Perceptions of repressed memories: A reappraisal

College students read a trial summary of a sexual abuse case. The victim in the case either claimed that (a) her memory for the abuse had been repressed for 20 years and only recently recovered during therapy, or (b) she consciously remembered the abuse for 20 years but never discussed it until recently in therapy. Participants were significantly more likely to convict the defendant when the testimony was described as nonrepressed (67%) versus repressed (58%). This effect was not modified by the age of the victim at the time the alleged abuse occurred (either 3, 8, or 13 years of age), although the younger and older victims were significantly less believable than the 8-year-old victim. Compared to female participants, male participants were significantly less likely to convict the defendant and rated the victim as significantly less believable. These findings are discussed in the context of recent research on juror reactions to repressed memory testimony.     

When Initial Interviews Are Delayed a Year: Effect on Children's 2-Year Recall

Three- to nine-year-old children were interviewed about a medical emergency (injury requiring hospital ER treatment) two years after it occurred. Half of the number of children had been interviewed shortly after injury as well as 6 and 12 months later, while the remaining children had had only one prior interview a year after injury. There was remarkably little long-term deterioration in memory by both groups. Having a delayed initial interview had two effects, and both were relevant only to the harder-to-remember hospital treatment event: (a) The late-interview group was less accurate, and (b) early-interview children had more extensive free recall, suggesting that multiple prior interviews teach children the “rules of the memory game' when they are asked open-ended questions. Forensic implications are discussed.     

Concurrent cross-validation of the Self-Appraisal Questionnaire: a tool for assessing violent and nonviolent recidivism and institutional adjustment on a sample of North Carolina offenders

The aim of this study was to determine whether the Self-Appraisal Questionnaire (SAQ), a tool that was found to be reliable and valid for assessing violent and nonviolent recidivism and institutional adjustment for Canadian offenders, would also be valid for the same purposes with a demographically different population of North Carolina offenders. The internal consistency alphas and SAQ total and subscale scores' correlations were high. Offenders with high SAQ total scores had significantly more violent offenses, had more total number of past offenses, had higher numbers of past arrests, and had more institutional infractions than those with low SAQ scores. There were no significant differences between the responses of the African American and Caucasian offenders on the SAQ scales. These results support previous findings regarding the reliability and validity of the SAQ for assessing recidivism and institutional adjustment and suggest that the SAQ could be used with diverse populations.     

Current Policy Context for Education Efforts to Help Young Parents Meet Their Multiple Challenges

Recent increases in the adolsecent birth rate can be in part attributable to a variety of factors including limited sex education in schools, the decline in family planning services, and rising dropout rates. This paper explores the importance of education for adolescent parents, particularly the inclusion of pregnancy prevention programs and services for young parents as part of the educational mainstream.     

The local state in Canada: theoretical perspectives

Studies of government at the local level tend to be focused on the municipalities. To understand the full range of institutions at this level, a broader conception of the “local state” is required. The latter refers to the state in so far as it is present in and concerned with the local community, and thus it encompasses local agencies of the central state as well as local governments. To conceive of the local state in this way allows for a critical assessment of competing theories of local government in Canada. The latter describe local institutions variously as the third order of government, agencies for special purposes, the local public economy, or local apparatuses of the state. All but the first draw attention to non-municipal agencies at the local level, but none give an adequate account of the structure and functions of the local state as a whole. What is required is a theory that takes the pressure for local self-government seriously, and is sensitive to both geographical variation and historical change.