The Validity of Mental Patients' Accounts of Coercion-Related Behaviors in the Hospital Admission Process

Although the recent development of a measure for perceived coercion has led to great progress in research on coercion in psychiatric settings, there still exists no consensus on how to measure the existence of real coercive events or pressures. This article reports the development of a system for integrating chart review data and data from interviews with multiple participants in the decision for an individual to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital. The method generates a most plausible factual account (MPFA). We then compare this account with that of patients, admitting clinicians and other collateral informants in 171 cases. Patient accounts most closely approximate the MPFA on all but one of nine dimensions related to coercion. This may be due to wider knowledge of the events surrounding the admission.     

Criminal identification comparison: aural versus visual identifications resulting from a simulated crime

This research was undertaken to investigate and contrast visual and aural/perceptual identifications of a previously unknown individual from a set of photographic and tape-recorded exemplars following a simulated crime. All participants were volunteers for the "criminal," the victim of an "assault," and all suspects drawn from a Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) class; the "witnesses" were 61 students in a law class. The student/witnesses were divided into four groups. Group A made three identifications (serially) one day, one week, and two weeks after the crime took place. Group B saw the photographs and heard the tapes only once a week after the incident, and Group C only after two weeks had elapsed. Witnesses in a fourth group (D) followed the same schedule as did Group A; however, they were presented with foils similar in appearance and speech to the criminal. Group D was presented both the foil and criminal in the photographic lineup at the final judging session. The results demonstrated that visual identification can be quite accurate although not consistently or predictably so. By contrast, aural/perceptual identifications were relatively poor. No strong trends for latencies were observed, either for repeated trials or for procedures involving different initiation latencies; nor did confidence levels appear to be related to accuracy of judgment. Finally, when a similar looking foil was included in the identification task, there was a weak trend for the foil to be chosen more often in subsequent trials. These results support the position that eyewitness--and especially earwitness--testimony should be viewed by judges and juries with greater caution than has been the case in the past; by appropriate instructions, juries should be given assistance in interpreting and in assigning appropriate weight to this kind of testimony.     

The formation Of a Canadian privacy policy: the art and craft of lesson-drawing

Abstract: For some cases of policy innovation, traditional models of the policy process based on assumptions of power and conflict are not helpful guides. This article suggests that it is often just as important to understand the pattern of learning or lesson-drawing that takes place during policy development. With reference to the formation of Canadian privacy policy, as expressed in the Privacy Act of 1982, it is demonstrated that the lessons drawn from the experience of other countries' legislative attempts to protect personal data were instrumental in shaping a Canadian policy. Lessons about the principles of data protection, the exemptions to those principles, and the policy instrument to implement them were drawn at critical stages from American, and other, experience. The fact that some lessons were drawn and not others, from some countries and not others, helps us understand why Canadian privacy policy is as it is today. The article concludes by noting the conditions for lesson-drawing across boundaries to influence policy: a basic consensus on goals; a low salience in public opinion; a dominant role for bureaucrats; a high degree of innovation; and the existence of exemplars. The timing, then, of foreign privacy laws was crucial, highlighting the importance of studying public policy in both comparative and historical perspectives. Sommaire: Dans certains cas d'innovation politique, les modéles classiques d'étude du processus politique fondés sur des hypotheses de pouvoir et de conflit ne constituent pas de bons guides. Cet article montre qu'il est souvent aussi important de comprendre dans quelle mesure on a tiré parti des lecons étrangéres au cours de I'élaboration d'une politique. Faisant référence à la formation de la politique canadienne de la vie privée, exprimée par le biais de la Loi de 1982 sur la vie privée, il démontre que I'expérience des tentatives législatives d'autres pays pour protéger les informations personnelles ont eu un rôle prédominant dans I'élaboration de la politique canadienne. À des moments cruciaux, on a tiré de I'expérience américaine et de celle d'autres pays des lecons sur les principes de protection de I'information, sur les exceptions à ces principes et sur les moyens de mettre ces derniéres en oeuvre. Le fait qu'on ait, de façon sélective, tiré certaines leçons de certains pays, nous aide à comprendre pourquoi la politique canadienne sur la vie privée est ce qu'elle est aujourd'hui. En conclusion, I'auteur décrit les conditions dans lesquelles les renseignements puisés d'autres pays sont susceptibles de contribuer à la politique nationale: un consensus fondamental sur les objectifs rechercheés, peu de préoccupations pour le sujet dans I'opinion publique, un rô1e prépondérant pour les bureaucrates, un degréélevé d'innovation et I'existence d'exemples concrets. De même, le moment ou les lois sur la vie privée d'autres pays ont été adoptées s'est avéré important, ce qui démontre I'importance d'étudier les politiques publiques dans une perspective comparative aussi bien qu'historique.     

Penal Disenfranchisement

This paper considers the justifiability of removing the right to vote from those convicted of crimes. Firstly, I consider the claim that the removal of the right to vote from prisoners (or serious offenders) is necessary as a practical matter to protect the democratic process from those who have shown themselves to be untrustworthy. Secondly, I look at the claim that offenders have broken the social contract and forfeited rights to participate in making law. And thirdly, I look at the claim that the voting ban is essential part of the justified punishment of serious offenders. These arguments have in common the feature that they attempt to articulate the sense in which rights imply responsibilities, particularly that voting rights should be conditional on one’s having met one’s civic responsibilities. I argue that the only interpretation of this view that could justify prisoner disenfranchisement is that which thinks of disenfranchisement as fair and deserved retributive punishment for crime. Against widespread opposition to, and confusion about, the importance of retributive punishment, I offer a brief defence. However, I conclude that even if legitimate retributive purposes could in principle justify prisoner disenfranchisement, the significance of disenfranchisement is such that it should be reserved for the most serious crimes.     

The critical problem of cynical irony meaning what you say and ideologies of class and gender

ABSTRACT

Critical theorists such as Slavoj ?i?ek have for some years discussed the ideological significance of cynical or “blank” irony in fairly general terms. Less attention has been paid to the practical implications of such irony for critical semiotic analysis. With this in mind, this paper discusses the problems that sexist and “classist” jokes – specifically jokes about “chavs” – pose for the critical analyst. On the one hand, they seem to be saying deeply ideological things. On the other, their ironic nature means that they evade the claim that they are really saying, asserting, meaning anything. Theirs is a kind of blank irony which can be identified in all kinds of contemporary semiotic practice and is therefore an important phenomenon for critical analysts to get to grips with. The paper attempts to get to grips with it by outlining some semiotic clues to blank irony, and, more importantly, by suggesting some ways in which we might try to bring a critical perspective to bear in cases of cynical irony.     

Veldt fires in South Africa: Implications on osteometry and the biological profile

Standard operating procedures for forensic anthropological analyses dictate that thermally altered remains should not be measured, hindering the creation of a biological profile. Few studies have addressed estimating biological parameters from burned remains, with the greatest focus of this research area being on cremated remains. However, veldt fires are more common than cremation in the South African forensic context. The aim of this study was to explore the degree of structural changes observed in domestic pig (Sus scrofa) bones associated with thermal destruction and the potential impact on the estimation of a biological profile using standard osteometric methods. A total of 96 pig femora were divided equally into two categories: fresh and dry. Within each category, equal samples were exposed to different durations of burning, namely, 5, 10, and 20 min. Ten standard femoral anthropological measurements were collected before and after burning. Technical error of measurement and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used to assess changes in the femoral dimensions before and after burning. Most measurements were significantly different after burning, with the fresh bones decreasing in size by up to 7.8% and the dry bones decreasing in size by up to 4.0%. The magnitude of post-burning measurement changes for both burn conditions was similar to, or smaller than has previously been reported for observer measurement errors of commonly used variables investigated for standard osteometric studies. Veldt fires are less intense than cremation, thus causing less shrinkage.     

Form follows function: Applying photographic content analysis to forensic firearm identification

Drawing forensic conclusions from an image or a video is known as “photographic content analysis.” It involves the analysis of an image, as well as objects, actions, and events depicted in images or video. In recent years, photographic depictions of objects suspected as illegal firearms have substantially increased, appearing on CCTV surveillance footage, captured by mobile phones and shared on social media. However, the law in Israel states that a person can be charged with illegally possessing a firearm only if it can be proven that the object is capable of shooting with lethal bullet energy. This becomes more challenging in cases where the firearm was not physically seized, and the evidence exclusively consists of images and video. In this study, photographic content analysis was applied to images and video where objects suspected as commercial or improvised firearms had been depicted. An image and event sequence reconstruction video databases of both firearms and replicas were created in order to better define firearm-specific functional morphological features. We demonstrate that it is possible to classify an object as a firearm by analyzing the functional, and not only the esthetic, morphology in images and video. It is also shown that event sequence reconstruction in video may be used to infer that an object suspected as a firearm has the capacity to shoot by confirming the occurrence of a shooting act or shooting process. Thus, photographic content analysis may be used to forensically establish that an object depicted in an image or a video is a firearm by ruling out other known scenarios, and without physically seizing it.     

The use of liquid latex as a pre-treatment to recover debris-covered latent fingerprints from exterior surfaces of vehicles

This study evaluated the effectiveness of using liquid latex as a pre-treatment for fingerprint recovery from the exterior surfaces of vehicles in summer. The sample of this study was 540 sebaceous latent fingerprints deposited on the lower body of three vehicles. Thirty control and thirty experimental fingerprints were deposited on each vehicle, and the experiment was repeated three times. The three vehicles were driven daily for either 2, 3, or 4 weeks after the deposition of fingerprints. After the vehicles reached their designated debris accumulation duration, the latent fingerprints in the control groups were developed with black fingerprint powder. Liquid latex was applied onto the fingerprints in the experimental groups, and they were subsequently developed with black fingerprint powder. A chi-sure test indicated that there was a significant difference in fingerprints recovery performance between two methods (X² = 4.903, d.f. = 1, p = 0.027). An odds ratio test indicated the control method increases the probability of fingerprint recovery by 1.54 times. A Fisher's exact test was used to evaluate the quality of fingerprints recovered from both methods and it indicated that there is no significant difference in quality using the two methods (p = 0.058). This study indicated that the traditional fingerprint powder method performed better for fingerprint recovery from exterior surfaces of vehicles in summer.