A mock juror investigation of blame attribution in the punishment of hate crime perpetrators

We examined blame attribution as a moderator of perceptions of hate crimes against gay, African American, and transgender victims. Participants were 510 Texas jury panel members. Results of vignette-based crime scenarios showed that victim blame displayed significant negative, and perpetrator blame significant positive, effects on sentencing recommendations. Also as hypothesized, victim and perpetrator blame moderated the effect of support for hate crime legislation. Interaction patterns suggested that both types of blame attribution influence sentencing recommendations, but only for participants disagreeing with hate crime legislation. Three-way interactions with victim type also emerged, indicating that the effects of both types of blame attribution show particular influences when the victim is gay, as opposed to transgender or African American. Implications for attribution theory, hate crime policy, and jury selection are discussed.     

Mechanisms of the ‘Aid Curse’: Lessons from South Korea and Pakistan

Recently scholars have argued that, far from contributing to development, foreign aid hinders development. But in the 1960s the East Asian countries developed rapidly despite receiving large amounts of aid. To examine why aid seems to undermine development in some cases but not in others, we conduct a detailed comparison of the mechanisms of the ‘aid curse’ in South Korea and Pakistan. We show that South Korea saw astonishing levels of corruption, but this did not hinder its development; and Pakistan had a strong bureaucracy, which did not help it to grow. The key difference between the two countries was in the strength of their tax systems: foreign aid in the context of underdeveloped tax administration leads to increasing cycles of debt that undermine development. When foreign aid arrives in the context of commitment to strong taxation, a country can avoid the ‘aid curse.’     

The Role of Domestic Courts in the Case Law of the International Court of Justice

Recent legal scholarship has argued that the traditional hierarchicalrelationship between international courts and domestic courtshas been replaced by a relationship characterized by such featuresas co-operation, communication and dialogue. This article examinesto what extent the practice of the International Court of Justicesupports that development. It concludes that the while the caselaw of the International Court of Justice remains largely rootedin the traditional perspective, in which decisions of domesticcourts are just facts, in recent cases we can see some evidencefor a more complementary relationship.     

Polymorphism of the third component (C3) of complement and of Transferrin (Tf) in Belgium.

The phenotypes of C3 and of Tf were determined in 818 and 576, respectively, unrelated individuals living in Liege. The gene frequencies observed are: (formula: see text) The application to disputed paternity cases and to the study of twins is discussed.