Instruction Bias and Lineup Presentation Moderate the Effects of Administrator Knowledge on Eyewitness Identification

Pairs (N = 234) of witnesses and lineup administrators completed an identification task in which administrator knowledge, lineup presentation, instruction bias, and target presence were manipulated. Administrator knowledge had the greatest effect on identifications of the suspect for simultaneous photospreads paired with biased instructions, with single-blind administrations increasing identifications of the suspect. When biased instructions were given, single-blind administrations produced fewer foil identifications than double-blind administrations. Administrators exhibited a greater proportion of biasing behaviors during single-blind administrations than during double-blind administrations. The diagnosticity of identifications of the suspect in double-blind administrations was double their diagnosticity in single-blind administrations. These results suggest that when biasing factors are present to increase a witness’s propensity to guess, single-blind administrator behavior influences witnesses to identify the suspect.     

Administrative burden in digital public service delivery: The social infrastructure of library programs for e-inclusion

In their efforts to digitize public service delivery, countries increasingly use algorithms based on mathematical models, data and/or a combination of different administrative datasets to issue decisions, but recent studies point towards challenges around citizens' understanding, accessing, and filing objections to such automated decisions. This paper focuses on the social infrastructure supporting citizens that struggle with accessing such services. To address this, we ask: How does the social infrastructure affect administrative burdens associated with digital government services? This is studied in the Dutch context through expert interviews and observations of support programs in libraries. We find that although libraries as primary sites for these services may pose the disadvantage of being more difficult to reach for low-literate citizens, advantages are their organizational structure at the local level as well as their currently changing role to include a growing range of services, including (digital) skills courses.     

Getting Rid of Dichotomous Sex Estimations: Why Logistic Regression Should be Preferred Over Discriminant Function Analysis

Sex estimation is an important part of creating a biological profile for skeletal remains in forensics. The commonly used methods for developing sex estimation equations are discriminant function analysis (DFA) and logistic regression (LogR). LogR equations provide a probability of the predicted sex, while DFA relies on cutoff points to segregate males and females, resulting in a rigid dichotomization of the sexes. This is problematic because sexual dimorphism exists along a continuum and there can be considerable overlap in trait expression between the sexes. In this study, we used humeral measurements to compare the performance of DFA and LogR and found them to be very similar under multiple conditions. The overall cross-validated (leave-one-out) accuracy of DFA (75.76–95.14%) was slightly higher than LogR (75.76–93.82%) for simple and multiple variable equations, and also performed better under varying sample sizes (94.03% vs. 93.78%). Three of five DFA equations outperformed LogR under the B index, while all five LogR equations outperformed the DFA equations under the Q index. Both methods saw an improvement in overall accuracy (DFA: 86.74–95.79%; LogR: 86.74–95.76%) when individuals with a classification probability lower than 0.80 were excluded. Additionally, we propose a method for calculating additional cutoff points (PMarks) based on posterior probability values. In conclusion, we recommend using LogR over DFA due to the increased flexibility, robusticity, and benefits for future users of the statistical models; however, if DFA is preferred, use of the proposed PMarks facilitates future analysis while avoiding unnecessary dichotomization.     

The Impact of Safe Harbor Legislation on Court Proceedings Involving Sex Trafficked Youth: A Qualitative Investigation of Judicial Perspectives

The passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) facilitated the conceptual shift in reframing youth involved in sex trafficking as victims, rather than criminals. Many states have passed legislation in the form of Safe Harbor laws to protect sex trafficked juveniles from criminal charges and provide rehabilitative services (Polaris, 2015). Nevertheless, limited research has examined the impact of Safe Harbor laws and the role juvenile and family court judges play in how minor victims of sex trafficking are treated by the court system. Consequently, the purpose of this qualitative study was to examine juvenile and family court judges’ knowledge and perceptions of Safe Harbor legislation and identify legal challenges when presiding over cases involving sexually exploited youth. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with a national sample (N = 82) of family and juvenile court judges. Findings suggest that respondents perceive Safe Harbor laws to have positively affected both attitudes and practices, although several challenges and unintended negative effects were identified. Further, dispositional issues, difficulties with case identification, legal and policy issues, and challenges with interagency collaboration were identified as ongoing issues to address. Legal implications as well as practice and policy considerations based on the study findings are discussed.     

‘For good measure’: data gaps in a big data world

Policy and data scientists have paid ample attention to the amount of data being collected and the challenge for policymakers to use and utilize it. However, far less attention has been paid towards the quality and coverage of this data specifically pertaining to minority groups. The paper makes the argument that while there is seemingly more data to draw on for policymakers, the quality of the data in combination with potential known or unknown data gaps limits government’s ability to create inclusive policies. In this context, the paper defines primary, secondary, and unknown data gaps that cover scenarios of knowingly or unknowingly missing data and how that is potentially compensated through alternative measures. Based on the review of the literature from various fields and a variety of examples highlighted throughout the paper, we conclude that the big data movement combined with more sophisticated methods in recent years has opened up new opportunities for government to use existing data in different ways as well as fill data gaps through innovative techniques. Focusing specifically on the representativeness of such data, however, shows that data gaps affect the economic opportunities, social mobility, and democratic participation of marginalized groups. The big data movement in policy may thus create new forms of inequality that are harder to detect and whose impact is more difficult to predict.

     

Reactions of Boys and Girls to Sexual Abuse and to Sexual Encounters with Peers

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - To understand the etiology and consequences of child sexual abuse it is important to study the victims’ subjective reactions to such incidents. Because...     

Risk Avoidance Strategies After Sexual Assault: A Dyadic Study of Survivors and Informal Support Providers

Interview data from 45 matched pairs of survivors disclosing sexual assaults and their primary informal support provider (friend, family, significant other) were used to explore survivor-support provider perspectives on self-protective behaviors survivors and those close to them take to protect themselves from future assaults. Strategies for reducing risk taken by survivors included behavioral changes, security measures, self-defense strategies, avoiding alcohol or drugs, and protecting others. Support providers play critical roles by encouraging survivors to pursue risk avoidance strategies, and employing these strategies themselves. Counseling and prevention implications are drawn in the context of risks facing survivors trying to avoid further sexual victimization.     

Symposium: Transformative Practices of Teacher-Scholar-Activists in the Era of Trump

Recent political events have exacerbated the tensions between the expectation that faculty be neutral arbiters of knowledge and information and the reality that many individuals pursue careers in political science because of their commitments to social justice, political activism, and social change. In particular, the November 2016 election of Donald Trump as United States President gave New Political Science’s (NPS) charge to publish scholarship that reflects “a commitment to progressive social change” new meaning for many political scientists. This article introduces an NPS symposium dedicated to examining and showcasing transformative practices within and emerging out of political science toward greater social justice, equity, and inclusivity in the context of Trumpism, neoliberalism, and university corporatization.     

Middle power identities of Australia and South Korea: comparing the Kevin Rudd/Julia Gillard and Lee Myung-bak administrations

This paper explores the middle power identities of Australia and South Korea during the Kevin Rudd/Julia Gillard (2007–2013) and Lee Myung-bak (2008–2013) administrations. Considering the problems in the existing position, behaviour, impact and identity-based definitions of middle powers, examining how self-identified middle powers have constructed such an identity would offer useful insights into the middle power concept. Relying on a framework that captures an identity's content and contestation, this paper argues that while Australia and South Korea have assumed a middle power identity, their visualisations of this identity are slightly different. Australia has understood its middle power identity in both economic and security terms, whereas South Korea appears to have connected such an identity more with the economic dimension. These differences affect how they envision their respective middle power roles in international affairs.