Government expenditure on public order and safety,economic growth and private investment: Empirical evidence from the United States

The analysis begins by using annual data for the US from 1959 to 2003 to examine the macroeconomic relationship between government expenditure on public order and safety, output and investment. In practice, total spending on public order and safety is divided up into four categories (police force, fire service, law courts and prison service) so in the second part of the analysis we test for Granger causality between output, investment and each category of spending. But the division of aggregate spending may give rise to trade-offs/complementarities so in the final part of the analysis Granger causality tests are used to investigate this issue. Among other things, the results suggest that changes in output Granger cause changes in total spending on public order and safety. In particular, when total spending is disaggregated the findings suggest that changes in output Granger cause changes in spending on the police force and the law courts.     

Change in treatment has no relationship with subsequent re-offending in U.K. domestic violence sample: a preliminary study

In this study, data is presented from a sample of 52 male domestic violence offenders who were court mandated to attend a profeminist psycho-educational rehabilitation program in the West Midlands. The extent of both statistically and clinically significant psychological change achieved across a variety of measures (pro-domestic-violence attitudes, anger, locus of control, interpersonal dependency) assessed pre- and post-treatment, and their association with post-treatment re-offending within an 11-month follow-up period is examined. The results indicate that program completers achieved limited significant psychological change. However, the level of psychological change achieved had no association with re-offending.     

The effect of sexual priming cues on emotional recognition in nonviolent child sexual abusers: a preliminary study

This article describes a study that used a computer-based task to investigate the emotional recognition skills of child sexual abusers. The experiment consisted of two phases (prime and probe) and measured both response time and error rates to facial expressions. The priming phase of the experiment consisted of the presentation of short phrases via computer of either sexual or neutral content. The probe phase of the experiment consisted of the presentation of adult facial expressions depicting either the emotion fear or surprise. Results showed child sexual abusers to be slightly less accurate overall. Furthermore, contrary to prediction, the effect of sexual priming appeared to make child sexual abusers actually better at recognizing fearful faces (p = .055). This result is discussed in relation to current victim empathy theory and treatment implications for sexual offenders.     

Dissociation and variability of adult attachment dimensions and early maladaptive schemas in sexual and violent offenders

The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of constructs that may indicate the presence of disorganized attachment style in sexual and violent offenders. Constructs measured were dissociation, variability on self-report measures of attachment style and early maladaptive schemas, and variability in observed behavior. Data on variability was collected at four time intervals, approximately 3 weeks apart. No differences between the groups were found in variability of self-reported attachment style. Both offending groups showed greater variability in early schemas and higher levels of dissociation than the nonoffending group. Sex offenders showed greater variability than violent offenders in behaviors related to distress.