What Lies Beneath: Exploring Links Between Asylum Policy and Hate Crime in the UK

This paper explores the link between increasing incidents of hate crime and the asylum policy of successive British governments with its central emphasis on deterrence. The constant problematisation of asylum seekers in the media and political discourse ensures that ‘anti-immigrant’ prejudice becomes mainstreamed as a common-sense response. The victims are not only the asylum seekers hoping for a better life but democratic society itself with its inherent values of pluralism and tolerance debased and destabilised.     

Police officer attitudes to the practicalities of the sex offenders’ register,ViSOR and Child Sexual Abuse Disclosure Scheme in England and Wales

This paper examines police officer understandings of and attitudes to the sex offenders’ register, Violent and Sex Offenders’ Register (ViSOR) and Child Sexual Offender Disclosure Scheme (CSODS) in England and Wales – an under-researched area in the management of sexual offenders in the UK. This research is an adaptation of an American study utilising a mixed-methods approach, combining an online questionnaire survey (N?=?227) with a series of semi-structured interviews (N?=?27). The study found that police officers, irrespective of role, were generally supportive of the register, ViSOR and CSODS in principle, but they thought that logistics, practicalities, infrastructure, multi-agency collaboration and public understandings had problematic impacts on the scheme in practice. The participants believed that greater investment was needed in terms of time and resource to make the register, ViSOR and CSODS easier to use and access and thus fit for purpose.     

Further Validation of the Test of Memory Malingering (TOMM) Trial 1 Performance Validity Index: Examination of False Positives and Convergent Validity

Assessment of performance validity is an essential part of a neuropsychological evaluation, with the inclusion of two or more performance validity tests (PVTs) becoming routine practice. Considering the time to administer multiple tests, there has been some support for use of the Test of Memory Malingering (TOMM) Trial 1 (T1) as an independent, “one and done” PVT. Notably, cutoffs for TOMM T1 need further validation, with an emphasis on minimizing false-positive classifications among those with bona fide cognitive impairment. In a clinically referred sample of 127 veterans, this study examined the role of cognitive impairment in TOMM performance and the utility of a TOMM T1 as an independent PVT. Examinees were administered the TOMM and three additional PVTs as part of a comprehensive neuropsychological battery. Sixty-eight percent of examinees were classified valid (35% of valid examinees were cognitively impaired). TOMM T1?≤?40 had excellent observed sensitivity (83%) and specificity (93%) overall, with minimal false-positive classification. TOMM T1 was also significantly correlated and concordant with other memory-based PVTs. Given score ranges and failure rates for TOMM T1?≤?40 among those with neurological/neurocognitive conditions, scores in the 37–40 range may merit administration of additional TOMM trials to maximize accuracy in identifying valid-cognitively impaired versus noncredible performance. Otherwise, an abbreviated TOMM administration (i.e., only T1) using a cutoff of ≤?40—in conjunction with one or more additional PVTs—may be sufficient for detecting noncredible/invalid test performance in the absence of known or suspected neurological/neurocognitive disorders.     

Perception of white-collar crime among immigrants from the Former Soviet Union in Israel

This study examines how immigrants from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) who have lived in Israel for an average of 10 years perceive white-collar crime. After a survey of the literature about the Soviet economy and how Soviet society regarded white-collar crime, we examine the relationship between FSU immigrants’ tolerance of white-collar crime (relative to their Israeli counterparts) and the degree of their involvement in Russian culture and society. This involvement was analyzed using a system of variables that indicate the subjects’ affinity for Russian culture and society and rejection of (isolation from) Israeli society. The study’s 1,028 participants are a representative sample of the olim (immigrants to Israel) from the FSU between 1990 and 2005. Our findings reinforced the hypothesis that the more involved these immigrants are in Russian culture and society, and the more alienated they are from Israeli society, the more permissive their view of white-collar crime. Nonetheless, our study explains 27 % of the variance in their view of white-collar crime. Hence the question requires further research. Our findings are discussed in terms of the decisive impact of the Soviet process of socialization on the values, perspectives, and behavior patterns of Post-Soviet man and its ramifications for the rule of law and their conception of Israeli democracy.     

Emerging Indicators and Bureaucracy: From the Iron Cage to the Metric Cage

ABSTRACT

Among the New Public Management (NPM) tools that have been implemented, one of the most common is use of indicators. Many studies have argued that imposition of an indicator entails a bureaucratization process. But the scholarly debate on these instruments has been shaped by a vertical perspective and has been focused on the effects of top-down indicators on organizations at the local level. In this paper, we wish to lay the emphasis on an emerging indicator, constructed and used by the actors themselves within a local forest management unit. We wish to draw attention to the manner in which, at the micro-level, a performance measure is worked out. We argue that these emerging indicators place a new locus of power in the hands of rangers but, rather than emphasizing hierarchy and chain of command, such indicators do not contribute to development of a Weberian iron cage. In contrast, there appears a metric cage, a mix of pragmatic rationality (instrumental and communicative), non-fixed rules, and technical-normative authority.     

Workplace Assessment of Targeted Violence Risk: The Development and Reliability of the WAVR‐21

This study describes the development of the WAVR‐21, a structured professional judgment guide for the assessment of workplace targeted violence, and presents initial interrater reliability results. The 21‐item instrument codes both static and dynamic risk factors and change, if any, over time. Five critical items or red flag indicators assess violent motives, ideation, intent, weapons skill, and pre‐attack planning. Additional items assess the contribution of mental disorder, negative personality factors, situational factors, and a protective factor. Eleven raters each rated 12 randomly assigned cases from actual files of workplace threat scenarios. Summary interrater reliability correlation coefficients (ICCs) for overall presence of risk factors, risk of violence, and seriousness of the violent act were in the fair to good range, similar to other structured professional judgment instruments. A subgroup of psychologists who were coders produced an ICC of 0.76 for overall presence of risk factors. Some of the individual items had poor reliability for both clinical and statistical reasons. The WAVR‐21 appears to improve the structuring and organizing of empirically based risk‐relevant data and may enhance communication and decision making.     

Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), Anno 2013: Reframing The Comparative Method's Seminal Statements

This review article examines the ways in which QCA is being (re)framed by some main authors in the field, in a context of expansion and diversification of this approach and set of techniques. Charles Ragin's seminal The Comparative Method (1987) is first synthetized in the form of eight statements which are then confronted to eight recent book‐length publications: three QCA textbooks and five methodological volumes also touching upon QCA. On the whole, it appears that most statements have been considerably refined, both conceptually and technically, whereas only one statement is not taken on board anymore. In addition, QCA is being reframed and extended in different ways beyond Charles Ragin's initial statements.     

Validation of the AMPFℓSTR® MiniFilerTM PCR Amplification Kit for Use in Forensic Casework*

Abstract: The AmpF?STR^® MiniFiler^TM PCR Amplification Kit is designed to genotype degraded and/or inhibited DNA samples when the AmpF?STR^® Identifiler^TM PCR Amplification Kit is incapable of generating a complete genetic profile. Validation experiments, following the SWGDAM guidelines, were designed to evaluate the performance of MiniFiler. Data obtained demonstrated that MiniFiler, when used in conjunction with Identifiler, provided an increased ability to obtain genetic profiles from challenged samples. The optimum template range was found to be between 0.2 and 0.6 ng, with 0.3 ng yielding the best results. Full concordance was achieved between the MiniFiler kit and Identifiler kit except in a single case of a null allele at locus D21S11. Numerous instances of severe heterozygous peak imbalance (<50%) were observed in single source samples amplified within the optimum range of input DNA suggesting that caution be taken when attempting to deduce component genotypes in a mixture.