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In the mid 1970s two psychologists, Kahneman and Tversky, isolated three major aspects of heuristics which induce biases in our decisions, which they termed as: (1) representativeness, (2) availability and (3) anchoring. An example of the bias within the representativeness heuristic is the underutilization of base rates. Decision makers tend systematically to overweigh current information and underweigh background information (prior probabilities) relative to what Bayes′ theorem implies. Bias in the availability heuristic is observed for instance in the area of government regulation. Proponents of increasing government regulation of business consider the benefits of eliminating the relatively small number of observed abuses but do not consider the large number of cases where the current system has worked. Decision makers exhibit a tendency to concentrate on extremes rather than means. This is because extremes are more readily available to retrieve from our mental set (mind) than means. On the anchoring heuristic, it is noticed that people allow their decisions to be distorted by the presence of points of reference that should be irrelevant. Discusses biases associated with one particular activity which is important to bank marketing officials, i.e. assessing creditworthiness, and substantiates such a bias using empirical findings.

The current study seeks to assess the predictive utility of personality, family violence, associations with criminal friends, peer rejection, parental attachment, and parental supervision as predictors of homicidal behaviour among a sample of 144 male recidivistic offenders.

This research project utilized a quasi‐experimental design with propensity score matching in order to minimize the effect of selection bias. Post‐matching binary logistic regression analysis was subsequently conducted in order to determine what factors predict homicidal behaviour.

Post‐matching regression results indicated that experience of family violence, psychoticism, and parental attachments were significant predictors of being a homicidal murderer.

The findings provide strong empirical support for the important role of early childhood experiences in the prediction of homicidal acts, along with the crucial role of personality (psychoticism). These findings provide additional support for Eysenck's theoretical indications regarding the role of psychoticism in the prediction of violent criminal behaviours.

The aim of the current study is to investigate criminal psycho‐social cognition, criminal associates and personality traits as predictors of non‐violent recidivism.

The sample consisted of 179 male non‐violent offenders. Each offender completed self‐report measures assessing criminal attitudes, criminal associates, criminal social identity and Eysenck's personality traits. Recidivism was assessed through self‐reported frequency of imprisonment. A sequential moderated multiple regression analysis investigated the relationship between criminal thinking, criminal social identity and level of recidivism with the moderating role of personality.

Results indicate that criminal thinking is moderated by personality in the prediction of recidivism such that respondents who score high on psychoticism and low on neuroticism and extraversion show a positive association between criminal think styles and recidivism.

It is suggested that future research and risk assessment instruments consider the interaction between risk factors in the prediction of recidivism, rather than investigating the factors independently.

This study is a valuable contribution as it investigates non‐violent recidivism specifically, and informs on the moderating influence of personality in the prediction of this behaviour.

The purpose of this paper is to report an analysis of arrangements in English mental health trusts to meet the needs of adult service users who are homeless. Homelessness is associated with various forms of mental ill-health, yet homeless people are not always well-served by statutory mental health services. In recent years, practice guidance seeking to improve health outcomes for the homeless has emphasised the need for NHS services to improve care pathways and professional provision for this service user group, in part by collaborating more closely with homelessness organisations.

Responses to freedom of information requests sent to trusts were analysed. The requests asked trusts for information concerning partnerships with external agencies, particular projects/staff, training available to trust professionals, referral pathways, and intervention models/approaches informing work with homeless service users.

In total, 49 trusts provided information that could be used in the analysis. Just under half of these had dedicated arrangements or resources, including outreach teams and clinical staff co-located in accommodation and support services for the homeless. The remaining trusts indicated that they either had some limited specific arrangements, such as links between local agencies working with the homeless and existing services, or no dedicated arrangements in place. Training to improve staff awareness around, and knowledge in, working with homeless service users tended to be minimal if provided at all.

This analysis further evidences gaps in the way the needs of the homeless population are addressed by statutory mental health services and adds support to concerns about the homeless having equitable access to care and treatment.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between regulation of non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) and their performance in Ghana.

The analysis is performed using data derived from the Bank of Ghana Database during a five-year period, 2006-2010. Correlated panels corrected standard errors model is used to estimate the regression equation. Capital adequacy requirements and the restrictions on the ability of non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) to take deposits are used as proxies for regulatory pressure. The study also used the return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE) as measures of NBFI performance.

Results of the study emerged with the evidence that there exists a positive relationship between minimum capital adequacy requirement of 10 per cent and profitability. This indicates that asking NBFIs to keep higher minimum capital adequacy ratio has resulted in improving their profitability. This suggests that capital regulation is an effective tool in enhancing the stability and the profitability of the financial services sector. In addition, the paper finds a positive relationship between regulatory pressure in terms of restrictions on deposits and NBFI profitability. This means that non-deposit-taking NBFIs have improved performance. This indicates that restricting NBFIs in terms of deposit-taking rather goes to increase profitability.

The value of this study is in respect of its contribution to the extant literature on financial regulation and performance of NBFIs.

This chapter critically examines the dialectical relationship between colonial capitalism, racism, state terrorism, and racial/ethnonational domination from the sixteenth to the twenty-first century. It demonstrates the deficiencies of theories of global studies. In reformulating and improving critical international studies, this study advances the idea that excluding indigenous wisdom and knowledge from this area has allowed the hegemonic Euro-American-centric scholarship and ideology to limit our understanding of the racist sickness and its continuous evolution in the modern world system. Since this sickness has been hidden under the rhetoric of democracy, human rights, and social justice, even progressive intellectuals have failed to thoroughly comprehend the devastating consequences of racism and terrorism in global studies.

First, the chapter critically establishes the dialectical relationship between colonial capitalism, racial terrorism, and the continuous destruction of indigenous peoples in the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Australia. It explains how the dominant racial/ethnonational groups have continued to maintain their privileges at the cost of marginalized societies. Second, using indigenous wisdom and knowledge, the piece exposes the intellectual deficiencies of Euro-American scholarship and ideology from the right and left in global studies. Third, the chapter demonstrates that the claims of democracy, human rights, and social justice do not adequately apply to the conditions of the indigenous peoples in the world. Fourth, it proposes ways of developing a comprehensive critical global studies by critically including the wisdom and knowledge of indigenous peoples.

This investigation aims to highlight the need for the information professions globally to value diverse knowledge paradigms in a world where people from diverse cultures and backgrounds interact with information on a daily basis. We provide examples from the Library and Information Science (LIS) profession in New Zealand which has been shaped by socially and culturally inclusive education and practices which take into account diverse ways of knowing and understanding the world and information.

An investigation into socially and culturally inclusive LIS education initiatives worldwide contextualizes a discussion of current LIS curricula in New Zealand and their delivery. The achievements and challenges in LIS education, the library profession, and library service are considered alongside the rich and varied nature of New Zealand society and the provision and accessibility of library services.

LIS education is at the start of this process, and New Zealand education providers promote a range of socially and culturally inclusive practices within their programs resulting in LIS graduates who are equipped to make ongoing contributions to an inclusive society through their professional work. We conclude that these three inseparable components of LIS in New Zealand result in social and cultural inclusion, but can always be further enhanced.

This chapter draws attention to the absence of consideration for non-Western knowledge paradigms in LIS curricula worldwide, and brings together diverse examples, mandating for library services and a library profession that reflect the rich social and cultural makeup of the communities we serve. We conclude that three inseparable components of LIS in New Zealand result in social and cultural inclusion, and there is always opportunity for further enhancement.

Organizations are confronted with problems and political risks to which they have to respond, presenting a need to develop tools and frames of understanding requisite to do so. In this article, we argue for the necessity of cultivating “political judgment” with a “sense of reality,” especially in the upper echelons of organizations. This article has two objectives: First to highlight how a number of recent interlinked developments within organizational analysis and practice have contributed to weakening judgment and its accompanying “sense of reality.” Second, to (re)introduce some canonical works that, although less in vogue recently, provide both a source of wisdom and frames of understanding that are key to tackling today’s problems. We begin by mapping the context in which the need for the cultivation of political judgment within organizations has arisen: (i) increasing proliferation of political risks and “wicked problems” to which it is expected that organizations adapt and respond; (ii) a wider historical and contemporary context in which the exercise of judgment has been undermined – a result of a combination of economics-inspired styles of theorizing and an associated obsession with metrics. We also explore the nature of “political judgment” and its accompanying “sense of reality” through the work of authors such as Philip Selznick, Max Weber, Chester Barnard, and Isaiah Berlin. We suggest that these authors have a weighty “sense of reality”; are antithetical to “high,” “abstract,” or “axiomatic” theorizing; and have a profound sense of the burden from exercising political judgment in difficult organizational circumstances.

Do you use Electronic mail (E‐mail)? Do you know if anyone other than the intended recipient is reading the mail you send? And, what would you do if it fell into the wrong hands? Employees around the world use E‐mail more than a million times a day (Elmer‐Dewitt, 1993). E‐mail is used for a multitude of purposes including telling jokes, discussing confidential matters, or even spreading gossip that could be potentially offensive if overheard by the wrong person. E‐mail is more convenient for most to use rather than having to pick up the phone or wander down a hall to tell someone something. A common misconception many have concerning the use of E‐mail is that it is as private as mail or a phone call (Elmer‐Dewitt, 1993).