Memories of parenting practices are associated with psychopathy in juvenile male offenders

Despite the large body of research documenting parenting practices as risk factors for the development of child and adolescent disruptive behaviour, the association with psychopathy is notably less known. The goal was to examine, in 75 institutionalized juvenile male offenders, the association between self-reported memories of parenting practices during childhood (Alabama Parenting Questionnaire) and psychopathy (Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version). Results showed that ineffective parenting practices as inconsistent discipline and poor monitoring/supervision were significantly associated with increased levels of psychopathic traits. Interestingly, only two of the four facets of the construct, lifestyle and antisocial, were associated with these parenting behaviours. Findings highlight the importance of considering parenting practices in the study of the early development of psychopathy and suggest that the facets could be rooted in distinct underlying etiologic-dispositional factors with differentiated developmental pathways and different psychosocial correlates. The study lends support to the multidimensional approach of psychopathy as a syndrome.     

BUILDING ENFORCEMENT CAPACITY: EVIDENCE FROM THE MEXICAN CIVIL SERVICE REFORM

Building enforcement capacity, that is, attaining and sustaining control in order to implement changes, is crucial for the success of public management reforms. However, this aspect of public management reform does not receive much theoretical or empirical attention. This paper analyzes the process of building enforcement capacity for the case of the Mexican Professional Civil Service reform. Although this reform experienced several complications (e.g., limited support, resources, and credibility), important goals were attained and some control was achieved. We study how officials attained control over implementation through the adaptive management of combinations of different types of control strategies (regulatory, normative, and procedural). The case study, focused on the analysis of in‐depth interviews with the highest officials involved in the implementation of this reform, finds evidence for three combinations of strategies next to a general pattern characterized by a trade‐off between compliance and coordination. This trade‐off shows that the process of building enforcement capacity may affect the goals of the reform, deviating from lawmakers' original intentions Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Politics,Economic Crises and Corporate Governance Reforms: Regulatory Capture in Malaysia

Following the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the regulatory system involving governance of the corporate sector was subjected to major legislative and institutional reforms, primarily in response to exposures of serious cases of corruption and abuse in the financial sector by well-connected businesspeople. However, the 2008 global financial crisis indicated continued occurrence of irresponsible forms of corporate development and practices, underscoring structural weaknesses within the regulatory system in spite of these reforms. This article argues that the reforms that had been introduced ignored how state-business nexuses shape the way firms operate, a core reason for the persistence of unproductive and speculative forms of corporate development, grand corruption and cronyism. Utilising Malaysia as a case study, this article indicates that institutional reforms involving devolution of power to regulatory institutions are imperative to provide them with the autonomy to objectively institute prudential controls and indict errant firms that violate legislation overseeing corporate activities.     

El federalismo cooperativo como factor catalizador de un Gobierno Abierto

The paper aims at outlining a framework of analysis that substantiates the significance of collaboration among governments, under the assumption that a rigid system of competition tends to result in the splintering of public affair solutions in government agendas. Cooperative federalism, to the degree that it may produce intergovernmental relations, points towards a support of holistic solutions to demands written into the action plan that serves as a precondition to enrollment in the Open Government Partnership (ogp). The proposal presented by Mexican representatives during the June 2012 meeting in Brasilia, envisioning governmental aperture at the subnational and local levels, would have more possibilities of success if minimal bases for cooperative federalism that may serve to manage public affairs are set forth previously.     

Effect of Temperature on Bone Tissue: Histological Changes

The analysis of burned human remains has been of great interest among forensic anthropologists largely due to the difficulty that their recovery, classification, reconstruction, and identification present. The main purpose of this analysis is to present histological methodology for the interpretation of bones altered by thermal processes. We include analyses of the microscopic changes among bones exposed to different temperatures, with the goal of establishing categories of histological morphology in relation to fire temperature. Samples of bone (ilium) were exposed systematically to controlled temperatures. Analysis of the resulting histological changes has allowed the formation of a clear four‐stage classification of the alterations observed. This classification should prove useful in assessing bone changes in relation to temperature of exposure, particularly in cases where this temperature was previously not known.     

Personality disorder and violence in the national household population of Britain

Background: Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) is strongly associated with violence but the effects of other personality disorder (PD) categories are uncertain. Purpose: To investigate associations between 10 DSM-IV PD categories and effects of co-occurring disorders on self-reported violence. Method: Cross-sectional survey of 8397 adults aged 16–74 years in households in Great Britain. Results: ASPD contributed strongly to the burden of violence in the British population. Paranoid and obsessive–compulsive PD made additional independent contributions, and narcissistic PD contributed to intimate partner violence. The prevalence of violence correlated with the number of PD categories. Comorbid alcohol dependence further increased the risk. Conclusions: Risk of violence increases with increasing severity of PD, measured by the number of PD categories, and with co-occurring alcohol dependence. Not all PD categories are associated with violence, and avoidant PD was protective. Identification of targets for future interventions may be obscured using a classification based solely on severity.     

DNA profile evidence in complex disputed paternity cases: The analysis of 300 real cases

In disputed paternity cases where the putative father is unavailable DNA from one or more of his relatives could be used. However, interpreting results is often difficult, because of the partial information regarding the parental genotype obtained from his relatives. We analyzed results obtained in 300 real paternity cases performed through close relatives of the real father (sib, half-sibs, one grandparent and/or uncle). DNA was typed with PowerPlex (Promega) and the LR estimated with the Software BDGen. As expected the higher LR values were achieved with sibs and half-sibs (in such cases where his/her mother was available for testing). The LR values were tight related to the number of uninformative loci, which varied between 0 and 13. In 10% of the reviewed cases, 10 or more non-informative loci were observed; all of them associated LR values below 0.01. Thus, providing evidence in favor of no relatedness.     

Survival of Atherosclerotic Calcifications in Skeletonized Material: Forensic and Pathological Implications

Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease creating calcifying plaques in the arterial walls. Because its paleopathological diagnosis remains little studied on skeletal remains, its impact on forensic and archeological data is completely underestimated. Here, 24 skeletal remains from the Milano Cemetery Skeletal Collection have been studied to evaluate the chance of atherosclerotic calcification survival, retrieval, and identification. Through direct comparison with a known autopsy collection and literature, the identification and categorization of several types of calcifications were performed. Clothing elements such as tights or socks played a definitive role in the preservation of the calcifications; hence they are more likely to be found in forensic cases than in archeological ones. Therefore, vascular calcifications are possible to collect and identify in skeletal remains if sufficient care is given to their recovery. Consequently and as markers of the disease, such identification can provide valuable pathological information for forensic and archeological cases.     

Measuring the Distribution of Crime and Its Concentration

Objectives

Generally speaking, crime is, fortunately, a rare event. As far as modelling is concerned, this sparsity of data means that traditional measures to quantify concentration are not appropriate when applied to crime suffered by a population. Our objective is to develop a new technique to measure the concentration of crime which takes into account its low frequency of occurrence and its high degree of concentration in such a way that this measure is comparable over time and over different populations.

Methods

This article derives an estimate of the distribution of crime suffered by a population based on a mixture model and then evaluates a new and standardised measurement of the concentration of the rates of suffering a crime based on that distribution.

Results

The new measure is successfully applied to the incidence of robbery of a person in Mexico and is able to correctly quantify the concentration crime in such a way that is comparable between different regions and can be tracked over different time periods.

Conclusions

The risk of suffering a crime is not uniformly distributed across a population. There are certain groups which are statistically immune to suffering crime but there are also groups which suffer chronic victimisation. This measure improves our understanding of how patterns of crime can be quantified allowing us to determine if a prevention policy results in a crime reduction rather than target displacement. The method may have applications beyond crime science.

     

The role of valuation and bargaining in optimising transboundary watercourse treaty regimes

In the face of water scarcity, growing water demands, population increase, ecosystem degradation, or climate change, transboundary watercourse states inevitably have to make difficult decisions on how finite quantities of water are distributed. Such waters, and their associated ecosystem services, offer multiple benefits. Valuation and bargaining can play a key role in the sharing of these ecosystems services and their associated benefits across sovereign borders. Ecosystem services in transboundary watercourses essentially constitute a portfolio of assets. While challenging, their commodification, which creates property rights, supports trading. Such trading offers a means by which to resolve conflicts over competing uses and allows states to optimise their ‘portfolios’. However, despite this potential, adoption of appropriate treaty frameworks that might facilitate a market-based approach to the discovery and allocation of water-related ecosystem services at the transboundary level remains both a challenge and a topic worthy of further study. Drawing upon concepts in law and economics, this paper therefore seeks to advance the study of how treaty frameworks might be developed in a way that supports such a market-based approach to ecosystem services and transboundary waters.