Observers’ Real-Time Sensitivity to Deception in Naturalistic Interviews

This study tested the ability of experienced interviewers and novice observers to detect deception while watching mock interviews featuring experimental or control questioning methods and different detainee languages. The protocol featured a complex, realistic critical event and naturalistic interviews in which mock detainees could report unconstrained. Experimenters recorded these interviews and presented them to observers who judged veracity in real time. In general, experienced interviewers were no more sensitive to deception than were novices and both groups set conservative response criteria. Observers were more sensitive to deception when viewing control versus experimental questioning methods. Observers were more sensitive to deception when viewing Arabic speakers interviewed through an interpreter. Results imply that not all trained interviewers exhibit a lie bias; additional research should examine how best to transition lab-tested interview methods into the field, and language and interpreter factors may impact the ability to assess veracity in multiple ways.     

The Future of Belgian Federalism as Seen Through the Eyes of the Social Partners: A Continuing Obstacle to Social Policy Decentralization?

In this article, we take a look at the discussion on the devolution of social policy. Despite the pressure of strong nationalist movements to decentralize socio-economic matters, the federal welfare state does not erode. In their study up to the early 2000s, Béland and Lecours explain this relative standstill by pointing to the institutionalization of neo-corporatistic organizations. These organizations, which are strongly involved in the management of the welfare state, have not split along language lines and prevent the decentralization of socio-economic policies in order to preserve their power. Based on empirical evidence, this paper shows that federal social partners are an important obstacle to social policy decentralization in Belgium while the regional social partners have differing opinions on the devolution debate.     

Child Trafficking,Child Soldiering: exploring the relationship between two ‘worst forms’ of child labour

While it may be intuited that human trafficking is an ineluctable component of the child soldiering experience, very little research exists to illustrate the tangible connections between these two ‘worst forms’ of child labour. The extent to which common reception points for trafficked children—such as slave-owning households, religious boarding schools and brothels—double as profitable reservoirs for recruiting commanders remains entirely unknown. Likewise, despite the clear financial incentive that some erstwhile commanders might have to traffic their former child combatants into civilian slavery, the prevalence of such practice is unknown. The purpose of this article is to delineate some of the most conspicuous academic gaps pertaining to the intersection of child trafficking and child soldiering.     

Book reviews

Mikhail S. Gorbachev, On My Country and the World, George Shriver (Translator). New York: Columbia University Press, 2000. Pp.308, index. $29.95 (cloth). ISBN 0–231–11514–8.

Simon Duke, The Elusive Quest for European Security: From EDC to CFSP. New York: St. Martin's, 2000.Pp.xvii + 406, notes, list of abbreviations, acronyms and conventions, index. $69.95 (cloth). ISBN 0–312–22402–8.

Hugh Miall, Oliver Ramsbotham and Tom Woodhouse, Contemporary Conflict Resolution. Oxford: Polity Press, 1999. Pp.xviii + 270, table of abbreviations, bibliog., index. $69.95 (cloth). ISBN 0–7456–2034–5.     

Book reviews

Chalmers Johnson, Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire. New York: Metropolitan Books, 2000. Pp.287, biblio., index. $26. ISBN 0–8050–6238–6.

Heinz Kramer, A Changing Turkey: The Challenge to Europe and the United States. Washington DC: Brookings Institute, 2000. Pp.xv + 304, notes and index. $18.95 (paper). ISBN 0–8157–5023–4.     

Facial Soft Tissue Depth Statistics and Enhanced Point Estimators for Craniofacial Identification: The Debut of the Shorth and the 75‐Shormax

Several methods that have customarily been used in craniofacial identification to describe facial soft tissue depths (FSTDs) implore improvement. They include the calculation of arithmetic means for skewed data, omission of concern for measurement uncertainty, oversight of effect size, and misuse of statistical significance tests (e.g., p‐values for strength of association). This paper redresses these limitations using FSTDs from 10 prior studies (N = 516). Measurement uncertainty was large (>20% of the FSTD), skewness (≥0.8) existed at 11 of the 23 FSTD landmarks examined, and sex and age each explained <4% of the total FSTD variance (η² calculated as part of MANOVA). These results call for a new and improved conceptualization of FSTDs, which is attained by the replacement of arithmetic means with shorths and 75‐shormaxes. The outcomes of this implementation are dramatic reduction in FSTD complexity; improved data accuracy; and new data‐driven standards for casework application of methods.     

The flight from cool: American men and romantic love in the 1950s

The article uses love letters to re-analyze current notions about men and romantic love in the 1950s. Examining advice literature as well as evidence from fiction and film, European and American historians generally describe the 1950s as an era of emotional “formalization” or suppression. A newly analyzed set of 300 love letters by over a dozen American men suggests a much more nuanced view. Some of their letters support scholarly accounts of “remasculinization” in the 1950s, displaying a hard-boiled, tough-guy quality to compensate for challenges to men's roles in the workplace and family. Other men, however, openly expressed their passions, fears, and other feelings. Since these letters were written to the author's mother, they also suggest new potentials and opportunities for “personal” research. Given the paucity of love correspondence in postwar archives, professional historians might find personal collections useful evidence to study the character and dilemmas of modern romance.     

Budgetary chaos and evasion: the case of somalia

In 1990 and 1991, several Sub-Saharan African nations (Liberia, Somalia, and Ethiopia) experienced violent disintegration of existing governments. Other nations (Mozambique, South Africa, Kenya, and Zaire) continued to show signs of being on the brink of violent upheaval, while Zambia experienced a major democratic shift in its government. The forces of change in Africa seem to be mirroring political change that has and continues to take place in eastern Europe and in the territories of the former Soviet Union. This paper is a case study of national budgetary and financial management during a period of national disintegration. The information comes from observations formed during the final days of the political regime of one of these Sub-Saharan African nations - the Republic of Somalia.

The twenty-one year political regime of Mohamed Siad Barre in Somalia came to an end in January 1991 when rebel forces captured the capital city of Mogadishu, forcing Barre and his remaining followers to flee the capital. In the weeks and months leading up to the end of the regime, the normal functioning of the government had effectively ceased, collapsing under the weight of corrupt practices and substantial inefficiencies resulting from the government policies.

This paper describes some of these practices as they related to the national budgetary and financial management processes. In particular, the existence of chaos and evasion in national budgeting was evident with the existence of repetitive budgeting, lump sum budgeting, escapist budgeting, underfunding, externally driven policy, and information gaps. The analysis conducted suggests the importance of sound budget practices for the stability of a government. The conclusions derived focus on the issue of the role of political instability, attempts to modernize, and general systems organization as they relate to Somalia.