If Brain Scans Really Detected Deception,Who Would Volunteer to be Scanned?

Abstract: Recent neuroimaging studies investigating the neural correlates of deception among healthy people, have raised the possibility that such methods may eventually be applied during legal proceedings. Were this so, who would volunteer to be scanned? We report a “natural experiment” casting some light upon this question. Following broadcast of a television series describing our team’s investigative neuroimaging of deception in 2007, we received unsolicited (public) correspondence for 12 months. Using a customized template to examine this material, three independent assessors unanimously rated 30 of an initial 56 communications as unequivocally constituting requests for a “scan” (to demonstrate their author’s “innocence”). Compared with the rest, these index communications were more likely to originate from incarcerated males, who were also more likely to engage in further correspondence. Hence, in conclusion, if neuroimaging were to become an acceptable means of demonstrating innocence then incarcerated males may well constitute those volunteering for such investigation.     

Weber Reading Stammler: What Horizons for the Sociology of Law?

This article asks whether the two studies by Max Weber that form his Critique of Stammler are by now only marginal to a study of Weber's work, of historical interest only, given that Rudolf Stammler has long since been relegated to almost complete obscurity. Or could they still lead to a better understanding of the thought of Max Weber? This article argues that the Critique of Stammler offers a still‐relevant contribution to sociological reflection, particularly about law, and valuable guidance for distinguishing normative legal orders from empirical ones, and measuring the causal influence of the former on the latter.     

Flexibility in the implementation of intellectual property rights in agricultural biotechnology

In this paper I discuss the fact that economists define optimal IP rights as a continuum of options in three dimensions: height, breadth and length. At the operational level we see the impossibility of multiplying rights indefinitely (due to prohibitive transaction costs), as well as the use of a limited number of IP tools which have led to the implementation of flexibilities. These flexibilities are designed to limit certain perverse effects of rights ill-adjusted to the characteristics of some economic sectors (agricultural biotechnologies, pharmacy, etc.). In this context, I analyse how these flexibilities are implemented in TRIPS and TRIPS+ agreements and I study the consequences for Developing Countries.     

Europe wrestling with technology

Postmodernism is currently being debated as if it were a panacea for a range of cultural, political and theoretical ills. This paper argues that postmodernism has possibilities, but that these possibilities are far fewer than either its proponents hope or its opponents fear. Moreover, the paper argues that far too many contributions to debates about postmodernism - both pro and anti - are very careless about the way they construct the politics of postmodernism.     

Maternal employment and adolescent sexual behavior

This study investigated whether maternal employment would be associated with teenage sexual attitudes and behaviors likely to increase the probability of teenage pregnancy. Female subjects whose mothers were employed outside the home during the high school years (a) had a greater tendency to begin sexual relations before age 19, (b) expressed less concern regarding the risk of unintended pregnancy, and (c) scored lower on an objective test of their practical knowledge about contraception.Received Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Washington. Research interests include personality and environmental influences on adjustment.Received Ph.D. from University of Georgia. Current research interests are in behavioral teratology.Received Ph.D. from Oklahoma State University. Research interests are in loneliness and adjustment.Received Ph.D. from North Carolina State University. Research interests are in population and urban sociology.     

The age at marriage of migrants during the industrial revolution in the region of liège

The article examines the cities and towns in the Liège region during industrialization in the ninteenth century, focusing on the relationship between marriage, migration, and entry of people into urban areas. The average age at marriage was higher for in-migrants than for natives, but so was the intensity of nuptiality. Thus, the average age at marriage is not the sole statistic through which to approach questions about the socio-demographic consequences of arrival into town. Towns had several, seemingly closed, marriage markets, and it is important to pay attention to differential behaviors by taking this fact into account. Moreover, in-migration to an industrial city created opportunities to contract marriage, for women as well as men. Sometimes marriages occurred in the village, and were contracted to escape the old system and to prepare for the migration to the city of the young couple. Structural as well as life-course approaches must be combined for a thorough understanding of migration to industrializing cities.

Migrations and marriage: a survey

In numerous studies about the relationships between economic growth and demographic expansion, the dyad “migration-marriage” plays a classical role. In his famous thesis on the Austrasian basin, Wrigley (1961)(p. 133) pointed out the high level of overall fertility in industrial regions. Haines (1979)(pp. 245–247) proposed a complex of explanations that linked economic structure, a sex-differentiated pattern of migration, the structure of the matrimonial market, the potential contribution of women and children to the family economy, and differential in infant and child mortality according to occupation. While Haines's study was focused on populations engaged in mining and heavy industry, Desama (1985)(pp. 97–100, 265) analyzed the case of a textile town and concentrated on the effects of changes in age and sex structures on nuptiality. In the wool city of Verviers during the first part of the nineteenth century, the intensity and timing of marriage were negatively affected by migration flows dominated by young women, with the consequence that the total fertility rate declines as immigration grew. Working on nineteenth century English communities, Ben Moshe and Friedlander (1986) systematized these approaches, and concluded that socioeconomic factors remained more important than cultural ones.