Fiery tongues and mystical motivations: glossolalia in a forensic population is associated with mania and sexual/religious delusions

Comparisons are made between a nonrandom sample of 18 glossolalists and 130 non-glossolalists admitted to a maximum-security forensic hospital. The glossolalic mentally disordered offender exhibited a predominance of diagnoses in the manic spectrum, and was typically psychotic. The delusions, hallucinations, and crimes were predominately of a religious and sexual nature. Glossolalist perpetrators tended to be female. We review the extant research on glossolalia in both normal and clinical samples. and integrate our findings, the first study of glossolalia in a forensic setting.     

“Scared Straight”: Ideology and the media

One of the more widely publicized presentations about crime is “Scared Straight,” a documentary about a program in which juveniles visit inmates in a New Jersey penitentiary. It is the contention of this article that this film and the accompanying media coverage of it convey an ideology message concerning crime and criminals. Crime is presented as a matter of individual choice that has little relationship to any social variables. Criminals are portrayed in a one-dimensional manner as evil, vicious, and barely human. The documentary is a success because these images of crime and criminals conform to existing stereotypes. Based on these distorted images, the film and media coverage “market” a simplistic solution to crime that is compatible with their presentation of the crime problem.     

Differences in the predictive validity of actuarial risk assessments in relation to sex offender type

This study seeks to expand on the previously reported validity of the Static-99, RRASOR, MnSOST-R, and SORAG in predicting sexual recidivism utilizing a regional sample of offenders. The predictive validity of each test was determined utilizing subgroups of the sample based on each offender's known offense history. The effectiveness of each instrument varied depending on offender type. The Static-99 and SORAG were both significantly predictive of sexual, violent, and any recidivism for extra-familial child molesters, and all four tests were predictive of violent or any recidivism in this subgroup. For incest offenders, all four tests were at least moderately predictive of sexual recidivism, whereas the Static-99 and the SORAG were highly predictive of violent or any recidivism. None of the four tests established consistent predictive validity across recidivism categories in regard to rapists or hands-off offenders, however, the Static-99 and the SORAG were significant in terms of sexual recidivism.     

Evaluating and redesigning subsidy policies for home rehabilitation

A method is developed for empirically estimating the direct leveraging, indirect leveraging, and externality benefits accruing from home rehabilitation subsidy policies. The method is applied to two single-family home rehabilitation subsidy programs administered by Minneapolis from 1976 to 1980. Multivariate statistical analysis of sampled homeowners reveals that for each dollar of grant and loan received, all else equal, participants spent $1.62 and $0.345 more, respectively, of their own funds on home upkeep, all expressed as annual averages for the period. A tentative finding of indirect effects on proximate homeowners' confidence in the neighborhood and concomitant rehabilitation expenditures is also observed. These home improvements, in turn, created an additional aesthetic externality benefit.Benefit-cost analyses employing estimated parameter values are conducted. Results show that both grants and loans are net beneficial from the societal perspective. From the budgetary perspective of the public sector, the grants program was net beneficial. Loan programs involving very low interest rates, deferred payments, and/or lengthy repayment schedules typically were not. Under wide ranges of parameter values, however, subsidized loans can be devised which yield superior budgetary efficiency to grants.These findings suggest that home rehabilitation subsidy policies should be redesigned so that the mix of grants and loans for individual recipients is varied in order to enhance budgetary efficiency. The central principle is to require that recipients who can afford to do so take out loans on terms which render them more net beneficial than grants, before any grants are awarded.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Open Networks, Closed Regimes: The Impact of the Internet on Authoritarian Rule by Shanthi Kalathil and Taylor C. Boas. The e‐Connected World: Risks and Opportunities edited by Stephen Coleman.     

How Well Does Accrual Accounting Fit the Public Sector?

In this 'controversy' we challenge the unqualified application of full accrual accounting within the Australian public sector. In particular, attention is directed to the recognition and valuation for financial reporting purposes of public sector resources that are of a non-financial nature, such as library and museum collections. Our main contention is that attempting to recognise such resources at monetary values within the financial reports of public sector organisations is a contrived, imprecise and inappropriate practice that threatens to occlude rather than enable the accountability of public sector institutions and their managers. Building from this accountability theme, we present perspectives on promoting accountability for the technical accounting practices which have been imposed within the public sector.