A Brunswikian evolutionary-developmental theory of adolescent sex offending.

A Brunswikian Evolutionary-Developmental model was developed to relate the sex offending behavior of adolescents to other forms of social deviance, tracing a history of repeated frustration and failure in various competitive sexual strategies and escalation to more extreme means of obtaining sexual gratification. Four hypothetical constructs were proposed as stages in the development of sexual criminality: (1) Psycho-Social Deficiency (PSD); (2) Non-Criminal Sexuality (NCS); (3) Non-Sexual Criminality (NSC); and (4) Sexual Criminality (SC). Significant direct and indirect pathways led from PSD to SC through both NCS and NSC, each time facilitated by an interaction with PSD. Although the causal orders between stages remain equivocal, the current results are consistent with our theory and establish the heuristic value of our theoretical approach, providing empirical support for otherwise counterintuitive predictions. This interpretation also offers hope for focusing preventative intervention at one major root cause of this unfortunate cascade of consequences, Psycho-Social Deficiency.

Forensic standards in the American Psychological Association's new ethics code.

The 1992 revision of the American Psychological Association's ethics code includes, for the first time, a section devoted to forensic issues. This article examines the adequacy with which the Forensic Activities section addresses fundamental ethical issues inherent in forensic practices (i.e., being competent in forensic practice, dealing with requests for service, providing informed consent, providing services, and reporting findings). We conclude that the ethics code modestly addresses important forensic ethical issues and that it too often is characterized by inconsistencies, insufficient information, omissions, and the inappropriate application of the term forensic to general standards not uniquely related to forensic practice.

Liability in child therapy and research.

Three areas with special relevance to liability and child therapy are considered: informed consent, confidentiality, and child-abuse reporting laws. In each area, issues that may be confronted in therapy or in research on therapy are discussed, and a sampling of relevant laws is explored. Suggestions for avoiding potential liability and protecting the interests of minor clients are considered.

Rethinking the admissibility of medical treatises as evidence.

This Article examines the issues and questions which underlie the debate over the admission of "medical treatises" into evidence. The admissibility of this type of evidence is at issue most often in litigation involving complex medico-legal issues. This article outlines the evidentiary basis for admission of medical treatises and discusses the quality of medical treatises in an effort to determine what value to the fact-finder these treatises actually hold. The authors contend that there is an inherent untrustworthiness associated with medical treatises, but do not go so far as to suggest that medical treatises should never be admitted. The Article concludes that there is a need for greater caution in determining admissibility and recommends safeguards to better guarantee trustworthiness and reliability.

Regulation of animal experimentation.

This article examines the nature of the controversy between animal activists and the scientific community over the need for and desirability of additional regulation of animal experimentation. We critically review the existing federal and state regulatory environment and discuss a number of proposals for new federal legislation for regulating the use of animals in scientific experimentation. We identify and discuss three factors that encompass the issues that are at the core of the controversy and use these to suggest a conceptual framework in which to analyze schemes for regulating animal experimentation. Finally, we discuss the implications that such regulation will have for animal experimentation and conclude that it is neither necessary nor desirable.

KIE: The authors review the current controversy between animal activists and the scientific community over the use of animals in research and the regulation of such research. They examine existing statutes and proposed federal legislation and conclude that these satisfy neither side. Overcast and Sales argue that animal experimentation regulations must balance three factors which they identify as being at the core of the controversy: (1) benefit to the animal subject or to animals generally, (2) infliction of suffering and restriction of behavior, and (3) benefit to human society. According to this conceptual framework, the authors conclude, additional regulation is neither necessary nor desirable.

Mechanisms of aural encoding: VIII. Phonetic interference and context-sensitive coding in short-term memory.

In previous experiments Ss were presented for ordered recall with sequences of five consonant phonemes paired with /a/ in which the middle three consonant phonemes shared the same manner of articulation (voiced, unvoiced, nasal), the same place of articulation (front, middle, back), or neither the same manner nor place of articulation (control sequences). Compared to performance in control sequences, the middle consonant phoneme was always more difficult to recall in manner of articulation sequences but not in place of articulation sequences. The results suggested that for these sequences consonant phonemes were not remembered in terms of their place of articulation. In the present experiment, sequences of consonant-vowel (CV) or vowel-consonant (VC) syllables were presented for recall in which each consonant phoneme was paired with a different vowel. When consonant phonemes in the different sequence types were presented for recall with different vowels, phonetic interference was observed for the middle consonant in place of articulation sequences as well as manner of articulation sequences, and the effect was observed in both CV and VC groups. It was suggested that vowels are encoded in short-term memory in terms of their place of articulation and that presenting consonant phonemes for recall with different vowels caused Ss to use this dimension to code consonant phonemes in short-term memory.

Mechanisms of aural encoding: VII. Differences in consonant and vowel recall in a Peterson and Peterson short-term memory paradigm.

Ss either saw or heard lists of three syllables which differed by their initial consonant phoneme or their final vowel phoneme. After 5 or 15 sec of mental arithmetic, Ss were required to recall the syllables. Following auditory presentation, vowels were recalled more accurately than consonants in all serial positions and at both delays. In addition, spoken consonants and vowels showed primacy and recency effects. Following visual presentation, consonants and vowels were recalled with equal accuracy at both delays, and no recency effects were observed. These data suggest that superior recall of vowels over consonants results from differential decay of these stimuli in an acoustic storage. These data are consistent with previous experiments showing that, during serial recall, the final vowels in a sequence are recalled more accurately than the final consonants.