Tolerance and economic growth revisited: a note

Berggren and Elinder (BE) in this journal write on the relationship between the degree of tolerance in a nation and its rate of economic growth. They are disturbed to find in their cross sections that faster economic growth statistically goes together with intolerance of homosexuals. In this comment, we revisit the issue and demonstrate that the concern expressed by BE is unwarranted if we properly account for ??conditional convergence?? in the regressions for economic growth. Other things being equal, a country grows faster if it starts from a poorer initial position. In the BE dataset, China since the Deng reforms is a prime example. At about the same time, another group of countries managed to accelerate their economic growth after a long period of stagnation: the ex-communist countries in central and Eastern Europe. Many of these nations also grew exceptionally fast for a number of years, once freedom had been regained and the initial chaos overcome. With simple modeling of these historical initial conditions, we find no statistical pattern that associates bias against homosexuals with weaker economic growth. Our results are robust under alternative specifications.     

British Campaigns for Solidarity with Argentina and Chile

The Chile solidarity movement persuaded British Labour governments (1974–1979) to introduce a range of measures against the Pinochet regime. But campaigners lobbying against the Argentine dictatorship (1976–1983) had less impact on policy. Neither these Labour governments nor the subsequent Conservative government imposed any sanction on the Argentine dictatorship, until the invasion of the Falkland Islands. This article explores why in Britain – and Europe – the Chile campaign had greater public appeal than the Argentina solidarity campaigns. It identifies a number of common factors across Europe which explain why the anti-Pinochet cause generated more support than the Argentina campaign.     

An Investigation into Whether or Not the Class and Individual Characteristics of Five Turkish Manufactured Pistols Change During Extensive Firing

Abstract:  In order to assess whether or not the class and individual characteristics of a firearm change over time, five different makes of Turkish self-loading pistol were tested and were each fired a large number of times. The class and individual characteristics were identified for each pistol and the first fired cartridge case was compared with the subsequent consecutive 250th fired cases for each pistol. It was found that there were slight changes in some of the individual and class characteristics; however, this was not statistically significant and did not affect the ability of the firearms examiner to match the first fired case to the last fired case for each firearm tested.     

Knowledge is Power: A Theory-Based Approach to Reducing School Violence

The study assesses the impact of a theory-based school violence program though a survey of 1,500 middle and high school students. It is the first to apply the concept of optimistic bias within the school violence context. Despite high profile school shootings, the students maintained the belief that violence was less likely to happen to them (personally) or in their schools than elsewhere in the country. Findings indicate that optimistic bias can be reduced through educational campaigns, and suggest a means of reducing violence by first reducing optimistic bias.     

Common problems and coping strategies reported in childhood and early adolescence

This research investigated problems commonly experienced by children and young adolescents, and the strategies they use to cope with these events. Six hundred seventy-six children, ages 9–13 years, were asked to identify a problem they recently experienced and to describe the strategies they used to cope with it. In addition, they were also asked to complete a scale describing how they coped with a common problem (being grounded by parents). In general, we found that children reported four common Stressors: parents, siblings, school, and friends. These Stressors were the same across age and sex; however, the coping strategies employed differed by age and type of problem. Both age and sex effects were found in reported use of coping strategies to deal with being grounded by parents. The results of this study suggest that more research must be performed to offset the lack of data in the area of children's normative coping. The implications of the findings for clinical assessment and treatment of children are discussed.He has a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University. Current research interests include coping strategies used by healthy and chronically ill children, and attempted suicide in adolescence.She has a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from West Virginia University. Her current research interests include coping in chronically ill children and feeding difficulties in children with cystic fibrosis.She received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Louisiana State University. Her current research interests include pediatric psychology and childhood anxiety disorders.His current research interests include behavioral consultation in industrial settings.     

Detection of nitro-organic and peroxide explosives in latent fingermarks by DART- and SALDI-TOF-mass spectrometry

The ability of two mass spectrometric methods, surface-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight-mass spectrometry (SALDI-TOF-MS) and direct analysis in real time (DART-MS), to detect the presence of seven common explosives (six nitro-organic- and one peroxide-type) in spiked latent fingermarks has been examined. It was found that each explosive could be detected with nanogram sensitivity for marks resulting from direct finger contact with a glass probe by DART-MS or onto stainless steel target plates using SALDI-TOF-MS for marks pre-dusted with one type of commercial black magnetic powder. These explosives also could be detected in latent marks lifted from six common surfaces (paper, plastic bag, metal drinks can, wood laminate, adhesive tape and white ceramic tile) whereas no explosive could be detected in equivalent pre-dusted marks on the surface of a commercial lifting tape by the DART-MS method due to high background interference from the tape material. The presence of TNT and Tetryl could be detected in pre-dusted latent fingermarks on a commercial lifting tape for up to 29 days sealed and stored under ambient conditions.