Researching the use of force: the background to the international project

This article provides the background to an international project on use of force by the police that was carried out in seven countries. Force is often considered to be the defining characteristic of policing and much research has been conducted on the determinants, prevalence and control of the use of force, particularly in the United States. However, little work has looked at police officers’ own views on the use of force, in particular the way in which they justify it. Using a hypothetical encounter developed for this project, researchers in each country conducted focus groups with police officers in which they were encouraged to talk about the use of force. The results show interesting similarities and differences across countries and demonstrate the value of using this kind of research focus and methodology.

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International Law,Social Change and Resistance: A Conversation Between Professor Anna Grear (Cardiff) and Professorial Fellow Dianne Otto (Melbourne)

This conversation between two scholars of international law focuses on the contemporary realities of feminist analysis of international law and on current and future spaces of resistance. It notes that feminism has moved from the margin towards the centre, but that this has also come at a cost. As the language of women’s rights and gender equality has travelled into the international policy worlds of crisis management and peace and security, feminist scholars need to become more careful in their analysis and find new ways of resistance. While noting that we live in dangerous times, this is also a hopeful discussion.     

Do Higher Minimum Wages Benefit Health? Evidence From the UK

This study examines the link between minimum wages and health outcomes by using the introduction of the National Minimum Wage (NMW) in the United Kingdom in 1999 as an exogenous variation of earned income. A test for health effects by using longitudinal data from the British Household Panel Survey for a period of ten years was conducted. It was found that the NMW significantly improved several measures of health, including self‐reported health status and the presence of health conditions. When examining potential mechanisms, it was shown that changes in health behaviors, leisure expenditures, and financial stress can explain the observed improvements in health.     

Hans Georg Ruppe – 65 Jahre

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

The politics and economics of German unification: From currency union to economic dichotomy

The political dynamics of unification brought about a rapid transition from a largely self‐contained socialist economy to a monetary union and at the same time initiated a painful adjustment process. The article analyses public debates and interpretations of economic events and prospects which contributed to the construction of the economic‐political dimensions of German unification.     

Soviet Apartheid: Stalin’s Ethnic Deportations, Special Settlement Restrictions, and the Labor Army: The Case of the Ethnic Germans in the USSR

This article examines the Stalin regime??s treatment of the ethnic Germans in the USSR during the 1940s as a case study in racial discrimination. After 1938, Soviet definitions of nationality became racialized. Systematic repression against certain nationalities in the USSR after this time clearly fit the definition of racial discrimination formulated by scholars in the post-war era. This article examines the separate and unequal institutions of the special settlement regime and labor army imposed upon the ethnic Germans in the USSR during World War II in the context of race as a category constructed along lines of primordial and essentialist views of culture. It also compares the construction of racialized groups and the practice of racial discrimination in the USSR with South Africa during the apartheid era.     

Age assessment of ivory by analysis of 14C and 90Sr to determine whether there is an antique on hand

This report describes the histological changes observed in the heart a young methamphetamine abuser who died of heart failure. Most of the microscopic changes in the heart have previously been described in experimental animals, but never clearly illustrated in man. Gross examination of the heart revealed concentric myocardial hypertrophy (heart weight 470 g versus median predicted weight of 312 g). Areas of old myocardial infarction were also evident, along with enzymatic evidence indicating that a new infarct had occurred. Myocardial remodeling was extensive with perivascular and interstitial fibrosis, cellular vacuolization, and ongoing myocyte destruction with proliferation of fibromyocytes in the intestitum. Of note were the widespread, bizarre looking, distorted, cell nuclei. They were reminiscent of those seen in viral-induced dilated congestive cardiomyopathy. Clinical chemical measurements also showed unequivocal evidence of both evolving infarction and profound heart failure, with a BNP > 5000. This pattern has not previously been reported in humans, probably because forensic pathologists rarely examine the hearts of methamphetamine abusers microscopically. If the pattern observed here is typical for methamphetamine-induced cardiotoxicity, it could well explain increasing reports of heart failure in methamphetamine abusers. It might also be diagnostic for the disorder.     

Jurors' use of probabilistic evidence

Mock jurors' use of probabilistic evidence was examined in a fractional factorial design manipulating 7 variables: strength of nonstatistical evidence; quantification of nonstatistical evidence; strength of statistical evidence; combination of 2 pieces of statistical evidence; instruction in use of Bayes' theorem; and presentation of fallacies (both prosecutor's and defense attorney's) concerning use of statistical evidence. One hundred eighty-nine subjects viewed 1 of 16 videotapes presenting a condensed mock trial. Subjects completed dependent measures after each of 4 witnesses and at the end of trial. The strength of both nonstatistical and probabilistic evidence affected verdicts; the other manipulations did not. Overall, subjects slightly underused the probabilistic evidence, as compared to their individualized Bayesian norms, and subjects did not succumb to fallacies. However, subjects greatly varied in over-or underutilization, even after Bayesian instruction. Future research should examine use of weak nonstatistical evidence, and should test different probabilistic instructions.     

The biasing impact of pretrial publicity on juror judgments

This study examines three previously unexplored aspects of the biasing impact of pretrial publicity. First, this study tests the differential effects of several different types of pretrial publicity on juror decision making. Second, this study explores the impact the presentation of trial evidence has on biases created by pretrial publicity. Finally, the study explores the psychological processes by which pretrial publicity effects may operate. Results indicate that pretrial publicity, particularly negative information about the defendant's character, can influence subjects' initial judgments about a defendant's guilt. This bias is weakened, but not eliminated by the presentation of trial evidence. Character pretrial publicity, and both weak and strong inadmissible statements appear to operate by changing subjects' initial judgments of the defendant's guilt. This initial judgment then affects the way subjects assess the evidence presented in the trial and the attributions they make about the defendant. Prior record pretrial publicity appears to have its effects by influencing subjects' inferences about the criminality of the defendant and this is related to posttrial judgments.