Children’s Susceptibility to Misidentifying a Familiar Bystander From a Lineup: When Younger is Better

Children from 5 to 12 years of age (N=779) were shown a videotape where a preschool teacher has money stolen from her wallet. Children were shown a lineup, and for children in the bystander condition, the lineup contained a familiar bystander without the thief. Children in the control condition viewed the same lineup but they had not seen the bystander in the videotape. Among the 11–12-year olds, participants in the bystander condition were significantly more likely than control participants to misidentify the familiar bystander. This effect was not found in children from 5 to 10 years of age. When children in the control condition were shown a lineup that contained the thief without the bystander, the 11–12-year olds were significantly more likely than the younger children to correctly identify the thief. These findings demonstrate that age can both increase and decrease the accuracy of children’s lineup identification accuracy depending on the task at hand and the content of a lineup.     

Children's Conceptual Knowledge of Lying and Its Relation to Their Actual Behaviors: Implications for Court Competence Examinations

Child witnesses must undergo a competence examination in which they must show appropriate conceptual understanding of lying and truth-telling, and promise to tell the truth. Three experiments (Ns = 123, 103, 177) were conducted to address the assumptions underlying the court competence examination that (1) children who understand lying and its moral implications are less likely to lie and (2) discussing the conceptual issues concerning lying and having children promising to tell the truth promotes truth-telling. Both measures of lying and understanding of truth- and lie-telling were obtained from children between 3 and 7 years of age. Most children demonstrated appropriate conceptual knowledge of lying and truth-telling and the obligation to tell the truth, but many of the same children lied to conceal their own transgression. Promising to tell the truth significantly reduced lying. Implications for legal systems are discussed.     

From Politics to Economics at the Thai–Cambodian Border: Plus Ça Change...

This paper looks at border relations between Thais and Cambodians over the last thirty years, in the context of the developing Thai polity and economy. It considers the salience of both ethnicity and nationality in shaping Thai interactions with Khmers. It suggests that as the threat of violent regional conflict diminished, the shared border came to represent important economic opportunities for both Thais and Cambodians. However, rhetorics of national interest and regional development notwithstanding, the beneficiaries of this transnational trade are neither nation nor state, but specific interest groups working through the structures of government and military on both sides of the border.     

Predicting the Onset of Sexual and Drug Risk Behaviors in HIV-Negative Youths with HIV-Positive Mothers: The Role of Contextual,Self-Regulation,and Social-Interaction Factors

HIV-negative, inner-city adolescents with HIV-infected parents are considered to be at high risk for acquiring HIV themselves. Using a modified theory of health behavior, this study examined the effects of maternal HIV infection and psychosocial variables on the onset of sexual and drug risk behavior in 144 HIV-negative adolescents with and without HIV-positive mothers. Adolescents and their mothers were interviewed when the youths were 10–14 years old and again when they were 13–19 years old. By follow-up, 42% of youths reported the onset of vaginal sex (vs 5% at baseline). Marijuana and alcohol use increased from 6 and 38%, respectively, at baseline to 25 and 60% at follow-up. Among those reporting risk behaviors, 40--50% reported onset prior to 14 years. Youth and family psychosocial variables, but not maternal HIV status, were associated with risk behaviour outcomes. Claude A. Mellins research interests include mental health, psychosocial, and public effects of maternal and pediatric HIV; interventions for HIV-affected families; and adherence. Curtis Dolezal research interests include HIV-related sexual behavior in a variety of populations with a particular emphasis on methodology/measurement issues. Elizabeth Brackis-Cott research interests include impact of HIV/AIDS on the lives of children and families directly affected by the disease. Ouzama Nicholson research interests include international public health and pediatric HIV infection and operational issues in developing effective prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV infection and pediatric HIV care programs. Patricia Warne research interests include program development, structural interventions for HIV, and policy. Heino F. L. Meyer-Bahlburg research interests include psychosexual assessment, the development and determinants of sexual risk behavior, and the effects of HIV disease on sexual functioning.     

Identities,Boundaries, and Accounts of Women Methamphetamine Users

Drug users often define themselves as functional users and depict others as dysfunctional (i.e. junkies). Previous research on the social identities of drug users has focused on the symbolic boundaries they create to distance themselves from stigmatized others. Investigators have yet to focus on how users account for their own boundary violations. Here, we examine the narratives of 30 former women methamphetamine (meth) users to determine how they make distinctions between functional and dysfunctional meth users (i.e. “meth heads”). The distinctions they make are based on users’ abilities to maintain control of their lives and to hide their use from outsiders. Those who saw themselves as functional but who engaged in behaviors inconsistent with this image accounted for these behaviors to maintain desired identities. We show the complexity of drug users’ identities and illustrate how anti-drug campaigns that provide grotesque caricatures of drug users may prolong drug using careers.     

Can you use community policing for counter terrorism? Evidence from NSW,Australia

A contested question in the international policing literature is whether it is possible to undertake effective anti-terrorism community policing. The NSW Police Force’s Counter Radicalisation Strategy involved a community engagement initiative that used community liaison officers, mostly working with Sydney Muslim communities. This study reviews the success of this initiative, drawing on data from a survey of Sydney Muslims. The community engagement initiative was found to have direct contact with the community, it was public, and it involved aspects of partnership and relations of depth. For these reasons, the initiative was within the community policing paradigm. There was strong community awareness of the programme, and a majority saw it as successful. There remained pockets of community suspicion and critique, which require attention. The respondents recommended an enhancement of the community policing aspects: more (and wider) contact, visibility and partnership. The findings affirm the utility of community policing for counter-terror work.     

Why Quotas Are Needed to Improve Women's Access to Services in Clientelistic Regimes

Using data from a survey of 200 Moroccan and Algerian parliamentarians, this article assesses the relationship between parliamentarian gender, quotas, and constituency service provision to females. The findings suggest that while electing women increases service provision to females, quotas are needed to create mandates in clientelistic, patriarchal settings, where serving women is a less effective electoral strategy than serving men. Deputies elected through quotas are more responsive to women than members of either sex elected without quotas. The article extends a theory of homosocial capital to explain gender gaps in parliamentarians' supply of and citizens' demand for services. By demonstrating a novel mandate effect and framing mandates in a positive light, the article extends the literature on gender, representation, and clientelism; urges scholars to examine service representation; and supports quotas to promote women's access to services, political participation, and electability.