A Historian for All Seasons: Essays for Geoffrey Bolton

A Historian for All Seasons: Essays for Geoffrey Bolton . Edited by Stuart Macintyre, Lenore Layman, and Jenny Gregory (Clayton, Vic.: Monash University Publishing, 2017), pp. xx + 345. $39.95 (pb).     

Trade and Industrial Policy as Levers for Sustainable Energy Technology Adoption? Experiences from Urban Latin America

Debates abound regarding the link between trade and industrial policy and the adoption of sustainable energy technologies in developing countries. Some purport that open trade regimes support technology diffusion, while others indicate that more interventionist regimes are more conducive. This paper uses empirical evidence from Mexico City and São Paulo to argue that sustainable energy technology uptake can be more prevalent in settings with partially open trade policy regimes. These regimes have afforded countries more opportunities to develop local capabilities, which, in turn, has had knock‐on effects on sustainable energy technology uptake. Specifically, having more local technology sources (equipment, expertise) brought quicker access to these technologies, created more perceptions of technology “ownership,” fostered more effective mobilization, and helped create well‐established standards, which in turn contributed positively to sustainable energy technology uptake, while taxes and tariffs were less influential.     

Among a German Sample of Forensic Patients,Previous Animal Abuse Mediates Between Psychopathy and Sadistic Actions

In an attempt to explain the relationship between psychopathy and severe violent behavior, this study associates previous animal abuse, psychopathy, and sadistic acting in forensic patients. Two topics are addressed: (i) whether previous animal abuse can be identified by a patient's Psychopathy Checklist profile and (ii) whether animal abuse statistically mediates between psychopathy and sadistic acting. In a German forensic hospital, 60 patients were investigated. Animal abuse was assessed using face‐to‐face interviews and the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL:SV), and sadistic acting was identified by file records.Discriminant analysis separated previous animal abuse (10/60) by high adolescent antisocial behavior, superficiality, lack of remorse, lack of empathy, and grandiosity. The mediation from psychopathy to sadistic acting (6/60) through animal abuse was found to be complete.The results, although sample size is limited and base rate of animal abuse and sadistic acting are low, fit with a model suggestive of animal abuse as a causal step toward sadistic crimes. Animal abuse correlates with callous, unemotional traits, and a development of sadistic crimes.     

Secular Change in Morphological Pelvic Traits used for Sex Estimation

This research evaluates secular change in Phenice's (Am J Phys Anthropol, 30, 1969 and 297) three morphological traits of the pubis, as described by Klales et al. (Am J Phys Anthropol, 149, 2012 and 104): medial aspect of the ischio‐pubic ramus, subpubic contour, and ventral arc. Ordinal scores were collected for these traits and compared between a sample of innominates from the historical Hamann–Todd Collection (n = 170) and modern Bass Donated Collection (n = 129). Using the Freeman–Halton test, significant differences between temporal sample score frequencies were found for all traits in females and for the subpubic contour and ventral arc in males. Despite these findings, classification accuracy using logistic regression between the temporal periods remained low (68.7%). These results suggest that secular changes in trait expression are occurring; however, sex estimation methods using these traits and created with historical samples are still applicable to modern forensic cases. In fact, the secular changes occurring in these traits contribute to better classification accuracy between sexes in modern populations.     

Mediating Effects of Existential and Religious Well-Being Among Abused,Suicidal African American Women

Intimate partner violence (IPV), an international public health matter, is linked to psychological distress including suicidal behavior. Despite the noted sequelae associated with IPV, many individuals display resilience in the face of IPV exposure. This study examines two potential protective factors in the IPV-suicidal ideation link, namely existential and religious well-being, in a sample of African American women. Low-income, African American, female suicide attempters who were abused by a partner within the previous year (N?=?111) were administered the Conflicts Tactics Scale-2, Spiritual Well-Being Scale, and Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation. Mediational models testing indirect effects through the bootstrapping method revealed that the total effect of IPV on suicidal ideation was positive and significant, confirming suicidal ideation as a consequential outcome of IPV among African American women. This effect was mediated by existential well-being; however, religious well-being was not a significant mediator, suggesting that existential well-being serves a unique protective role in the IPV-suicidal ideation relation. The results provide additional support for the well-known positive effects of existential well-being on mental health among African American samples. Culturally-informed, meaning-making interventions to enhance existential well-being appear to be effective in reducing suicidal ideation in this population.     

Embracing the Complexity of Partner Violence from a Violent Events Perspective

Despite growing evidence suggesting diverse manifestations of partner violence (PV) perpetrated by both men and women, a ‘violence against women’ perspective still appears to dominate theory, research, and policy responses. This article emphasizes the complexity of PV and argues that it can be embraced through the integration of contextual approaches. This can be done by (1) conceptualizing PV as a gender-inclusive, dynamic, and multidimensional phenomenon; (2) applying a violent events perspective to measuring the dynamics of violence in relationships; and (3) promoting a transformative change at the level of social policy that would embrace both women’s and men’s diverse experiences of PV, and thus achieve equality-based justice.     

Eyewitness Identifications by Older and Younger Adults: A Meta-Analysis and Discussion

The current meta-analysis compared younger and older adult eyewitness identification accuracy and includes analyses designed to determine what witness and event factors might moderate any differences found. Results showed that, regardless of lineup type and perpetrator age, older eyewitnesses are reliably worse at making correct lineup decisions than younger eyewitnesses whether they are identifying perpetrators or rejecting perpetrator-absent lineups. Discussion of possible causes for this difference in identification accuracy is drawn from cognitive and social psychology literatures, and possible implications for future research and public policy are put forth.     

Assessing Risk of Placement Instability to Aid Foster Care Placement Decision Making

Placement stability is of critical importance to the well-being of children in foster care and has an impact on other key outcomes. Placement decision-making that matches children with placement resources is often cited as a practice that impacts placement stability, but little research exists to inform this practice. The focus of this research is on a child assessment tool that was developed to determine the appropriate level of care, which serves as one component of a web-based matching system that pulls together child and placement information used to inform the placement decision. The research examines the relationship between the child assessment subscale domains and placement stability for first and subsequent placement decisions and evaluates the stability of placements made in and outside of the indicated level of care.     

A Distant Hand Fell from His Shoulder

This essay is concerned to trace a materialist current within the work of Peter Goodrich, with the aim of evaluating it in the light of the work of Deleuze and Guattari. The are two reasons for this: firstly, it serves to encourage the development of Deleuzean perspectives within critical legal studies, and secondly, it presents the potential of a re-invigoration of a branch of criticism based not only upon the problems raised by issues of meaning and representation, but one which is also sensitive to the conditions of the relations of production of both meaning and desire. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.