The thermodynamics of latent fingerprint corrosion of metal elements and alloys

Redox reactions taking place between the surface of a metal and fingerprint residue have been expressed thermodynamically in terms of both the Nernst equation for reduction potential and the complexation constant for the formation of complex metal halide ions in aqueous solution. These expressions are used to explain experimental results for the corrosion of 10 different metal elements by fingerprint residue in air at room temperature. Corrosion of noble metals, such as silver and gold, supports the proposition that the degree of metal corrosion is enhanced by the presence of chloride ions in eccrine sweat. Extending the experiments to include 10 metal alloys enabled the construction of a fingerprint corrosion series for 20 different metals. Fingerprint corrosion on metals alloyed with > approximately 40% copper was found to display third level fingerprint detail. A comparison of both conventional ink on paper and digital (Livescan) fingerprinting techniques with fingerprints deposited on 9 Karat gold alloy has shown that gold alloy depositions are least susceptible to third level detail obliteration by poor fingerprint capturing techniques.     

The Relationship Between Deprivation and Forensic Material Recovered from Stolen Vehicles: Is it Affected by Vehicle Condition and Tidiness?

Previous research has shown that as crime scene location deprivation increases (lower socioeconomic status), the recovery of forensic material, principally DNA and fingerprints, also increases. However, this increase does not result in more crimes being solved by forensic means. In this study, we analyze stolen vehicle data and find a statistically significant positive association between deprivation and the amount of forensic material that matched either the victim or an associate of the victim on a criminal database. The nature of this association was investigated further by inspecting recovered stolen vehicles to establish whether the condition of a stolen vehicle and the tidiness of its interior influenced the recovery of forensic material that was attributed to the victim or an associate. Contradictory results suggest that other factors may contribute to understanding the association between the recovery of victim- or associate-attributable forensic material and crime scene location deprivation.     

‘Are the ‘others’ coming?’: Evidence on ‘alien conspiracy’ from three illegal markets in Greece

In the early 1990s Greece accepted a large number of immigrants from a variety of contexts. Since then ‘organised criminality’ has become an important aspect of the immigration nexus in the country, and ethnicity has been viewed as an extremely important-if not the primary–explanatory variable. Simultaneously, there has been very little empirical research on ‘organised crime’ in Greece in general and ‘organised crime’ and ethnicity in particular. The purpose of this article, which is based on previous research that the author has conducted on three illegal markets in Greece (a. migrant smuggling business, b. the cigarette black market, and c. the market of stolen cars and car parts), is to show the extent to which these illegal markets are controlled by foreign nationals, and establish whether there is such thing as an ‘alien conspiracy’ in the particular country.     

Volatile Sovereignty: Governing Crime through the Community in Khayelitsha

This paper asks what crime prevention looks like for residents in informal settlements in Khayelitsha, a black township on the outskirts of Cape Town. It engages with the idea of vigilantism and hybrid policing formations, analyzing the overlaps and intersections between legal community‐based crime prevention initiatives, and local ‘punitive practices’. The focus is not on the intensely violent spectacle of ‘mob justice’, where suspects are killed, but on the more ubiquitous, hybrid formations that also fall on the vigilantism continuum. These include coercive practices such as banishment, corporal punishment, retrieval of stolen goods by local policing formations and, trials conducted by street committees. The core argument I make is that, at times, particularly in poor areas where the state is absent and encourages citizens to take responsibility for their own crime prevention, the boundary between legality and coercive illegality collapses in on itself. Thus, the notion of voluntarism, that is so important to official discourse on crime, is particularly problematic when applied in poor communities with high rates of unemployment and high crime rates. As such, the state's encouraging of citizens to take responsibility for their own safety, alongside a punitive state discourse on crime and criminality, creates the space for illegal vigilante style actions to emerge in the shadow of legal crime prevention initiatives.     

The underworld of art

Although crime in the market for fine arts has a long historical pedigree, the explosive growth of the market, and the conversion of art (along with collectible goods of all sorts) into speculative assets, that began or at least accelerated in the mid 1970s, focused increasing attention on the phenomenon. At the same time the issue of protecting cultural patrimony became a subject of greater contention between source and market countries, while common law and civil code jurisdictions struggled over how to reconcile approaches to regulation and enforcement. This paper highlights these issues with specific reference to the market for high-end paintings although its lessons are germane to all subdivisions of the collectibles market. It attempts to elucidate the main criminogenic factors—speculative shifts in demand, fraudulent supply, and illegal activity by various intermediary institutions ranging from dealers to appraisers to auction houses, while highlighting the role of collectors, museums, and financial institutions both as victims and active participants. Despite enduring myths about “organized crime,” illegal operations in the art market are the work overwhelmingly of insiders who alone have the technical knowledge and circle of intimates necessary to link an illicit supply with a demand that can range from the strictly legitimate, the legal but dubious, and the explicitly criminal. The critical lesson is that stolen, forged or smuggled material makes its way through much the same circles of intermediaries and ends up for the most part in the same locations and the same hands as artwork of legal origin.     

The Role of DNA‐Stained Currency in Gang Robberies within the United Kingdom

Cash‐and‐valuables‐in‐transit (CViT) robberies have become a substantial problem—especially in the current global economy. Over £19.4 million were stolen in 2008 and £17.1 million in 2009 in the United Kingdom alone. The transportation of cash and valuable items between financial institutions has long been a target of robberies in the U.K. After a robbery has occurred, police collect evidence in the form of ink‐stained currency. These stained notes are submitted for analysis. Samples are subjected to polymerase chain reaction in order to amplify any possible botanically derived DNA markers present on the notes. After amplification, capillary electrophoresis allows for the deciphering of the “DNA profile.” The DNA profile is then linked to a particular cash box, and this information is compared with records of whether or not that box had been stolen. The cases below are three such instances where botanically marked currency was used to help solve robberies.     

Intervening in gun markets: an experiment to assess the impact of targeted gun-law messaging

The objective of this study was to assess whether targeting new gun buyers with a public safety message aimed at improving gun law awareness can modify gun purchasers’ behaviors. Between May 2007 and September 2008, 2,120 guns were purchased in two target neighborhoods of the City of Los Angeles. Starting in August 2007, gun buyers initiating transactions on odd-numbered days received a letter signed by prominent law enforcement officials, indicating that law enforcement had a record of their gun purchase and that the gun buyer should properly record future transfers of the gun. The letters arrived during buyers’ 10-day waiting periods, before they could legally return to the store to collect their new gun. Subsequent gun records were extracted to assess the letter’s effect on legal secondary sales, reports of stolen guns, and recovery of the gun in a crime. An intent-to-treat analysis was also conducted as a sensitivity check to remedy a lapse in the letter program between May and August 2007. The letter appears to have no effect on the legal transfer rate or on the short-term rate of guns subsequently turning up in a crime. However, we found that the rate at which guns are reported stolen for those who received the letter is more than twice the rate for those who did not receive the letter (p value = 0.01). Those receiving the letter reported their gun stolen at a rate of 18 guns per 1,000 gun-years and those not receiving the letter reported their gun stolen at a rate of 7 guns per 1,000 gun-years. Of those receiving the letter, 1.9% reported their gun stolen during the study period compared to 1.0% for those who did not receive the letter. The percentage of guns reported stolen in these neighborhoods is high, indicating a high rate of true gun theft, a regular practice of using stolen-gun reports to separate the gun buyer from future misuse of the gun, or some blend of both. Simple, targeted gun law awareness campaigns can modify new gun buyers’ behaviors. Additional follow-up or modifications to this initiative might be needed to impact the rate at which guns enter the illegal gun market and ultimately are recovered in crimes.     

ON THE RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF SELF‐REPORTED ILLEGAL EARNINGS: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE STUDY OF CRIMINAL ACHIEVEMENT*

The study of the monetary returns to criminal activity is a central component in many emerging areas of criminology, including rational choice and offender decision‐making, desistance, and criminal achievement. Scholars have been increasingly captivated with specification of the earnings function and with examining how variations in illegal earnings predict important outcomes such as persistence in offending. The potential utility of findings in related empirical studies hinges on the quality of the key measure, self‐reported illegal earnings. Yet to date scant attention has been paid by researchers to the measurement properties of this metric. We analyze self‐reported illegal earnings generated from a variety of instrumental crimes by using data from the Pathways to Desistance Study (n = 585) and the National Supported Work Project (n = 1,509), which are two longitudinal data sets of active offenders separated by more than 30 years. Findings based on analyses both within and between data sets reveal support for the internal consistency reliability and criterion validity of self‐reported illegal earnings. Moreover, the results reveal premiums in terms of higher earnings associated with different crime types, which are persistent both over time and across data sets. Implications and future directions for advancing the theoretical study of criminal achievement are also discussed.     

Buying stolen goods: the ambiguity in trading consumer-to-consumer

This study investigates the buying of stolen goods in Denmark. The study consists of a self-report survey based on a representative sample of the general Danish population (n = 2311) and six focus group interviews consisting of both informants experienced with buying stolen goods and of those with no experience (n = 37). The survey showed that 4.8% had bought stolen goods, while 15.7% were uncertain whether they had bought stolen goods. Young people, males, and unemployed were more likely to purchase stolen goods. No clear correlation between income and buying stolen goods was found. Focus groups suggest the buyers of stolen goods did not buy stolen goods because they could not afford legitimate products. We recommend targeting consumers not interested in buying stolen goods with information about how to avoid such activity.     

The Mobility of Stolen Guns in Quebec

Research on crime guns has traditionally focused on the time-to-crime measure. This study shifts the focus to guns that entered the illegal firearm market through thefts. This subset of guns allows us to examine the same process and objective underlying the time-to-crime measure—that being the recovery process. Two new measures are proposed. The first, time-to-find, assesses the time span between a gun’s theft and seizure by police. The second, distance-to-recovery, introduces a spatial dimension to the crime gun repertoire by measuring the distance a firearm travels between its points of theft and seizure. Using a mix of national (Canada) and provincial (Quebec) data on crime guns, this study’s findings show that these two new measures are tapping into a unique phenomenon: whereas time-to-crime accounts for a gun’s complete lifecycle, time-to-find and distance-to-recovery reflect a gun’s criminal lifecycle. At the multivariate level, the most influential factor explaining both time-to-find and distance-to-recovery is the registration status of the gun. Non-registered crime guns took longer to find and traveled lengthier distances between the moments and points of theft and seizure. Our explanation for this is that non-registered guns may be stolen from sources that are more problematic to begin with and, thus, result in the gun’s transition toward a segment of the illegal market that is also more problematic and in demand than the pool of firearms represented by registered guns. This would embed the firearm more deeply into the illegal market, making it more difficult to retrieve and more likely to be dispersed across a wider geographical plane than guns which are registered to begin with.     

The underworld of gold

This paper dissects the global business of gold, from the ground, through the refining and marketing process and on into the hands of the final consumer, while examining the main forms of criminal activity associated with each stage. In one fundamental respect the black market for gold is quite different from that for other contraband goods. With opiates, for example, although there are occasional interrelations, it is reasonable to differentiate between legal and illegal sectors. The legal one uses raw material from designated producing areas, transforming it into a pharmaceutical product to supply a controlled medical demand. The illegal one uses illicitly obtained raw materials to make recreational drugs in order to service a demand that in most countries is defined as criminal by its very nature. By contrast, with gold, legally and illegally produced raw materials flow through the same channels to the same set of legitimate firms for refining and casting; and the product of these respectable refineries then is redivided into separate streams serving the overt and the covert portions of the market. Even then the cross-links do not stop. Legally sold gold can be diverted into illicit uses, while illegally obtained gold can end up in the hands of otherwise legitimate manufacturers or consumers. *** DIRECT SUPPORT *** AW502007 00002     

Sampling--how big a sample?

It is thought that, in a consignment of discrete units, a certain proportion of the units contain illegal material. A sample of the consignment is to be inspected. Various methods for the determination of the sample size are compared. The consignment will be considered as a random sample from some super-population of units, a certain proportion of which contain drugs. For large consignments, a probability distribution, known as the beta distribution, for the proportion of the consignment which contains illegal material is obtained. This distribution is based on prior beliefs about the proportion. Under certain specific conditions the beta distribution gives the same numerical results as an approach based on the binomial distribution. The binomial distribution provides a probability for the number of units in a sample which contain illegal material, conditional on knowing the proportion of the consignment which contains illegal material. This is in contrast to the beta distribution which provides probabilities for the proportion of a consignment which contains illegal material, conditional on knowing the number of units in the sample which contain illegal material. The interpretation when the beta distribution is used is much more intuitively satisfactory. It is also much more flexible in its ability to cater for prior beliefs which may vary given the different circumstances of different crimes. For small consignments, a distribution, known as the beta-binomial distribution, for the number of units in the consignment which are found to contain illegal material, is obtained, based on prior beliefs about the number of units in the consignment which are thought to contain illegal material. As with the beta and binomial distributions for large samples, it is shown that, in certain specific conditions, the beta-binomial and hypergeometric distributions give the same numerical results. However, the beta-binomial distribution, as with the beta distribution, has a more intuitively satisfactory interpretation and greater flexibility. The beta and the beta-binomial distributions provide methods for the determination of the minimum sample size to be taken from a consignment in order to satisfy a certain criterion. The criterion requires the specification of a proportion and a probability.     

High road in regulating online child pornography in South Africa

Online child pornography is a repulsive reality which cannot be ignored; the biggest child pornography manufacturing ring in South African history was cracked with the arrest of eight family members. There are more than 116 000 Internet searches daily for child pornography. Pornography is no longer confined to consenting adults, children are not only being exposed to pornographic material but are increasingly being used as victims of child pornography. In South Africa, the Internet and Cell phone Pornography Bill tabled in 2010 aims to make it illegal for Internet and mobile phone service providers to distribute pornography or permit it to be distributed. The objective of the Bill is to protect children from child pornography and women from the indignity of being seen as objects of pornography. This paper takes as its focal point the continuing crisis which centres on the conceptual framework, the existing legislation regulating online child pornography and measures to curb infringement.     

论证券行政违法行为的成立要件

近年来,证券领域违法案件频发,证券监管机关作出了大量的行政处罚。然而,行政违法行为成立要件缺失造成了行政处罚证明标准抽象化、归责原则适用混乱等问题。行政违法行为成立要件与犯罪构成要件之间存在亲缘性。建构证券行政违法行为成立要件理论需要做好对刑法犯罪构成要件理论的“扬与弃”的工作,从违法客观方面、违法客体、违法主观方面、违法主体等方面进行规定。违法客体依附违法客观方面。违法客观方面包括违法行为、危害结果以及违法的时间、地点等内容,应以危害结果纳入为原则,不纳入为例外。违法主体是必要条件,但已内含于证券从业要求。违法主观方面,应当充分考虑主观过错在违法认定中的影响。四方面内容在结构上并非是同一平面上的耦合式逻辑,而是一种递进式、阶层式的逻辑结构。     

The underworld of gemstones

In recent decades prices of high-end “colored gemstones” (trade jargon for precious stones other than diamonds), like almost all “collectibles,” have risen dramatically. Demand has been spreading to economic classes formerly excluded at the same time the supply of high-quality material from natural sources falls, leading to constant searches (that may take on the character of gold-rushes) for as yet undiscovered sites. While no doubt criminogenic factors have always existed within the gemstone business, periods of rapid price rise mean stronger temptation for illegal activities. The potential list of economic offenses, civil, regulatory and criminal, associated with the gemstones business includes: illegal mining, environmental offenses, bribery, gun-running, smuggling, “terrorist”(i.e. insurgent) financing, commercial fraud, mining-share swindles, money laundering and, not least, simple theft along with recycling stolen goods. This paper represents an attempt to understand the criminogenic factors in light of the history and current structures of the business. It fits the gemstone trade into a commercial, geo-strategic and sociological matrix, the three often interacting in mutually reinforcing ways. It asks whether, given the incentives and opportunities for illicit activity, relying primarily on industry self-regulation makes sense. But it also questions whether the international regulatory regime now in place for diamonds can be applied to the far more diffuse supply-side conditions of the colored gemstone market. Methodologically, the paper is a research essay in the political economy of clandestine international economic activity, with particular focus on its historical, geo-strategic and sociological context rather than a more narrow, traditional criminological study. The second may work well enough when the activity under investigation is a crime per se, as with studies of illegal drugs. However when the activity is inherently legal, but conducted illegally, it is essential to understand thoroughly the nature and operation of the legal business to make sense of the illegal. The illegal is buried in and works concurrently with the legal, not in the narrow sense of having the legal as cover, but in a more profound sense of the legal and the illegal sharing attitudes and supporting institutions. The paper is divided into three parts. The first, “Under the Rainbow,”examines the shady side of gemstone mining in a geo-political context. The second, “In the Eye of the Beholder,” looks at fraud in cutting and polishing of rough gemstones into finished gems. The third, “Hot Rocks, Cold Cash,” focuses on illicit activity in the retail jewelry trade.     

责任主义与违法性认识问题

违法性认识问题的提出,根源于绝对的知法推定的动摇。知法的推动动摇后,传统的法律错误处理规则与责任主义的冲突随之而来。笔者认为,有必要从责任主义的角度,重新审视不知法不免责的准则,并对法律错误的处理还原为刑事责任的一般问题。围绕违法性认识所引发的纷争,折射的是责任主义刑法在风险社会所遭遇的困境。各国通过对法律技术或制度的选择性运用,来求取刑法规制与责任主义之间的平衡。对我国刑法而言,问题的关键不在于违法性认识在犯罪论体系中的位置,而是构建或完善能够维护个体正义的制度技术。     

Molecular Identification of Indian Crocodile Species: PCR‐RFLP Method for Forensic Authentication*

Abstract: South East Asian countries are known for illegal poaching and trade of crocodiles clandestinely, to be used in skin, medicinal, and cosmetic industries. Besides crocodiles being listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, India has its Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 for conservation of crocodile species. Hitherto, lack of any rapid and reliable technique for examinations of crocodile‐based crime exhibits such as skin, bones, etc. has been a major problem for an effective promulgation of law on illegal trade. DNA‐based identification of species using PCR‐RFLP technique for an apt identification of all the three Indian crocodile species namely, Crocodylus porosus, Crocodylus palustris and Gavialis gangeticus is presented here. A 628 bp segment of cytochrome b gene was amplified using novel primers followed by restriction digestion with three enzymes i.e., HaeIII, MboI, and MwoI, separately and in combination. The technique has produced a species‐specific pattern for identifying the three crocodile species individually, which fulfills the requirement for its forensic application. It is expected that the technique will prove handy in identification of all the three Indian crocodile species and strengthen conservation efforts.     

检验人精浆特异蛋白P30免疫胶体金试剂条的研制

目的制备用于检验人精浆特异蛋白P30-主要是来自法医学案件的免疫胶体金层析试剂条.方法选取针对不同抗原决定簇的抗P30单克隆抗体细胞株,并制备其小鼠腹水,分离纯化单克隆抗体.制备胶体金并以纯化抗体包被,制成免疫胶体金,以免疫胶体金浸泡玻璃纤维.选取适宜的硝酸纤维素膜并于其上不同位置以未金标的另一株P30单克隆抗体和羊抗鼠IgG包被.搭建试剂条并检测其灵敏度和特异性.结果所制成的试剂条灵敏度至少可达4ng/ml;对6人份混合的人精液物质在稀释20万倍后仍出阳性结果,且无非特异性反应.结论检验人精浆特异蛋白P30的免疫胶体金试剂条可对嫌疑人精物质做出排查,有利于法医物证检验.     

DEALERS,THIEVES, AND THE COMMON DETERMINANTS OF DRUG AND NONDRUG ILLEGAL EARNINGS*

Drug crime often is viewed as distinctive from other types of crime, meriting greater or lesser punishment. In view of this special status, this article asks whether and how illegal earnings attainment differs between drug sales and other forms of economic crime. We estimate monthly illegal earnings with fixed‐effects models, based on data from the National Supported Work Demonstration Project and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Although drug sales clearly differ from other types of income‐generating crime, we find few differences in their determinants. For example, the use of cocaine or heroin increases illegal earnings from both drug and nondrug crimes, indicating some degree of fungibility in the sources of illegal income. More generally, the same set of factors—particularly legal and illegal opportunities and embeddedness in criminal and conventional networks—predicts both drug earnings and nondrug illegal earnings.     

Selling stolen goods on the online markets: an explorative study

Historically, criminologists studied theft from different perspectives, but only a few focused their attention on the reselling of stolen items. The advent of the Internet has boosted stolen good markets by facilitating interactions between vendors (thieves and receivers) and buyers. This study, based on 227 cases reported by news sites in 2015 and 2016, focuses on the markets and methods used to sell stolen goods online. The results suggest that the online selling methods are quite independent from existing offline methods. The findings innovate with respect to the typology provided by Sutton. The online markets for stolen goods are rather a new environment where perpetrators may choose among several methods of disposal. The results reflect a preference for resale through classified ads sites (44.24%), auction sale sites (28.11%) and social media (19.35%). In the light of this study, more research is needed to understand online stolen goods markets and their mechanisms.