian Terrorism in Kishinev on the Zionist Movement and the Jewish Intelligentsia

The explosion of terror which took place in the Bessarabian capital in April 1903 and which has since become known as the Kishinev Pogrom had a profound impact on all of Russian Jewry. But as far as the Zionist movement is concerned, and in opposition to what is generally believed about the Pogrom's central role in the history of Zionism, the Pogrom did not lead to any changes in the activities undertaken by the Zionists or in the ideology which they espoused. It was rather that the Pogrom triggered certain phenomena already present in Zionism during the preceding few years.