An application of Megargee's Algebra of aggression to the case of theodore bundy

The case of Theodore Robert Bundy, a young man allegedly responsible for the murders of more than 36 women in five states, has captured the imagination of many people in current society. The killer resembles the “boynext-door” stereotype of an attractive, articulate young man. The women were most often college co-eds abducted from crowded areas or struck down while they were alone. The crimes themselves were brutal sexual assaults, with the bodies of the victims often discovered months later in uninhabited areas. Such crimes demand efforts on the part of crminologists and psychologists toward an understanding and, ultimately control of potential future behavior, Megargee's Algebra of Aggression, in which he attributes the propensity to commit violent acts to specific factors, offers one such framework of understanding. While theoretical and after-the-fact, it may aid comprehension of crimes which are currently incomprehensible. This paper applies Megargee's Algebra of Aggression to the crimes of Theodore Robert Bundy. It seeks to explain Bundy's actions in terms of his instigation to aggression, habit strengths which encouraged continued violent acts, inhibitions which may have limited some of his activity, and situational factors which fostered violence as an acceptable response. It is based on a review of the literature deading with Bundy and the author's own involvement as an investigator in one of Bundy's crimes, the Chi Omega murders at Florida State University.     

Negotiating Russian Federalism: A Simulation for Comparative Politics

While the use of simulations in the international relations classroom has proliferated over the past decade, this pedagogical tool has been largely neglected in the comparative politics classroom. Simulations in comparative politics can be a useful component in teaching students about the diversity within foreign countries and the dynamic of domestic policymaking. We describe here an informative and easy-to-run simulation on Russian federalism which can be integrated into courses on Russian politics or easily adapted for use in other courses, especially those focusing on countries in which center-regional relations are an important dimension. The simulation is based on the Russian Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian Federal Assembly, and is a great way to illustrate through experiential learning the quid pro quo of Russian federalism. We provide detailed information on English-language sources that both instructors and students can use during the simulation, along with an Appendix and a Website that provides everything instructors need to run the simulation in their own classes.     

Adolescent Health: Are We Willing to Pay the Price for Inaction?

Several years ago, a legislator spoke clearly of the wishful unawareness we often confront in public health. After a session of frank exchange in his committee about teen pregnancy in Arkansas, he said, "Dr. Elders, until you became the health department director, we didn't have this problem." The facts paint a startling scenario for such people. We have not provided an environment in which our children can flourish. Instead, we have allowed the number of children who are economically, educationally, and medically disadvantaged to grow. Called "at-risk," their existence is an affront to democratic ideals, especially the belief that all have an equal chance for prosperity. It is time for true reform, but before that can happen, we must face the state of our children's health. After this, we must set to work at effective strategies.     

Binding Prometheus: How the 19th Century Expansion of Trade Impeded Britain's Ability to Raise an Army

This article explores how the dramatic expansion of British trade in the decades prior to World War I affected Britain's ability to raise an army. We first develop a simple institutionally based model of British army recruiting which we then perturb by expanding trade while holding all other variables constant. Our theoretical analysis suggests that the expansion of trade would impede Britain's ability to raise an army, a prediction that finds substantial support in the historical record using both quantitative and qualitative analysis. Contrary to the conventional wisdom that trade enhances a state's military power, we find that the expansion of trade did not ease Britain's resource constraints by making labor more freely available for military purposes. Rather, by raising the civilian demand for labor, the expansion of trade made labor more expensive and difficult to mobilize, even as a more effective army became more important to British strategy.     

Learning leaders: The key to learning organisations

Learning and knowledge management are crucial capacities for many NGOs. This article attempts to answer such questions as: why is learning seen as so important for NGOs? How do successful NGOs actually learn? And what role do key individuals or leaders play in this process? The article draws heavily on the findings of a study of South Asian NGOs, which suggests that an NGO's ability to learn is dependent on its organisational culture and in particular the development of an internal culture of learning. The case studies from South Asia reveal that the creation of this 'learning culture' derives primarily from the attitude of the leadership towards learning: at the heart of a learning organisation is a 'learning leader'.