Tribalism in the Nigeria police force

A questionnaire survey of 100 police officers in the Nigeria Police Force was conducted. Almost three‐fourths (72%) of the officers indicated that they felt they had been discriminated against based upon their tribal membership. Tribal influence was thus considered by these officers to be pervasive within the Nigeria Police Force. More specifically, tribal influence was thought to play an especially important role in hiring practices, post assignments, disciplinary actions, transfers, and promotions.     

The feasibility of a brief evaluation of mental state at the time of the offense

If psychological evaluations of criminal defendants could be performed in the community on an outpatient basis rather than in a distant state hospital on an inpatient basis, substantial savings could result and defendants' rights to speedy trial, bail, and the least restrictive alternative would more likely be respected. The authors thus developed a protocol, the mental state at the time of the offense screening evaluation (MSE), designed to enable outpatient evaluatiors to “screen out,” in the course of a brief interview, those defendants whose alleged criminal conduct clearly was not caused by “significant mental abnormality.” They tested the validity of the MSE by having pairs of mental health professionals use the MSE to evaluate 36 criminal defendants. The professionals' conclusions were then compared with the conclusions of state hospital professionals who performed a comprehensive evaluation of each defendant. They were also compared to court adjudications of the defendant's criminal charges. They found that the MSE screened out a large proportion of defendants (sufficient to suggest an improvement in cost-efficiency) without prejudice to those defendants who might have a valid legal defense.     

The Commissioner cometh: The challenge for democratic policing in England and Wales

Public policing in England and Wales is currently undergoing and will undergo substantial changes to the way it delivers its services in the future. Consideration of the different proposals for change when viewed in isolation appears to produce uncertainty in terms of organisational structure. However, when considered as interdependent they provide a more clear and problematic issue that could undermine the current democratic model of policing utilised in this country. This article considers the ideas of the function of the public police within a democratic policing model and how changes such as the introduction of Police and Crime Commissioners, an apparent lack of engagement by the public with the democratic process, as well as the possibility of privatisation and outsourcing currently in vogue, may have a detrimental effect upon the policing philosophy that has underpinned policing in England and Wales for nearly 200 years.     

Identifying Predictors for Children Witnessing Intimate Partner Violence

Research has shown that intimate partner violence (IPV) prevalence and severity is higher and IPV duration is longer among couples that have children. Women frequently report that their children are the reason why they stay, leave, or return to an IPV relationship. Our study used results from a two-wave telephone survey to determine what IPV-associated factors were significant predictors of respondents’ children witnessing IPV, as well as estimating prevalence of children’s exposure to violence. We found that an increase in respondents’ age was significantly associated with increased odds of a child being exposed to violence. We also found that children witnessing violence were almost twice as likely to have mothers who reported leaving abusers. We hypothesize that increasing age corresponds to improved confidence in help-seeking behaviors. Our findings represent an important first step for future research on understanding how children influence IPV victims’ decision-making in seeking out service providers for help.     

Investigating forensic document examiners’ skill relating to opinions on photocopied signatures

Many forensic document examiners are hesitant to express authorship opinions on photocopied handwriting as the photocopying process results in less feature information than original writing. This study aimed to test the accuracy of 15 examiners' opinions regarding whether photocopied questioned signatures were genuine or simulated. Each examiner received the same set of original signature exemplars, from one individual, and a set of eighty questioned photocopied signatures comprising of genuine and simulated signatures. The overall misleading (error) rate for the grouped examiners' opinions was 0.9% providing strong evidence that examiners can make accurate observations regarding the authorship of non-original handwriting.