Shoe print examinations: effects of expectation, complexity and experience

Even though trace evidence is becoming more and more important in legal cases, only little is known about the influence of task and context factors on comparative judgments. In the present study we investigated how expectations and complexity affect shoe print examinations and to what extent differences exist between beginners and experienced examiners. Twelve examiners assessed similarity between a shoe print and a shoe for eight different cases. For half the cases expectation was induced by providing additional incriminating evidence. A complex case meant that the print was relatively noisy, for example because the perpetrator rotated his foot. A simple case meant that the print was clear. The results showed that there was no effect of expectation and no effect of experience. Only complexity affected the examiners' assessments: when the background was noisy, the acquired features received a lower evidential value than when the background was clear. Apparently, examiners compensated for the quality of the print and were more cautious in drawing conclusions when prints were less clear. Even though the results allow for some optimism with regard to the influence of expectations on shoe print examinations, it has to be taken into account that the Dutch procedure is supported by a formal guideline, which may (partly) explain the present findings.     

The Role of Peer Contacts in the Relationship Between Parental Knowledge and Adolescents' Externalizing Behaviors: A Latent Growth Curve Modeling Approach

The purpose of the present study was to examine the direct and indirect effects (through peer contacts) of parental knowledge on adolescents’ delinquent and aggressive problem behavior, using latent growth curve modeling. A sample of 457 13- to 14-year old adolescents at first measurement wave (M=13.27; SD=0.45 years) filled out questionnaires about their parents, peers, and problem behavior three times with 1-year intervals in between. Regarding initial levels of behavior, both direct and indirect effects of parental knowledge were found on aggressive as well as on delinquent behavior. When the rate of change in behaviors was considered, only direct effects were found for both types of problem behavior, whereas indirect effects were absent. Gender differences were also found, with stronger effects of parenting on both aggressive and delinquent problem behavior for boys and stronger effects of peer contacts on aggressive behavior for girls. The present study shows that different behaviors of the externalizing spectrum have different trajectories and diverse relations with parenting and should not be treated as identical.

红色记忆与国家认同

红色记忆是人民关于中国共产党领导革命、建立中华人民共和国的一种政治心理叙事呈现形式,对于当代中国政治生活中的国家认同结构存在着重要的影响。随着革命亲历者的逝去,国家有必要加强年轻一代的红色记忆建构,使之代代传承,强化国家认同,夯实国家政权的合法性。     

Dimensions of Chinese foreign conflict and cooperation: A research note

Key mediation attributes, such as mediating actors, the strategy they choose, and previous mediation experiences, are widely thought to influence the nature of a conflict management outcome. But how and when these features shape outcomes is not a straightforward matter, and a standard analysis of these factors does not lead to their widely anticipated results. Why? We develop a new analytical framework that argues that a dispute's intensity alters the conflict management processes. Furthermore, in order to observe this variation, we also need to expand the traditional, dichotomous notion of conflict management outcomes (success or failure) to include a fuller range of observed results. Using the most recent International Conflict Management data set and our new analytical framework, we analyze the effect on conflict management outcome of mediator (a) identity, (b) strategy and (c) history. We find that directive strategies and international mediators are effective in resolving high intensity conflicts, procedural strategies and regional mediators are effective in resolving low intensity conflicts, and that mediation history always affects resolution. Our results have implications for both the study and practice of international dispute mediation.     

Social Network Position of Gang Members in Schools: Implications for Recruitment and Gang Prevention

Schools are venues in which gang and non-gang involved youth converge. It is therefore a likely venue for gang recruitment. The extent to which this occurs depends upon the ability of gang members to connect with non-gang members. In this study, we compare the social network positions of high social status gang members who are well integrated into school networks with low status members who are not. Using network data from the Add Health study (n = 1,822), we find that not only are high status gang members strongly embedded within school networks, but that this status is driven by their ability to connect with non-gang members rather than other gang members (indicated by the high number of friendship nominations they receive from non-gang members). These gang members are potentially in optimal positions to influence others to join gangs. The implications of these results for school-based gang prevention programs are discussed.     

Disempowering Music: The Amandla! Documentary and Other Conservative Musical Projects

Scholars of black South African popular music have established important connections between music and society. Lara Allen’s studies of pennywhistle-kwela, Christopher Ballantine’s research on marabi and African jazz/mbaqanga,and David Coplan’s social history of black city music, among others, have underwritten the new literature in South African musicology and cultural studies. Previous neglect of black popular culture has made oral testimony crucial to the writing of these musical pasts. Recent investigations in the field, which are preoccupied with the articulation of black struggle to music, and the expression of struggle through music, have adopted a more popular format. Within these, the autobiographies of Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela are integral, as is Lee Hirsch’s documentary film, Amandla!. The popularity of these studies and their subjects, and their foregrounded debt to oral testimony and veneration of ‘the Struggle’ has tended to foreclose scrutiny of their representational politics. This article questions whether their homological substitution of music and musicians for anti-apartheid struggles in a postapartheid South Africa enables the radical stories they would tell of that past.     

Trauma Symptoms of Former Intimate Stalking Victims

Abstract

One-hundred-eighty-seven female victims stalked by former intimate partners were interviewed about their victimization experiences. To identify psychological symptoms experienced by the victims, Briere and Runtz's (1989) Trauma Symptom Checklist (TSC-33) was utilized in the interview. Individual items were combined to form five distinct scales as developed and validated by Briere and Runtz (1989). Findings reveal that the highest mean scores for the sample were on the items included in the Sleep Disturbance scale. In addition, overall TSC-33 scores and the Dissociation, Anxiety, Depression, and Post-Sexual Assault Trauma-hypothesized (PSAT-h) scale scores varied by whether or not victims had experienced violence during their former relationship with the stalker and by whether or not violence occurred during the stalking. The absence or presence of verbal threats of violence during the stalking, however, did not have an independent effect on most emotional symptoms when controlling for violence during stalking.     

认知脑电位检测在目击证人心理面孔重建中的应用

检验目击证人对犯罪嫌疑人面孔记忆的正确性是一项困难的工作。在证人面孔记忆的语义提取过程中,严格遵守完形原则,尽量减少影响证人记忆和再认的因素,把握细节,可以提高目击证人心理面孔重建的质量。认知脑电位检测法可以通过对记忆反应的脑电图成分、潜伏期、波幅等指标的测量,有效判断证人对列队辨认中的面孔是否存有记忆。本文对脑电位检测在目击证人心理面孔重建中的研究和应用进行综述,希望能为相关研究和实践提供参考。     

Vectors of traumatic memories and mass-mediated representations of the ‘last’ Nazi trial of John Demjanjuk

This is an ideological critique of key vectors of memory that could have circulated during the Munich trial of John Demjanjuk. While many members of the mainstream press applauded the efforts of German prosecutors who seemed to be dispensing belated justice to Europe’s ‘second generation,’ the circulation of these select legal vectors left us truncated World War II histories. Moreover, the binary choices that were posed stood in the way of more comprehensive and nuanced studies of Stalinism, Nazi and collaborator culpability.     

Children's reporting patterns after witnessing homicidal violence – the effect of repeated experience and repeated interviews

For both legal and clinical purposes, it is of importance to study children's memories and reports of stressful events. The present study investigated the reporting patterns of 83 children who had witnessed homicidal violence, which is considered to be a highly stressful experience. More specifically, we explored the possible effects of prior violence exposure and of repeated questioning on the amount of details reported. Results showed that the majority of children provided detailed reports about the homicidal violence they had witnessed, including details concerning what happened before, during, and after the violent act. The children provided detailed and vivid testimonies from their experiences, whether they witnessed the event for the first time or had prior experience of witnessing severe violence against the victim by the perpetrator. Children with no prior experience of repeated violence who underwent repeated interviews provided more details than those interviewed once. The present data indicate that children are competent witnesses when questioned in legal contexts after having been exposed to extremely stressful events. These findings have implications for research related to children's memories and reporting of traumatic experiences, as well as practical implications for future treatment and evaluation of children's testimonies.