EXPLAINING THE GENDER GAP IN CRIME: THE ROLE OF HEART RATE

Although it is well established that males engage in more crime compared with females, little is known about what accounts for the gender gap. Few studies have been aimed at empirically examining mediators of the gender–crime relationship in a longitudinal context. In this study, we test the hypothesis that a low resting heart rate partly mediates the relationship between gender and crime. In a sample of 894 participants, the resting heart rate at 11 years of age was examined alongside self‐reported and official conviction records for overall criminal offending, violence, serious violence, and drug‐related crime at 23 years of age. A low resting heart rate partially mediated the relationship between gender and all types of adult criminal offending, including violent and nonviolent crime. The mediation effects were significant after controlling for body mass index, race, social adversity, and activity level. Resting heart rate accounted for 5.4 percent to 17.1 percent of the gender difference in crime. This study is the first to produce results documenting that lower heart rates in males partly explain their higher levels of offending. Our findings complement traditional theoretical accounts of the gender gap and have implications for the advancement of integrative criminological theory.     

论20世纪50—70年代爱欲叙述中的性别政治

在中国革命胜利之后,为了社会秩序稳定,也为了聚拢、集结人们全部身体力量为革命建设服务,国家意识形态加强了对爱欲的管束与治理,革命伦理建立了压抑个人爱欲快感、崇尚奉献牺牲的革命爱欲观。然而,从性别政治角度考察,不论是“十七年”时期压抑爱欲的革命文学叙述,还是文革时期彻底剔除爱欲的激进文学叙述,写作者的性别立场仍潜在规约与影响着文本对男女两性性别角色的认知和建构。男作家的革命文本叙述也隐含着男性中心主义文化立场,而女作家的革命文本却在革命规范之内做着隐蔽的突破,试图为女性解放找寻合理路径,为女性寻求更加开阔的生存空间。     

医疗损害赔偿诉讼难题及审判对策

《侵权责任法》第七章留下诸如当事人选择、案由确定、医疗过错和因果关系判断标准、病历证据属性、鉴定体制等许多实践操作的难题。对这些司法实践难题的解决．最高人民法院目前已经出台了部分司法解释,但实质性的问题都没有得到解决。由于最高人民法院出台司法解释有一个过程．在司法解释尚未出台之际,地方高级人民法院针寸当地的司法实践的具体情况。可以因地适宜出台地方司法审判指导文件。我们现在看到的浙江、江苏、上海、北京四个省市的地方审判指导文件,解决了各地审理医疗损害赔偿纠纷案件中的一些难题,在制度上有创斯之处,且具有极强的可操作性。地方司法审判指导文件的出台,既解决了当前地方上医疗损害赔偿案件审理的困境．也为最高人民法院制定司法解释积累经验。     

“The times have changed,the dope has changed”: Women's cooking roles and gender performances in shake methamphetamine markets*

Drug markets are typically portrayed as male dominated, with men occupying the higher positions and women fulfilling the lower positions. Yet, the results of recent work highlight how women's participation and experiences in drug economies varies by the structure and organization of the specific market. We focus on the shake‐and‐bake (“shake”) methamphetamine (meth) market, which seems to have emerged mainly in response to legal attempts to curtail methamphetamine production. We explore how women adapt to structural changes and how they perform gender to navigate a market in which the focus is on personal consumption instead of on monetary gain. By relying on semistructured interviews with 40 women who cooked meth, we identify the gendered strategies they adopt and how these coincide with their position in the drug market. Cooking roles took three forms (partner, lead, and team), and each role was characterized by distinct patterns of gender performance and autonomy (emphasized femininity, matriarchal control, and gender neutral). We show that certain market conditions allow for increased participation among women in meth manufacturing. Yet, even within favorable conditions, variability remains in women's positions and gender performances. The findings highlight the role of organizational and legal context in shaping both the roles women adopt in drug markets and the ways they perform gender.     

Simply Small Men? Examining Differences Between Females and Males Radicalized in the United States

From Leila Khaled to women who joined the Islamic State, it seems clear that radical ideologies know no gender bounds. Despite this history of women’s involvement in terrorist movements and a growing amount of research on women and political violence, there have been few attempts to contrast radicalized females from their male counterparts, either in terms of broad demographic characteristics or more specifically according to ideological orientation. We remedy this shortcoming in two steps. First, we examine previous work to understand both how females may differ from males in terms of their recruitment and radicalization process but also how these differences may manifest across various ideologies. Second, using the Profiles of Individual Radicalization in the United States database, we compare radicalized U.S. females to radicalized U.S. males both as an aggregate group and across different ideological groupings. This work provides simple but important insights for scholars and policy makers examining the role of gender in radicalization.     

It’s a Man’s World,Try to Convince the Men Otherwise: The Role of Women in Irish Policing

Police organizations are historically and predominantly male organizations; as such, the purpose of this study is to examine the role of women in Irish policing. The literature review will analyze gender-specific organizational literature, focused on the United States. Theoretical components include biological determination and social constructivism in the policing context. The study is conducted through qualitative interviews and thematic analysis of 10 current and former Gardaí in Ireland. This study empirically contributes to how the organization views gender and how those differences are institutionalized in that Gardaí are treated differently based on their gender.     

Conclusion: prospects for analysing committees in comparative perspective

ABSTRACT

While theories of committees in the U.S. Congress can continue to play a central role in the still-growing comparative study of committees, they require careful, frequent modification. Moreover, more fruitful study of committees may require a wider framework, recognising more fully that committees are institutions embedded in wider social structures.     

Outcomes in a low secure unit: pre-admission and post-discharge comparisons

Empirical research seldom reports on clinical outcomes within low secure services. By comparing outcome measures prior to admission and following discharge this study aimed to investigate the care pathways of patients admitted to a low secure unit (LSU). The study was conducted in an LSU and consisted of 70 patients (54 male, 16 female). Data were collected retrospectively and analysed in relation to placement security (upon admission and discharge) and admissions to hospital. Results revealed that admissions to hospital and time spent in hospital decreased post-discharge in comparison with pre-admission. Forensic patients were found to have fewer admissions than civil patients prior to LSU admission. Some differences were also observed within gender and Mental Health Act (MHA) section status for placement security. The findings demonstrated that following treatment in a LSU, care pathways may be less restrictive than prior to admission. Further, more robust research on the outcomes of LSUs is required.     

Effects of genetic and environmental explanations of psychopathy and gender on perceptions of criminal behaviors

Genetic/biological evidence is increasingly introduced into courtrooms but findings regarding its impact are mixed. This study integrates research on psychopathy and the use of genetic evidence in legal contexts by considering how information on genetic causal accounts of psychopathy affect perceptions of culpability, recidivism, amenability to treatment, and sentencing severity. Perpetrator gender was examined as a moderator. Two-hundred thirty-eight undergraduates read a hypothetical violent crime vignette and mock expert testimony regarding psychopathy. The testimony included a diagnosis only, or a diagnosis plus genetic or environmental explanations of the etiology of psychopathy. Results indicated that a genetic account of psychopathy was not clearly perceived as aggravating or mitigating such that participants were more lenient in their perceptions of culpability yet more punitive in their sentencing recommendations when perpetrators were described to have genetically-caused psychopathy. An environmental account of psychopathy was mitigating but only for sentencing severity. In addition, although participants were more lenient in sentencing male and female perpetrators when provided with an environmental cause of psychopathy, participants judged male perpetrators most harshly when provided with a genetic cause of psychopathy. Implications of the relations between etiology and gender in legal decision-making are discussed.     

Cold-blooded women can detect lies with greater accuracy than other women

Lies are notoriously difficult to detect. But it appears that some people are better at accomplishing this task than others even though the factors contributing to deception detection accuracy are not well understood. This study explored the influence of empathy on the detection of deception as a function of the detectors’ gender while dark personality traits were statistically controlled. Eighty men and 80 women were requested to judge whether individuals viewed in videos were giving their true opinion or not on current debatable issues (50% truthful and 50% deceptive narratives). Judges were divided into four groups according to their gender and their degree of empathy, as assessed using the Questionnaire Measure of Emotional Empathy. It was found that women with lower levels of empathy distinguished false from true opinions better than women with higher empathy, whereas no such difference was found in men. These results suggest that the degree of empathy in women influences their ability to detect deception and supports recent studies showing that emotional skills negatively affect deception detection ability. We suggest that less empathic women are less affected by emotional contagion and thus may be more able to focus on non-emotional cues that might reveal deception.