Honest Person Research Articles

The Living Past

The Siberian peasants had clear ideas about honor and dishonor, and a reputation as an honest person meant much in the eyes of agriculturalists:poor but honest,naked but not a thief,honest people take one's word, they would say. Interesting are the words of the Dalmatovsk peasant A. N. Zyrianov in response to an insult by a government official:You cannot take away honor, which I will rightfully defend and will seek justice.Honor, honor! What is your honor to me? Is your honor so grand? … I will show how much your honor is worth! shouted the official. To demonstrate his power over the peasant, he ordered him to be sent under escort to the registration center in Verkhno-Iarsk village. The peasant stubbornly defended his right (making appeals to the authorities of his volost', to the okrug,a and to the minister of state property) and ultimately a special investigatory commission made a decision in his favor—thus, he was successful in defending his honor.1

An Approach to Childhood Stealing with Evaluation of 45 Cases

Childhood stealing is a distressing problem for families and may have wider community costs since childhood stealers often become adult criminals: This paper describes a therapeutic ‘map’ that emphasises direct engagement of the child, along with his/her family, in regrading the child from ‘stealer’ to ‘honest person’. Analysis of therapy with 45 children revealed a high level of family engagement and initial behaviour change. Furthermore, a follow‐up telephone call made 6–12 months after completion of therapy sessions revealed that 81% of the children had not been stealing at all or had substantially reduced rates of stealing.

Sharing a Cake

It is well known that if two people wish to share a cake fairly then one cuts it into two pieces and the other person chooses which of the pieces to have. This article considers the problem of sharing the cake fairly when there are more than two people. We are looking for procedures which ensure justice for an honest person even when there is dishonest collusion by the other people.

"Narrowing" is the Prelude to "Broadening"

My young friend whom I have never met: I read your letter and was deeply impressed. Your letter indicates that you are an honest person. You reveal your true thoughts and feelings, which are actually the sentiments of a considerable portion of the youth in China today.

On increasing the persuasiveness of a low prestige communicator

It has often been demonstrated that subjects will assume that a high prestige communicator is a more expert and honest person than is a low prestige communicator. Consequently, a high prestige communicator is usually assumed to be more effective in convincing others of any opinion he advocates than is a low prestige communicator. In this paper we proposed that the abstract credibility of a communicator is not the sole determinant of potential effectiveness. We proposed that any communicator, regardless of his prestige, will be more effective and will be seen as more credible when he is arguing for a position opposed to his own best interest. than when arguing for changes obviously in his own best interest. (Thus, in some cases, a low prestige source could be extremely effective—in fact, even more effective than a high prestige communicator.) Two experiments were conducted. Both experiments supported the above hypothesis.

Safeguards for Vital Statistics

V ITAL RECORDS are an important national resource. Their data provide society and the individual with a basis upon which to determine many rights, duties, privileges, and responsibilities. A fundamental right like citizenship may be established by the place of birth. Social security, veterans, or pension benefits may bie affected by date of birth. The settlement of insurance claims may hinge upon establishing the recorded fact, manner, and cause of Because such personal and monetary stakes can hinge upon these records, certain people have attempted without scruple to perpetrate fraudulent registrations. Even ordinarily honest persons have, at times, tried to bend the truth. To illustrate this situation, a few selected cases are set forth below. These are among the few in which the defrauders were. apprehended. It is difficult to estimate how many sueh frauds are undetected. About 8 years ago, a man living in a northeastern State, discovering tha.t it was possible to make a better income dead than alive, arranged to file a death certificate for himself. The fraud was not discovered until he and his family had collected more than $40,000 in welfare and veterans benefits. Because he had legally changed his name prior to filing the death certificate, he was even able to continue at his usual residence and work while his family cashed in on his death. A few years ago, a far western city jailed a man who had in his possession three passports and seven birth certificates, all bearing different names. In addition, he had a list of birth facts for more than 20 other persons. Inquiries to appropriate vital records offices established that, with the exception of one birth fact on one record, the listing was complete and accurate. Interrogation of the suspect soon revealed the purpose of the listing. He had applied to various local registration offices for fictitious records. When they could not be located, he simply asked to look at the index personally on the pretext that names had been misspelled. It was no feat then for him to memorize birth facts of valid records, so that he could apply for copies as though they were his own. A galling aspect of this case was that offices from which he had fraudulently obtained copies of records either did not require or did not keep applications for records. He could not be prosecuted for impersonation, but, following questioning, which divulged his objectives, he committed suicide in jail. Birth records are a valuable aid to espionage agents. In August 1952 a woman agent was taken into custody trying to enter the. United States from Canada. She was attempting to masquerade as an American citizen, using an authentic copy of a birth certificate, previously issued to an American citizen. Less than a year later, another agent responsible for the theft of important military information was arrested in New York City posing as an American photographer under the name of Emil R. Goldfus. In 1952 a Federal agent was assigned to investigate a delayed birth registration filed for a notorious hoodlum in a middle Atlantic State. His search of building permits turned up tlhe fact that the house where the hoodlum was allegedly born was not built until 4 years after the professed birth date. Another 4 years of investigation was needed, however, to gTet sufficient evidence to rebut the delayed birtlh Mr. Schuler is acting chief of the Registration Methods Branch, National Vital Statistics Divisio , Putblic Health Service.