45,569 research outputs found
Recommended from our members
Conspiracy in the Time of Corona: Automatic detection of Emerging Covid-19 Conspiracy Theories in Social Media and the News
Abstract
Rumors and conspiracy theories thrive in environments of low confi- dence and low trust. Consequently, it is not surprising that ones related to the Covid-19 pandemic are proliferating given the lack of scientific consensus on the virus’s spread and containment, or on the long term social and economic ramifications of the pandemic. Among the stories currently circulating are ones suggesting that the 5G telecommunication network activates the virus, that the pandemic is a hoax perpetrated by a global cabal, that the virus is a bio-weapon released deliberately by the Chinese, or that Bill Gates is using it as cover to launch a broad vaccination program to facilitate a global surveillance regime. While some may be quick to dismiss these stories as having little impact on real-world behavior, recent events including the destruction of cell phone towers, racially fueled attacks against Asian Americans, demonstrations espousing resistance to public health orders, and wide-scale defiance of scientifically sound public mandates such as those to wear masks and practice social distancing, countermand such conclusions. Inspired by narrative theory, we crawl social media sites and news reports and, through the application of automated machine-learning methods, discover the underlying narrative frame- works supporting the generation of rumors and conspiracy theories. We show how the various narrative frameworks fueling these stories rely on the alignment of otherwise disparate domains of knowledge, and consider how they attach to the broader reporting on the pandemic. These alignments and attachments, which can be monitored in near real-time, may be useful for identifying areas in the news that are particularly vulnerable to reinterpretation by conspiracy theorists. Understanding the dynamics of storytelling on social media and the narrative frameworks that provide the generative basis for these stories may also be helpful for devising methods to disrupt their spread
Semi-Annual Report to Congress for the Period of April 1, 2006 to September 30, 2006
[Excerpt] I am pleased to submit this Semiannual Report to the Congress, which highlights the significant activities and accomplishments of the Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the six-month period ending September 30, 2006. During this reporting period, our investigative work led to 295 indictments, 260 convictions, and over 90.2 million in costs.
During this reporting period, the OIG continued to provide audit and investigative oversight of the Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. We issued six management letters related to this effort. One of the letters identified individuals who had received disaster unemployment assistance (DUA) from one state, while also receiving DUA or state unemployment compensation from another state. In addition, an OIG investigation led to the indictment of a disaster-reconstruction company owner who had allegedly neglected to pay approximately 70 million in fines and restitution.
Finally, recognizing the need to collaboratively combat document and benefit fraud, the OIG joined with the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice, State, and other agencies to form task forces in 10 major cities. Led by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the task forces have been highly effective in targeting criminal organizations and ineligible beneficiaries engaged in this type of fraud. In one case, an investigation found that the owner of a labor leasing company used counterfeit labor certification forms to apply for at least 250 green cards. The owner of the company pled guilty to charges and faces 37 to 46 months’ incarceration.
The OIG remains committed to promoting the economy, integrity, effectiveness, and efficiency of DOL programs and detecting waste, fraud, and abuse against those programs. I would like to express my sincere appreciation to a professional and dedicated OIG staff for their significant achievements during this reporting period
Recommended from our members
Criminal prohibitions on membership in terrorist organizations
@ 2012 by the Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.The article analyzes prohibitions on membership in terrorist organizations and examines their justifiability. It begins by providing a definition of a terrorist organization. It then describes the far-reaching modern prohibitions on membership in terrorist organizations in various jurisdictions. The article goes on to provide a doctrinal analysis of membership offenses. Based on similarities with conspiracy doctrine, membership offenses are analyzed as expansions of attempt law or, in some cases, of complicity doctrines. The justfiability of this expansion is examined. The article introduces a distinction between exclusively terrorist organizations, passive membership of which can be legitimately prohibited under certain conditions, and ancillary and dual-purpose organizations, passive membership of which cannot be legitimately prohibited. Next, the justiflability ofprohibiting more active forms of membership in each of these types of organizations is discussed. Last, guidelines for the legislation of appropriate prohibitions are proposed
In the Dock. Examining the UK’s Criminal Justice Response to Trafficking.
This document is part of a digital collection provided by the Martin P. Catherwood Library, ILR School, Cornell University, pertaining to the effects of globalization on the workplace worldwide. Special emphasis is placed on labor rights, working conditions, labor market changes, and union organizing.ASI_2013_SUK_UK_In_the_dock.pdf: 350 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020.0-ASI_2013_SUK_UK_In the dock summary.pdf: 18 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020
Measuring belief in conspiracy theories: Validation of a French and English single-item scale
We designed, in French and in English, a single-item scale to measure people’s general tendency to believe in conspiracy theories. The validity and reliability of this scale was assessed in 3 studies (total N = 555). In Study 1 (N = 152), positive correlations between the single-item scale and 3 other conspiracy belief scales on a French student sample suggested good concurrent validity. In Study 2 (N = 292), we replicated these results on a larger and more heterogeneous Internet American sample. Moreover, the scale showed good predictive validity—responses predicted participants’ willingness to receive a bi-monthly newsletter about alleged conspiracy theories. Finally, in Study 3 (N = 111), we observed good test-retest reliability and demonstrated both convergent and discriminant validity of the single-item scale. Overall these results suggest that the single-item conspiracy belief scale has good validity and reliability and may be used to measure conspiracy belief in favor of lengthier existing scales. In addition, the validation of the single-item scale led us to develop and start validating French versions of the Generic Conspiracist Beliefs scale, the Conspiracy Mentality Questionnaire, and a 10-item version (instead of the 15-item original version) of the Belief in Conspiracy Theories Inventory
Conspiracy Theory
Over one-quarter of all federal criminal prosecutions and a large number of state cases involve prosecutions for conspiracy. Yet, the major scholarly articles and the bulk of prominent jurists have roundly condemned the doctrine. This Article offers a functional justification for the legal prohibition against conspiracy, centering on psychological and economic accounts. Advances in psychology over the past thirty years have demonstrated that groups cultivate a special social identity. This identity often encourages risky behavior, leads individuals to behave against their self-interest, solidifies loyalty, and facilitates harm against non-members. So, too, economists have developed sophisticated explanations for why firms promote efficiency, leading to new theories in corporate law. These insights can be reverse-engineered to make conspiracies operate less efficiently. In reverse-engineering corporate-law principles and introducing lessons from psychology, a rich account of how government should approach conspiracy begins to unfold.
In particular, law enforcement strives to prevent conspiracies from forming by imposing high up-front penalties for joiners but uses mechanisms to harvest information from those who have joined and decide to cooperate with the government. Traditional conspiracy doctrines such as Pinkerton liability and the exclusion from merger not only further cooperation agreements, they also make conspiracies more difficult to create and maintain by forcing them to adopt bundles of inefficient practices. The possibility of defection forces the syndicate to use expensive monitoring of its employees for evidence of possible collusion with the government. Mechanisms for defection also break down trust within the group and prime members to think that others are acting out of self-interest. The Article concludes by offering a variety of refinements to conspiracy law that will help destabilize trust within the conspiracy, cue the defection of conspirators, and permit law enforcement to extract more information from them
Secular diffusion in discrete self-gravitating tepid discs I : analytic solution in the tightly wound limit
The secular evolution of an infinitely thin tepid isolated galactic disc made
of a finite number of particles is described using the inhomogeneous
Balescu-Lenard equation. Assuming that only tightly wound transient spirals are
present in the disc, a WKB approximation provides a simple and tractable
quadrature for the corresponding drift and diffusion coefficients. It provides
insight into the physical processes at work during the secular diffusion of a
self-gravitating discrete disc and makes quantitative predictions on the
initial variations of the distribution function in action space.
When applied to the secular evolution of an isolated stationary
self-gravitating Mestel disc, this formalism predicts initially the importance
of the corotation resonance in the inner regions of the disc leading to a
regime involving radial migration and heating. It predicts in particular the
formation of a "ridge like" feature in action space, in agreement with
simulations, but over-estimates the timescale involved in its appearance. Swing
amplification is likely to resolve this discrepancy.
In astrophysics, the inhomogeneous Balescu-Lenard equation and its WKB limit
may also describe the secular diffusion of giant molecular clouds in galactic
discs, the secular migration and segregation of planetesimals in
proto-planetary discs, or even the long-term evolution of population of stars
within the Galactic center.Comment: 22 pages, 12 figure
Overlooked: Women and Jails in an Era of Reform
Since 1970, there has been a nearly five-fold increase in the number of people in U.S. jails—the approximately 3,000 county or municipality-run detention facilities that primarily hold people arrested but not yet convicted of a crime. Despite recent scrutiny from policymakers and the public, one aspect of this growth has received little attention: the shocking rise in the number of women in jail.Women in jail are the fastest growing correctional population in the country—increasing 14-fold between 1970 and 2014. Yet there is surprisingly little research on why so many more women wind up in jail today. This report examines what research does exist on women in jail in order to begin to reframe the conversation to include them. It offers a portrait of women in jail, explores how jail can deepen the societal disadvantages they face, and provides insight into what drives women's incarceration and ways to reverse the trend
Theo-Political Conspiracy Discourse in \u3cem\u3eThe Wanderer\u3c/em\u3e
This study undertakes an intensive analysis of The Wanderer, an ultra·conservative Catholic weekly newspaper. It is argued that con· spiracy discourse in The Wanderer provides a continuous series of god and devil terms that playoff one another as generic warrants authorizing a domino effect that solidifies an over·arching rhetorical vision, which ultimately affects the interpretation of U.S. Roman Catholic Church doctrine and its application to a number of contem· porary socio·political issues. Discowse emanating from this particular publication is representative of a paranoid style and provides a case study for tracing operant terms in an ongoing backlash movement
- …