The Mystery Man Can Increase the Reliability of Eyewitness Identifications for Older Adult Witnesses

Some groups of eyewitnesses, such as older adults and children, are less likely to correctly reject a target-absent (TA) line-up, as compared to younger adults. Previous research reports that using a silhouette in a video line-up called the ‘mystery man’ could increase correct rejections for TA lineups for child eyewitnesses, without reducing correct identifications for target-present (TP) line-ups (Havard and Memon in Appl Cogn Psychol 27:50–59, 2013). The current study, using older and younger adults, investigated whether using the mystery man would also increase the identification accuracy for older adults, without impairing younger adults’ identification accuracy. The results found that older adults in the ‘mystery man’ condition rejected TA line-ups significantly more often than those in the control condition (52 vs. 24 %), with no significant effect upon the TP line-ups. For the younger adults, the mystery man had no influence on identification responses for the TA or TP line-ups. Our findings suggest the mystery man technique may be beneficial for older adults, without detrimentally affecting the accuracy for younger adults, and thus could increase the reliability of eyewitness evidence, where video line-ups are employed.     

Running Away From Home: A Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Risk Factors and Young Adult Outcomes

Little is known about the adolescent risk factors and young adult health-related outcomes associated with running away from home. We examined these correlates of running away using longitudinal data from 4,329 youth (48% female, 85% white) who were followed from Grade 9 to age 21. Nearly 14% of the sample reported running away in the past year at Grade 10 and/or Grade 11. Controlling for demographics and general delinquency, running away from home was predicted by lack of parental support, school disengagement, greater depressive affect, and heavier substance use at Grade 9. In turn, runaways had higher drug dependence scores and more depressive symptoms at age 21 than non-runaways, even after taking these antecedent risk factors into account. Runaway status did not predict alcohol dependence risk at age 21. Results highlight the importance of substance use and depression, both as factors propelling adolescents to run away and as important long-term consequences of running away.     

Chance and Causality: Of Crows,Palm Trees,God and Salvation

This paper was written for a workshop, Chance and Contingency in Indian Philosophy, that was held at Yale University in May 2017. It examines the role that chance plays by focusing on the popular maxim of the crow and the palm tree. It argues that while representatives of different schools of thought were aware of the possibility of purely random occurrences, they dealt with it very differently. For some like the Vedāntins chance provided proof of their positions, while for others, Naiyāyikas and Buddhists, chance was a challenge, particularly to their theories of inference.     

Measures for mines: approaches to impact assessment in humanitarian mine action

The ability to assess the impact of humanitarian interventions is key both for priority-setting and for maximising the quality of projects. Humanitarian mine action (hma) is a young sector, where the application of impact assessment is still in its infancy. In this article we will briefly revisit the history of impact assessment in hma, before reviewing the strengths and weaknesses of three different impact-assessment approaches: 1) the Landmine Impact Survey; 2) economic analysis; and 3) community studies. Each of the approaches has its own merits as well as its own shortcomings and the selection of one approach, or several approaches combined, needs to be informed by the particular conditions in a given setting. We argue that hma should always be based on sound impact-assessment practices, but also that it is important to encourage a general understanding of broader impact issues—as opposed to narrow output definitions—among all relevant stakeholders. In spite of considerable progress over the past few years on this issue, impact in mine action is still largely perceived as an event rather than an integral part of the process and specialised units responsible for impact assessment isolate this activity from day-to-day field management.     

An evaluation of a private alternative probation and counseling program: Predicting program outcomes from client characteristics

The purpose of this evaluation was to determine if client characteristics affected selected program outcomes. The sample consisted of 475 clients admitted into a for-profit, private alternative probation and counseling program between November 1, 1998 and February 28, 1999. Multiple regression analyses identified race, previous alcohol and drug treatment, and employment status as significant predictor variables of client compliance. Being able to target client characteristics that are associated with successful program outcomes can help programs fulfill their goals of diversion and costeffectiveness, thus making the most effective use of scarce resources.     

Political women in singapore: A socio-linguistic analysis

This study sets out to discover how the political woman in Singapore is portrayed in Singapore through a study of her representation in the media. A focussed study of the Singapore English newspapers in the political elections of 1984, 1988 and 1991 show the construction of the political woman in two ways: one is through the creation of the stereotype, packaging the political woman as a type of woman and like all women, operating within the framework of the family, such as, their role as wives, as the helped, as mothers and as “the weaker sex”; and the other is through the medium of language itself, for example, such as the use of address terms, overlexicalization, and the tabloid commentary style.     

Dental shape match rates in selected and orthodontically treated populations in New York State: a two-dimensional study

Forensically identifying a suspect's dentition from a bitemark in an open population requires the supposition that every person's dental alignment is different. There have been few studies that have tested this claim. Four hundred and ten lower anterior dentitions from a selected population and 110 lower anterior dentitions from one that was orthodontically treated were measured using geometric morphometric analysis, allowing comparison of arch shape. Dental match rates of 1.46% and 42.7% of individuals were found in the respective populations, given an established measurement error. Orthodontic treatment had a strong effect on match rate suggesting that treated or naturally well-aligned dentitions may be indistinguishable. Sexual dimorphism was found to be only slightly significant. Principal shape variation in both populations was degree of arch curvature. Results of studying these populations show that dental matches can occur, and that statements of certainty concerning individualization in such populations should be approached with caution.     

The dialectical psychoeducational workshop (DPEW) for males at risk for intimate partner violence: a pilot randomized controlled trial

Data are presented from a pilot study that tested the initial effectiveness of the Dialectical Psychoeducational Workshop (DPEW) in reducing the potential risk for intimate partner violence (IPV). A randomized controlled trial (RCT) of an experimental intervention (DPEW), and a control condition, the first session of an eight-week anger management program (AMW), was employed. Differences between experimental and control groups were analyzed by chi-square and t tests. Self-report questionnaires were administered pre- and post-test to 55 study participants. The questionnaire was comprised of standardized measures and highly-structured questions. Quantitative analyses provided strong preliminary support for the DPEW’s effectiveness in lowering a participant’s desire to express anger physically, while decreasing the potential risk for physical violence. This pilot study demonstrated promising initial support for the DPEW as an alternative, preventative intervention for males at risk for intimate partner violence. Its strong preliminary results provide evidence for a larger RCT. The study’s results are limited by a reliance on self-report measures, the brevity of the intervention, and a small sample size.     

Sex differences in the causes of adolescent suicide ideation

A model that incorporates both socioenvironmental and psychological factors was developed in an attempt to explain adolescent suicide ideation. A sample of 407 high school students was used to test the model. Most of the previous research on the causes of adolescent suicidal behavior has not used multivariate data analysis techniques and has failed to explore sex differences. Results of the present study suggest that these are important omissions. Although significant at the zero-order level, factors such as self-esteem and interpersonal problems at school were not related to suicide ideation when the effects of the other explanatory variables were controlled. The incidence of suicide ideation was higher for females. Emotional problems and involvement in delinquent behavior were important predictors of ideation for females, while employment problems were the most potent predictor for males.Received his Ph.D. from Florida State University. Current interest is the etiology of various forms of deviant behavior, especially among adolescents.Therapist, Story County Center for Personal Development. Received her M.A. in clinical sociology from Iowa State University.