A prospective analysis of the relationship between childhood sexual victimization and perpetration of dating violence and sexual assault in adulthood

The majority of studies evaluating the relationship between childhood sexual assault and subsequent sexual assault perpetration by men have been conducted retrospectively and with incarcerated populations. The present study seeks to improve on previous research by prospectively investigating the relationship between childhood sexual assault and subsequent perpetration of dating violence in adulthood in men. Although there is a significant relationship between childhood sexual abuse and history of sexual assault perpetration at baseline, prospective analyses indicate that childhood sexual assault is not predictive of perpetration during the follow-up period. The role of family factors, including parental conflict resolution, is implicated in subsequent sexual aggression. These results are supportive of the idea that the effects of childhood sexual abuse may be mediated by a variety of factors.     

Violent Sex Offenses: How are They Best Measured from Official Records?

In the United States, sexually violent predator (SVP) commitment statutes generally require assessment of an offender's risk of subsequent sexual violence. Current actuarial methods for predicting sexual reoffending were actually designed to predict something else—charges or convictions for offenses deemed sexual based on information obtained from police “rapsheets” alone. This study examined the referral and past offenses of 177 sex offenders. Results showed that police rapsheets (and data based on them) underestimated the number and severity of sexually motivated violent offenses for which sex offenders were actually apprehended. Rapsheet violent offenses seemed a more accurate index of the conduct addressed by SVP legislation than were rapsheet sex offenses. We suggest that, when evaluating sex offenders for SVP status, actuarial instruments designed to predict violent recidivism (as measured by rapsheet violent reoffenses) might be preferable to those designed to predict sexual recidivism (as measured by rapsheet sexual reoffenses).

Intellectual disability and mental illness in the NSW criminal justice system

There has been increasing international, national and local recognition of the need for more appropriate responses and services for individuals who come in contact with the criminal justice system and who have an intellectual disability and mental health issues. This article provides an overview of prevalence data that indicates a significant over representation of people with intellectual disabilities in correctional facilities and reviews the problems facing this population. Findings from two specific evaluation studies undertaken by the Centre for Developmental Disability Studies are presented, along with recommendations for future provision based on these results. One of these projects trialled a case management approach to supporting offenders with an intellectual disability upon their release from prison. The 20-month follow-up found that a number of serious barriers were encountered within the overall system of provision for this population; the most serious of which related to lack of adequate accommodation upon release. The second project involved a two-stage evaluation of one model of provision for individuals with intellectual disabilities who are sex offenders, only some of whom were on parole. This service provided both residential and therapy services in a small group home located in the community. Residents were found to have high levels of emotional and behavioural difficulties, in addition to offending behaviour, that continue to require support and supervision. Critical issues, including guardianship involvement, restrictive practices and retrieval, therapy provision, and risk management issues are discussed in relation to overall clinical and lifestyle outcomes.     

Discrepancies between forensic identification kits explained by a laser power supply shutdown

The occurrence of two null alleles for the same individual was suspected because of the discrepancy at two loci (vWA and THO1) between genotypes characterized by the mean of two different commercial kits. Reanalysis of the samples indicated there was no null allele, and that this abnormality was indeed related to an automatic laser power shutdown. The laser power supply was set to a value (6.4V) too close to the automatic shutdown threshold (6.0V). The alleles were undetected because of the absence of emission at the time of migration of the two alleles through the detection device. However, since no alarm is triggered in such an event, the users should monitor their laser power supply values.     

Love and Communism: Jean-Luc Nancy’s Shattered Community

This paper takes as is its point of departure Jean-Luc Nancy’s argument that the occidental idea of community in the modern era has always meant a kind of project or work whose intention was to glorify death in order to redeem and make it meaningful. It does so in order to return the community to its self-identity; to inter or assimilate what intrudes. In so doing, it also produces us as beings who cast this glorious lost past retrospectively. Recalling a lost original communalism, then, is not only politically dangerous, it is a symptom: it operates as a kind of compensatory reinstatement of an imaginary lost unity. On this view, casting ‘back’ to a glorious communal past must not only be resisted on political grounds, it also provides, as a symptom, a way to undertake that resistance. In this paper, I investigate a narrow dimension of Nancy’s strategy for resisting this lure: Nancy’s notion of shattering reveals that the ‘lost object’ of community is a melancholically interred, narcissistically invested retroactive creation of the very work of mourning he resists and re-thinks. The work of mourning on this view, can itself only be resisted by a certain disouevrement or unworking.     

Trace detection of meglumine and diatrizoate from Bacillus spore samples using liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry

Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, letters containing Bacillus anthracis were distributed through the United States postal system killing five people. A complex forensic investigation commenced to identify the perpetrator of these mailings. A novel liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry protocol for the qualitative detection of trace levels of meglumine and diatrizoate in dried spore preparations of B. anthracis was developed. Meglumine and diatrizoate are components of radiographic imaging products that have been used to purify bacterial spores. Two separate chromatographic assays using multiple mass spectrometric analyses were developed for the detection of meglumine and diatrizoate. The assays achieved limits of detection for meglumine and diatrizoate of 1.00 and 10.0 ng/mL, respectively. Bacillus cereus T strain spores were effectively used as a surrogate for B. anthracis spores during method development and validation. This protocol was successfully applied to limited evidentiary B. anthracis spore material, providing probative information to the investigators.     

Exploration of the Cyberbullying Victim/Offender Overlap by Sex

As usage of the Internet has grown to approximately 657 million users worldwide, criminality online has become more prevalent. Termed “cybercrime,” this form of criminal behavior can occur in several different. While cybercrime in general is fairly new comparably to crimes in the physical realm, one of the most recently recognized forms of cybercrime is cyberbullying. The present study will examine the victimoffender relationship. Results indicate that both males and females with lower levels of self-control were more likely to participate in cyberbullying by posting hurtful messages or pictures to Facebook. Second, both sexes were more likely to cyerbullying via Facebook if they had been cyberbullied as well.