The voluntary contributions mechanism with real time revisions

Experimental results are presented showing the effects of allowing real time revisions of voluntary contributions for the provision of a public good. Four public good payoff functions are examined, each of which generates specific equilibria. Evidence of increased provision of the public good is demonstrated for: (i) the case in which revisions are limited to increases and a provision point exists, and also (ii) when there is a high initial marginal return from the public good.The author wishes to express his appreciation for the reviews and comments made by James Cox, Mark Isaac, Vernon Smith, anonymous referees and participants at the Public Choice/ESA conference in San Francisco, April 1988. The author is also very grateful for the economic support of the Economic Science Laboratory at the University of Arizona.     

An ecological study of factors associated with rates of self-inflicted death in prisons in England and Wales

This study describes ecological associations between self-inflicted death rates and prison-level environmental indicators over the period 2000-2002 in England and Wales. The objective was to assist in the development of interventions for reducing the incidence of self-inflicted deaths in prisons in England and Wales, by identifying risk factors, including overcrowding, positive drug tests, the number of assaults, purposeful activity, offending behaviour programmes, and cost per prisoner. Poisson regression was used to estimate associations between self-inflicted death rates and these potential risk factors, controlling for different categories of prison. The annual rate of self-inflicted death during 2000-2002 was 1.14 per 1000 (95% CI 0.98 to 1.34), with no evidence for a difference in the two years. Highest rates were in the Male Local and Women's prisons at 1.86 (95% CI 1.42 to 2.26) and 2.27 (95% CI 1.35 to 3.84) per 1000 respectively. In a multivariate analysis, overcrowding, assault rate and purposeful activity were significant. In an analysis controlling also for prison category, only purposeful activity remained independently significant, as a protective factor (RR 0.57, 95% CI 0.35 to 0.92, p=0.02) with weaker evidence for a positive association with positive drug tests (RR 1.41, 95% CI 0.96 to 2.05, p=0.08). Despite concerns about the quality of routinely collected data and the interpretation of ecological associations, this study suggests that a higher level of purposeful activity is independently associated with lower rates of self-inflicted death, whatever the prison category. This adds support to other studies conducted at the level of the individual prisoner.     

Psychopathology in women arrested for domestic violence

This study examined the prevalence of psychopathology among women arrested for violence and whether the experience of intimate partner violence (IPV) was associated with Axis I psychopathology. Women who were arrested for domestic violence perpetration and court referred to violence intervention programs (N= 103) completed measures of IPV victimization, perpetration, and psychopathology. Results revealed high rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), panic disorder, substance use disorders, borderline personality disorder, and antisocial personality disorder. Violence victimization was significantly associated with symptoms of psychopathology. Logistic regression analyses showed that sexual and psychological abuse by partners were associated with the presence of PTSD, depression, and GAD diagnoses. Results highlight the potential importance of the role of violence victimization in psychopathology. Results suggest that Axis I and Axis II psychopathology should routinely be assessed as part of violence intervention programs for women and that intervention programs could be improved by offering adjunct or integrated mental health treatment.     

The effect of the burial environment on adipocere formation

Adipocere is a decomposition product comprising predominantly of saturated fatty acids which results from the hydrolysis and hydrogenation of neutral fats in the body. Adipocere formation may occur in various decomposition environments but is chiefly dependent on the surrounding conditions. In a soil burial environment these conditions may include such factors as soil pH, temperature, moisture and the oxygen content within the grave site. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of these particular burial factors on the rate and extent of adipocere formation. Controlled laboratory experiments were conducted in an attempt to form adipocere from pig adipose tissue in model burial environments. Infrared spectroscopy, inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry, and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry were employed to determine the lipid profile and fatty acid composition of the adipocere product which formed in the burial environments. The results suggest that adipocere can form under a variety of burial conditions. Several burial factors were identified as enhancing adipocere formation whilst others clearly inhibited its formation. This study acts as a preliminary investigation into the effect of the burial environment on the resultant preservation of decomposing tissue via adipocere formation.     

Child Witnesses and the International Criminal Justice System: Does the International Criminal Court Protect the Most Vulnerable?

While warfare has always caused human suffering, modern armedconflicts have been synonymous for the deliberate and systematicattacks on non-combatants, many of whom are children. As theyoften possess the best and sometimes only evidence of a particularcrime, it is likely that children will be asked to testify beforethe International Criminal Court. Given that they are the mostvulnerable of all witnesses, the Rome Statute contains variousprovisions designed to protect the interests of children. Whilethe Court's witness protection regime will help reduce the stressand trauma associated with giving evidence, various improvementscould be made to ensure that children are provided with thenecessary protection that their susceptible status requires.     

Medicaid reform: programming solutions to the equity problem

This paper demonstrates the application of a mathematical programming model to a longstanding policy issue in the Medicaid reform debate: the redistribution of program funds necessary to achieve equity in eligibility and benefit coverage across states. The model is used to estimate the potential degree of equity achievable in the current Medicaid system given various budgetary and political constraints. Two model simulations, based on a 1979 data set for aged recipients of Supplementary Security Income, are presented. The results indicate that half or more of the interstate differences in spending for this population group are due to actuarial and efficiency factors rather than deviations from equity potential. The implications of eliminating the remaining differences are discussed.     

Choosing appropriate techniques for socio-political forecasting

After defining scientific forecasting, the crucial role of assumptions in such forecasts is explicated. This is followed by a discussion of the representations upon which forecasting systems are based. Six variables are then introduced to capture differences in socio-political forecasting circumstances: level of detail, accuracy, agreement on problem representation, robustness-brittleness, number of variables and interdependencies, and disturbance. A categorization of forecasting approaches - expert based, Bayesian, extremal statistical, and rule based - is offered. These forecasting approaches are then cross-referenced with the forecasting circumstances to produce recommendations for choosing an appropriate forecasting technique in a given policy circumstance. Most examples in the article are drawn from the realm of foreign policy and international politics, and the cross-referencing section concentrates on foreign energy policy examples.