Secondary Confessions as Post-identification Feedback: How Jailhouse Informant Testimony Can Alter Eyewitnesses’ Identification Decisions

Prior research has shown that primary confession evidence can alter eyewitnesses’ identifications and self-reported confidence. The present study investigated whether secondary confession evidence from a jailhouse informant could have the same effect. Participants (N?=?368) watched a video of an armed robbery and made an identification decision from a photo lineup. Except for those in the no-feedback conditions, all participants then read that certain lineup members either confessed to the crime, denied involvement, or were implicated by a jailhouse informant. Jailhouse informant testimony implicating the identified lineup member led participants to have significantly higher confidence in their identification. In contrast, jailhouse informant testimony that implicated a lineup member other than the identified led participants to have significantly lower confidence in their initial identification, and 80% of these witnesses changed their identification. These results indicate that jailhouse informant testimony can influence eyewitnesses’ confidence and their identification decisions.     

Toward a social geography of baby farming

This paper uses a range of archival sources to undertake a case study of the people and practices encompassed by the term “baby farming” in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It argues that baby farming needs to be located in space and time in order to reach some accommodation between its materiality and the discursive construction that continues to distort historical debate. Neither a criminal nor a compassionate practice, baby farming emerges as an economic exchange predicated on the vulnerability of single mothers, the disposability of their children, and in many cases, the desperation of poor women who see taking infants to nurse as a way of earning an income.     

Post-Hospital Medical Respite Care and Hospital Readmission of Homeless Persons

Medical respite programs offer medical, nursing, and other care as well as accommodation for homeless persons discharged from acute hospital stays. They represent a community-based adaptation of urban health systems to the specific needs of homeless persons. This article examines whether post-hospital discharge to a homeless medical respite program was associated with a reduced chance of 90-day readmission compared to other disposition options. Adjusting for imbalances in patient characteristics using propensity scores, respite patients were the only group that was significantly less likely to be readmitted within 90 days compared to those released to Own Care. Respite programs merit attention as a potentially efficacious service for homeless persons leaving the hospital.     

Bitten by the Russia bug: Britons and Russia, 1894–1939

Keith Neilson, Britain and the Last Tsar: British Policy and Russia, 1894–1917 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995). Pp.xv + 408, maps, biblio., index. ISBN 0–19820–47–0.

Michael Hughes, Inside the Enigma: British Officials in Russia, 1900–39 (London: The Hambledon Press, 1998). Pp.xi + 336, biblio., index. £35. ISBN 1–85285–160–0.

G. W. Morrell, Britain Confronts the Stalin Revolution: Anglo‐Soviet Relations and the Metro‐Vickers Crisis (Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1995). Pp.ix + 204, appendices, biblio., index, edn $34.95. ISBN 0–88920–250–8.     

Home Thoughts from Abroad: Diasporas and Peace-Building in Northern Ireland and Sri Lanka

This article looks at the dynamics of Diaspora groups as a possible catalyst for peace-building within violent segmented societies. With the help of two case studies, Irish-America's role in Northern Ireland and Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora's role in Sri Lanka, it locates the variable impacts of Diaspora involvement in violent conflicts within their homelands. Despite their unique histories and individual complexity, both of these cases illustrate that Diasporas have a significant role to play in peace-building, are diverse rather than homogenous communities, and that they represent an important and often underutilized resource to bring negotiated settlement to violent conflicts.     

Utility of the minnesota multiphasic personality inventory personality disorder scales with adolescent psychiatric inpatients

Personality disorders play an important role in the treatment of many adult psychiatric disorders. Current research has begun to examine the role of personality disorders in adolescent psychopathology. Unfortunately, there is limited research available to document the reliability and validity of personality disorder assessment measures for use with adolescent psychiatric patients. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) Personality Disorder Scales have shown adequate psychometric properties with adult samples, but have not been tested using adolescents. The present study was designed to examine the utility of the MMPI Personality Disorder Scales with 217 adolescent psychiatric inpatients. A multivariate analysis of variance revealed males scored significantly higher than females on the schizoid, narcissistic, and antisocial scales, a pattern that has been found in adult psychiatric patients. Also, the MMPI Personality Disorder Scales correlated in patterns consistent with research on adult samples. In addition, the MMPI Personality Disorder Scales were meaningfully correlated with the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire. However, factor analysis revealed a different factor structure than that found with adults. The similarities between adolescent and adult data suggest that the assessment of personality disorders in adolescents may provide useful clinical information on the development of personality disorders.This article was presented at the American Psychological Association Convention, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, August 1993. The research was funded in part by a grant from the Charles Reiley Armington Foundation for Values in Children.Received M.A. from Case Western Reserve University. Her major research interests are in the areas of depression and personality disorders.Received Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the Ohio State University in 1986. Completed his predoctoral internship and postdoctoral fellowship at the Brown University Program in Medicine, Providence, Rhode Island. Actively involved in research on risk factors for suicide in adolescents and adults. Has published empirical studies, theoretical papers, and treatment guidelines related to suicide and its risk factors.Received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. His major research interests include depression, suicide, adolescence, and family systems issues.     

Reviews

Michael Mandelbaum (ed.), The Strategic Quadrangle. Russia, China, Japan and the United States in East Asia. New York: The Council on Foreign Relations, 1995, vii + 221 pp., $16.95.

Theodore H. Friedgut & Jeffrey W. Hahn (eds), Local Power and Post‐Soviet Politics, New York and London: M. E Sharpe, 1994, xv + 292 pp., £40.00 h/b, £19.95 p/b.

Paul G. Lewis, Central Europe since 1945. London: Longman, 1994, xv + 135 pp., £13.99.

Gareth Winrow, Turkey in Post‐Soviet Central Asia. London: The Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1995, 53 pp.

Henry S. Rowen, Charles Wolf, Jr & Jeanne Zlotnick (eds), Defence Conversion, Economic Reform, and the Outlook for the Russian and Ukrainian Economies. Basingstoke: Macmillan Press, 1994, 262 pp., £34.00.

Thomas M. Nichols, The Sacred Cause: Civil‐Military Conflict over Soviet National Security, 1917–1992. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1993, xiii + 259 pp., $35.75.

Sergei N. Goncharov, John W. Lewis & Xue Litai, Uncertain Partners: Stalin, Mao, and the Korean War. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993, xi + 393 pp., £30.00.

Andrew Horton (ed.), Inside Soviet Film Satire: Laughter with a Lash, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993, xii + 171 pp., £27.95; Michael Brashinsky & Andrew Horton (eds), Russian Critics on the Cinema of Glasnost, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994, viii+167 pp., £30.00.

Vida T. Johnson & Graham Petrie, The Films of Andrei Tarkovsky. A Visual Fugue. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1995, xviii + 334 pp. Distributed in the UK and Ireland by Open University Press, £42.50 h/b, £18.99 p/b.

Andrea Peto & Mark Pittaway (eds), Women's History—Women in History: Central and East European Perspectives, Central European University, History Department, Working Paper Series 1, Budapest, 153 pp. (EU Press, 1994).