Adults’ Judgments of Children's Coached Reports

This study investigated adults’ judgments of the honesty of children's coached true and fabricated mock testimony. Adults saw video clips of children testifying in a mock court about a true or fabricated event in their lives. They were asked to make an assessment of the truthfulness of the testimony, and respond to questions about their perception of children's credibility. Half of the adults saw children testifying after a competence examination, and the other half saw children testifying without a competence examination. Overall, girls were rated as more competent than boys, and their testimony was more likely to be believed. Younger children were more likely to be rated as incompetent than older children. A factor analysis of adults’ responses revealed six factors which significantly predicted adults’ overall assessment of children's credibility, and their evaluations of children's competence to testify. Adults’ detection accuracy was at chance, with the majority of children rated as truthful. Viewing the competency examination and cross-examination did not improve the adults’ detection accuracy. However, seeing the cross-examination made adults’ less likely to believe children's testimony. The implications of these results for the judicial system are discussed.     

Public Opinion and Collective Obligations

This article attempts to identify the general principles that underlie public reasoning about collective obligations and that help explain when political parties can create new obligations or defend existing ones. I use these principles to President Clinton’s unsuccessful attempt to create government health-care plan and attempts by President Bush to privatize Social Security. The success of a party in selling – or defeating – an obligation depends upon what people believe about the competence and capacity of government and the value of autonomy – choices made by each citizen; whether people perceive the obligation as providing floors or establishing ceilings by limiting choice or otherwise restricting opportunities for the better-off; and whether the program is more like insurance or more like welfare. A party’s ability to maintain credibility with voters also depends upon whether party leaders can suppress issues that threaten intra-party elite pacts. When attempts to suppress “taboo” issues like “stem cells” or “black crime” fail, the party loses credibility with its voters and attempts to defend or sell obligations fail.

城市近郊被征地农民的福利变化及个体差异——以江夏区五里界镇为实证

以武汉市江夏区五里界镇为实例,通过实地调研获取第一手数据资料,应用福利经济学理论和对应分析模型研究被征地农民的福利变化和个体差异。研究表明:经济福利变化方面,失地农民农业收入普遍减少,非农业收入大幅增加,贫富差距进一步扩大,且农民生活成本上升,家庭支出增加。虽然农民愿意对剩余的土地投入更多的资金,但是投入资金仍处于较低的水平。非经济福利方面,社会福利和生活福利均有不同程度改善,环境福利中景观破坏程度感受和土壤板结得到改善,但田块面积变化和破碎程度却有所恶化。个体差异研究方面,非农业收入已经成为失地农民的主要经济来源,农民较低的教育水平限制了经济福利的增长,且老人经济福利的状况令人担忧。     

简论晚明“西洋哲学”之输入

《记法》专门探讨"记忆"问题,是一部介绍西洋"认识论"或"知识论"的专著。《童幼教育》是教育学及伦理学专著,属哲学之一支,既是介绍"西洋法学"、"西洋医学"入中国之最早文献之一,亦是引介"西洋神学"及"西洋大学"之最早文献之一,可说"太西总学之大略"已赖此书输入中国。《西学凡》介绍了哲学学科四年之课程(第一年逻辑学,第二年物理学,第三年形而上学,第四年数学与伦理学),已经把当时"西洋哲学"之全部内容包含完了。《灵言蠡勺》分四篇,一论灵魂之体,二论灵魂之能,三论灵魂之尊,四论灵魂所向美好之情,是晚明一部专门介绍西洋"灵魂"学说之哲学典籍。这些书在中国之刻印,正值"西洋近代哲学"之发源期,它们没有把"西洋近代哲学"介绍到中国来,但却把"西洋近代哲学"之前的"西洋哲学"介绍到中国来了。近代以前"西洋哲学"之完整框架,已经在弗.培根活动的那时节,出现在晚明中国学术界。     

High road in regulating online child pornography in South Africa

Online child pornography is a repulsive reality which cannot be ignored; the biggest child pornography manufacturing ring in South African history was cracked with the arrest of eight family members. There are more than 116 000 Internet searches daily for child pornography. Pornography is no longer confined to consenting adults, children are not only being exposed to pornographic material but are increasingly being used as victims of child pornography. In South Africa, the Internet and Cell phone Pornography Bill tabled in 2010 aims to make it illegal for Internet and mobile phone service providers to distribute pornography or permit it to be distributed. The objective of the Bill is to protect children from child pornography and women from the indignity of being seen as objects of pornography. This paper takes as its focal point the continuing crisis which centres on the conceptual framework, the existing legislation regulating online child pornography and measures to curb infringement.     

After Waterhouse: vicarious liability and the tort of institutional abuse

As evidence of the extent of the abuse of children in residential care increases, our understanding of this terrible wrong has altered. These assaults are an institutional syndrome, at the same time that they are individual crimes; certain systems of institutional care are conducive to/foster abuse behaviour (acting as 'crucibles' rather than 'honeypots'for rogue paedophiles). A theory of vicarious (institutional) liability is appropriate if we understand a syndrome of institutional abuse in this way, as involving institutional responsibility in addition to individual fault. The recent decision of the Canadian Supreme Court in Bazley v Curry found a children's home vicariously liable for sexual assaults of an employee on the basis of responsibility through the creation of risk, an analysis of and apportionment of liability which is appropriate to the special syndrome of institutional abuse, while encouraging deterrence and providing fair and practical compensation to victims. This analysis/liability is supported by an economic analysis of institutional child abuse and decision making in child protection.     

Early maladaptive schemas in convicted sexual offenders: Preliminary findings

Core cognitive schemas may play a role in the vulnerability for sexual offending. Identifying these schemas could help to conceptualize sexual crimes and rehabilitate convicted sexual offenders. The aim of this preliminary study was to explore the relationship between early maladaptive schemas (EMSs) and sexual offending, as well as how rapists and child sex molesters differ in terms of these schemas. Thirty-two men convicted for rape, 33 convicted for child sexual abuse, and 30 non-offenders were evaluated using the Young Schema Questionnaire (YSQ-S3) and the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI). Results showed that participants convicted for child sexual abuse presented significantly more schemas from the disconnection/rejection, impaired autonomy/performance, other directness, and over vigilance/inhibition domains than non-offenders, whereas rapists presented more schemas from the impaired autonomy/performance domain than non-offenders. Differences between sex offenders showed that child molesters presented more schemas of pessimism than rapists. Preliminary findings suggested that EMSs may impact sex offender's perceptions about themselves and about the world. Schema-focused therapy (Young, 1990, 1999) may thus be an acceptable approach to sex offender's psychological assessment and intervention.     

Child sexual abuse material in child-centred institutions: situational crime prevention approaches

ABSTRACT

This paper focuses on the potential for child-centred institutions to use situational crime prevention (SCP) strategies to prevent or reduce child sexual abuse material (CSAM) offending as a distinct form of child sexual abuse (CSA). We discuss the failure of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Australia to address the potential for CSAM offending to occur in child-centred institutions. Our premise is that CSAM offending is markedly shaped by the situation in which it occurs, rather than by any pre-existing preparedness to offend sexually against children. In this context, SCP for CSAM offending must be considered as part of overall strategies to combat CSA in institutional settings. However, we acknowledge that effective implementation of SCP in this area is not straightforward. We consider some of the challenges in implementing SCP at an institutional level.