Understanding Support for Internet Censorship in China: An Elaboration of the Theory of Reasoned Action

This study investigates young people’s support for Internet censorship in China within the broad conceptual approach of the theory of reasoned action (TRA). Two concepts, authoritarian personality and third-person perception, were scrutinized as part of our extension of the elaboration of the TRA model. We also closely examined dimensions pertinent to the unique social context of China such as party membership, Confucianism tradition, and one-child policy. A sample of 266 college students in a large metropolitan was surveyed and Structural Equation Modeling was employed in data analyses. Support for censorship based on TRA received general empirical evidence. So did the submissive dimension of authoritarian personality. Mixed findings were discussed and future research directions were suggested.     

Eyewitness Lineups: Is the Appearance-Change Instruction a Good Idea?

The Department of Justice's Guide for lineups recommends warning eyewitnesses that the culprit's appearance might have changed since the time of the crime. This appearance-change instruction (ACI) has never been empirically tested. A video crime with four culprits was viewed by 289 participants who then attempted to identify the culprits from four 6-person arrays that either included or did not include the culprit. Participants either received the ACI or not and all were warned that the culprit might or might not be in the arrays. The culprits varied in how much their appearance changed from the video to their lineup arrays, but the ACI did not improve identification decisions for any of the lineups. Collapsed over the four culprits, the ACI increased false alarms and filler identifications but did not increase culprit identifications. The ACI reduced confidence and increased response latency. Two processes that could account for these results are discussed, namely a decision criterion shift and a general increase in ecphoric similarity.     

Optimal storage conditions for highly dilute DNA samples: a role for trehalose as a preserving agent

DNA extraction from trace samples or noninvasively collected samples often results in the recovery of low concentration solutions of DNA that are prone to DNA degradation or other loss. Because of the difficulty in obtaining such samples, and their potentially high value in wildlife and forensic studies, it is critical that optimal methods are employed for their long-term storage. We assessed the amplification yield of samples kept under different storage conditions with the addition of potential preserving agents. We stored dilutions of known concentration human placental DNA, and gorilla fecal DNA, under four conditions (+4 degrees C, -20 degrees C, -80 degrees C, dry at room temperature), and with three additives (Tris EDTA (TE) buffer, Hind III digested Lambda DNA, trehalose). The effectiveness of the treatment methods was tested at regular intervals using qPCR to assess the quantity of amplifiable DNA, and a PCR assay of a larger 757 bp fragment to evaluate the quality of that remaining DNA. The highest quantity of DNA remained in samples stored at -80 degrees C, regardless of storage additives, and those dried at room temperature in the presence of trehalose. Surprisingly, DNA quality was best preserved in the presence of trehalose, either dried or at -80 degrees C; significant quality loss occurred with -20 degrees C and +4 degrees C storage.     

A Measure of Court Response to Requests for Protection

Are male victims of domestic violence provided the same protections as female victims? With increasing entanglement of custody and domestic violence law, the answer to this question is critical for fathers embroiled in disputes where allegations are sometimes made to secure custody of children. All non-impounded requests for Abuse Prevention Orders initiated in Massachusetts’ Gardner District Court, in the year 1997, involving opposite gender litigants were analyzed to determine if court response to the associated allegations is affected by the gender of those litigants. These orders were previously examined and male and female defendants were found similarly abusive. By studying the characteristics of each case, and overall court response at court hearings, a determination is made concerning any evident gender trends in the aggregate court response to requests for protection. Despite gender-neutral language of abuse prevention law (M.G.L. c. 209A), application of that law favors female plaintiffs.     

Speaking the City: Punishment,Performance and the Perception of London’s Public Space 1780--1840

The paper contends that in order to understand the role of punishment within the Georgian city we must challenge our own perceptions of space. A key difference I suggest between the Georgian and the modern city was that in the former most of the city space had yet to become functionally specialised. The competing demands placed upon it had not yet been, in the main, resolved by municipal authorities; since they were not, as yet, inclined to think in terms of functional efficiency. Consequently, punishment existed as but one activity, embedded within a general culture of public performance. Execution in particular, depended for its efficacy upon the creation of intense nodes of experience within the realm of the ordinary and found its place within a wider system of communication between the orders based upon the notional equality of violence. It was then, owned by the public in a way that was soon to be repudiated. That repudiation was, I suggest, inextricably connected with a reformation of urban space, which was in part motivated by the challenge to public order posed by popular radicalism and which was substantially driven by the application of principles of subjugation and manipulation derived from liturgy and religious practice. It was, I suggest, the subjugation of public space and the suppression of popular performance that in turn necessitated the re-conceptualisation of one of its elements, that is to say, punishment. Punishment was re-conceptualised by disenfranchising those who had formerly owned it in return for the offer of a new, but largely fictitious, form of social ownership of public space.     

Vanishing vaccinations: why are so many Americans opting out of vaccinating their children?

Vaccinations against life-threatening diseases are one of the greatest public health achievements in history. Literally millions of premature deaths have been prevented, and countless more children have been saved from disfiguring illness. While vaccinations carry unavoidable risks, the medical, social and economic benefits they confer have led all fifty states to enact compulsory childhood vaccination laws to stop the spread of preventable diseases. Today, however, vaccines are becoming a victim of their success--many individuals have never witnessed the debilitating diseases that vaccines protect against, allowing complacency toward immunization requirements to build. Antivaccination sentiment is growing fast in the United States, in large part due to the controversial and hotly disputed link between immunizations and autism. The internet worsens fears regarding vaccination safety, as at least a dozen websites publish alarming information about the risks of vaccines. Increasing numbers of parents are refusing immunizations for their children and seeking legally sanctioned exemptions instead, apparently fearing vaccines more than the underlying diseases that they protect against. A variety of factors are at play: religious and philosophical beliefs, freedom and individualism, misinformation about risk, and overperception of risk. State legislatures and health departments now face a difficult challenge: respecting individual rights and freedoms while also safeguarding the public welfare. Nearly all states allow vaccination exemptions for religious reasons and a growing number provide "philosophical" opt-outs as well. However, in all but a handful of jurisdictions, neither objection is seriously documented or verified. Often, the law requires a parent to do no more than simply check a box indicating she does not wish her child to receive immunizations. The problem is exacerbated by financial incentives schools have to encourage students to opt out of vaccinations. The rise in parents opting out has caused the AMA grave concern, with many experts decrying the rise of so-called "exemptions of convenience." In some areas, nearly one out of five children have not received their recommended vaccines. The consequences are serious not only for those unprotected children, but for the rest of society as well. "Herd immunity" is threatened as more and more parents free ride off of the community's dwindling immunity, and outbreaks of diseases thought to have been conquered have already occurred. Lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers threaten them with bankruptcy, costs are being externalized onto the healthcare and legal systems, and vulnerable populations are suffering harm or even death. In the interests of social welfare, state legislatures and health departments should consider methods to ensure that the exemption process is carefully tailored to prevent check-the-box opt-outs of convenience, while still allowing exemptions for those with earnest and informed convictions or medical reasons.     

Has the cocaine epidemic arrived in the UK?

National surveys of the UK drug situation in 2000 found that cocaine was the most frequently seized Class A drug, with 25-40 tonnes of cocaine being smuggled into the UK each year. In the light of these findings, an audit of the analytical monitoring for cocaine abuse has been performed covering the period from 1996 to 2002. It was found that there has been a consistent upward trend in the percentage of requests found to be positive for cocaine over this 7-year study period, rising from 9.7% in 1996 to 22% in 2002. This data would suggest that the use of cocaine has increased dramatically over the past few years, indicating that the arrival of the "cocaine epidemic" has now started to become a reality in the UK.