A study of the psychosexual characteristics of sex killers: can we identify them before it is too late?

Thirty-three sex killers were compared to 80 sexual aggressives, 23 sadists, and 611 general sex offenders on sexual history and preferences, substance abuse crime, violence, mental illness, personality, neurological and endocrine abnormalities. Compared to other groups, sex killers started their criminal careers earlier, more often had been to reform school, were members of criminal gangs, set fires, and were cruel to animals. They tended so show more sadism, fetishism, and voyeurism. They more often collected pornography, but they did not use it in their offenses. They more often abused drugs and some suffered from drug induced psychoses. Their most common diagnosis was antisocial personality disorder, but only 15.2% met criteria for psychopathy. Sex killers showed most signs of neuropsychological impairment, grades failure, and learning disabilities. Results suggest that greater emphasis be placed on studying adolescent sex offenders and conduct disordered children which may help identify potential sex killers.     

To PPB or Not PPB – Budgeting in Victorian Local Government

Budgeting is an important element in a public sector organisation's accounting control system. There are a number of budgetary methods that could be used, each with an explicitly different focus. This article investigates possible reasons for Victorian local government selecting line item budgeting, planning programming budgeting (PPB) or a combination of the two. While program budgeting arguably failed in the USA, research shows it was adopted by local government. Australian researchers report similar findings, yet the introduction of program budgeting into local government has not been explored. Four reasons are postulated: (1) PPB will be adopted because of the complexity of the organisation; (2) PPB will be adopted because it is perceived as an aid to planning; (3) line item budgeting will continue to be used because users are familiar with this type of budgeting; and (4) management's support for the adoption of PPB will be a significant factor in its introduction. A questionnaire was distributed to all the local governments in Victoria and 60 percent were returned. The findings reported in this article confirm the reasons postulated.     

Beware the razorwire: Psychology behind bars

Nearly 2 million people are incarcerated in federal, state and local correctional facilities in this country. Individuals with serious mental disorders increasingly fill these ranks. The roles psychologists and other mental health professionals adopt while working with this population can become an issue of silent consternation. As a point of departure, some (e.g., Levinson, 1985) have suggested that psychologists rightly function as institutional mediators of conflict, a virtual Marcus Welby of the collective correctional “psyche”. In practice, it is not uncommon for some clinicians to retreat from this approach and do little, or conversely, march in one hundred directions at once. The authors suggest that as psychology service delivery has matured in the past few decades this latter, well-intentioned but unrealistic position should be reconsidered. We suggest that greater depth and definition in the area of forensic psychology, coupled with recently developed ethical and professional standards of care, may serve to guide the clinician when providing services “behind bars”. Authors' Note: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and may not reflect the opinions of the United States Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, other state or local criminal justice agencies, or the University of Texas at Austin.     

MPs' Expenditure and General Election Campaigns: Do Incumbents Benefit from Contacting their Constituents?

Most studies of the impact of local campaign expenditure on British election results have found that expenditure by incumbents has less of an effect on the outcome than does that by challengers. Some argue that this, in part, reflects an underestimate of how much is spent by incumbents because it excludes their expenditure under various parliamentary allowances which facilitates contacts between MPs and their constituents. Data on spending under those allowances are now available and are used here to evaluate its impact at the 2005 general election in England. The analyses show that only expenditure by Conservative MPs had any impact on their re-election chances.     

Parental Smoking-specific Communication,Adolescents’ Smoking Behavior and Friendship Selection

In this study, we investigated whether parental smoking-specific communication is related to adolescents’ friendship-selection processes. Furthermore, we investigated whether adolescents and their best friends influence each other over time, and what role parents play in this process. In the present study we used data from the Family and Health project in which at baseline 428 full families participated. In this 2-year, three-wave longitudinal study data were available from fathers, mothers, early adolescents (aged M = 13.4 years, SD = .50), and middle adolescents (aged M = 15.2 years, SD = .60). The majority of the participating adolescents were of Dutch origin (>95%). There was an almost equal distribution of boys and girls, and adolescents with lower, middle, and higher educational levels were equally represented. Analyses were conducted by means of Structural Equation Modeling. Results demonstrate that a high quality of the smoking-specific communication is related to a lower likelihood of adolescent smoking, whereas the frequency is positively associated with adolescent smoking. Both the quality and frequency of parental smoking-specific communication were related to adolescents’ selective affiliation with (non-)smoking friends. The findings suggest that parental smoking-specific communication is associated with adolescent smoking directly but also indirectly by influencing the friends the adolescents will associate with.

Immigrant Engagement in Participatory Budgeting in New York City

Participatory Budgeting (PB) is a welcome experiment in participatory democracy in New York City (NYC), one that could produce greater civic engagement of traditionally marginalized groups and more equitable resource distribution. By engaging immigrants, PB aims to affirm and elevate their voices, help develop their civic capacities, and promote their political participation and community empowerment. During the past four years, participation by immigrants (foreign-born residents) in New York City’s PB process (PBNYC) has steadily increased, growing from nineteen to twenty-eight percent of all PB voters. Yet, immigrant participation lags compared to their numbers, with great variation among PB districts. Using a mixed methods approach that incorporates surveys of and interviews with immigrant community members, staff at immigrant serving community-based organizations, and City Council staff, this article aims to parse out the logistical and affective barriers to participation immigrants face in PB districts and how PBNYC’s design attempts to circumvent said barriers and facilitate participation. Ultimately, our study reveals a complex mix of promising practices and structural constraints involved in working toward PB’s “inclusive” and “equitable” aims.     

When Is a Gerrymander Not a Gerrymander: Who Benefits and Who Loses from the Changed Rules for Defining Parliamentary Constituencies?

Members of the British Labour party have, not for the first time, criticised the Boundary Commissions’ proposals for new constituency boundaries as gerrymandering. This represents a misuse of the term: the Commissions have produced recommended constituencies in the context of new rules for such redistributions that give precedence to equality of electorates across all seats and the boundaries of those constituencies have been defined without any reference to the likely electoral consequences. The Conservatives, who were responsible for the change in the rules to emphasise electoral equality, wanted to remove a decades‐long Labour advantage in the translation of votes into seats because of variations in constituency size, and the Commissions’ implementation of those rules has achieved that. A Labour advantage has been removed but not replaced by a Conservative advantage: in terms of electoral equality between the two, the playing field has been levelled. Labour's claim to have been disadvantaged by decisions on the electoral register is also examined; the disadvantage is probably only small.     

Book reviews

Naum Jasny, Soviet Economists of the Twenties: Names to be Remembered. Cambridge: at the University Press, 1972. ix + 218 pp. £3.80. $12.50.

Leonard Joel Kirsch, Soviet Wages: Changes in Structure and Administration since 1956. Cambridge, Mass. and London: The MIT Press, 1972. 237 pp. $12.50.

Robert C. Stuart, The Collective Farm in Soviet Agriculture. Lexington, Mass. and London: Lexington Books, D. C. Heath & Co., 1972. xx + 254 pp. $12.50.

Mose L. Harvey, Leon Goure and Vladimir Prokofieff, Science and Technology as an Instrument of Soviet Policy. Monographs in International Affairs: Center for Advanced International Studies, University of Miami, 1972. xvi + 219 pp. $5.95 (hard cover). $4.95 (paper cover).

I. S. Koropeckyj, Location Problems in Soviet Industry Before World War II. The Case of the Ukraine. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1971, and London: OUP, 1972. xiii + 219 pp. £5.75.

Chris Osakwe, The Participation of the Soviet Union in Universal International Organizations: A Political and Legal Analysis of Soviet Strategies and Aspirations inside ILO, UNESCO and WHO. Leiden: A. W. Sijthoff, 1972. xvi + 194 pp. Dfl. 35.—

Dieter Pfaff, Das Sowjetische Transportrecht ah Teil des Wirtschaftsverwaltungsrechts. Hamburg: Hansischer Gilden‐Verlag, Joachim Heitmann & Co., 1970. 147 pp.

Roger Pethybridge, The Spread of the Russian Revolution; Essays on London: Macmillan, 1972. xii + 238 pp. £4.50.

Peter Kenez, Civil War in South Russia, 1918: The First Year of the Volunteer Army. Berkeley, Calif, and London: University of California Press, 1971. 351 pp. $10.00. £4.75.

George Lenczowski, Soviet Advances in the Middle East. Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1972. 176 pp. $4.00 (paperback).

Robert C. Williams, Culture in Exile. Russian Emigrés in Germany 1881–1941. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1972. xviii + 404 pp. $14.50. £6.90.

Lucjan Blit, The Origins of Polish Socialism: The History and Ideas of the First Polish Socialist Party 1878–1886. Cambridge: University Press, 1971. ix + 160 pp. £3.00 $10.00

Andrew C. Janos and William B. Slottman (eds.), Revolution in Perspective. Essays on the Hungarian Soviet Republic of 1919. Berkeley, Calif, and London: University of California Press, 1972. (Russian and East European Studies.) x + 185 pp. $10.00. £4.50.     

Rational Management, Performance Targets and Executive Agencies: Views from Agency Chief Executives in Northern Ireland

The way in which central government services are delivered in both Britain and Northern Ireland has changed significantly since 1988. Executive Agencies have been created with the aim of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery, with changes being supported by an increasing focus on the rational management model as a basis for improving management in the public sector. This paper is a case study of nine agencies within the Northern Ireland 'family of agencies' and is the first study of its type in the UK. It presents the results of a series of interviews with agency Chief Executives that attempted to identify perceptions with respect to the development, use and impact of mission statements, objectives, targets and performance measures (components of a rational management approach). The main findings of the research include: Northern Ireland Chief Executives perceive an increased focus on quantification since agencification; this focus is viewed as helpful in providing a basis for improving management; systems in practice are considered to be much more flexible than a rigid management model would normally suggest; and, it is thought that the potential adverse consequences of such an approach can be managed.     

Medico-legal secrecy in New Zealand

In the absence of the right to sue for medical negligence, the New Zealand Health and Disability Commissioner (HDC) and the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal (HPDT) have become the centrepieces of New Zealand's medico-legal system. This article examines the claim that for both bodies secrecy, by name suppression, is the default position and that the private interests of doctors are elevated above the legitimate public interest in the performance of medical professionals. In particular, it examines HDC's blanket policy of suppressing the names of complainants, practitioners, hospitals, District Health Boards and geographical locations, and HPDT's stated but wavering commitment to openness. The authors conclude that both bodies may have failed, albeit in different ways, to recognise the legitimate and significant public interest in the names of those few practitioners found in breach of professional standards.