When Are Transport Pricing Policies Fair and Acceptable?

This study examines the relative importance of six policy outcomes related to different fairness principles for the perceived fairness and acceptability of pricing policies aimed at changing transport behaviour. The fairness and acceptability of six different types of transport pricing policies were systematically higher if policy outcomes were related to environmental justice and equality. The policy measures were evaluated as more acceptable and fair when respondents believed that future generations, nature and the environment were protected (reflecting environmental justice), and to a lesser extent, when everybody was equally affected by the policy outcomes (reflecting equality), irrespective of absolute differences in fairness and acceptability of the policies. Policy outcomes reflecting egoistic concerns (e.g. being financially worse off and being worse off than others) and equity (e.g. proportional to people’s income and contribution to problems) were related to the fairness and acceptability of some policy measures, but no systematic pattern was found across six policy measures. This suggests that policy outcomes related to distributions that focus on collective considerations appear to be more important for the fairness and acceptability of transport pricing policies than those focusing on individual interests. Theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.     

Understanding the public perception and satisfaction of a UK police constabulary

This study explores the public perception of a community in Britain, towards a police constabulary in the UK. The study sought to explore how the levels of satisfaction between Black and Minority Ethnicities (BME) and non BME communities towards this police force in the UK. Using a mixed-methods approach, data was obtained by the use of self-completion questionnaires of 112 participants in an area in the UK and the use of a total of 31 semi-structured interviews. The findings show that participants questioned police competence, the duty of police officers, policing conduct in relation to investigations, experiences of prejudice and expectations communities have of the police. The results for this study showed that there is some support for the idea that the perception of the police during the first contact with a member of the public is likely to be the most powerful predictor of future opinions on the police. This comes from the idea that the public are concerned not only with what the police do in the community, but how they do their work. Finally, as the current study is concerned with policing the local communities, it is important to remember that members of the community will respond positively to being included in police procedure deliberations and audits. The findings suggest that there is still much work to be done by the police service in order to improve the relationship with the communities that they serve. We argue much more emphasis should be placed on community work and increased engagement with younger people in schools and the wider general public.     

Conflicting Equalities? Cultural Group Rights and Sex Equality

This article explores the tensions within multiculturalist theory between the aspiration to promote cultural recognition and the need to promote and protect women's concern with issues of sex and gender inequality. The article asseses the three main approaches to the reconciliation of sexual equality and group rights; according priority to the traditional values and practices of cultural groups; accepting collective and cultural rights but within a framework international human rights; and finally, the acceptance of group rights subject to respect for individual rights and freedoms. By focusing on the experience of aboriginal women activists in Canadian politics and their struggle to preserve constitutional sex equality, this article argues that only the third approach provides adequate safeguards for women in their public and private roles.     

“Always Use Protection”: Communication Boys Receive About Sex From Parents,Peers, and the Media

Although parents are often thought to be the primary communicators of sexual information, studies have found that many adolescent boys report receiving little or no parental communication about sex. Instead, boys report learning about sex mostly from their peers and the media. However, little is known about the content of these communications, from any source. Using a sample of 286 male undergraduates, this study employed a mixed-method approach to examine the amount and content of sex-related communication boys received from their parents, peers, and the media. Results indicated that adolescent boys report receiving less sexual communication from their parents than from peers and the media. In terms of content, parental messages focused on abstinence and contraception while peer and media messages were significantly more sex-positive. Analyses of ethnic group variation showed that African American adolescents reported receiving the most parental communication and Asian American boys reported the least, with further variability in the content of the messages. Findings also document considerable diversity of message content, both within and across source, highlighting the utility of comparative and multi-method approaches.

Suspect Height Estimation Using the Faro Focus3D Laser Scanner

At present, very little research has been devoted to investigating the ability of laser scanning technology to accurately measure height from surveillance video. The goal of this study was to test the accuracy of one particular laser scanner to estimate suspect height from video footage. The known heights of 10 individuals were measured using an anthropometer. The individuals were then recorded on video walking along a predetermined path in a simulated crime scene environment both with and without headwear. The difference between the known heights and the estimated heights obtained from the laser scanner software were compared using a one-way t-test. The height estimates obtained from the software were not significantly different from the known heights whether individuals were wearing headwear (p = 0.186) or not (p = 0.707). Thus, laser scanning is one technique that could potentially be used by investigators to determine suspect height from video footage.     

Difficult Partnerships: The World Bank, States, and NGOs

Since the early 1990s, World Bank officials in many countries have pressed their government borrowers to include nongovernmental organizations as development partners. What impact has this new partnership norm had in the bank's borrower countries, and why? This article investigates these questions through longitudinal analysis of three cases: Guatemala, Ecuador, and the Gambia. In their first iteration in the 1990s, these bank-sponsored efforts generally failed to take root; yet by the 2000s, NGOs and state actors were engaged in multiple partnerships. This article suggests that over time, bank officials' repeated efforts to embed these new ideas fostered a social learning process that led NGOs to adopt more strategic partnership practices and government officials to see NGO partners as useful. Several factors may affect this learning process: levels of professionalism and the growth of professional networks, the presence of effective “bridge builders,” and the level of historical conflicts.     

Personality and repeated suicide attempts in dependent adolescents and young adults

This study compared personality characteristics of subjects with dependence disorders who had previously made a suicide attempt. The population, recruited in France, Belgium, and Switzerland, was composed of 570 subjects (225 females, 345 males, mean age = 27.3, SD = 8.5). The subjects' psychological dimensions were investigated by means of several self-report questionnaires including: BDI-13 (Beck), Sensation-Seeking Scale (Zuckerman), Toronto Alexithymia Scale (Taylor), Interpersonal Dependency Inventory (Hirschfeld), MMPI-2, and some additional scales. For most dimensions, repeat attempters, both past and recent, but more specifically the recent repeaters, had a more severe psychological profile compared to the other suicide attempters.