Associations between Exposure to Alienating Behaviors,Anxiety, and Depression in an Italian Sample of Adults

The aim of this study was to examine associations between exposure to alienating behaviors (ABs) and anxiety and depression as mediated through psychological maltreatment and parental bonding in a sample of Italian adults in the community. Five hundred and nine adults were given a measure of exposure to ABs, the Baker Strategy Questionnaire; the Psychological Maltreatment Measure; the Parental Bonding Instrument; the State‐Trait Anxiety Inventory‐Y; and the Beck Depression Inventory‐II. Exposure to ABs was associated with psychological maltreatment, which was associated with parental bonding, which was associated with each of the three mental health outcomes: depression, state anxiety, and trait anxiety. The authors conclude that exposure to ABs in childhood represents a risk factor for subsequent poor mental health.     

Hesitation Wounds and Sharp Force Injuries in Forensic Pathology and Psychiatry: Multidisciplinary Review of the Literature and Study of Two Cases

The aim of this paper was to showcase the significant diagnostic value of hesitation wounds in terms of forensic, psychiatric, and medicolegal interest. A number of studies were reviewed to update and summarize the relevant literature on the incidence, distribution, character, and function of hesitation wounds as well as the sociodemographic variables and psychopathology of the inducers. This study also investigates their importance as a forensic criterion in the distinction between suicide and homicide as well as a psychiatric diagnostic tool in suicide prevention. In addition, the paper reports two new cases. Results conclude that there is equal incidence, but different distribution of hesitation wounds between genders. Furthermore, the low dispersion of hesitation wounds contrasts with the high dispersion of defense wounds. The inducers' psychopathology lies principally in Axis I disorders. Finally, there is a comprehensive analysis of non‐suicidal self‐injury and the role of self‐wounding in suicide prevention.     

Profile of Men Who Are Victims of Physical Violence by an Intimate Partner

The objective of this study was to characterize the profile of men who are victims of interpersonal physical violence (IPV) by an intimate partner. This study is a retrospective analysis of suspected cases of male victims of IPV by an intimate partner, aged 18 years or older, treated at a Forensic Medicine and Dentistry Center in Brazil. Sociodemographic variables of the victims, the types of violence and the patterns of injuries were evaluated. Over this period, 1520 suspected victims of IPV by an intimate partner were examined; 14.6 % (n = 222) of them were men. Based on Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) two dimensions were formed: the first dimension (internal reliability = 0613) was primarily formed by the relationship between aggressor and victim, the marital status and the type of IPV, and the second dimension (reliability = 0509) by the day of week, the period of day and the marital status.     

Security in the Interparental Subsystem (SIS) Scale: Psychometric Characteristics in a Sample of Portuguese Adolescents

The Security in the Interparental Subsystem Scale (SIS) is based on emotional security theory. This study examined the psychometric properties of an adaptation of the SIS to a sample of Portuguese adolescents (60.3 % girls; 10 to 18 years old; Mage?=?13 years; N?=?229), recruited in public schools. Discriminant and concurrent validity were assessed by analyzing SIS dimensions associations with adolescents’ exposure to interparental conflict (IC), and psychological adjustment, respectively. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of the SIS supported a six-factor solution, with satisfactory internal consistency. Evidence for discriminant and concurrent validity was provided: most SIS dimensions significantly discriminated between adolescents exposed to higher vs. lower levels of IC; and a significant positive association between emotional reactivity and adolescents’ externalizing symptoms was found. These findings suggest that the SIS is a reliable tool for assessing adolescents’ emotional insecurity in the interparental relationship within the context of this sample.     

Context manipulation in police interviews: a field experiment

Journal of Experimental Criminology - Recent writing and research on interrogation has highlighted the potential importance of the physical context in which the interview takes place. Whereas...     

Applying Precaution in EU Authorisation of Genetically Modified Products—Challenges and Suggestions for Reform

In this article, I endeavour to examine concrete challenges that arise with regard to implementation of the precautionary principle in the field of European Union regulation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Developed by the European courts into a general legal principle, precaution requires EU regulators to strike a balance between scientific and political legitimacy when taking decisions on risk‐entailing products. Following this understanding, the current GMO legislation creates precautionary governance structures that allow for a broad input into the authorisation process, not only of scientific, but also of ‘other legitimate factors’. At the same time, it can be criticised for narrowly defining precaution as a decision rule, which, if applied correctly, will lead the decision maker to the ‘right’ decision. I argue that this misconception is one of the reasons why, in the current authorisation practice, the EU institutions fail to apply the principle in a balanced way, falling into the extremes of either purely science‐based decision making or a highly politicised precautionary rhetoric. I suggest that in order not to be paralysing, precaution should be understood as a procedural principle that provides for precautionary governance, thus enabling regulators to make appropriate risk choices.     

Diasporas and democratization in the post-communist world

If diaspora communities are socialized with democratic values in Western societies, they could be expected to be sympathetic to the democratization of their home countries. However, there is a high degree of variation in their behavior. Contrary to the predominant understanding in the literature that diasporas act in exclusively nationalist ways, this article argues that they do engage with the democratization of their home countries. Various challenges to the sovereignty of their homelands explain whether diasporas involve with procedural or liberal aspects of democratization. Drawing evidence from the activities of the Ukrainian, Serbian, Albanian and Armenian diasporas after the end of communism, I argue that unless diasporas are linked to home countries that enjoy both international legal and domestic sovereignty, they will involve only with procedural aspects of democratization. Diasporas filter international pressure to democratize post-communist societies by utilizing democratic procedures to advance unresolved nationalist goals.     

Do Managers Face a Performance Trade-Off? Correlations Between Production and Process Performance

The existence of multiple goals in public organizations inevitably raises the concern that managers face performance trade-offs. In particular, scholars have expressed the fear that public managers, in order to secure high production performance, are forced to sacrifice performance on goals like equity, accountability, and procedural justice. However, our knowledge of whether such trade-offs exist is scarce. Using an administrative 10-year panel data set of Danish public schools and principals, this article analyzes trade-offs between production performance (measured by student performance and student pass rate) and process performance (measured by equity, accountability, and procedural justice). Results show no evidence of trade-offs. In contrast, principals who succeed in raising student performance generally also succeed in securing high pass rates, high equity, high accountability, and high procedural justice. These results suggest that managers who are able to secure high performance on one dimension of performance will likely also be high-performing on other performance dimensions.     

Being reformed: Subjectification and security sector reform in the Congolese armed forces

In contrast to most studies addressing security sector reform (SSR) in Africa, this article queries defence reform efforts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) from a governmentality perspective and hones in on processes of subjectification and modes of agency among members of the Armed Forces of the DRC (FARDC). Based on extensive field research in the DRC, it explores how army staff produce themselves through (and outside of) the ways in which they are ‘hailed’ into subject positions in donors’ efforts to govern. In asking how FARDC staff respond, position, and produce themselves in relation to external reform efforts and the attending governing technologies and techniques, the article contributes to the increasing – yet limited – scholarly attention to those being ‘reformed’ through SSR efforts. Ultimately, attending to the specificities of how processes of subjectification are experienced from the perspective of those who are to be reformed problematizes the simplified notions of lack of political will and commitment, obstruction and ‘spoilers’ that are so prevalent in the SSR literature, suggesting that these processes are heavily shaped by memories of colonialism and exploitation.     

Assessing the credibility of how climate adaptation aid projects are categorised

This article presents the findings of a re-evaluation of all 5,200 aid projects that OECD donors reported for 2012 as “climate change adaptation”-related, based on the “Rio marker” classification system. The findings confirm those from the academic and grey literature that the absence of independent quality control makes the adaptation Rio marker data almost entirely unreliable. This lack of credibility impedes meaningful assessments of progress toward the mainstreaming of adaptation in development cooperation activities. It also erodes trust in international climate negotiations, given that these data are frequently used in the financial reporting of developed countries to the UNFCCC.