Secondary Traumatic Stress and Burnout among Law Enforcement Investigators Exposed to Disturbing Media Images

This study examines the psychological impact of viewing disturbing media on investigators engaged in computer forensics work. Twenty-eight federal law enforcement personnel who investigate Internet child pornography cases completed measures of secondary traumatic stress disorder (STSD) and burnout. Substantial percentages of investigators reported poor psychological well-being. Greater exposure to disturbing media was related to higher levels of STSD and cynicism. STSD and burnout scores were related to increased protectiveness of family, reliance on co-workers, general distrust, and turnover intentions. On a positive note, investigators scored high in professional efficacy, indicating they feel their work makes a difference. Furthermore, personnel with supportive relationships scored lower on both STSD and burnout.     

A Two‐Year Study of Δ 9 Tetrahydrocannabinol Concentrations in Drivers; Part 2: Physiological Signs on Drug Recognition Expert (DRE) and non‐DRE Examinations,,

Whole blood samples were examined for ?⁹‐Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) over 2 years in drivers suspected of driving under the influence. Part one of the study examined the link between [THC] and performance on field sobriety tests. This portion examined objective signs, eye examinations and physiological indicators; and their relationship to the presence of THC. Several objective signs were excellent indicators of the presence of THC: red eyes (94%), droopy eyelids (85.6%), affected speech (87.6%), tongue coating (96.2%), and odor of marijuana (82.4%). About 63.6% of THC positive subjects had dialted pupils (room light). THC positive subjects had either rebound dilation or hippus in 88.8% of cases. Pulse and blood pressure (BP) were evaluated to determine any correlation with [THC]. An increased pulse rate correlated well to the presence of THC (88.5%), but not [THC]. BP did not correlate to [THC] and was also a poor indicator of THC in the blood (50% high).     

Death Qualification in Black and White: Racialized Decision Making and Death‐Qualified Juries

Death qualification has been shown to have a number of biasing effects that appear to undermine a capital defendant's Sixth Amendment right to a fair jury. Attitudes toward the death penalty have shifted modestly but consistently over the last several decades in ways that may have changed the overall impact of death qualification. Specifically, the very large gap between black and white Americans' current support for capital punishment raises the question of whether death qualification procedures disproportionately exclude African Americans from capital jury participation. In order to examine this possibility, we conducted two countywide death penalty attitude surveys in the California county that has the highest percentage of African American residents in the state. Results show that death qualification continues to have a number of serious biasing effects—including disproportionately excluding death penalty opponents—which result in the significant underrepresentation of African Americans. This creates a death‐qualified jury pool with the potential to be significantly more likely to ignore and even misuse mitigating factors and to rely more heavily on aggravating factors in their death penalty decision making. The implications of these findings for the fair administration of capital punishment are discussed.     

The Trial of Joseph Dotterweich: The Origins of the “Responsible Corporate Officer” Doctrine

This article analyzes the origins of the “responsible corporate officer” doctrine: the trial of Joseph Dotterweich. That doctrine holds that an officer may be personally liable for the criminal act of a subordinate if the officer was, in some indefinite way, able to prevent the violation. Applying this doctrine, the prosecution of Dotterweich entailed strict liability for a strict liability offense. The underlying offenses—the interstate sale of one misbranded and adulterated drug and one misbranded drug—were said to be strict liability offenses. And then, with respect to Dotterweich as the corporation’s general manager, the government argued that he was strictly liable because he stood in “responsible relation” to the company’s acts. The government never tried to prove that the company, Buffalo Pharmacal, was negligent, nor did it try to prove that Dotterweich was negligent in his supervision of the employees of Buffalo Pharmacal. The prosecutor and judge were candid about this theory throughout the trial, although the judge conceded that it seemed bizarre and unfair. The defense lawyer repeatedly sought to inject what became known throughout the trial as the “question of good faith,” but was circumvented at almost every turn. What would thus seem to be the crux of any criminal trial—the personal fault of the defendant—was carefully shorn from the jury’s consideration. The government’s theory was so at odds with intuitive notions of liability and blame that, as one probes into the case, and looks at the language used in the government’s appellate briefs, imputations of moral fault inevitably crept in. Yet the government was not entitled to make such accusations, as it had pruned moral considerations from the trial. The article argues that the responsible corporate officer doctrine can never enjoy a secure place in our legal system. First, the doctrine is at a minimum in tension with, and often in direct opposition to, basic principles of the criminal law; and second, the doctrine fails, when followed to its logical conclusions, to accord with basic notions of fair play. The article concludes that the responsible corporate officer doctrine is either unnecessary, in cases in which the evidence establishes personal fault, or unjust, in cases in which it creates liability in the absence of personal fault through the unspecified notion of “responsibility.” The Dotterweich case illustrates what is contemplated by the latter possibility, and why it is problematic in any judicial system that purports, in the words of the Model Penal Code, “to safeguard conduct that is without fault from condemnation as criminal.”     

Government,Effectiveness, Performance,and Local Property Values

Abstract

We offer a practical measure of local government effectiveness in the provision of public services relating service expenditures to aggregate property value. Building on the work of Brueckner (1979 Brueckner, J. K. 1979. Property values, local public expenditure, and economic efficiency. Journal of Public Economics, 11: 223–246.  [Google Scholar], 1982 Brueckner, J. K. 1982. A test for allocative efficiency in the local public sector. Journal of Public Economics, 19: 311–331. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 1983 Brueckner, J. K. 1983. Property value maximization and public sector efficiency. Journal of Urban Economics., 14: 1–16.  [Google Scholar]) and Henderson (1990, 1995) we present an aggregate property value maximization model where levels of local public services are capitalized into aggregate property values. Using data for Wisconsin municipalities we demonstrate that service expenditure levels, and simultaneously corresponding taxation levels, are suboptimal and should be increased. The aggregate property value maximization test suggests that local public services in Wisconsin are consistently under-provided. By monitoring local property values officials can objectively measure if public services are being provided in an optimal manner.     

The Economic Impact of the Louvre

The economic importance of cultural activities for economic development is frequently emphasized. This is the case for the Louvre, often considered as the world's leading museum: more than eight and half million visitors, exceptional collections, and unrivaled location at the heart of Paris. Considering the “average option,” it can be said that its impact is very favorable: a gross value of €938 million, a net tax gain of €39 million, and between 12,738 and 18,090 jobs created. But another important lesson may be drawn: the Louvre does not fully benefit yet from its intellectual property rights, due to a management that has been very shy in the past, but that can be very promising for the future.     

Measuring public perceptions of sex offenders: reimagining the Community Attitudes Toward Sex Offenders (CATSO) scale

The Community Attitudes Toward Sex Offenders (CATSO) scale is an 18-item self-report questionnaire designed to measure respondents’ attitudes toward sex offenders. Its original factor structure has been questioned by a number of previous studies, and so this paper sought to reimagine the scale as an outcome measure, as opposed to a scale of attitudes. A face validity analysis produced a provisional three-factor structure underlying the CATSO: ‘punitiveness,’ ‘stereotype endorsement,’ and ‘risk perception.’ A sample of 400 British members of the public completed a modified version of the CATSO, the Attitudes Toward Sex Offenders scale, the General Punitiveness Scale, and the Rational-Experiential Inventory. A three-factor structure of a 22-item modified CATSO was supported using half of the sample, with factors being labeled ‘sentencing and management,’ ‘stereotype endorsement,’ and ‘risk perception.’ Confirmatory factor analysis on data from the other half of the sample endorsed the three-factor structure; however, two items were removed in order to improve ratings of model fit. This new 20-item ‘Perceptions of Sex Offenders scale’ has practical utility beyond the measurement of attitudes, and suggestions for its future use are provided.     

Sexual recidivism: A review of static,dynamic and actuarial predictors

The need for accurate risk assessment of sexual offence recidivism has never been greater. It is widely accepted that actuarial risk instruments outperform clinical judgement and the literature has recently witnessed a surge of empirically derived actuarial measures. However, in spite of the increased levels of predictive accuracy, actuarial measures have been criticized as being unrepresentative, lacking specificity, and being heavily reliant on static risk factors without taking into account dynamic risk, psychological emotional states and treatment effects. Rather than offering a critique of the actuarial movement, this paper offers a summary of static and dynamic risk factors associated with sexual offence recidivism as identified from the literature. Implications of incorporating dynamic factors into risk assessments and actuarial measures are discussed.     

The meta-discourse of contemporary brands and the indexing of consumption: a way to build bonds of meaning

There is an important volume of reflections on the theoretical and methodological proximity of semiotics and brand. I emphasize the texts of Lencastre and Corte-Real on brand myopia, Perez on brand expression and the proposition of a brand analysis model based on TGS de Peirce, and Mick with his studies of branding, marketing, and advertising, among others. However, the constitutive tension of the sign-brand, in its complexity as a media phenomenon determined by the sign object, pulsates in harmony with the emotional, associative, and cognitive relations it is able to generate in the interpreting minds. Brand as a complex sign, detached from the shackles of marketing management, grows toward the performing hybridism of digital technologies and arts, finding its interpreters – open-minded, active, and desirous of constant negotiations of meaning – in countless semioses. The purpose of the present article is to show that the sign strength of contemporary brands lies in their ability to index consumption based on advertising metadiscourse that reveals its audiences' social values and the objectual power by which it is determined. To this end, the study integrated knowledge of the semiotic analysis of the expressions of twenty international brands in the fashion, food, and technology industries, and the systematization and analysis of their value offers.