Psychopathy among condemned capital murderers

Psychopathy is an important forensic mental health construct. Despite this importance, the research base of psychopathy among individuals convicted of capital murder is limited. Archival data were collected from a sample of 636 persons convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in the State of California. Psychopathy was assessed using the Psychopathy Checklist – Revised (PCL-R) instrument. Data on criminal careers and other behavioral disorders were also extracted. The sample mean PCL-R total score was 23.31 (SD = 9.92) and one-third of individuals in this sample were considered clinically psychopathic with PCL-R total scores of 30 or greater. Factor analytic examination yielded support for four facets: affective, interpersonal, lifestyle, and antisocial. Criterion validity findings revealed positive correlations of psychopathy scores with Antisocial Personality Disorder (ρ = 0.72), Conduct Disorder (ρ = 0.46), sexual sadism (ρ = 0.24), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ρ = 0.20), ADHD (ρ = 0.15), arrest charges (r = 0.56), prison sentences (r = 0.53), and age of arrest onset (r = −0.57). Individuals convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death reflect heterogeneity in psychopathy with some individuals exhibiting pronounced psychopathic features.     

Accuracy of comparison decisions by forensic firearms examiners

This black box study assessed the performance of forensic firearms examiners in the United States. It involved three different types of firearms and 173 volunteers who performed a total of 8640 comparisons of both bullets and cartridge cases. The overall false-positive error rate was estimated as 0.656% and 0.933% for bullets and cartridge cases, respectively, while the rate of false negatives was estimated as 2.87% and 1.87% for bullets and cartridge cases, respectively. The majority of errors were made by a limited number of examiners. Because chi-square tests of independence strongly suggest that error probabilities are not the same for each examiner, these are maximum-likelihood estimates based on the beta-binomial probability model and do not depend on an assumption of equal examiner-specific error rates. Corresponding 95% confidence intervals are (0.305%, 1.42%) and (0.548%, 1.57%) for false positives for bullets and cartridge cases, respectively, and (1.89%, 4.26%) and (1.16%, 2.99%) for false negatives for bullets and cartridge cases, respectively. The results of this study are consistent with prior studies, despite its comprehensive design and challenging specimens.     

Downsizing the civil service in developing countries: golden handshakes or smiling farewells?

Some researchers have suggested innovative ways to successfully implement civil service reform in developing countries. Although most approaches to implementing public sector management reform are still very much process-driven, and focus almost exclusively on civil service reform, long-term success in making the public sector more efficient may be better assured if civil service reform is but one outcome of a broader public sector management reform agenda. Particularly, re-focussing from traditional input-driven reform thinking towards output-oriented measures, such as the introduction of accrual budgeting in the public sector, may well result in greater popular acceptance and, thus, longer-term success for sensitive reform programs. Although output-driven accrual budgeting is by no means a panacea for all public sector illnesses, it can at least set the scene for profound and durable cultural change in the public sector. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Metabolism and toxicological detection of the designer drug N-(1-phenylcyclohexyl)-3-methoxypropanamine (PCMPA) in rat urine using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

Studies on the metabolism and the toxicological detection of the phencyclidine-derived designer drug N-(1-phenylcyclohexyl)-3-methoxypropanamine (PCMPA) in rat urine are described using gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric (GC-MS) techniques. Based on the identified metabolites, the following metabolic pathways could be postulated: N-dealkylation, O-demethylation partially followed by oxidation of the resulting alcohol to the corresponding carboxylic acid, hydroxylation of the cyclohexyl ring at different positions, and aromatic hydroxylation. The formed metabolites were identical to those of the homologue N-(1-phenylcyclohexyl)-3-ethoxypropanamine (PCEPA) with exception of the mono hydroxyl metabolites of PCEPA. All PCMPA metabolites were partially excreted in conjugated form. An intake of a common drug users' dose of PCMPA could be detected in rat urine by the authors' systematic toxicological analysis (STA) procedure using full-scan GC-MS after acid hydrolysis, liquid-liquid extraction and microwave-assisted acetylation. The STA should be suitable for proof of an intake of PCMPA also in human urine assuming similar metabolism.     

Anforderungen an die Erfassung, Bewertung und Sanierung von Biodiversitätsschäden nach dem Umweltschadensgesetz

Zusammenfassung  Durch das Umweltschadensgesetz wurde eine ?ffentlich-rechtliche Verpflichtung zur Kompensation für gesch?digte natürliche Ressourcen und Funktionen implementiert, die unabh?ngig von der Vorhabenzulassung oder dem Vorliegen eines Eingriffs ist und damit deutlich über die Verpflichtungen aus der naturschutzrechtlichen Eingriffsregelung hinausgeht. Bisher herrscht eine gewisse Unsicherheit im Umgang mit dem neuen Instrument. Vollzugshinweise in den L?ndern fehlen weitgehend. Auch sind F?lle, in denen das Umweltschadensgesetz zur Anwendung gelangte, bisher nicht systematisch erfasst, Rechtsprechung liegt noch nicht vor. Der Beitrag gibt daher Hinweise zur rechtlichen wie naturschutzfachlichen Operationalisierung der zentralen Regelungen zur Erfassung, Bewertung und Sanierung von Biodiversit?tssch?den und bietet Unterstützung für die Umsetzung und den Vollzug des Instrumentariums in den L?ndern.     

The State of the State: Comparing Governance in China and the United States

How do two world powers with starkly different governing systems share common accountability problems, and why? Does the cycle of administrative reform produce additional need for reforms that come full circle, eventually exacerbating problems without solution? Yongfei Zhao and B. Guy Peters of the University of Pittsburgh examine governance in the United States and China and point out that conflicts in government functions unique to each country result in strikingly similar accountability issues.     

Justifying Inequality as Equality: Germany and the Reform of Voting Weights in the Council of the European Union

ABSTRACT

Weighted voting institutionalises inequality in international organisations. How is it possible that states accept rules that formally privilege some over others even though this contradicts the sovereign equality of states and norms of democratic decision-making? This contribution to a special issue about global stratification shows that arguments about equality can actually serve to justify inequality in international institutions. This can be seen in moves by the German government to justify its proposals for a reform of voting in the Council of the European Union (1995–2008). Successive German governments focused on arguments about democracy based on the equality of states and of citizens to justify their push for a more privileged position for Germany in the Council. Efficiency also figured as a justification but was clearly less prominent.     

CITY OF GHOSTS

This article links motorbike use with the work and living conditions of young migrant women in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) to highlight an example of the social and economic consequences of migration-assisted economic development in Southeast Asia. It traces a woman's life from her teenage years in the market of a small seaside town in Vietnam to her purchase of a motorbike, migration to HCMC, move into a rooming house, and work in a major department store as a cosmetics saleswoman. The reflections on urban life by the woman and her roommates lead the author to consider the notion that the condition of the unregistered and temporary migrant is like that of the unrequited wandering ghosts (co hon), which are said to invisibly roam the city's streets. While the author details the political economy of marginalization that situates the migrant saleswoman, he also shows how she struggles within it to constitute herself over time rather than in the present and to free herself from abstraction-producing social categories, both old and new.