Using multidimensional scaling for the analysis of sexual offence behaviour: A replication and some cautionary notes

Abstract

Crime scene profiling has received considerable attention, particularly in popular media. First, since low inter-rater reliability would affect the validity of profiling, we tested inter-rater agreement for 33 variables often used in manuals for the coding of crime-related behaviour. Thirty cases were chosen randomly from 146 cases of assault rape with unknown male offenders in Sweden during 1990–1994. Second, we used multidimensional scaling (MDS) with all 146 cases to replicate earlier work by Canter and Heritage (Journal of Forensic Psychiatry, 1, 185–212, 1990) regarding motivational dimensions in unknown assault rapists. On average, inter-rater reliability was good; physical behaviours were more reliably coded than were verbal behaviours. However, a two-dimensional MDS solution with the motivational dimensions suggested by Canter and Heritage was not replicated. We argue for better empirical support for the inclusion of specific variables in coding formats for crime scene information. This is particularly important for analyses like the MDS, since the number, representativity, and intercorrelations of such variables could affect results considerably.     

Revisiting the decline in remarriage in early-modern Europe: The case of Rheims in France

There is no lack of surveys showing that from a high rate of breastfeeding in the industrializing world of the early 20th century, after World War II the incidence declined to a nadir around 1960. For instance only a third of the infants in the US were given their own mothers' milk. The suckling of the new born is clearly not a natural instinct but needs to be taught and supported. Even if quantitative data is hard to come by for earlier centuries, there still is ample evidence that many mothers followed a tradition of not breastfeeding themselves, especially in the early 18th century. The reasons for this are partly economical, centered on the mother's heavy workload in non-industrial and energy-poor societies. But there are also cultural background factors behind the use of wet-nurses and artificial nourishment, where medical, religious and sexual ideas blend into a persuasive set of motives imprinting in women that breastfeeding is undesirable. The sending of urban babies to wet-nurses in the countryside was in part motivated by the tough epidemic climate in the cities. Modern anthropological research shows how cultural and economic motives can be doubly effective by reinforcing each other. The paper hypothesizes that for Western Europe where we have the richest historical records there may have been a breastfeeding pattern with more extensive breastfeeding in the northern parts of the continent and more use of wet-nurses and artificial nourishment in the Catholic southern parts, and that this may be rooted in long-lasting cultural factors. In addition there may have a number of places (Iceland, the Fennoscandian Arctic) where women had difficulty breastfeeding consistently because of an especially heavy workload in a tough environment, and where this developed into normative behaviour.     

Development and legitimacy of Chinese informal finance

Abstract

Cambodia is facing the familiar problem of achieving sustained rates of economic growth that could help it alleviate widespread poverty. Against the background of some encouraging developments, and quite a few that are not equally reassuring, we argue that any push for development needs to consider both agriculture and industry. This is so as both labour absorption, primarily in secondary sector activities, and productivity growth in agriculture are necessary to lift large segments of the population out of the poverty associated with subsistence agriculture, landlessness and informal sector activities. Given that the major success story of the past decade – the garment and textile industry – is under threat, we conclude that Cambodia is yet to achieve an economic take-off.