Corporal punishment: Normative data and sociological and psychological correlates in a community college population

Community college students (N=170) were surveyed regarding the intensity and frequency of methods of corporal punishment they have received and the persons administering the punishment. Results indicate that corporal punishment is a normatively used method of behavioral management. Males reported receiving a greater amount of corporal punishment, especially from their fathers. Overall, those who received a high amount of corporal punishment reported lower grades and a significantly greater number of problems, such as aggression, delinquency, depression, and anxiety. These findings are cause for concern and intervention.Received Ph.D. in psychology from Tufts University. Main research interests are sex-role development and personality development.Received C.A.S. in counseling from Harvard University. Main research interests are battered wives and incest.     

Reconceptualizing elder abuse: treating the disease of senior community exclusion

This article focuses on the phenomenon of elder abuse, which is one of the paramount symptoms of the larger community's failure to address the social, medical, and legal needs of the senior populace. Although there have been multidisciplinary efforts to address this problem, they are not responsive to the needs of the senior population itself In response, the authors propose a model that takes into account the specific concerns of local senior communities and provides seniors and their stakeholder providers a stable infrastructure to ensure open, consistent, and effective participation and delivery of services.     

Visual attention and expertise for forensic signature analysis

Eye tracking was used to measure visual attention of nine forensic document examiners (FDEs) and 12 control subjects on a blind signature comparison trial. Subjects evaluated 32 questioned signatures (16 genuine, eight disguised, and eight forged) which were compared, on screen, with four known signatures of the specimen provider while their eye movements, response times, and opinions were recorded. FDEs' opinions were significantly more accurate than controls, providing further evidence of FDE expertise. Both control and FDE subjects looked at signature features in a very similar way and the difference in the accuracy of their opinions can be accounted for by different cognitive processing of the visual information that they extract from the images. In a separate experiment the FDEs re-examined a reordered set of the same 32 questioned signatures. In this phase each signature was presented for only 100 msec to test if eye movements are relevant in forming opinions; performance significantly dropped, but not to chance levels indicating that the examination process comprises a combination of both global and local feature extraction strategies.     

The use of mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I gene (COI) to differentiate two UK blowfly species -- Calliphora vicina and Calliphora vomitoria

Traditionally identification of forensically important insects has been carried out based upon morphological differences between species. However insect evidence found at a crime scene may on occasion be difficult to distinguish by morphological techniques and under these circumstances another method of accurate identification is required. This work utilises a cytochrome oxidase I partial mitochondrial gene region (COI) to distinguish the two of the main UK blowfly species -- Calliphora vicina (Robineau Desvoidy) and Calliphora vomitoria (Linnaeus) (Diptera:Calliphoridae). Seventeen interspecific differences in COI sequence were located. Use of the restriction enzyme SfcI on this gene region provides a simple method for distinguishing between C. vicina and C. vomitoria.     

The rally 'round the flag effect in U.S. foreign policy crises, 1950–1985

We calculate the rally 'round the flag effect (Mueller, 1970, 1973) for all 41 U.S. foreign policy crises, 1950–1985, identified by the International Crisis Behavior Project (Wilkenfeld, Brecher, and Moser, 1988). The mean change in the president's approval rating is surprisingly small: 1.4 percent among all respondents. The greatest influences on the rallying effect of a crisis are whether or not the United States is involved in an ongoing war and, especially, theNew York Times's coverage of the president's major response to a crisis. When a major response is reported in the headlines, the rally is more than 8 percentage points greater,ceteris paribus, than when it is not reported on the front page. TheNew York Times's reporting is influenced by the nature of the president's response, the efforts of his administration to publicize his actions, the degree of Soviet involvement, the location of the crisis, and the willingness of opposition leaders to take a newsworthy position regarding the president's performance.