An electrocortical correlate of a history of alcohol abuse in criminal offenders

Abstract

This study tested the hypothesis that a history of chronic alcohol abuse is the key variable underlying the previously reported association between criminal recidivism, impulsivity and differentiation of the Go/NoGo contingent negative variation (CNV). Forty male Singaporean prison inmates were assessed for presence of antisocial personality disorder (APD), a history of alcohol and other substance abuse, and psychopathy. CNV was recorded in the Go/NoGo paradigm in groups comprising inmates with (ALC+: N = 29) and without (ALC?: N = 11) a history of alcohol abuse. As predicted, the ALC+ group showed significantly degraded Go/NoGo CNVs (poor differentiation). This suggests that the “high risk” group of mentally disordered found to recidivate in studies by Howard and Lumsden (1996; 1997) may have shared a history of alcohol abuse. Results are discussed in the context of a developmental biopsychosocial model of risk for engaging in criminal behaviour.     

Prospective lawyers’ rape stereotypes and schematic decision making about rape cases

Abstract

Two studies explored stereotypic information processing in rape cases by prospective lawyers in Germany. In Study 1, 451 undergraduate law students rated rape scenarios varying with respect to defendant–complainant relationship and coercive strategy (force versus exploitation of the complainant's alcohol-induced defencelessness). Acceptance of rape myths was also measured. Likelihood of defendant liability was rated to be lower when there was a prior relationship between the parties and when the defendant exploited the complainant's defencelessness as compared to when he used force (except in the ex-partner rapes where blame was higher in the alcohol-related than in the force-related cases). Complainant blame was higher when there was a prior relationship between the parties and was higher in the alcohol-related cases than in the force-related cases, except in the ex-partner rape where the pattern was reversed. Participants with high rape myth acceptance held the defendant less liable and blamed the complainant more, especially when the two had known each other. Study 2 largely replicated these findings with 129 postgraduate trainee lawyers and showed that sentencing recommendations also varied as a function of defendant–complainant relationship and coercive strategy. Providing participants with the legal definition of rape did not reduce reliance on rape stereotypes.     

Anatomy of a Riot: The Social Imaginary,Single Women,and Religious Violence in Niger

This article asks us to rethink the models that have conventionally represented the coming of Islam to Africa: that of a pre-established entity, given from the outside, coherent, monadic, unity, like an already formed identity. Using Lacanian challenges to conventional notions of identity, this article contests the above version of Islam, viewing it as an incarnation of the imago: always there, always obeying the logic of a model of transmission into Africa as a reception from abroad. The conventional representation of its irruption into Africa has always involved the misrecognition of an identity as a pre-existent, already-whole form, wait ing to be born, presumably in complete unity. What this model ignores is that the language and form of what it came to recognize and name as Islam were already there, and that the Islam that formed its newlyconscious sense of self was grounded in the same act of misrecognition as characterizes the mirror stage, that is, the stage at which the subject comes to state: “This is who I am.” In order to rethink the identitarian model, this article evokes the figure of the dead father, the “McGuffin” on which turns the drama of Hampaté Ba’s Wangrin and Sembène Ousmane’s Faat Kine. In both works, the act of exhuming the father’s body takes on a degree of fantastical importance because it situates the struggle between two competing mirror stage tendencies: narcissism and aggression, tendencies around which all forms of subject-identity formation take place.     

Standard of Living and Disability in Cambodia

Little is known about the extra costs faced by households with disabled members in low resource settings and the impact of these costs on living standards. In this paper we estimate the direct cost associated with disability for households in Cambodia. Using the Standard of Living approach, the direct cost associated with having a member with disabilities is estimated to be 19 per cent of monthly household consumption expenditure. Accounting for the direct cost of disability doubles the poverty rate amongst households with disabled members from 18 per cent to 37 per cent, and increases the poverty gap from 3 to 8 per cent. A comparison of the direct cost associated with disability and income support received from government and family sources reveals that only 7 per cent of the costs of disability are met. Our findings suggest that, in the absence of increased coverage of public income support, households with disabled members will continue to experience a lower standard of living compared to households without disability in Cambodia.     

Using job evaluation to achieve pay equity

Job evaluation has become linked to debates over comparable worth. Proponents of pay equity complain that job evaluation is often biased against predominantly female jobs. Nonetheless, job evaluation is proposed as a tool to achieve more equitable pay for predominantly female jobs. We discuss ways in which conventionally used job evaluation plans incorporate sex bias and how these biases may be minimized. We conclude that, when care is taken to avoid sex bias, job evaluation is the best available tool to achieve pay equity. We predict that its use will grow, particularly in the public sector.     

The Politics of Chaebol Reform in Korea: Social Cleavage and New Financial Rules

Korea's developmental state had long maintained the principle of “separation between industrial capital and financial capital,” whereby the nation's industrial conglomerates – the chaebol – were restricted from having controlling ownership of financial institutions, especially banks. The financial crisis of 1997-98 renewed calls for regulating the chaebol, especially in terms of reinforcing corporate governance and competition policy. This process was supported and promoted by vibrant non-governmental organisations led by progressive activists who forged an effective alliance with the government and the ruling party whose platform followed a populist course. The reform movement has been resisted with equal fervour by conservative elements, led by the opposition party, chaebol-supported think tanks, and the conservative media. This cleavage is evident in the case of a pending legislation on chaebol ownership of financial institutions, the Financial Industry Structure Law. The controversy over this proposed law demonstrates that the contemporary chaebol reforms are deeply politicised. It also illustrates the path-dependent nature of the government-chaebol relationship.     

Categorical Threat and Protest Policing: Patterns of Repression Before and After Democratic Transition in South Korea

This article challenges the view that protest policing depends on situational threats, such as violent, disruptive tactics and the size of protests, by analysing how categorical threats assigned to movement groups' social-demographic identities affect repression. An analysis of South Korea's democratic transition reveals that categorical threats importantly trigger differential repression after the transition. Compared to moderate “citizens' movements” that thrived during Korea's democratisation, the protests organised by “people's movements” incurred state repression after controlling for other alternative variables. The result is also supported by qualitative evidence from multiple in-depth interviews with activists. The implication of differential repression is discussed in terms of how a democratising state attempts to channel and regulate social movements.     

PARALLEL LIVES: A Conversation between Hwang Suk-young and Bao Ninh Two Veterans of the Vietnam War

Translators' Preface: The dialogue below is a translation of a conversation between South Korean novelist Hwang Suk-young and Vietnamese novelist Bao Ninh, who met in Seoul on 4 June 2000. Held a few days before the historic summit meeting between South Korean President Kim Dae Jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang, the Hwang Suk-young/Bao Ninh meeting is probably the first such encounter between two major novelists of the Vietnam War from South Korea and Vietnam. The conversation first appeared in the South Korean weekly news journal Hangyoreh 21 on 22 June 2000. The translators would like to thank the editors of Hangyoreh 21 for their kind permission to reproduce the article here.