Believing is seeing II: Beliefs and perceptions of criminal psychological profiles

This study built upon previous research by Kocsis and Hayes (2004) by investigating whether a bias exhibited by police officers in their perception of profiles would replicate in a sample of nonpolice participants. Additionally, the relationship, if any, between the degree of belief harbored by an individual concerning the merits of profiling and their perceptions of a given profile was also investigated. The findings of this study add to the contention that the biases observed in Kocsis and Hayes's previous study with regard to author label may be related to some intrinsic feature of the previously sampled police participants. Additionally, evidence was found to support the proposition that an individual's degree of belief in profiling is related to their perceptions concerning the merits of a profile. Namely, the more an individual believes in the profiling technique, the greater the merit that will be perceived in a profile.     

Social support factors and drinking among college student males

The present investigation focused on social support and social competence among male college freshmen and the relation of these variables to alcohol use and psychological adjustment. Recent critical analyses of the social support literature suggest that studies in this area have generally failed to distinguish between different modes of support. Therefore, measures pertaining to possible dimensions of the social support construct (i.e., social network characteristics and perceived social support) were administered to 137 male college freshmen, along with a measure of social competence, and these data were factor analyzed. As a result, three interpretable factors were identified: Network Functions, Perceived Intimacy/Support, and Social Competence. Measures representing social network characteristics (e.g., network size, density, amount of social contact), perceived support, and social competence were used to predict alcohol use and psychological symptomatology. Results indicated that alcohol use was positively related to social network characteristics that reflect high levels of social interaction (e.g., network density, amount of social contact) and measures of social competence. Drinking was not significantly related to measures of perceived social support. Psychological symptomatology was negatively related to measures of perceived support, social competence, and network density. Thus, this study concludes that different modes of support and different measures of psychological adjustment should not be treated as if they are equivalent. And this study reaffirms a growing concern that the social context provides frequent opportunities for alcohol use and abuse in a college community.     

Fatal accidental enflurane intoxication

Among reported cases of abuse of volatile anesthetics there is only one of enflurane intoxication. We report another fatal enflurane intoxication. A 21-year-old man found dead seemed to have experimented with enflurane. Three and one-half days after death high amounts of enflurane were detected in blood, brain, and subcutaneous fat. Gas chromatographic quantification revealed the following high enflurane concentrations: blood: 130 mg/l-1, brain: 350 mg/l-1, and subcutaneous fat: 100 mg/l-1. Histologic signs of drug-induced damage were lacking. No suicide intentions became known. It was concluded that the young man died of an accidental intoxication while abusing enflurane.     

Dependency and Development in a Globalized World: Looking Back and Forward

The principles of analysis proposed 40 years ago by Cardoso and Faletto in Dependency and Development in Latin America provide a fruitful way to understand divergent patterns of development in the contemporary era of globalization. This set of analytic principles combines a focus on distinct modes of national insertion into the global economy with a focus on the balance of domestic class forces, the capacity of state institutions, and contingent choices by political actors to explain the contrasting developmental fortunes of countries. The contributors to this special issue demonstrate the vitality of these principles by harnessing them to the dual task of explaining how countries respond to the challenges of globalization and the consequences of these responses. The critical, macroscopic, and possibilistic approach to political economy taken by the contributors offers an exciting and powerful way to understand the problems of development in our globalized world.     

Understanding research methods,limitations, and applications of drug data collected by the National Forensic Laboratory Information System (NFLIS-Drug)

The National Forensic Laboratory Information System (NFLIS) is a drug surveillance program of the US Drug Enforcement Administration that systematically collects data on drugs that are seized by law enforcement and submitted to and analyzed by the Nation's forensic laboratories (NFLIS-Drug). NFLIS-Drug data are increasingly used in predictive modeling and drug surveillance to examine drug availability patterns. Given the complexity of the data and data collection, there are some common methodological pitfalls that we highlight with the aim of helping researchers avoid these concerns. The analysis done for this Technical Note is based on a review of the scientific literature that includes 428 unique, refereed article citations in 182 distinct journals published between January 1, 2005, and April 30, 2021. Each article was analyzed according to how NFLIS-Drug data were mentioned and whether NFLIS-Drug data were included. A sample of 37 articles was studied in-depth, and data issues were summarized. Using examples from the literature, this Technical Note highlights eight broad concerns that have important implications for the proper applications, interpretations, and limitations of NFLIS-Drug data with suggestions for improving research methods and accurate reporting of forensic drug data. NFLIS-Drug data are timely and provide key information to inform drug use trends across the United States; however, our present analysis shows that NFLIS-Drug data are misunderstood and represented in the literature. In addition to highlighting these issues, DEA has created several resources to assist NFLIS data users and researchers, which are summarized in the discussion.     

Hegel,Haiti and revolution: the post-colonial moment

Abstract

Susan Buck-Morss’s argument that the Haitian Revolution embodied the most universal aspect of the French Revolution, namely the quest for universal freedom, relies on the supposed references to Haiti in the master–slave dialogue in Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit. The revolution’s lodgement at the core of this foundational text of Enlightenment universalism is, for her, about as convincing a demonstration as one can have of the universal significance of the Haitian Revolution. Marxists have opposed her venture, and demonstrated their hostility to post-colonial thinking, principally by claiming that the master–slave is an expression of European class conflict. This paper agrees with Buck-Morss that the Haitian Revolution critically affirmed the principle of universal freedom and, indeed, pushed the revolution in France and Europe in a radical direction. A better affirmation of the universal significance of the Haitian Revolution than the thoughts of Hegel is possible. The latter do not actually provide such affirmation, because racism, Eurocentrism and a hostility to political radicalism are fundamental aspects of Hegel’s thought. The alternative affirmation can be found in Marxist analysis. This paper outlines such an analysis, and concludes that post-colonialism of Buck-Morss’s sort is no substitute for the perspective provided by historical materialism.     

Etryptamine, a new designer drug with a fatal effect

Capsules with etryptamine have been commonly available on the market since the middle of 1985. Up to 1962 this CNS-stimulating, monoamine-oxidase-inhibiting drug was sold as an antidepressant (Monase). A case of fatal intoxication is reported. The exact amount of etryptamine taken several hours before death are not known, but it could have been in the range of 700 mg. This drug was detected in tissue by means of common analytical techniques (GLC, GC-MS, HPLC, TLC). Etryptamine cross-reacts with the Emit-st amphetamine assay and can also be detected in urine using these techniques. The level in postmortem blood was 1.1 mg/l. The effects the young man showed were like those known from intoxication with amphetamines, MAO inhibitors, and thymoleptics. Malignant hyperthermia is discussed as a possible cause of death. It is suggested that trade in etryptamine should be controlled.     

Applications of crime seriousness information in police departments

This article describes the use of crime seriousness information in police operations. It is based on a project at the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department in which eight weeks of crime information were coded using the Sellin-Wolfgang seriousness scale. Statistics were then derived which quantified the seriousness of the various categories of crimes. Several applications were investigated based on the crime seriousness data. These included: (1) case assignment to detectives, (2) allocation of patrol personnel, and (3) determination of the size and location of patrol beats. Areas for future research are presented involving the use of crime seriousness data.     

Autonomy for Contract,Refined

Law and Philosophy - In ‘The Choice Theory of Contracts’, we advance a claim about the centrality of autonomy to contract. Since publishing Choice Theory, we have engaged dozens of...     

Russia’s Power Politics in Ukraine and Syria: Status-seeking between Identity,Opportunity and Costs

Abstract

This article looks at Russia’s exercise of power politics in Ukraine and Syria as a way of improving its international status. Russia’s recent willingness to use power and coercion is theoretically counterintuitive as it appears to be in dissonance with the prevalent characterisation of the country as a status-overachieving inconsistent power. We argue that this behaviour is not the result of a consistent weighing of status against capabilities, but rather reflective of both internal and external dynamics. We analyse issues of identity, opportunity and costs as factors that influence Russian foreign action, showing that power politics will not solve Russia’s status-inconsistency problem in the long run.