Asymmetric decentralization of the administration of public safety in the Canadian federal political system

Canada's federal political system has to reconcile differences over the balance between shared rule and self‐rule concerning two bedrock principles of the constitutional government: the rule of law and democratic oversight of the exercise of the power of the state to ensure that it is not usurped. The hallmark of the administration of multilevel security governance in Canada is horizontal and vertical differentiation of diverse territorial and non‐territorial community values, preferences, interests and values has given rise to the asymmetric decentralization. This article maps the historical and constitutional roots, and then draws on examples in a survey of its institutional structure across three levels of government. It concludes by discussing the governance challenges that shared sovereignty and mismatched jurisdictional authorities pose for the effective and efficient provision of public safety in Canada.     

Affinity,arming, consequences,and perceptions: an introduction

Public Choice - This article provides an introduction to the special issue on Political violence: affinity, arming, consequences, and perceptions. The issue contains panel analyses, theoretical...     

Ideology Justifies Morality: Political Beliefs Predict Moral Foundations

Moral Foundations Theory (MFT) is employed as a causal explanation of ideology that posits political attitudes are products of moral intuitions. Prior theoretical models, however, suggest the opposite causal path, that is, that moral judgments are driven by political beliefs. In both instances, however, extant research has assumed rather than explicitly tested for causality. So do moral intuitions drive political beliefs or do political beliefs drive moral intuitions? We empirically address this question using data from two panel studies and one nationally representative study, and find consistent evidence supporting the hypothesis that ideology predicts moral intuitions. The findings have significant implications for MFT as a theory of ideology, and also about the consequences of political beliefs for shaping how individuals rationalize what is right and what is wrong.     

Xiaoyu Pu,ed., Rebranding China: Contested Status Signaling in the Changing Global Order

Journal of Chinese Political Science -     

Testing the Demirjian and the international Demirjian dental aging methods on a mixed ancestry urban American subadult sample from Detroit, MI

This paper tests the Demirjian and international Demirjian dental aging methods for forensic use when ancestry and ethnicity are unknown. A radiographic sample of 187 boys and girls was collected from the Department of Pediatric Dentistry at the University of Detroit Mercy and aged using both methods. The total sample and the sample by age categories (young, middle, and old) were analyzed using t-tests. The Demirjian method was found to better estimate age to a statistically significant degree for the total sample, as well as the middle and old age categories. The young category was aged better using the international Demirjian method. The results indicate that while the Demirjian method accurately estimates age, caution must be used with the method. Further research is needed to determine whether the international Demirjian method can be used for forensics in the U.S.     

The Severe 5%: A Latent Class Analysis of the Externalizing Behavior Spectrum in the United States

Objective

Criminological research consistently demonstrates that approximately 5% of study populations are comprised of pathological offenders who account for a preponderance of antisocial behavior and violent crime. Unfortunately, there have been no nationally representative epidemiological studies characterizing the severe 5% group.

Materials and Methods

Data from the 2001-2002 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC), a nationally representative sample of 43,093 non-institutionalized U.S. residents aged 18 years and older were analyzed using latent class analysis to assess sociodemographic, psychiatric, and behavioral characteristics.

Results

Four-classes of respondents were identified vis-à-vis lifetime externalizing behaviors. A normative class (66.1% of respondents) demonstrated little involvement in antisocial conduct. A low substance use/high antisocial behavior class (20.7% of respondents) and high substance use/moderate antisocial behavior (8.0% of respondents) class evinced diverse externalizing and psychiatric symptoms. Finally, a severe class (5.3% of respondents) was characterized by pathological involvement in more varied and intensive forms of antisocial and externalizing behaviors and extensive psychiatric disturbance.

Conclusions

The current study is the first nationally representative epidemiological study of criminal careers/externalizing behavior spectrum in the United States and validates the existence of the 5% pathological group demonstrated by prior research.     

Examining the relationship among substance abuse, negative emotionality and impulsivity across subtypes of antisocial and psychopathic substance abusers

Growing evidence suggests that individuals with Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) can be categorized into theoretically meaningful subtypes. This study builds on earlier cluster-analytic research (Poythress et al., 2010) that identified four subtypes of ASPD in a large sample of prison inmates and offenders ordered into mandatory substance abuse treatment. These four subtypes (primary, secondary, and “fearful” psychopathic and non-psychopathic ASPD) differed in theoretically important ways on various criterion measures. Of those participants in substance abuse treatment (N = 571), we compare the four clusters, as well as non-ASPD substance abusers, in terms of (a) the severity of their self-reported alcohol and drug problems and (b) whether the severity of their substance abuse is predicted by similar etiologically important correlates (i.e., negative emotionality, impulsivity). There were modest subgroup differences in abuse, although as expected secondary psychopaths reported more severe misuse than primary psychopaths. Associations between impulsivity and negative emotionality and drug use for the total sample were in the expected direction, though relatively modest in magnitude. Unexpectedly, these associations were weaker among psychopathic subtypes relative to the non-psychopathic subgroups. These findings suggest that the etiology of drug use may differ across subgroups of chronically antisocial individuals.     

Identification of group affinity from cross-sectional contours of the human midfacial skeleton using digital morphometrics and 3D laser scanning technology

Identifying group affinity from human crania is a long-standing problem in forensic and physical anthropology. Many craniofacial differences used in forensic skeletal identification are difficult to quantify, although certain measurements of the midfacial skeleton have shown high predictive value for group classifications. This study presents a new method for analyzing midfacial shape variation between different geographic groups. Three-dimensional laser scan models of 90 crania from three populations were used to obtain cross-sectional midfacial contours defined by three standard craniometric landmarks. Elliptic Fourier transforms of the contours were used to extract Fourier coefficients for statistical analysis. After cross-validation, discriminant functions based on the Fourier coefficients provided an average of 86% correct classifications for crania from the three groups. The high rate of accuracy of this method indicates its usefulness for identifying group affinities among human skeletal remains and demonstrates the advantages of digital 3D model-based analysis in forensic research.