Ethical Considerations in the Conduct of Electronic Surveillance Research

The extant clinical literature indicates profound problems in the assessment, monitoring, and documentation of care in long-term care facilities. The lack of adequate resources to accommodate higher staff-to-resident ratios adds additional urgency to the goal of identifying more cost-effective mechanisms to provide care oversight. The ever expanding array of electronic monitoring technologies in the clinical research arena demands a conceptual and pragmatic framework for the resolution of ethical tensions inherent in the use of such innovative tools. CareMedia is a project that explores the utility of video, audio and sensor technologies as a continuous real-time assessment and outcomes measurement tool. In this paper, the authors describe the seminal ethical challenges encountered during the implementation phase of this project, namely privacy and confidentiality protection, and the strategies employed to resolve the ethical tensions by applying principles of the interest theory of rights.     

The Expert Witness. Neither Frey nor Daubert Solved the Problem. What Can Be Done?

Expert testimony flawed by intent or ignorance, has compromised truth finding in American litigation, including in medical malpractice and in product liability cases, where scientific evidence is at issue. The Federal Rules of Evidence and the Supreme Court in Daubert and its progeny have established standards for testimony that include reliability and relevance, and established judges as gatekeepers. However, because of lack of understanding of scientific issues, judges have problems with this role, and juries have even more problems in sorting out scientific evidence. Professionals and the judiciary have made some advances in solving some of these problems, but a better system involving the court's use of neutral experts and a mechanism to hold experts accountable for improprieties is needed.     

Commentaries on the issue

Abstract

The use of informers is morally problematic for police institutions, for investigation managers, and for those individuals either who act as informers or who have daily responsibility for handling informers. This paper examines the moral issues concerning informers at each of these levels. Recourse to informers can be accommodated within Miller and Blackler's moral theory of policing. Within this context, criteria for the morally justifiable deployment of informers are proposed and supplemented with further proposed criteria for morally justifiable informer participation in crime. Morally justifiable recruitment of informers is also considered. Despite directly serving the purpose of policing, informers do not incur police professional obligations.     

Long-Term Effects of Adolescent Negative Self-Feelings on Adult Deviance: Moderated by Neighborhood Disadvantage, Mediated by Expectations

This paper tests two competing hypotheses, derived from general strain and middle class measuring rod theories, regarding the moderating effects of neighborhood disadvantage on the long-term relationship between adolescent negative self-feelings and adult deviance. The results from longitudinal data support the middle class measuring rod theory: adolescent negative self-feelings increase adult deviance only in middle status neighborhoods and not in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods. Furthermore, this effect in middle status neighborhoods is mediated by low expectations of the future in while still in adolescence. Our findings show the importance of studying the combination of both the social psychological and the contextual influences on deviance.     

An electrocortical correlate of a history of alcohol abuse in criminal offenders

Abstract

This study tested the hypothesis that a history of chronic alcohol abuse is the key variable underlying the previously reported association between criminal recidivism, impulsivity and differentiation of the Go/NoGo contingent negative variation (CNV). Forty male Singaporean prison inmates were assessed for presence of antisocial personality disorder (APD), a history of alcohol and other substance abuse, and psychopathy. CNV was recorded in the Go/NoGo paradigm in groups comprising inmates with (ALC+: N = 29) and without (ALC?: N = 11) a history of alcohol abuse. As predicted, the ALC+ group showed significantly degraded Go/NoGo CNVs (poor differentiation). This suggests that the “high risk” group of mentally disordered found to recidivate in studies by Howard and Lumsden (1996; 1997) may have shared a history of alcohol abuse. Results are discussed in the context of a developmental biopsychosocial model of risk for engaging in criminal behaviour.     

Legitimacy and class rule in commonwealth Africa: Constitutionalism and the rule of law

The World Energy Triangle: a strategy for cooperation. Thomas Hoffman and Brian Johnson, Cambridge, Mass: Ballinger. 1981. 217pp. $20.00

Energy Futures of Developing Countries. Edited by Harlan Cleveland, New York: Praeger. 1980. 96pp. £11.00

World Energy: issues and policies. Edited by R Mabro, Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1980. 367pp. £15.00

Energy for Subsistence. Margaret Haswell, London: Macmillan. 1981. 100pp. £15.00

Third World Poverty: new strategies for measuring development progress. Edited by William Paul McGreevey Farnborough, England: Lexington. 1981.215pp. £11.50

Dialogue for a New Order. Edited by Khadija Haq Oxford: Pergamon. 1980. 312pp. £16.25

Development from Above or Below? The dialectics of regional planning in developing countries. Edited by Walter B Stohr and D R Fraser Taylor, Chichester, England: John Wiley. 1981. 488pp. £17.50

Managing Development: the political dimension. Marc Lindenberg and Benjamin Crosby, West Hartford, Connecticut, USA: Kumarian. 1981. 217pp. np.

Development Perspectives. Paul Streeten, London: Macmillan. 1981. 449pp. £25.00

Recent Issues in World Development: a collection of survey articles. Edited by Paul Streeten and Richard Jolly, Oxford: Pergamon. 1981.441pp. £20.00.

Urban Poverty and Economic Development. Bruce Herrick and Barclay Hudson, London: Macmillan. 1981.188pp. £15.00.

Community Development: comparative case studies in India, the Republic of Korea, Mexico and Tanzania.. Edited by R Dore and Z Mars, London: Croom Helm. 1981.446pp. £14.95.

Tribe and State in Bahrain: the transformation of social and political authority in an Arabstate.. Fuad I Khuri, London: University of Chicago Press. 1980. 289pp. £9.60.

Imperialism: pioneer of capitalism. B Warren, London: New Left Books/Verso Editions. 1981. 296pp. £10.00. £3.95 pb

The Money Lenders: Bankers in a dangerous world. Anthony Sampson, London: Hodder and Stoughton. 1981. 336pp. £7.95.

Indian Banking: nature and problems. Vasant Desai, Bombay: Himalaya Publishing House. 1979. 383pp. £6.00.

Rural Banking in India. S S M Desai, Bombay: Himalaya Publishing House. 1979. 387pp. £6.00.

Policy‐Making in a New State: Papua New Guinea 1972–77. Edited by J A Ballard, St. Luci, Queensland: Queensland University Press. 1981. 331pp. np.

Change in the International System. Edited by O R Holsti, R M Siverson and A L George, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. 1980. 301pp. £15.00.

When Europe Speaks With One. Voice Phillip Taylor, London: Aldwych. 1979. 235pp. £13.50.

Investment and Divestment Policies in Multinational Corporations in Europe. Edited by D Van Den Bulcke, J J Boddewyn, B Martens and P Klemmer, Farnborough, England: Saxon House (in association with ECSIM). 1979. 244pp. £13.50.

US Business in South Africa: the economic, political and moral issues. Desaix Myers III, with Kenneth Propp, David Hauck and David M Liff, London: Rex Collings. 1981. 375pp. £9.50.

Conflict and Compromise in South Africa. Edited by Robert I Rot berg and John Barratt, Farnborough, England: Gower. 1980. 212pp. £13.50

African Perspectives: the economic geography of nine African states. Edited by Harm de Blij and Esmond Martin, London: Methuen. 1981. 264pp. £12.95

Nigeria Since 1970: a political and economic outline. Anthony Kirk‐Greene and Douglas Rimmer, London: Hodder and Stoughton. 1981.161pp. £3.50 pb.

The History of Sierra Leone: a concise introduction. C Magbaily Fyle, London: Evans Brothers. 1981.150pp. £2.00 pb.

Deutsche‐arabische Beziehungen. Karl Kaiser and Udo Steinbach, Munich and Vienna: R Oldenburg Verlag. 1981. 364pp. np.

The Arabs. Maxime Rodinson (translated by Arthur Goldhammer), London: Groom Helm. 1981. 188pp. £9.95. £5.95pb.

The Struggle for Land:. a political economy of the pioneer frontier in Brazil from 1930 to the present day. Joe Foweraker, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 260pp. £20.00.

Ecodevelopment: economics, ecology and development. Robert Riddell, Farnborough, England: Gower. 1981. 218pp. £12.50. £7.95pb.

The Natural Resources of Trinidad and Tobago. Edited by S T G C Cooper and P R Bacon London: Edward Arnold. 1981. 223pp. £18.00.

The Asiatic Mode of Production: science and politics. Edited by Anne M Bailey and Josep R Llobera, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. 1981. 363pp. £7.95 pb.

Développement Agricole Dépendant et Mouvements Paysans en Amérique Latine. Edited by Lawrence R Alschuler with the collaboration of J Gélinas, T Buarque de Hollanda and A Winberg, Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press. 1981.218pp. np.

Dependent Agricultural Development and Agrarian Reform in Latin America. Edited by Lawrence R Alschuler with the collaboration of J Gelinas, T Buarque de Hollanda and A Winberg, Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press. 1981. 186pp. np.

Islam and Power. Edited by Alexander S Cudsi and Ali E Hillal Dessouki, London: Croom Helm. 1981. 204pp. £11.95.

Arab Nationalism: a critical enquiry. Bassam Tibi (translated by Marion Farouk Sluglett and Peter Sluglett), London: Macmillan. 1981. 286pp. £20.00.

Political Power in Ecuador. Osvaldo Hurtado Albuquerque, New Mexico: University of New Mexico Press. 1981. 398pp. $29.95.

Class, State and Power in the Third World: with case studies on class conflict in Latin America. James F Petras with A Eugene Havens, Morris H Morley and Peter DeWitt, London: Zed Press. 1981. 285pp. £16.95.

Genocide: its political use in the twentieth century. Leo Kuper Harmondsworth, England: Penguin. 1981.255pp. £2.95.

Nigerian Constitutional Law Reports. Volume 2, 1981 Edited by Chief Gani Fawehinmi, Lagos: Nigerian Law Publications. 1981. 498pp. Naira 30.00     

Municipal forecasting practice: “demand” and “supply” side perspectives

Findings from a nationwide survey of Government Finance Officers Association members confirm previous research that indicates an over reliance on judgmental as opposed to quantitative forecast methods, for both revenue and expenditures. While incumbents in larger cities, and with advanced degrees, evidence greater forecast training than their small-city, baccalaureate-only counterparts, this differentiation fails to materialize in forecast practice. MPA's are at a disadvantage relative to MBA's In regression and econometrics. Content analysis of leading public administration texts suggests why utilization may be retarded in practice: forecasting, like many other “nuts and bolts” areas in public financial management, is displaced by continued treatment of budget format, budget theory, and public finance. This lends credence to recent reports of increasing practitioner dissatisfaction with academic-based consulting and training in the field, and raises questions about the need for NASPAA to exercise greater control with regard to the public financial management curriculum.