Attitudes to marriage and prostitution in the writings of olive schreiner,Mona Caird,Sarah Grand and George Egerton

Abstract

In recent years scholars have carried out valuable research into aspects of Victorian sexuality. This article offers some insights into the many and varied attitudes taken in the late nineteenth century towards marriage and prostitution, highlighting the fact that a number of advanced thinkers actually dared to speak of marriage itself as a form of prostitution. Four major figures of the fin-de-siècle period are discussed: Olive Schreiner, Mona Caird, Sarah Grand and George Egerton.     

The Lethality of Female Suicide Bombers

Over the past 50 years, suicide bombings have become an increasingly common tactic of politically motivated violence, and a rising number of these attacks feature women perpetrators. Prior literature suggested that female-perpetrated suicide bombings occurring between 1985 through 2008 inflicted greater casualties, which may account in part for their increased use by terror groups. The current research project ascertains whether sex continues to predict the lethality of suicide bombing attacks perpetrated by terror groups over the decade leading up to 2016. The study utilizes secondary data sampled from the Global Terrorism Database (N?=?881) and the Chicago Project on Security and Threats (N?=?1,722). A negative binomial model regressing lethality against perpetrator and conflict covariates did not observe a statistically significant relationship between sex and lethality. Male and female suicide bombers demonstrated similar lethality in suicide bombing events between 2005 and 2016, although scatterplots suggest some aberration during the years 2009, 2010, and 2016. Pairwise comparisons of perpetrator sex by conflict observed some variation in the lethality of attacks, with female suicide bombers from Al Qaeda, the Islamic State of Iraq, and Iraqi rebel groups found more lethal than male suicide bombers from Boko Haram and the Nigerian rebels. The current research project contributes to the literature by demonstrating the evolving nature of terrorism and tactics relevant to the lethality of politically motivated violent attacks.     

Science in the Jury Box: Jurors’ Comprehension of Mitochondrial DNA Evidence

Questions about how jurors understand and apply scientific evidence were addressed in a mock jury study in which 480 jury pool members watched a videotaped mock trial that included expert testimony about mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) evidence purportedly linking a defendant to a crime. Collectively, jurors showed moderately good comprehension of the mtDNA evidence, although some made definitional and inferential errors. Comprehension was better among jurors with higher educational attainment and more mathematics and science courses. Lower comprehension was associated with jurors’ reservations about science and concerns about the contamination of mtDNA evidence. The results suggest that most jurors are capable of comprehending and employing scientific evidence presented during trial, although errors and doubts about the evidence should be anticipated.     

The use of filtered light for the evaluation of writing inks analyzed using thin layer chromatography

Thin layer chromatography (TLC) is a scientific methodology that can be used to compare and characterize ink formulations. Occasionally, when evaluating chromatographic profiles on a TLC plate with ambient light, different ink formulations, or the same inks from different batches, may appear indistinguishable. The use of filtered light can be very effective to illuminate characteristics that are not readily apparent with ambient light. There are a diverse number of components commonly found in writing inks, and it may be that some of them respond to particular wavelengths of energy that are not visible to the unaided eye (i.e., colorless). There has been very little information published that addresses the use of filtered light for evaluating TLC plates. Twenty-nine ballpoint writing ink samples were selected for TLC analysis. Further evaluation using an alternate light source, coupled with the appropriate filter, proved to be an effective means for definitive discrimination in some cases.     

Temporal discounting: the differential effect of proximal and distal consequences on confession decisions

Drawing on the psychological principle that proximal consequences influence behavior more strongly than distal consequences, the authors tested the hypothesis that criminal suspects exhibit a short-sightedness during police interrogation that increases their risk for confession. Consistent with this hypothesis, Experiment 1 showed that participants (N = 81) altered how frequently they admitted to criminal and unethical behaviors during an interview to avoid a proximal consequence even though doing so increased their risk of incurring a distal consequence. Experiment 2 (N = 143) yielded the same pattern, but with a procedure that reversed the order of the proximal and distal consequences, thereby ruling out the possibility that it was the unique characteristics of the consequences rather than their proximity that influenced the admission rate. The authors discuss the supported psychological process as a potential explanation for several well-established findings reported in the literature on confessions.