4种硅藻检验方法的比较研究

目的比较硝酸乙醇法、酶消化法、“破机罐”法和Soluene-350法在检验硅藻中各自的优缺点,为法医实际办案提供理论依据。方法取家兔肝、肾和骨髓3种组织各2g,分别用上述4种方法消化,比较4种不同方法分别将组织这些完全消化所需要的时间、消化能力、对硅藻的检出率以及对硅藻的破坏程度。结果消化时间以Solu-ene-350法耗时最长,其次是酶消化法,硝酸乙醇法和破机罐法耗时最短。4种方法消化能力的强弱依次是“破机罐”法、硝酸乙醇法、酶消化法、Soluene-350法。对梅尼小环藻(淡水)和桥弯藻(淡水),酶消化法的检出率最高,硝酸乙醇法其次,“破机罐”法和Soluene-350法最低。对舟形藻(海水),酶消化法的检出率高,其余3种方法几乎没检测到。扫描电镜观察:酶消化法对硅藻结构几乎没有破坏。其余3种方法对硅藻均有不同程度的破坏。结论从降低成本、提高检测效率角度,应选择“破机罐”法和硝酸乙醇法;从安全性和环保角度,或可疑水样为海水及硅藻密度较小时,应选择酶消化法;Soluene-350法因耗时长、成本高且硅藻检出率低,不适于在基层法医中推广。     

Detection of diatom in formalin-fixed tissue by proteinase K digestion

The diatoms detection has been proposed to be useful in the diagnosis of drowning. Enzymatic digestion of unfixed lung tissues and other organs with proteinase K is widely employed to detect diatoms. Handling unfixed organs or blood from the bodies with some infectious diseases could prove to be dangerous. In this study, we examined the application of enzymatic digestion for diatom detection to formalin-fixed lung obtained at autopsy. Furthermore, we assessed the effect of hydrogen peroxide on the contamination of the lung specimen with foreign bodies inhaled in the course of drowning, smoking, or air pollution. Formalin-fixed lung was heated in 0.01 M Tris–HCl buffer (pH 7.5) containing sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) (tissue lysis-buffer), with or without glycine. Thereafter, the lung was subjected to enzymatic digestion with proteinase K. A part of formalin-fixed or unfixed samples digested with proteinase K were incubated with hydrogen peroxide at 80 °C for 6 h or 12 h, while the residues were processed without incubation. Formalin-fixed samples heated in tissue lysis-buffer with glycine could be digested with proteinase K; further, the number and proportion of diatoms detected in both formalin-fixed and unfixed samples were observed to be similar. The results suggest that enzymatic detection of diatoms can be applied to formalin-fixed organs by heating the samples in glycine-containing tissue lysis-buffer. As the use of formalin-fixed tissue for diatom detection can decrease risk of contamination by pathogenic organisms during the course of enzymatic digestion, the method presented in this study would be beneficial, to some extent, to individuals performing diatom analysis. Moreover, our results suggest that archival organs stored in formalin solution could be available in diatom detection over a long time-period following autopsies. Clearer image of diatoms was observed in the specimen incubated with hydrogen peroxide for 6 h, in which inhaled foreign bodies were discolored, than those not subjected to incubation. Therefore, incubation of sample digested with hydrogen peroxide in the limited time would be helpful for quantitative and qualitative diatom analysis.     

A Simple Digestion Method with a Lefort Aqua Regia Solution for Diatom Extraction

Presence of diatoms in tissues has been considered as a significant sign of drowning. However, there are limitations in the present extraction methods. We developed a new digestion method using the Lefort aqua regia solution (3:1 nitric acid to hydrochloric acid) for diatom extraction and evaluated the digestive capability, diatom destruction, and diatoms' recovery of this new method. The kidney tissues from rabbit mixed with water rich in diatoms were treated by the Lefort aqua regia digestion method (n = 10) and the conventional acid digestion method (n = 10). The results showed that the digestive capability of Lefort aqua regia digestion method was superior to conventional acid digestion method (p < 0.01); the structure of diatom remained almost intact; and the recovery of diatom was comparable to the conventional acid digestion method (p > 0.05). The Lefort aqua regia reagent is an improvement over the conventional acid digestion for recovery of diatoms from tissue samples.     

A national population based examination of the association between age-versatility trajectories and recidivism rates

Purpose

To compare theoretical explanations of the age-versatility curve including the hypotheses of: self-control theory stating that versatility is followed by specialization; taxonomic theory stating that adolescent-limited offenders are specialists and life-course offenders are versatile and orthogenetic theory stating that specialization and versatility are present in a large number of offender groups.

Methods

These explanations were tested with Israeli national population-based data on all first and subsequent juvenile offenders (n = 17,176) with 248,114 registered police contacts from 1996 to 2008.

Results

Semi-parametric group-based modeling identified two trajectory-groups that characterized the age-versatility curve of police contacts before first conviction. The trajectory-groups were labeled as versatility (n = 2,447; 14.2%), and specialization (n = 14,729; 85.8%). After controlling for 19 documented demographic, familial, and criminogenic risk factors, Cox regression showed that juvenile offenders in the versatility group were at increased risk of recidivism compared to offenders in the specialization group.

Conclusions

These results partially adhere with taxonomic theory than the remaining theories and indicate that assuming a trajectory of elevated pre-conviction versatility increases the risk of recidivism.     

False positive and false negative rates in self-reported intentions to offend: A replication and extension

Purpose

Studies of criminal decision making commonly rely on college students’ self-reported intentions to commit a hypothetical offense. The current study evaluates the predictive validity of these intentions to offend.

Methods

Undergraduate students (n = 726) read a fictitious but seemingly realistic newspaper article describing an illegal opportunity for acquiring digital music files, and then reported their intentions to act upon the opportunity. Afterward, participants’ real world attempts to follow-through on the opportunity were monitored covertly.

Results

Findings reveal that participants who reported weak intentions to offend typically refrained from the act, resulting in a low false negative rate. However, those who reported strong intentions to offend also typically refrained from the act, thereby resulting in a high false positive rate.

Conclusions

These findings suggest that while participants’ predictions of criminal abstention are generally accurate, their predictions of criminal involvement are more problematic. Such faulty intentions have important implications for research on criminal decision making.     

A meta-analysis of the correlates of turnover intent in criminal justice organizations: Does agency type matter?

Purpose

The study synthesizes the literature on turnover intentions to assess what domains (e.g., personal characteristics, work environment, and job attitudes) account for the strongest association with turnover intent, what are the characteristics of these relationships, and how do these relationships differ by criminal justice practitioner type.

Methods

The current study utilizes a systematic review to obtain studies for conducting a meta-analysis. The researchers utilized the r family/correlation coefficient. Studies were weighted by sample size, correlations converted to Fisher’s z, analyses performed, and results converted back to r for interpretation.

Results

In terms of the individual predictors for law enforcement, the five strongest variables included alternative job search behavior, job satisfaction, psychological distress, emotional exhaustion, procedural and distributive justice. The five strongest predictors of turnover intent for institutional corrections were normative commitment, emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, affective commitment, and job satisfaction. The five strongest predictors for community corrections included experience, alternative job search behavior, perceptions of coworkers, growth need strength, and job satisfaction.

Conclusions

The results of the meta-analysis confirmed the domain of personal characteristics, overall, has the weakest association with turnover intent whereas work environment and job attitude domains consistently display moderate-to-large effects for both law enforcement and corrections.     

On the consequences of ignoring genetic influences in criminological research

Purpose

Many criminological scholars explore the social causes of crime while giving little consideration to the possibility that genetic factors underlie the observed associations. Indeed, the standard social science method (SSSM) assumes genetic influences do not confound the association between X and Y. Yet, a nascent stream of evidence has questioned the validity of this approach by revealing many criminological variables are at least partially affected by genetic influences. As a result, a substantial proportion of the literature may be misspecified due to uncontrolled genetic factors. No effort has been made to directly estimate the extent to which genetic confounding has biased the associations presented in criminological studies.

Methods

The present study seeks to address this issue by drawing on simulated datasets.

Results/Conclusions

Results suggest genetic confounding may account for a negligible portion of the relationship between X and Y when their correlation (r_yx) is larger than the correlation between genetic factors and Y (i.e., r_yx > r_yg). Genetic confounding appears to be much more problematic when the correlation between X and Y is in the moderate-to-small range (e.g., r_yx = .20) and the genetic effect is in the moderate-to-large range (e.g., r_yg ≥ .30).     

Genetic risk factors correlate with county-level violent crime rates and collective disadvantage

Purpose

Social scientists have a rich tradition of uncovering the neighborhood, structural, and ecological correlates of human behavior. Results from this body of evidence have revealed that living in disadvantaged communities portends myriad negative outcomes, including antisocial behaviors. Though it has long been argued that associations between neighborhood factors and individual-level outcomes may, at least partially, reflect genetic selection, a paucity of research has empirically investigated this possibility.

Methods

The current study examined whether known genetic risk factors for antisocial behavior were predictive of exposure to disadvantage and violent crime measured at the county level. Drawing on genotypic data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a dopamine risk scale was created based on respondents’ genotypes for DAT1, DRD2, and DRD4. County-level disadvantage was measured via Census data and violent crime rates were measured via the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports.

Results

Findings revealed that individuals with a greater number of dopamine risk alleles were more likely to live in a disadvantaged county and were more likely to live in a county with higher violent crime rates.     

Alcohol and drug consumption among sexual offenders

Purpose

To evaluate the role of alcohol and drug consumption between sexual offenders against boys and girls.

Method

It was an observational, retrospective and cross-sectional study carried out by the Ambulatory for the treatment of sexual disorders of ABC Medical College, Santo André, São Paulo, Brazil (ABSex). The sample comprised 104 convicts, over 18 years old, sentenced only for sexual crimes against children (below 11 years old). Alcohol and drug consumption, sexual abuse history, sexual impulsivity, and risk of recidivism were evaluated.

Results

The sexual offenders against boys showed higher alcohol consumption problems than sexual offenders against girls (χ² = 19.76, 1 d.f., p < 0.01). The severity of alcohol consumption was also significantly higher in the sexual offenders against non-related boys than in the sexual offenders against non-related girls (p = 0.037, ANOVA). After adjustment for other variables, such as monthly income before the penalty and alcohol consumption at the moment of the crime, the alcohol consumption severity in sexual offenders against boys was significantly higher than in sexual offenders against girls (OR = 1.05, CI 1.01–1.08, p < 0.01).

Conclusions

Alcohol use or abuse is associated with the perpetration of sexual aggression. The role of alcohol consumption seems to be greater in sexual offenders against boys than in girls and this can contribute to criminal recidivism.     

Linking early ADHD to adolescent and early adult outcomes among African Americans

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to propose a mediational model for the mechanisms through which a diagnosis of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder between the ages of 10 and 12 predicts positive and negative early adult outcomes for African Americans.

Methods

The study sample (n = 211) was drawn from the Des Moines, Iowa subsample of the Family and Community Health Study. Participants were first assessed between the ages of 10 and 12, again between the ages of 12 and 18, and finally at 18 to 23.

Results

Findings indicate that a diagnosis of ADHD before age 13 indirectly predicted subsequent exclusionary school discipline and juvenile arrest in adolescence, and both arrests and educational attainment in young adulthood.

Conclusions

These findings offer support for the School to Prison Pipeline model, showing that for some African American children, a childhood diagnosis of ADHD can lead to negative school experiences that result in harsh school-based discipline, which in turn open the door to justice system involvement spanning several developmental stages.     

溺死法医学检验鉴定方法评估与展望

综述近年来在硅藻检验、水中浮游生物叶绿素（A）检测、血液化学和组织化学检验等方面的最新文献报道,并对各种溺死检验方法的优缺点进行了评价：在硅藻检验中,硝酸乙醇法、破机罐法及微波消解法,可缩短检验时间,提高办案效率;酶消化法及PCR法硅藻检出率高,适用于可疑水样中硅藻密度低样品的检测。早期器官组织中浮游生物叶绿素（A）、血液和组织中其他生化指标,可作为鉴定溺死的重要参考;微量元素锶检测可用于鉴定海水中溺死;另外,硅藻及其他浮游生物遗传多态性片断PCR,可望成为新的、灵敏的溺死检测方法。     

Correctional destabilization and jail violence: The consequences of prison depopulation legislation

Purpose

This study explored the effects of prison depopulation on local jail violence through a general systems perspective – where an abrupt shift in the processing of offenders had the potential to create ripple effects through other organizations – of the criminal justice system.

Methods

In 2011, California passed the Criminal Justice Realignment legislation aimed to reduce prison population by making low-level felony offenders ineligible for state incarceration and diverting those already in state prison for the included offenses from state to county-level community supervision once paroled. This study incorporated bivariate and negative binomial regression analyses to model officially-recorded county jail panel data to estimate the effects of state prison depopulation on California county jails.

Results

Findings demonstrated support for the general systems framework as there was a significant decrease in jail utility in the bivariate analysis and a significant increase in jail violence in the multivariate analysis associated with passage of California’s prison depopulation legislation.

Conclusions

The results supported the notion of an interconnected criminal justice system. Policy implications include the consequences of increased violence on jail operations, the potential for a cadre of habitual offenders, and generalizing these findings to the community.     

Evidence for a heritable brain basis to deviance-promoting deficits in self-control

Purpose

Classic criminological theories emphasize the role of impaired self-control in behavioral deviancy. Reduced amplitude of the P300 brain response is reliably observed in individuals with antisocial and substance-related problems, suggesting it may serve as a neurophysiological indicator of deficiencies in self-control that confer liability to deviancy.

Methods

The current study evaluated the role of self-control capacity—operationalized by scores on a scale measure of trait disinhibition—in mediating the relationship between P300 brain response and behavioral deviancy in a sample of adult twins (N = 419) assessed for symptoms of antisocial/addictive disorders and P300 brain response.

Results

As predicted, greater disorder symptoms and higher trait disinhibition scores each predicted smaller P300 amplitude, and trait disinhibition mediated observed relations between antisocial/addictive disorders and P300 response. Further, twin modeling analyses revealed that trait disinhibition scores and disorder symptoms reflected a common genetic liability, and this genetic liability largely accounted for the observed phenotypic relationship between antisocial-addictive problems and P300 brain response.

Conclusions

These results provide further evidence that heritable weaknesses in self-control capacity confer liability to antisocial/addictive outcomes and that P300 brain response indexes this dispositional liability.     

Relational demography and officer occupational attitudes: The influence of workgroup context

Purpose

Researchers have long held an interest in understanding what role officer demographics play in explaining occupational attitudes. Despite this interest, evidence has consistently shown such relationships to be inconsistent. Using a relational demography framework that is based on the notion that demographic effects are contextual rather than universal across all officers, the current study examines the extent to which officer demographics influences their occupational attitudes when viewed in relation to other officers in their assigned workgroup.

Methods

Surveys of 1,022 patrol officers assigned to 187 workgroups were used to examine demographic effects across a number of occupational attitudes. A series of multilevel modeling techniques were used to test the viability of the relational demography framework.

Results

Certain demographic effects changed or were attenuated after accounting for workgroup membership. Demographic effects were also found to differ across workgroup contexts. Finally, results for job satisfaction indicated that gender and experience effects were dependent upon the demographic and cultural context of the workgroup.

Conclusions

Demographic-attitudinal relationships are influenced by the broader workgroup environment. The results also highlight the importance of taking into consideration non-independence issues associated with attitudes and demographics from both theoretical and analytical perspectives.     

A Critical Examination of the “White Victim Effect” and Death Penalty Decision-Making from a Propensity Score Matching Approach: The North Carolina Experience

Purpose

Death penalty research has rather consistently demonstrated a statistically significant relationship between defendant race and victim race in general, and for the Black defendant/White victim race dyad specifically. The bulk of this evidence has been derived from correlational studies and from cases over relatively condensed time frames.

Methods

The current study uses data from North Carolina (n = 1,113) over several decades (1977–2009) to evaluate the link between defendant/victim racial dyad and jury death penalty decision-making.

Results

Results suggest that there is an apparent “White victim effect” that can be observed in death penalty decision-making in traditional logistic regression models. Yet, once cases are matched via propensity score matching on approximately 50 case characteristics/confounders including the type of aggravators and mitigators accepted by the jury in addition to the number of aggravators and mitigators accepted, the relationship is rendered insignificant. Furthermore, these results hold for a defendant of any race killing a White victim and for the “most disadvantaged” situation for Black defendants (e.g., cases with White victims).

Conclusions

The “White victim effect” on capital punishment decision-making is better considered as a “case effect” rather than a “race effect.”     

Psychopathic traits and offending trajectories from early adolescence to adulthood

Purpose

Measures of adolescent psychopathy have yet to be examined in offending trajectory studies. This may explain why identifying etiological differences between individuals following high-rate and moderate-rate offending trajectories has remained elusive. The current study used the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL:YV) to examine psychopathic traits and offending trajectories within a sample of incarcerated offenders.

Methods

Convictions were measured for Canadian male (n = 243) and female (n = 64) offenders at each year between ages 12 and 28. Semi-parametric group based modeling identified four unique trajectories: adolescence-limited (AL) (27.3% of sample), explosive-onset fast desister (EOFD) (30.6%), high-rate slow desister (HRSD) (14.6%), and high frequency chronic (HFC) (27.5%).

Findings

Both a three and a four factor model of psychopathy were tested, and both factor structures were positively and significantly associated with the HRSD and HFC trajectories. Regarding individual factors of psychopathy, the ‘Antisocial’ factor of the PCL:YV was the only individual dimension significantly associated with membership in high-rate compared to moderate-rate offending trajectories.

Conclusions

Psychopathic traits appear more commonly present amongst individuals who follow chronic versus moderate offending trajectories. Implications for early intervention and risk management of offenders are discussed.     

Forensic analysis of carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT) by HPLC--statistics and extreme CDT values

Background

Carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT) is the most specific serum marker of chronic alcohol abuse so far. There is little knowledge about extreme CDT values of >20% and the more >30% CDT.

Methods

Serum CDT/transferrin ratios from 19,236 serum samples sent to our laboratory for routine CDT analysis were determined by HPLC. About 75% of these serum samples were from traffic or employment medicine investigations. A CDT value frequency histogram was computed and extreme CDT values were clinically validated.

Results

Fourteen thousand four hundred and sixty-one CDT results were normal (≤1.7%) and 4775 increased (1.8–36.9% CDT). Most frequent normal and increased results were 0.9% CDT (n = 1964) and 1.8% CDT (n = 356). CA. 70% of the pathological results were between 1.8% and 5.0% CDT, ca. 88% between 1.8% and 10.0% CDT, and 98% between 1.8% and 20.0%. CDT values >20.0% appeared in 79 cases and results >30.0% in two cases (33.8% and 36.9%). In each case of CDT values >20%, chronic alcohol abuse was the underlying cause as confirmed by anamnestic exploration.

Conclusions

CDT/transferrin ratios are usually <20%. Higher values can appear in rare cases. CDT results >30% can be due to alcohol abuse but should be considered as remarkable single observations. Visualization of the transferrin isoform patterns by HPLC allows the detection of pathological transferrin isoform patterns and of genetic transferrin variants. This is essential for a reliable interpretation of (extreme) CDT values. CDT analysis by immunoassays without physico-chemical confirmatory analysis is no longer acceptable.     

Dissecting the relationship between mental illness and return to incarceration

Purpose

We examine all releases to parole supervision in a single state over a period of four years to consider how a diagnosis of mental illness is associated with return to incarceration.

Methods

We use survival methods and Cox regression to understand patterns of and influences on return to prison. Our measure of mental illness is based on in-prison clinical diagnoses. Data include a rich set of administrative variables with demographic, criminal history and institutional controls.

Results

Our findings suggest that (1) there is a statistically significant relationship between having a DSM diagnosis and reincarceration, (2) substance-related disorders account for most of that relationship, and (3) there are some important variations among types of disorders examined.

Conclusions

Research that examines mental illness and recidivism without controlling for substance use disorders/problems is likely to be uninformative and misleading. Findings provide qualified support for the notion that programming addressing criminogenic risks and needs may be as important, or more so, than therapeutic programming focusing on mental illness when recidivism reduction is the goal.     

The Relationship between Self-Control in Adolescence and Social Consequences in Adulthood: Assessing the Influence of Genetic Confounds

Purpose

Assess the relationship between levels of self-control in adolescence and a variety of later-life outcomes and evaluate the confounding effects of genetic factors.

Methods

The current study employed data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) and examined whether levels of self-control in adolescence are related to economic, educational, employment, health, relationship and family, and behavioral outcomes in adulthood using DeFries-Fulker regression-based analyses.

Results

Analyses employing non-genetically sensitive methods indicated robust associations between self-control and various social consequences. After estimating genetically-sensitive analyses, however, many associations were no longer significant. Those associations which remained significant were in the reversed direction relative to the non-genetically sensitive models. Additionally, further analyses indicated that some of the remaining significant associations were influenced by nonshared genetic effects.

Conclusions

The findings indicate that even after controlling for the effect of genetic factors, levels of self-control are associated with differences in a variety of social outcomes. However, given the reduction in the number of significant associations and reversal of associations in the genetically sensitive models, analyses of the social consequences of low self-control which do not account for the effect of genetic factors are likely misspecified.     

强酸消化法和胰蛋白酶消化法检验腐败脏器硅藻的比较研究

目的探讨强酸消化法和胰蛋白酶消化法检验腐败脏器硅藻的优缺点，为法医工作者选择硅藻检验方案提供理论依据。方法用24只健康清洁级家兔，雌雄不限，制作溺死动物模型。室温放置72h后，分别取其肝、肾、肺3种组织各5g，用强酸消化法和胰蛋白酶消化法进行消化，分别比较两种消化方法的消化时间、消化能力和硅藻检出率。结果强酸消化法的消化时间显著短于胰蛋白酶消化法（P〈0．05），强酸消化的消化能力强于胰蛋白酶消化法（P〈0．05），而强酸消化法的硅藻检出率低于胰蛋白酶消化法（P〈0．05）。结论为加快办案效率，可以选择强酸消化法；对于水样硅藻含量低，则选择硅藻检出率相对较高的胰蛋白酶消化法。