Testing for AIDS: uses and abuses

In response to the public outcry for mandatory testing for AIDS, this Article explores the major issues concerning the identification of persons with AIDS in society. The Article first studies testing procedures and the purposes behind them to determine if a call for mandatory testing of the general populace would better achieve society's objectives for identifying individuals with AIDS. Concluding that testing should not be required of the population as a whole, the Article then explores whether testing should be required of certain subpopulations which society perceives as likely to have or to spread the disease. In this context, too, the Article concludes that mandatory testing would be unwarranted, and that funds proposed for mandatory testing would be put to better use in education and universal precautions to prevent the further spread of AIDS.     

Body Disposal Patterns of Sexual Murderers: Implications for Offender Profiling

Offender profiling postulates that crime scene behavior should predict certain offender characteristics. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between offender characteristics, situational factors, and body disposal patterns. Sequential logistic regression analysis on a sample of 85 sexual murderers shows that those who were in a relationship at the time of the crime and who present organized psychological characteristics are more likely to move the victim’s body after the homicide. However, when the victim is older and a conflict with the offender occurred prior to the crime, the body is more likely to be left at the crime scene. Implications for offender profiling are discussed in light of the results.

The 'New Terrorism': Revolution or Evolution?

It is essential to understand the concept of the 'new terrorism', since it has fostered a paradigm shift in the way that academics, policy makers and counter-terrorism professionals conceive of the contemporary threat. Capturing the notion that there has been a revolutionary change in the nature of terrorism, it now plays a pre-eminent role in shaping counter-terrorism policy. However, despite the attractive simplicity of the concept, there are good reasons to question the assumption that the actual behaviour of terrorist groups has fundamentally altered. Indeed, an analysis of the history of terrorism shows that many of the supposed hallmarks of the 'new terrorism' have been seen in the past. As a consequence, the concept of the 'new terrorism' should be viewed with some scepticism, as it unduly exaggerates the unprecedented nature of the contemporary terrorist threat and needlessly leads policy makers to reject the relevance of historical counter-terrorism lessons.     

Transition modes and post-transition inter-party politics: Evidence from Spain (1977–82) and Argentina (1983–89)

This article tests whether the mode of transition from authoritarian rule affects the competitiveness of inter-party politics in the post-transition democratic regime. It draws on a six-year study of the degree of cross-party collaboration in the legislative arena immediately following the Spanish (1976/77) transition by pact and the Argentine (1982/83) transition by collapse. The study finds that the nascent democracy in Spain experienced more collaborative inter-party politics than the new Argentine democracy, which is consistent with the democratization literature. After discussing the constitutional structure and gravity of economic crisis as alternative explanations of the degree of inter-party competitiveness, the study concludes that the mode of transition is an essential explanatory variable. It also identifies the causal mechanisms that may explain the link between the mode of transition and post-transition inter-party competitiveness, namely the opportunities for political learning, the patterns of political elite continuity and the military's role in the transition process.