How do sex offenders think the police should interview to elicit confessions from sex offenders?

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore sex offenders' perceptions of how the police should interview suspected sex offenders to facilitate confessions, and to investigate whether there is a relationship between sex offenders' perceptions of how the police interviewed them and their decisions to confess or deny. Forty-three convicted sex offenders were interviewed using two 35-item questionnaires that contained five questions on each of seven interviewing strategies. An additional 20 violent offenders were included for comparison purposes. The strategies were evidence presenting strategies, ethical interviewing, displays of humanity, displays of dominance, use of minimization and maximization techniques, and demonstrating an understanding of sex offenders' cognitive distortions. One questionnaire concerned how the police should interview sex offenders and the other concerned how they perceived the police who interviewed them. Generally speaking, evidence presenting strategies, ethical interviewing, and displays of humanity were perceived to increase the likelihood of a confession. Interviewer dominance was perceived to be associated with a reduction in the likelihood of a confession.     

Younger and older adults’ lie-detection and credibility judgments of children's coached reports

ABSTRACT

Previous research has examined young and middle-aged adults’ perceptions of child witnesses; however, no research to date has examined how potential older adult jurors may perceive a child witness. The present investigation examined younger (18–30 years, N?=?100) and older adults’ (66–89 years, N?=?100) lie-detection and credibility judgments when viewing children's truthful and dishonest reports. Participants viewed eight child interview videos where children (9–11 years of age) either provided a truthful report or a coached fabricated report to conceal a transgression. Participants provided lie-detection judgments following all eight videos and credibility assessments following the first two videos. Participants completed a General Lifespan Credibility questionnaire to assess credibility evaluations across various witness ages. Lie-detection results indicated that older adults had significantly lower discrimination scores, a stronger truth bias, and greater confidence compared to younger adults. Older adults also rated children as more competent to testify in court, credible, honest, believable, and likeable than younger adults. Participants with greater differences in their credibility evaluations for truth and lie-tellers were significantly more accurate at detecting lies. Responses to the Lifespan Credibility questionnaire revealed significant differences in younger and older adults’ credibility evaluations across the lifespan.     

The relationship between schemas and offence supportive attitudes in mentally disordered sexual offenders

Abstract

The study of schemas in sexual offenders is a relatively new approach in attempts to understand the deviant beliefs and attitudes of sexual offenders. Emerging findings suggest that offence supportive attitudes may be the product of an offender's underlying schemas. This study aims to establish the relationship between offence supportive attitudes and schemas in a sample of mentally disordered sexual offenders (MDSOs). Thirty-one male sexual offenders held within low through high security forensic mental health units were assessed using the Young Schema Questionnaire - Short Version 3 and the Questionnaire on Attitudes Consistent with Sex Offending. Correlational analyses suggested a pattern of relationships in which Insufficient Self-control, Entitlement and Enmeshment arose as the schemas associated with most offence supportive attitudes. This supports a relationship between schemas and offence supportive attitudes in MDSOs and is consistent with the literature to date. Implications for further research and treatment are considered.     

Free Vote Patterns in the New South Wales State Parliament

This research note examines patterns of MPs’ voting behaviour during ‘conscience’ or ‘free’ votes on three ‘morality politics’ issues in the lower house of the New South Wales state parliament in Australia: adoption rights for gay couples; scientists’ use of therapeutic cloning; and the status of the Sydney Medically Supervised Injection Centre. First, the research note reviews the literature on conscience voting and hypothesises that party will be the main predictor of voting patterns, but also establishes that previous studies have almost exclusively focused on national legislatures. Next the research note discusses methodological issues. Third, it presents the analysis of free vote patterns in the New South Wales parliament on the three ‘morality politics’ issues, along four key variables: party; sex; social ideology; and religion. The analysis of voting in the New South Wales parliament challenges existing explanations of free voting, where party is the key predictor of voting patterns. Intra-party unity figures show that party membership is a weaker predictor of voting behaviour in the two main political parties in New South Wales than in either the Australian parliament or in overseas parliaments. It is argued that at the subnational level other factors are more important in explanations of free vote patterns.     

新农村建设与农村人力资源开发

本文阐述了新农村建设和农村人力资源开发之间的关系,通过对改革开放三十年中国农村人力资源发历程的梳理,提出了中国农村人力资源开发的三个阶段,并分析了目前中国农村人力资源现状及人力资源开发存在的不足,最后提出了解决问题的六大对策,为现阶段我国大力开展农村人力资源开发、加强新农村建设提供了有益的探索。     

美国人力资源战略的实施策略及对我国的启示

美国人力资源战略的成功实施使其在世界人才竞争中一直保持竞争优势,这与其选择合理的实施策略是分不开的。本文通过梳理美国国家层面人力资源战略的相关政策和措施,归纳了美国实施人力资源战略的主要策略选择,提出对我国实施人力资源战略实施的一些启示。     

汶川地震应对经验与应急管理中国模式的建构路径——基于强政府与强社会的互动视角

巨灾的频发使得风险治理的公共政策系统受到巨大挑战。由于特定的危机形势和政策制定系统的局限性,造成了各种各样的政策困境,尤其是汶川地震促使我们重新审视国家力量在巨灾应对中与社会力量之间的互动关系。基于以上背景,本文试图通过研究团队三年多来针对汶川地震应对的全景式实证性研究,并结合中国应急管理系统建设发展的历史性回顾揭示出相应的挑战和机遇,探索一个基于强政府与强社会互动的分析视角和发展路径。     

党政领导干部经济责任审计风险及其防范

随着中办、国办关于党政主要领导经济责任审计新规的发布,党政领导干部经济责任审计已经进入了稳步推进阶段。由于经济责任审计固有的特征,在党政领导干部经济责任审计的过程中,必然存在因各种不确定性而导致的审计风险。文章在对党政领导干部经济责任审计风险特征分析基础上,指出了现实条件下我国党政领导干部经济责任审计风险存在的主观因素和客观因素,最后提出了防范党政领导干部经济责任审计风险的措施。     

食品安全信息供给的政府义务及其实现路径

食品安全信息的有效供给,关系到社会对食品生产和消费的信息和对政府的信任,而完善我国食品安全信息的供给,已经成为完善我国食品安全监管的重要环节。本文通过对食品安全信息特性的分析,认为政府应当承担食品安全信息供给的义务。因此,本文全面反思现行法律中我国食品安全信息供给中政府义务的缺陷,并提出矫正的对策。