Psychopathy and Mortality

It is not known how mortality differs between psychopathic and nonpsychopathic individuals. We linked data from subjects having been in forensic mental examinations at Niuvanniemi Hospital during 1984–1993 to the data from the National Death Registry to estimate the association between psychopathy and mortality. One hundred psychopathic individuals scoring 25 or higher in the PCL‐R scale were followed up for 20–30 years. Two control groups were used as follows: 178 offenders scoring less than 25 on the PCL‐R, and sample of general population drawn from the Finnish National Statistics database. Results reveal that psychopaths die younger than the general population, and the causes of death are more violent than in the nonpsychopath control group. There was a significant positive correlation between PCL‐R score and mortality, and the mortality among psychopaths was about fivefold when compared with general population.     

Intimate partner violence victimization and household financial strain

Most scholars agree that low socio-economic status is associated with an elevated risk for violent victimization as well as offending. Nevertheless, it has been suggested that certain forms of violence—particularly intimate partner violence (IPV)—are more equally distributed in the population, not concentrating on the lower social strata as strongly as other forms of violence. In this paper, we examine the association between financial strain, measured on the household level, and two different types of victimization: IPV and violence committed by a person unknown to the victim. The analysis is based on the 2013 sweep of Finnish National Crime Victim Survey (n = 6,999), a nationally representative survey incorporating a mix of postal and web-based survey methodology. Multivariate analyses indicate that the risk for both kinds of victimization is highest among those who report financial difficulties. Moreover, the association between IPV and financial strain appears stronger when less serious violent incidences are excluded from the analysis.     

Drivers for adopting environmental management systems in the post-Soviet mining industry

The past decade has witnessed an active dismantling of public environmental policy in Russia. At the same time, Russian companies involved in natural resources extraction have adopted standardized environmental management systems. In this way, much of the responsibility of environmental policy in Russia has been transferred to private industries and their environmental management systems. These systems do not, as such, guarantee increased environmental responsibility. This article addresses the privatization of the Russian environmental policy in light of the legitimacy and uncertainty involved in standardized environmental management systems. A case study of the mining industry in the Kola Peninsula, Russia, is used in two ways. First, environmental policy conflicts between public bodies and mining companies in Russia are illustrated with two examples. Second, key drivers for adopting environmental management systems in the Kola Peninsula mining companies are extracted from thematic interviews. These drivers are analyzed for their impact on unit and corporate level decision-making. In addition, the drivers are categorized according to the type of legitimacy and stakeholder salience. It is shown that unit and corporate level applications of environmental management have different societal and environmental implications. On the basis of the case study it is suggested that due to their support of cognitive and moral legitimacy, and a broader view on salient stakeholders, environmental management systems defined on the unit level allow a better alignment of corporate goals with societal goals of sustainability.

The Politics of Competitive Tendering: Political Orientation and Attitudes towards Contracting Out among Finnish Local Politicians

Using survey data on Finnish local politicians (n = 364) we examine the extent to which political orientation affects attitudes towards and perceptions of competitive tendering in social and health service provision. Expectation of cost benefits turns out to be the most important factor accounting for willingness to increase the usage of competitive tendering. The perceived positive impact of tendering on local democracy is also related to local politicians' readiness to implement reforms. However, political orientation does have a strong effect on politicians' perceptions. We also consider whether there are mitigating factors that could mask the relationship between political orientation and attitudes towards tendering. We identify one such factor, municipal employment: public-sector employees form a kind of informal ‘interest group’ resisting public-sector reforms in municipal decision making. In general, our results suggest that macro-level studies on competitive tendering underestimate the effects of political ideology on local decision making.