Applying the Verifiability Approach in an international airport setting

In the current study, we tested the utility of applying the Verifiability Approach (VA) within an international airport setting. The VA works on the notion that truth tellers provide more verifiable details than liars and has shown to be successful within other empirical deception detection scenarios. Three hundred and ninety-nine airside participants (those originating from Europe, Asia and African) were asked questions regarding their travel plans. We asked participants to either lie (n?=?195) or tell the truth (n?=?204) about their planned activities. The critical question required participants to provide information that would convince the investigator that they were telling the truth. We then transcribed and coded their responses for verifiable details; that is, details that could potentially be checked by an investigator. Overall, truth tellers provided significantly more verifiable details than liars. Furthermore, when taking their geographical origin into account, there was no interaction effect between veracity and region. Additionally, truth tellers provided a higher verifiable/total detail ratio than liars, which again showed no interaction effect between veracity and region. These findings support the suitability of the VA as a cross-cultural veracity tool and implications for its use as an additional security aid are discussed.     

Diary of an astronaut: examination of the remains of the late Israeli astronaut Colonel Ilan Ramon's Crew Notebook recovered after the loss of NASA's space shuttle Columbia

Two months after the fatal re-entering into the Earth's atmosphere of Columbia flight STS-107, the remains of Israeli astronaut Colonel Ilan Ramon's Crew Notebook were found strewn in a field in San Augustine County, TX. The random pile of papers was found to have survived the calamity of the Shuttle's disintegration remarkably well. Most of the papers recovered were torn and/or washed out to varying degrees but only mildly charred around the edges. The sheets of paper could be categorized into four groups: Group I: eight sides of paper written while in space in black ink and in pencil--Ramon's personal diary; the writing on these eight sides of paper survived well and is only missing where the pages were torn. Small fragments found in the field were physically matched to holes in the pages thus locating their original positions in the text. Group II: six sides of technical preparation notes written by Ramon before the mission. The writing on these pages was washed out entirely, but much of it was visualized using infrared luminescence. Group III: eight sides of personal notes prepared by Ramon before the mission written in blue ink. The writing on these pages was barely visible to the naked eye and not visualized by infrared luminescence, but was made largely legible by digital enhancement imaging. Group IV: a few sides of printed technical information. These pages were mostly intact and were not examined at length as they contained standard printed material. After completion of examinations at the Questioned Document Laboratory of the Israel Police, the diary was transferred to the Paper Conservation Department of the Israel Museum for preservation and strengthening treatments.     

Seen but Not Heard? Parallels and Dissonances in the Treatment of Rape Narratives across the Asylum and Criminal Justice Contexts

A significant proportion of women seeking refugee status in the United Kingdom will claim to have been raped in their country of origin. Even where this is not the sole basis of an asylum claim, it may be relevant to its determination. While criminal justice responses to rape have been the subject of extensive academic criticism and legislative reform, the processes of disclosure and credibility assessment in the asylum context have received little attention. This article explores possible parallels and dissonances in the treatment of rape across the asylum and criminal justice contexts, drawing in particular on the findings of a 2007 pilot study. It considers how problems such as the underreporting of rape, the inability of the victim to 'tell the story' in her own words, a hostile adjudicative environment, and the tendency to regard factors such as late disclosure, narrative inconsistency, and calm demeanour with suspicion – may be replicated and compounded in asylum cases. It also acknowledges the complex intersection of race, gender, culture, and nationality in this context.     

How do interests,ideas, and institutions affect multisectoral governance? The case of tobacco governance in two Pacific small island developing states

Multisectoral governance has been recognized to be vital to regulate harmful commodity industries, yet countries struggle with reaching policy coherence due to government agencies' conflicting mandates and industry interference. Limited empirical evidence is available on how interests, ideas, and institutions intersect and influence multisectoral governance in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in Pacific small island developing states (PSIDS), often exploited by vested industry interests and whose non-communicable disease crisis commands urgent action to regulate harmful commodities. This study assessed the ways interests, ideas, and institutions intersect and shape multisectoral tobacco governance in PSIDS. Interviewee data collected in Fiji and Vanuatu show that the idea of individual responsibility, the limited recognition of commercial determinants of health, the centralization of authority, and the vulnerabilities of small island developing states, (including small population, land, economy, geographic isolation, and status as a developing economy), prevent these states from achieving policy coherence in multisectoral tobacco governance.     

A comparison of weighted and unweighted analyses in the national Crime Victimization Survey

The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) data tapes include several variables of weights that reflect how many households or persons are represented by a given data record. While these sampling weights are crucial for estimating overall victimization rates, they do not have as much of an effect on methodological models, because weights in the NCVS are used primarily in ratio estimation adjustments and to compensate for a relatively low nonresponse rate. The general use of weights is discussed, and several examples are given that indicate that although there may be some differences in the coefficients, the basic conclusions drawn from the models are the same with or without weights. It is recommended that weighted analyses in the NCVS be used primarily as a tool in model development.