Validation of a Short Form of the Marlowe-Crowne for Use with Law Enforcement Personnel

This study cross-validates a 13-question version of the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale proposed by Reynolds (1982), using law enforcement professionals (n?=?241). A rational is offered for the importance of scales of this nature being used to assess honesty, social desirability and self-deception. External validity indicators including concurrent measures of aggression and prejudice as well as prehire MMPI scales K and L on a subset of this sample (n?=?70) are reviewed. Correlations between the 13-question version of the Marlowe-Crowne and external measures demonstrate robust effect sizes and statistical significance. Comparisons are also examined between officer scores and students from another cross-validation study of the 13-question short form of the Marlowe-Crowne (Zook & Sipps, 1984). Conclusions are made in consideration of the importance of honesty in law enforcement testing as well as the need for better means of accounting for variance due to social desirability in testing. Future directions for research are suggested.     

Digital evidence from mobile telephone applications

In this paper we examine the legal aspects of the forensic investigation of mobile telephone applications. Mobile telephone applications might be involved with a variety of types of computer misuse including fraud, theft, money laundering, dissemination of copyrighted materials or indecent images, or instances where mobile telephone applications have been involved in the transmission of malware for malicious or criminal purposes. In this paper we examine the process of the forensic investigation of mobile telephone applications, and the issues relating to obtaining digital evidence from mobile telephone applications.     

Popular Nationalism and China’s Japan Policy: the Diaoyu Islands protests, 2012–2013

2012–2013 witnessed a renewed flare-up of anti-Japanese sentiment in Mainland China, followed by a toughening of the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) Diaoyu Islands policy. Did popular nationalism influence the PRC’s military escalation? A lack of transparency in elite Chinese decision-making puts a definitive answer to this question beyond our reach. However, this article utilizes qualitative and quantitative analyses of anti-Japanese discourse and deeds in both cyberspace and on the streets of urban China to argue that the circumstantial evidence is compelling: nationalist opinion is a powerful driver of China’s Japan policy. The demands of nationalist legitimation appear to pressure the elite to respond to popular nationalism. Should one or more Chinese die at the hands of the Japanese navy or air force, therefore, the popular pressure for escalation and war will likely be more than China’s leaders can manage.     

26-Locus Y-STR typing in a Bhutanese population sample

26 Y chromosome short tandem repeat (STR) loci were amplified in a sample of 856 unrelated males from Bhutan, using two multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays. The first multiplex is the Y-STR 20plex described by Butler et al. [J.M. Butler, R. Schoske, P.M. Vallone, M.C. Kline, A.J. Redd, M.F. Hammer, A novel multiplex for simultaneous amplification of 20 Y chromosome STR markers, Forensic Sci. Int. 129 (2002) 10-24], and the second is a novel (but overlapping) 14plex that targets six additional Y-STRs (DYS425, DYS434, DYS435, DYS436, DYS461, DYS462) and also amplifies the amelogenin locus. The 26-loci give a discriminating power of 0.9957, though even at this resolution one haplotype occurs 24 times. We identify novel alleles at five loci and microvariants at a further three, which were characterised by sequencing. Extended (11-locus) haplotypes for these samples have been submitted to the Y-STR Haplotype Reference Database (YHRD).     

Elected or Selected? The Continuing Constitutional Conundrum of House of Lords Reform

The 1911 Parliament Act decreed that Lords reform was ‘an urgent question which brooks no delay’, yet the subsequent 112 years have witnessed only sporadic and inchoate reforms. The issue has invariably suffered both from interparty disagreement between the Conservatives and Labour and, more importantly, intraparty disagreements owing to the divergent views and irreconcilable disagreements among Labour MPs over ‘what is to be done?’, and recognition that any reform which enhanced the legitimacy of the second chamber would threaten the pre-eminence of the House of Commons and a Labour government therein. A similar fate is likely to befall the Labour Party's latest proposal for replacing the current House of Lords with an elected second chamber. Meanwhile, the Conservative peer, Lord Norton, is seeking to place the House of Lords Appointments Commission (HOLAC) on a statutory basis and impose stricter criteria on prime ministerial nominations for peerages. Yet, this would still leave any Prime Minister with considerable powers of patronage in appointing members of the second chamber. This article therefore suggests that a Prime Minister should only be permitted to nominate 20 per cent of the membership, with the rest appointed via HOLAC itself, thereby depoliticising the process as far as practicably possible, and imbuing it with greater public trust.