Improving Children’s Interviewing Methods? The Effects of Drawing and Practice on Children’s Memories for an Event

In the present experiment, we were interested in the effects of drawings and practice on children’s memory performance. Younger (6/7-year-olds; n = 37) and older (11/12-year-olds; n = 44) children were presented with two videos that differed in complexity. Half of the children had to practice recalling an experienced event (i.e., last holiday) before remembering the two videos. The other half was not presented with such practice. Then, all children had to tell what they could still recollect about the first video. For the second video, all children were allowed to draw and tell during the recollection of the event. As expected, we found that for the complex video, making a drawing increased the completeness of children’s statements, but also reduced the accuracy of their statements. Although we found that including practice reduced the completeness of statements, it did not negatively impact the accuracy of children’s memory reports. Taken together, our results imply that interviewers should be cautious in using drawings as an interviewing method as it might elevate the production of incorrect information.     

"Recht auf kein Kind?" – Überlegungen anlässlich der jüngsten Entscheidung des OGH zu "wrongful birth"

Vor kurzem hatte der OGH wieder einen Fall von "wrongful birth" zu entscheiden; den Eltern wurde der gesamte Unterhaltsaufwand für ihr behindert geborenes Kind zugesprochen. Ausgehend von dieser Entscheidung behandelt der folgende Beitrag die Frage, ob die Anerkennung eines Ersatzanspruches in diesem Umfang insbesondere mit Rücksicht auf den Schutzzweck des Behandlungsvertrages geboten erscheint. Daneben wird auf die nach wie vor uneinheitliche Rsp des H?chstgerichts zu "wrongful birth" einerseits und "wrongful conception" andererseits eingegangen.     

Does contact with the justice system deter or promote future delinquency? Results from a longitudinal study of British adolescent twins

What impact does formal punishment have on antisocial conduct—does it deter or promote it? The findings from a long line of research on the labeling tradition indicate formal punishments have the opposite-of-intended consequence of promoting future misbehavior. In another body of work, the results show support for deterrence-based hypotheses that punishment deters future misbehavior. So, which is it? We draw on a nationally representative sample of British adolescent twins from the Environmental Risk (E-Risk) Longitudinal Twin Study to perform a robust test of the deterrence versus labeling question. We leverage a powerful research design in which twins can serve as the counterfactual for their co-twin, thereby ruling out many sources of confounding that have likely impacted prior studies. The pattern of findings provides support for labeling theory, showing that contact with the justice system—through spending a night in jail/prison, being issued an anti-social behaviour order (ASBO), or having an official record—promotes delinquency. We conclude by discussing the impact these findings may have on criminologists’ and practitioners’ perspective on the role of the juvenile justice system in society.     

Assisted Emigration from Northern Germany to South Australia in the Nineteenth Century

Between 1848 and 1854, the Kingdom of Hanover financed emigration from the Harz mountains to South Australia. The scheme employed was exceptional; emigrants received interest-free loans and only those with a "good character" were eligible, not the destitute, criminal or "undesirable". Emigration was voluntary. The decision of the Hanoverian government to assist emigration was influenced by socio-economic developments in the Harz. Most emigrants were young, employed in mining, and of limited means. In Australia the Harz emigrants constituted about fifteen per cent of all German immigrants in the mid-nineteenth century. They settled throughout South Australia and Victoria but few joined German communities. The settlement and naturalisation patterns, occupations and marriage patterns of the Harz immigrants in Australia indicate that, as a group, they differed from other nineteenth century German immigrants.