Legislation - Survey and Analysis of Criminal and Tort Aspects of Shoplifting Statutes

Shoplifting not only results in heavy financial losses for the merchant but also poses special problems in criminal law and general law enforcement. One such problem arises from the fact that most such thefts involve relatively small amounts, with the result that the public does not seem extremely concerned about the matter when an individual case comes up for prosecution. Another peculiar difficulty is that perhaps more than any other single crime shoplifting is an offense committed by amateurs, both adult and juvenile. This serves to make both detection and prosecution difficult. Finally, the right of the individual to be free from unlawful or unreasonable interference with his person or property\u3e is more directly involved in this area of criminal law enforcement than in most others

The Effects of Social Perspective-Taking Training and Ideological Perspective-Taking Training on Ego-Identity Formation in Late Adolescence

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of two forms of perspective-taking training on interpersonal and ideological identities of 18- to 21-year-old college students. The primary predictions of the study were that social perspective-taking training would have its greater effect on interpersonal identity and that ideological perspective-taking training would have its greater effect on ideological identity. Ninety-six subjects were pretested for the study. Subject loss occurred due to attrition and the elimination of subjects who scored above set criterion for inclusion in the study. A total of 50 participants who were assigned to one of two treatment groups or to the control group completed the study. Both experimental and control subjects were engaged for two one-hour sessions per week for four weeks. Subjects completed posttesting the week following the last week of training. Nonparametric tests and repeated measures analysis of variance were computed for the pretest and posttest scores. Advances in ideological identity were observed for both the social and ideological perspectivetaking groups. Neither training was effective in promoting interpersonal identity. There was some evidence that formal operational skills also were advanced from social perspective-taking training. The validity and reliability of the measures used were discussed in conjunction with discussion of the findings. Implications for future research and clinical applications were presented

Quantum Bose-Hubbard model with an evolving graph as a toy model for emergent spacetime

We present a toy model for interacting matter and geometry that explores quantum dynamics in a spin system as a precursor to a quantum theory of gravity. The model has no a priori geometric properties; instead, locality is inferred from the more fundamental notion of interaction between the matter degrees of freedom. The interaction terms are themselves quantum degrees of freedom so that the structure of interactions and hence the resulting local and causal structures are dynamical. The system is a Hubbard model where the graph of the interactions is a set of quantum evolving variables. We show entanglement between spatial and matter degrees of freedom. We study numerically the quantum system and analyze its entanglement dynamics. We analyze the asymptotic behavior of the classical model. Finally, we discuss analogues of trapped surfaces and gravitational attraction in this simple model

Spanish medical students’ attitudes and views towards Mental Health and Psychiatry: a multicentric cross-sectional study.

Objective The aim of this study is to investigate the attitudes towards mental illness and psychiatry among fifth year Spanish medical students. Methods The study included 171 students from three medical schools located in different areas of Spain: Cádiz; UCA (n= 113), Madrid; San Pablo-CEU (n=22), and Barcelona; UAB (n=36). They responded, prior to their undergraduate medical course in psychiatry, to the AMI questionnaire to measure the attitudes towards mental illness and to Balon’s adapted questionnaire to investigate their view towards psychiatry. Results The students (93.4 %) had a positive attitude towards mental illness (AMI). Attitudes towards psychiatry were fairly positive with a few negative views, specifically regarding the role of psychiatrists (items 11 and 13) and the prestige of the specialty (item 16). There were some statistically significant differences between the three medical schools in the perception of psychiatry as a medical discipline. A better attitude towards mental illness was associated with a better view of the overall merits of psychiatry. Conclusions Findings suggest that Spanish medical students do not have a negative attitude towards mental illness and they have a good perception of psychiatry, although there are still some misconceptions about this specialty. These student’s attitudes could favor an appropriate management of patients suffering from mental illness