Budgeting in Ghana: Innovations, Problems, and Prospects

Systematic development has been a high priority of Ghanaian leaders, particularly since Independence. The impetus for this national objective has been recent budgetary innovations aimed at far-reaching implications for a healthy national economy, including meaningful development. This article evaluates these innovations with a view to finding out the extent to which such forces of innovation have improved overall public financial administration, as well as the masses' living conditions via development. Finally, the results of these innovations and the lessons learned are summarized.     

Jail reform litigation: The issue of rights and remedies

This paper looks at the vast array of lawsuits filed by jail inmates challenging the conditions of their confinement. While much attention has been focused on prison reform litigation, many of the nation's jails have been subject to civil rights lawsuits, and many are now operating under some form of court order. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Southern Criminal Justice Association, October 7–9, 1987, Birmingham, AL.     

On Value Security and the Overall National Security System

The universality of human nature determines the universality of values and its particularity determines the diversity and plurality of values that is the fundamental determinant of security problems among different value systems. In a narrow sense, value security refers to a situation in which value concepts of a state, region, or a nation, social class are not under threat from the external adversaries, which is called conceptual value security. In a broad sense, value security refers to the consistency between the system of realistic value security and that of conceptual value security. National value security encompasses both value security in a nation-state and security of national values, in which the former is featured by the recognition and acceptance of a prevailing value in a nation-state, and the latter is characterized by the sovereignty of national values. Due to the fact that the issue of value system is a meta-theoretical one and the security of conceptual value system is part of cultural security, value security holds a core position in cultural security and is an important component of overall national security system. Additionally, value security embodies the security of value pursuits and value criteria in different spheres of the overall national security system and therefore, it is also an indispensable and flexible support to the overall national security.     

Risk Factors for Men’s Intimate Physical Aggression in Spain

This study tests a model of physical aggression in a sample of 194 men being treated for physical or psychological aggression in the greater Madrid area of Spain. The prevalence of aggression in this sample was lower than in a US batterer sample. In the path model highlighted here, borderline personality traits and alcohol problems were identified as risk factors for physical aggression perpetration and the role of borderline traits was mediated by psychological aggression. A reciprocal relationship was found between psychological perpetration and victimization but not physical perpetration and victimization. These findings are discussed within a cross-cultural context; conceptual and treatment implications are also addressed.     

The Effect of Light Exposure on the Degradation of Latent Fingerprints on Brass Surfaces: The Use of Silver Electroless Deposition as a Visualization Technique

We have studied the degradation of sebaceous fingerprints on brass surfaces using silver electroless deposition (SED) as a visualization technique. We have stored fingerprints on brass squares either (i) in a locked dark cupboard or (ii) in glass‐filtered natural daylight for periods of 3 h, 24 h, 1 week, 3 weeks, and 6 weeks. We find that fingerprints on brass surfaces degrade much more rapidly when kept in the light than they do under dark conditions with a much higher proportion of high‐quality prints found after 3 or 6 weeks of aging when stored in the dark. This process is more marked than for similar fingerprints on black PVC surfaces. Identifiable prints can be achieved on brass surfaces using both SED and cyanoacrylate fuming (CFM). SED is quick and straightforward to perform. CFM is more time‐consuming but is versatile and can be applied to a wider range of metal surfaces than SED, for example brass surfaces which have been coated by a lacquer.