Integrating the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education general competencies into forensic pathology fellowship training

Since July 2004, forensic pathology fellowships have been required to provide training in 6 general competencies: patient care, medical knowledge, practice-based learning and improvement, interpersonal and communication skills, professionalism, and systems-based practice. In anticipation of this movement, beginning in 2002 the Office of the Medical Investigator (OMI) of the state of New Mexico began incorporating specific training in the general competencies into the fellowship program. Our experience has shown that the additional instruction and evaluation have proven to be valuable in preparing fellows for a successful forensic pathology career, did not detract from the more traditional aspects of forensic pathology training, and in many instances improved our training and assessment procedures.     

Psychopathy, treatment change, and recidivism in high-risk, high-need sexual offenders

The present study investigated 154 consecutive admissions to the Regional Treatment Center (Ontario) Sex Offender Treatment Program with reference to psychopathy and outcome. Ratings of treatment behavior, as well as clinical judgments as to whether risk was reduced, were coded based on treatment reports. With reference to Psychopathy Checklist-revised (PCL-R) scores, survival analyses indicated that high scorers recidivated at significantly higher rates than low scorers. However, offenders who received high PCL-R scores and lower scores on measures of treatment behavior recidivated at the same rate as low scorers on the PCL-R. Furthermore, among high PCL-R offenders, those rated as lower risk at post treatment in fact reoffended at a lower rate than those whose risk was rated as unchanged, although this difference failed to reach significance. Findings are discussed in light of the clinical and research literature.     

Estimating Regression Models in Which the Dependent Variable Is Based on Estimates

e-mail: jblewis{at}ucla.edu (corresponding author) e-mail: dlinzer{at}ucla.edu Researchers often use as dependent variables quantities estimatedfrom auxiliary data sets. Estimated dependent variable (EDV)models arise, for example, in studies where counties or statesare the units of analysis and the dependent variable is an estimatedmean, proportion, or regression coefficient. Scholars fittingEDV models have generally recognized that variation in the samplingvariance of the observations on the dependent variable willinduce heteroscedasticity. We show that the most common approachto this problem, weighted least squares, will usually lead toinefficient estimates and underestimated standard errors. Inmany cases, OLS with White's or Efron heteroscedastic consistentstandard errors yields better results. We also suggest two simplealternative FGLS approaches that are more efficient and yieldconsistent standard error estimates. Finally, we apply the variousalternative estimators to a replication of Cohen's (2004) cross-nationalstudy of presidential approval.     

Why triggers fail (and what to do about it): An examination of the unemployment insurance extended benefits program

During periods of high unemployment, many workers exhaust their unemployment insurance (UI) benefits before regaining employment. To help alleviate this problem, Congress created the extended benefits (EB) program, expanding the number of weeks of benefits available to UI recipients in high unemployment states. The EB program operates by “triggering on” additional weeks of benefits in states where unemployment and UI benefit receipt are above federally established thresholds. We analyze the performance of the EB program by creating a series of policy simulations using weekly UI claims and unemployment data from the program's inception in 1970 through the most recent economic expansion in 2005. Overall, we find that EB triggers, as currently constructed, fail as a policy tool for extending UI benefits. Minor adjustments to the triggers are unlikely to be effective. We develop an alternative set of “fix point” triggers that allow the EB program to trigger on and off in a more timely fashion. These triggers outperform all previously legislated triggers as well as other commonly proposed triggering mechanisms on criteria of timeliness, breadth, and duration. © 2006 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management     

Economic Perceptions and Executive Approval in Comparative Perspective

Controversy exists over whether people use retrospective or prospective economic perceptions when evaluating their political leadership. In this article, I argue that the structure of the political-economic system affects which type of economic perception people employ. Specifically, in established democracies with developed economies, people will employ prospective assessments. In contrast, in nations with less well-established democratic systems and less developed economies, people will employ retrospective reasoning. They do so because under such conditions uncertainty about the future is too high for them to make reliable prospective assessments. I test this hypothesis on aggregate survey data taken from 41 nations in 2002. Support for the hypothesis is found. The conclusion puts the findings into perspective and discusses directions for future research.     

Being Certain Versus Being Right: Citizen Certainty and Accuracy of House Candidates' Ideological Orientations

Research on voting behavior has been reinvigorated by focusing on citizens' certainty of candidates' issue positions and ideological orientations. According to this perspective, citizens are inclined to support candidates whom they are confident possess attributes they deem important. Analysis of citizens' perceptual certainty and perceptual accuracy of 1994, 1996, and 1998 House candidates' ideological orientations reveals that many candidate characteristics (incumbency, fiscal resources) that enhance certainty fail to improve perceptual accuracy. The electoral consequence of this fact is that candidates endowed with these resources benefit from the importance of certainty to citizens without paying the electoral costs of clarifying their issue positions and ideological orientations. Similarly, several characteristics of citizens that lead to certainty reduction—gender and caring about the outcome of the election, for example—fail to improve perceptual accuracy. The implications of the empirical findings for the role of citizens' assessments of certainty in the voting decision for producing an informed electorate are considered here.