Using self-report inventories to assess recidivism risk among prisoners about to be released on parole supervision in Sweden

Prison release planning is rarely based on adequate assessment using evidence-based instruments. This study uses well-established self-reports for screening of problem severity and for predicting recidivism, measured as reconvictions during one-year following release, in prisoners about to be conditionally released on probation in Sweden between 2009 and 2010. One Hundred and six prisoners completed the following measures: Karolinska Scales of Personality, Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25, Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, Drug Use Disorders Identification Test. Results show frequent mental health and substance use problems and high scores on the KSP psychopathy factor. Anxiety and problematic drug use were the two most important factors associated with one-year recidivism. Prior to release, self-reports could be useful for screening of problem severity, and for predicting recidivism.     

Gender equality in Swedish AI policies. What's the problem represented to be?

Over the past few decades, Sweden has established itself as a “world leader” in gender equality. Alongside this development, Swedish politicians have also initiated ambitious plans that aim to establish the country as “world class” in terms of digitalization. International research shows that women and racialized groups are in a minority in the design processes, that AI facial recognition systems are built with white male faces as the norm, and that digital tools replicate racial injustices. In this paper, we are interested in if, and if so how, gender equality is articulated and thus filled with meaning in national policies on AI and digitalization. The overall aim is to discuss the potential of gender (equality) mainstreaming to challenge systems of privilege in the implementation of AI systems in the public sector. The paper analyses how gender equality is filled with meaning in national policy documents on AI and gender equality. The main findings show that gender equality is turned into a question of lack of knowledge and information, which in turn blocks out an understanding of gender equality as something that is related to gendered power relations.     

Accidental Hanging Deaths in Children in Konya,Turkey Between 1998 and 2007*

Abstract: In general, hanging cases are the result of suicide, and accidental and homicidal hanging cases are rarely seen. This study retrospectively investigated 4571 death examinations and autopsies that were performed at The Konya Branch of the Forensic Medicine Council (Turkey) between 1998 and 2007; hanging was involved in 201 (6.5%) of the cases. There were a total of 13 accidental hanging cases, where 12 of these involved children. In seven of the cases, the accidental hanging involved a scarf that wraps around swing‐like cradles and is intended to prevent infants from falling down. It was concluded that accidental hanging deaths can be reduced by replacing swing‐like cradles with cribs that are designed for children, removing ropes in and around the house, and preventing children from reaching and/or playing with rope‐like objects.     

Decapitation and Dismemberment of the Corpse: A Matricide Case*

Abstract: Dismemberment of a corpse has always been viewed by society to be a more hideous crime than the homicide itself. In this study, we present a case of a 57‐year‐old woman who was decapitated and her right arm and both hands were dismembered. It was determined that the victim was murdered and dismembered by her 33‐year‐old daughter, who had been receiving treatment for schizophrenia for 15 years. On the victim’s head and back there were 71 incised and stab wounds in total. They were superficial, except the five stab wounds which were connected to the right chest cavity and which incapacitated the victim. Although there is not a regulation for the act of dismembering the corpse in the Turkish Penal Code, since this type of case is rare, the crime scene and the autopsy findings were evaluated together with other pertinent data available in the literature.     

Media malaise or a virtuous circle? Exploring the causal relationships between news media exposure,political news attention and political interest

Being politically interested is one of the most important norms from a democratic perspective, as it is a crucial antecedent for voting, political knowledge, civic and political participation, and attentiveness to political information. However, only limited research has focused on the relationship between media use and political interest, despite the notion that modern politics is mediated politics. Even more important is the fact that the causal relationship between media use and political interest still has not been firmly established. Against this background, the purpose of this study is to investigate the causal relationship between news media use and political interest. The results show that there are indeed causal and reciprocal relationships between political interest and attention to political news, and between political interest and exposure to some, but not all, news media. Overall these results lend stronger support to the perspective of media mobilisation theories than media malaise theories.     

Critical Election in the Wake of an Economic and Political Crisis: Realignment of Icelandic Party Voters?

A critical election is generally defined as one in which the decisive results of voting reveal a sharp alternation of pre‐existing cleavage(s) and voting patterns, and the dealignment or realignment made between parties is lasting. A critical election can be caused by various factors and in this article the authors analyse whether the global credit crunch in 2008 set things in motion in Iceland, resulting in the 2009 election as a critical election. In that election, the electoral relevance of voters’ psychological attachment to parties and of ideological distances to them weakened, whereas party competence perceptions increased in importance for vote choices. Attachment to parties and ideological distances are factors that are generally stable and change slowly over time, while party competence is influenced by which issues are of importance at the time of the election. This indicates that, in 2009, a restructuring of the determinants of the vote occurred; a pattern of changes that is typical for a critical election. Evidence is found that the importance of party sympathy increases again in the 2013 election, indicating a realignment, rather than a dealignment, occurring in the wake of the 2009 election.     

Do people want a ‘fairer’ electoral system? An experimental study in four countries

When judging how ‘fair’ voting rules are, a fundamental criterion used by both scholars and politicians is their ability or inability to produce proportional results – that is, the extent parties’ seat distribution after the elections accurately reflects their vote shares. How about citizens? Do citizens care about how proportional the outcome is? Or do they judge the outcome solely on the basis of how well (or poorly) their party performed? Taking advantage of a uniquely designed survey experiment, this article investigates the causal effect of proportionality on voter support for voting rules in four countries: Austria, England, Ireland and Sweden. The results show that proportionality drives support for the voting rules not above, but beyond party performance. There is little cross-country variation, which suggests that proportionality is appreciated in different contexts with little status quo bias. These findings have important implications for our understanding of the causal mechanisms linking electoral rules to voter support.     

Drawing Cyprus: Power-sharing,identity and expectations among the next generation in northern Cyprus

In order to capture how young people in northern Cyprus see the Cyprus Question, we asked more than 300 students to ‘draw Cyprus’ and surveyed their political attitudes, as well as their identities and preferences for the future of the island. The results show that the Turkish Cypriot students, in comparison with the students from Turkey and from the other countries, are more supportive of a decentralized federative structure, identify themselves with the Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot identities, and more willing to embrace a consociational approach to the Cyprus Question.     

Whom Do They Recruit?: Profiling and Recruitment in the PKK/KCK

Terrorist organizations use a proactive strategy in identifying potential candidates for recruitment. In such a strategy, miscellaneous vulnerabilities, grievances, and feeling destitute, inter alia, render certain individuals perfect candidates for terrorist organizations. It is therefore crucial to have an integrative approach to understand the interplay between the profiles of terrorists and their reasons to join terrorist groups on the one hand and processes of recruitment on the other. Proceeding from such a fulcrum, this article provides a general profile of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party [PKK]/Kurdistan Communities Union [KCK] members and various recruitment techniques used by this group. To this end, records of 2,270 group members were content analyzed, in addition to face-to-face interviews with 42 group members and a range of individuals from public and private institutions. Our findings suggest that a variety of individual and organizational factors influence individual paths toward terrorism.