Interviewing to Elicit Cues to Deception: Improving Strategic Use of Evidence with General-To-Specific Framing of Evidence

Previous research has demonstrated that the strategic use of evidence (SUE) approach of interviewing criminal suspects is effective at eliciting cues to deception. This study aims at expanding on the SUE approach by testing the technique of general-to-specific evidence framing. We conducted an experiment using a mock terrorism paradigm. Guilty participants took part in a simulated act of terrorism, while innocent participants performed a similar act involving no transgression. All participants (N?=?102) were then interviewed using one of four evidence disclosure styles (early disclosure, late disclosure, 2-step disclosure, or 4-step disclosure). We expected that disclosing evidence to the suspect gradually, with increasing specificity, would induce guilty suspects to alter their statements to a greater extent than innocent suspects. General-to-specific evidence framing effectively discriminated between guilty and innocent suspects, but results only partially supported the hypotheses.     

Agency problem and bureaucratic governance in the people's republic of china

This article argues that the Chinese idea of agency problem is misconstrued. The analysis provides an alternative approach to empirically reassess the nature of the problems, along the principal-agent models. The article demonstrates the relevance of using law to make the case for the profitability of examining the issues of bureaucratic governance from principal-agent perspectives. The analysis concludes by arguing that bureaucratic governance in China cannot be achieved by intensifying hierarchical domination. The concern about agents’ moral quality cannot sufficiently induce responsible bureaucratic behaviour. The key to reinventing the bureaucratic state in China lies mainly on the recognition of the agents’ need for protecting their own interests. Seen in this fashion, macro-level alternative methods of accountability should be introduced to reflect the interests of both principal and agents.     

Designing China's civil service system: general principles and realities

In examining how Chinese policy makers and law drafters defined problems and formulated solutions, this article seeks to address two questions. First, the authors consider the extent to which China's civil service system has embraced principles and features of Western civil service systems. Second, the authors illustrate the political nature of the attempt to establish a civil service system, which severely limits a rational policy design in China. As a result of the political regression since June 1989, the present civil service system has experienced little change.     

China's impact on forests in Southeast Asia

Many developed countries have gained control of their forest-exploiting industries through advanced regulatory regimes. But stricter regulation usually displaces forest exploitation into developing countries with weaker regulatory regimes. The most important current example is the shift of forest exploitation for the Chinese market from China into Southeast Asia following the logging ban in China in 1998. In this article we describe and document the impact in Southeast Asia: rapidly increasing, unsustainable, and often illegal production and export for the Chinese market. We also note the growth in exports of furniture and plywood from China to the EU, UK, and elsewhere using imported and often illegally harvested timber from Southeast Asia. It is argued that it will be very difficult to interrupt the continuing deforestation in Southeast Asia because: (i) the profits from exporting forest products from Southeast Asia to the China market and the profits for Chinese firms which use these forest products to produce plywood and furniture for export to developed countries are substantial; and (ii) there is a lack of political will at all levels to interrupt these chains of trade and flows of profit.     

Pyrrhic Victory in the “Tournament of Shadows”: Central Asia's Quest for Water Security (1991–2009)

Abstract

Central Asia's Soviet past continues to haunt the five successor sovereign states with water, a contentious issue. Although fundamental to survival and livelihood, regional cooperation over the precious resource remains a patchwork of short-term stop-loss agreements at best and an exercise in “frameworks without content” at worst. This article seeks to explain why this is so, based on a theoretical position derived from hydro-political discourse. The eclectic explanations include the hydro-hegemonic void created by the removal of Soviet authoritarianism; the securitization of the hydro-political complex in Central Asia; unilateral and bilateral substitutes for multilateral water resource cooperation; and the ineffectiveness of international law – all of which contribute to the impasse over water cooperation.     

The Memory of Violence: trauma in the writings of Alexander Kanengoni and Yvonne Vera and the idea of unreconciled citizenship in Zimbabwe

Seasonal Dimensions to Rural Poverty. Edited by Robert Chambers, Richard Longhurst and Arnold Pacey, London: Frances Pinter. 1981. 259pp. £15.50.

International Trade 1980–81. GATT, Geneva: GATT. 1981. 199pp. Swiss Francs.30.

Global Strategy for Growth: a report on North‐South issues. Lord McFadzean of Kelvinside, Chairman of the Study Group London: Trade Policy Research Centre. 1981.100pp. £2.00.

Part‐Time Farming in Cyprus: a pilot study. Richard Pearce, Reading, England: Department of Agriculture Economics and Management, University of Reading. 1981. 93pp. £2.00.

Bank for International Settlements. Fifty‐first Annual Report, April 1980 ‐ March 1981. Bank for International Settlements Basle, Switzerland: B.I.S. 1981.168pp. np.

Divide and Rule: South Africa's Bantustans. Barbara Rogers, London: International Defence and Aid Fund. 1980. 136pp.£2.00pb. (revised and enlarged 2nd edition).

Adrian Guelke

Cultural Atlas of Africa. Edited by Jocelyn Murray, Oxford: Phaidon. 1981.240pp. £17.95.

Cattle, Economics and Development. Raymond Crotty Slough, England: Commonwealth Agricultural Bureau. 1980. 253pp. np.

World Bank Annual Report. World Bank, Washington, D.C.: World Bank. 1981.210pp. np.

Farm Power in Bangladesh. Vol. 1 G J Gill, Reading, England: Department of Agricultural Economics and Management, University of Reading. 1981. 248pp. £2.00.     

Target Hardening and Terrorist Signaling: The Case of Aviation Security

In this article, we examine the relationship between hardening a target and the value that a terrorist group derives from attacking it. We use a simple expected value framework to compare how the expected value of attacking a hardened target varies between a violence-based approach, where terrorists are presumed to be maximizing the physical damage done to the target, and a signaling-based approach, where terrorists are presumed to be maximizing the symbolic value of their attack. We argue that, if it is proper to understand terrorist attacks as costly signals of terrorist strength or determination, hardening a target actually increases the expected value of attacking a target (relative to its value before hardening), even if the attack fails. We go on to examine the evolution of aviation security, and trace how al-Qaeda's views of airplanes and airports as targets have changed since 9/11. As aviation targets were hardened with increasingly onerous security measures, al-Qaeda began to see even attacks that did not result in detonation as successes, in large part because of what they signaled about al-Qaeda's abilities, and the ability of al-Qaeda to impose costs on the U.S. and other countries even in the absence of explosions.     

Family Conferencing for Juvenile Offenders: A Singaporean Case Study in Restorative Justice

Restorative justice has been or is being adopted in many parts of the world, including countries in Asia. In the case of Singapore, restorative justice was adopted by the court system in 1997 as its guiding philosophy in its approach towards juvenile offenders. This article traces the adoption of restorative justice by the Juvenile Court in Singapore and the use of family conferencing in the light of the principles of restorative justice. It concludes by suggesting areas where the family conferencing system in Singapore can be improved, and possible lessons for other jurisdictions considering adopting family conferencing.     

Risk Misallocation in Public–Private Partnership Projects in China

ABSTRACT

This article attempts to compare the preferred and actual risk allocation and then to evaluate the impact of risk misallocation (if any) on project performance. The results show a significantly negative relationship between project performance and risk misallocation. The smaller the degree of risk misallocation was, the more successful the project would be. One group of three risks (including “Corruption,” “Government's intervention,” and “Government's reliability”) and the other group of three risks (including “Approval and permit,” “Immature juristic system,” and “Land acquisition”) were found to contribute considerably to the prediction of project performance. This article provides information on the impact of risk misallocation on project performance in China's public–private partnership (PPP) projects. To enter and perform well in China's PPP market, private firms should pay particular attention to the identified risks.     

Polysarcia adiposa: morbid obesity

From October 1988 to March 2005, there were at least 92 autopsy cases where morbid obesity was present and/or where it was attributed to the cause of death in the coronial district of Auckland, New Zealand, a city with a population of over 1 million people. Obesity has been researched internationally, and much is known about associated comorbidities such as atherosclerotic disease, hypertension, and diabetes, to name a few. However, in the morbidly obese (body mass index>or=40 kg/m2), only 14 of 92 cases were found to have ischemic heart disease due to coronary atherosclerosis as the principal cause of death, and slightly over half (48/92) have some degree (mild, moderate, severe) of coronary atheroma. There is a strong positive correlation between heart weight and body weight. Only 8 livers were normal, all others showing some form of steatosis, venous congestion, and fibrosis/cirrhosis. The mean weights of the heart, lungs, and liver were above the normal reference range in almost all cases. In conclusion, the study did not follow the widely published finding of the positive correlation between morbid obesity and ischemic heart disease in terms of mortality, but the study was consistent with other studies on the organ manifestations of morbid obesity, particularly for the heart, lungs, and liver.