Is Age Irrelevant? Perceptions of Young and Old Adult Eyewitnesses

In Experiment 1, we videotaped elderly and younger adults (n = 69) reporting their memories for a crime video. The seniors were significantly less accurate than the younger adults. In Experiment 2, participants viewed the testimony videotapes and rated the elderly as less credible than the younger adults. In Experiment 3, participant-jurors (n = 302) evaluated transcribed testimonies provided by Experiment 1 participants. The ostensible age of the witnesses was manipulated. Thus, some participants read a senior's testimony believing it was provided by a younger adult and vice versa. Participants were apparently not biased by negative stereotypes of seniors' eyewitness capabilities.     

The Myth of the Bureaucratic Paradigm: What Traditional Public Administration Really Stood For

For a decade, public administration and management literature has featured a riveting story: the transformation of the field's orientation from an old paradigm to a new one. While many doubt claims concerning a new paradigm—a New Public Management—few question that there was an old one. An ingrained and narrowly focused pattern of thought, a "bureaucratic paradigm," is routinely attributed to public administration's traditional literature. A careful reading of that literature reveals, however, that the bureaucratic paradigm is, at best, a caricature and, at worst, a demonstrable distortion of traditional thought that exhibited far more respect for law, politics, citizens, and values than the new, customer-oriented managerialism and its variants. Public administration as a profession, having let lapse the moral and intellectual authority conferred by its own traditions, mounts an unduly weak challenge to the superficial thinking and easy answers of the many new paradigms of governance and public service. As a result, literature and discourse too often lack the recognition that reformers of institutions and civic philosophies must show how the capacity to effect public purposes and accountability to the polity will be enhanced in a manner that comports with our Constitution and our republican institutions.     

Y-STR profiling in extended interval (> or = 3 days) postcoital cervicovaginal samples

Depending upon specific situations, some victims of sexual assault provide vaginal samples more than 36-48 h after the incident. We have tested the ability of commercial and in-house Y-STR systems to provide DNA profiles from extended interval (> or =3 days) postcoital samples. The commercial Y-STR systems tested included the AmpFlSTR Yfiler (Applied Biosystems), PowerPlex Y (Promega) and Y-PLEX 12 (Reliagene) products whereas the in-house systems comprised Multiplex I (MPI) and Multiplex B (MPB). Three donor couples were recruited for the study. Postcoital cervicovaginal swabs (x2) were recovered by each of the three females at specified intervals after sexual intercourse (3-7 days). Each time point sample was collected after a separate act of sexual intercourse and was preceded by a 7-day abstention period. As a negative control, a precoital swab was also recovered prior to coitus for each sampling and only data from postcoital samples that demonstrated a lack of male DNA in the associated precoital sample was used. A number of DNA profile enhancement strategies were employed including sampling by cervical brushing, nondifferential DNA extraction methodology, and post-PCR purification. Full Y-STR profiles from cervicovaginal samples recovered 3-4 days after intercourse were routinely obtained. Profiles were also obtainable 5-6 days postcoitus although by this stage partial profiles rather than full profiles were a more likely outcome. The DNA profiles from the sperm fraction of a differential lysis were superior to that obtained when a nondifferential method was employed in that the allelic signal intensities were generally higher and more balanced and exhibited less baseline noise. The incorporation of a simple post-PCR purification process significantly increased the ability to obtain Y-STR profiles, particularly from 5- to 6-day postcoital samples. Remarkably an 8 locus Y-STR profile was obtained from a 7-day postcoital sample, which is approaching the reported time limit for sperm detection in the cervix.     

Addressing Gaps in the Maturity of Judgment Literature: Age Differences and Delinquency

Over the past decade, a majority of states have legislated to expand their capacity to try adolescents as adults [Griffin (2003). Trying and sentencing juveniles as adults: An analysis of state transfer and blended sentencing laws. Pittsburgh, PA: National Center for Juvenile Justice]. In response, researchers have investigated factors that may affect adolescent culpability [Steinberg and Scott (Am Psychol 58(12):1009–1018, 2003)]. Research on immature judgment posits that psychosocial influences on adolescent decision processes results in reduced criminal responsibility [Cauffman and Steinberg (Behav Sci Law 18(6):741–760, 2000); Scott, Reppucci, and Woolard (Law Hum Behav 19(3):221–244, 1995); Steinberg and Cauffman (Law Hum Behav 20(3):249–272, 1996)]. The current study utilizes hypothetical vignettes and standardized measures of maturity of judgment (responsibility, temperance, and perspective) to examine gaps in previous maturity of judgment findings (Cauffman and Steinberg 2000). This work suggests that adolescents (ages 14–17) display less responsibility and perspective relative to college students (ages 18–21), young-adults (ages 22–27), and adults (ages 28–40). Further, this research finds no maturity of judgment differences between delinquent and non-delinquent youth, but does find significant maturity of judgment differences between high and low delinquency male youth. Finally, results show that maturity of judgment predicts self-reported delinquency beyond the contributions of age, gender, race, education level, SES, and antisocial decision making. Implications for the juvenile justice system are discussed. This research was conducted in partial fulfillment of the M.A degree in Psychology from the University of New Hampshire.     

Advocating for active living on the rural-urban fringe: a case study of planning in the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area

This case study is about the politics of incorporating active-living elements into a concept plan for a new community of about 68,000 people on the edge of the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area. Development on the rural-urban fringe is ongoing in metropolitan areas around the United States. In this article, we evaluate the product of the concept-planning process from the standpoint of the extent to which environmental elements conducive to active living were included. We also analyze four issues in which challenges to the incorporation of active-living features surfaced: choices related to transportation facilities, the design and location of retail stores, the location of schools and parks, and the location of a new town center. Overall, the Damascus/Boring Concept Plan positions the area well to promote active living. Analyses of the challenges that emerged yielded lessons for advocates regarding ways to deal with conflicts between facilitating active living and local economic development and related tax-base concerns and between active-living elements and school-district planning autonomy as well as the need for advocates to have the capacity to present alternatives to the usual financial and design approaches taken by private- and public-sector investors.     

Development and evaluation of multiplex Y-STR assays for application in molecular genealogy

Three multiplex PCRs were developed for the analysis of 14 single-copy and 4 multi-copy Y chromosome Short Tandem Repeat (STR) loci routinely used by several public genealogical databases. These assays were used in addition to PowerPlex^® Y for the analysis of 245 DNA samples from a genealogical project. In total 244 different haplotypes composed of 37–40 alleles were identified with one haplotype identical between two males with the same surname. The multi-copy loci DYS464 and DYS724 were the most polymorphic with a gene diversity of at least 0.964. The use of DYS454 and DYS455 can be questioned as these loci had the lowest gene diversity (0.039 and 0.269, respectively).     

Microscopic Indicators of Axe and Hatchet Trauma in Fleshed and Defleshed Mammalian Long Bones*

Abstract: The characterization of wounds in bone caused by chopping weapons has been based on either semi‐fleshed or defleshed specimens. This approach has not been adequately justified as reflecting actual cases involving fleshed bone. Likewise, the histological appearance of features in chopping wounds also deserves further attention. We used 11 fresh pig (Sus scrofa) articulated hind limbs, including the femur, tibia, and fibula with contiguous surrounding flesh (including an intact epidermal layer), to receive wounds using two axes and two hatchets. Scanning electron microscopy analysis of these wounds exhibited osteon pullouts in the fracture surfaces of fleshed specimens, suggesting the attenuation of force by the surrounding flesh. Lamellar separation was also exhibited at the impact sites and fracture surfaces of both fleshed and defleshed specimens. A consistently rough morphology is characteristic of fracture surfaces while impact surfaces are smooth and yielded evidence of striations from each implement.     

“It’s a Rush”: Psychosocial Content of Antisocial Decision Making

Changes in the juvenile justice system have led to more serious sanctioning of adolescents (Heilbrun, Goldstein, & Redding, 2005). A salient question for understanding whether such sanctions are appropriate pertains to whether adolescents are less mature than adults in making decisions that lead to antisocial activity. The current study codes for psychosocial content of antisocial decision making in adolescents (ages 12–17), young adults (18–23), and adults (ages 35–63). Results suggest that adolescents and young adults display increased psychosocial content in their antisocial decision making relative to adults. However, the unique effect of psychosocial content on self-report criminal behavior was significantly greater among adolescents than among adults, whereas for young adults this was not the case. Implications for legal policy are discussed.

The Niqab in Canada： Is it a charter right？

Although religious beliefs and practices came under Constitutional protection in 1982 by section 2（a） of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the struggle to define what constitutes freedom of religion continues. Currently freedom of religion from the court＇s perspective is a right to be protected as long as its expression does not bring harm or discrimination to others. This definition is one that the courts have already applied to several other different rights. It is a position that while ostensibly static is capable of fluid change as society changes over time. To set in stone how far a freedom may extend is to deny the fact that society does and will continue to change. Views on what constitutes religious beliefs are fluid and a requirement on the extension of protection to those beliefs and actions is argued could hamper the development of multiculturalism.