Murder Followed by Suicide: Filicide–Suicide Mothers in Italy from 1992 to 2010

The international literature shows that in 40–50% of the cases, homicides–suicides involving children under the age of 10 are committed by mothers. Here, we report some results on homicides–suicides, in the mother–child relationship, occurred in Italy between 1992 and 2010. We examined 36 cases of filicide–suicide mothers by consulting the archives of RAI, daily newspapers, and the ANSA news agency. We focused on: mothers and children's age, place of residence, date and place of the murder, number and sex of the murdered children, and modality of the homicide–suicide. At the time of the homicide–suicide, the average age of mothers was 35.4. The number of children killed by each mother was one, except in seven cases. All the women had underestimated psychopathological disorders and only six women were regularly treated. The dynamics and characteristics of the events were much more similar to suicides than homicides, so we can consider them as “extensive suicides.”     

Entrepreneurial performance of principal investigators and country culture: relations and influences

The paper focuses on the role of a country’s culture in influencing the entrepreneurial attitudes of Principal Investigators, in shaping their ability to combine knowledge theory and business practice, in determining their capacity to strengthen the cooperation between the two domains of research and business, and in supporting research spin-off creation in entrepreneurial universities. To make Principal Investigators’ orientation match Entrepreneurial Universities’ goals of the marketing of innovation and entrepreneurship is not an easy task. A research-oriented approach, rather than an explorative entrepreneurial orientation, is still predominant in Principal Investigators. Among the factors influencing the strategic orientation towards entrepreneurship of Principal Investigators, the paper argues that the country’s culture could be key. Evaluating the influence of the entrepreneurial culture on a Principal Investigator’s activity is critical in predicting his performance and comparing it with that of Principal Investigators in other countries.     

National Constitutional Courts in supranational litigation: A contextual analysis

The article examines the role of national constitutional courts in supranational litigation. It firstly illustrates their value and situates well‐known judicial doctrines affecting their jurisdiction in the context of the normative claims, policy agenda and institutional framework promoted by the European Union. Against this background, it gauges the potential of national constitutional courts in countering the process of intergovernmental and technocratic encroachment of national constitutional democracies characterising the most recent evolutionary stages of the European integration process. It is claimed that constitutional courts are in the position of reinforcing, resisting or correcting Union measures with a detrimental impact on national constitutional principles. After having identified in correction the approach more coherent with their constitutional mandate, the article highlights a disturbing paradox: in remaining faithful to their constitutional role, constitutional courts contribute to the sustainability of a comprehensive institutional setting corroding the idea of constitutional democracy on which they are premised.     

Assessment of the Capacity to Express Informed Consent for Organ Donation in Patients with Schizophrenia

Abstract: In Italy, the “silent‐consent” principle of donor’s willingness regulates organ donation for postmortem transplantation, but civil incompetence excludes it. We investigated decisional capacity for organ donation for transplantation of 30 controls and 30 nonincompetent patients with schizophrenia as related to clinical symptoms, cognition, and functioning. Assessments were carried out through the Competence for Donation Assessment Scale (CDAS), Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms (SAPS), Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms, Life Skills Profile (LSP), Raven’s Colored Progressive Matrices (RCPM), Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, Rey RI, Rey RD, and Visual Search. Patients and controls differed on the CDAS Understanding and Choice Expression areas. Patients showed significant inverse bivariate correlations between CDAS Understanding and scores on total BPRS, LSP self‐care scale, and RCPM cognitive test. Our results show that decisional capacity for participating in research does not predict decisional capacity for postmortem organ donation in patients with schizophrenic or schizoaffective psychosis; hence, before judging consent for donation, patients must be provided with enhanced information to better understand this delicate issue.     

A standard procedure for accommodating forensic anthropological and genetic analysis of decomposing human remains from tropical climates

At the Medical Legal Center in Ribeirão Preto, Brazil (CEMEL/FMRP-USP), unidentified decomposing bodies routinely undergo soft tissue removal (by immersion in water at 80–90 °C for 24 h) prior to an anthropological analysis intended to yield a biological profile of age, sex, ancestry, height, pathology and so on. In the event that this analysis is unsuccessful, samples may be submitted for DNA profiling. The tropical climate and the defleshing process may confound preservation, recovery and analysis of DNA, however. In order to establish an optimal standardized protocol for identification of decomposing human remains from a tropical climatic region, the outcome of anthropological and genetic analyses was compared, along with the utility of bone (mainly femur and sternum) and teeth (mainly molar) specimens for DNA analysis. In a sample (n = 39) of partially skeletonized remains, anthropological analysis was sufficient for identification in eight cases. In further six cases, DNA profiling was successfully attempted. As a consequence of our study, we recommend collection of 1–2 well preserved teeth prior to defleshing and anthropological analysis in these circumstances.     

Gay Visibility and the Law in Hong Kong

This article draws on the ‘visual turn’ in legal studies to argue for the centrality of visibility in the analysis of the regulation of gay and lesbian identities, with a specific focus on Hong Kong. Part I gives an overview of the ways in which gay visibility operates within the cityscape of Hong Kong. Parts II and III then focus on the case of Cho Man Kit v. Broadcasting Authority to examine the ways in which questions of visibility emerge in the courtroom.

     

Isolating Target And Neighbourhood Vulnerabilities In Crime Forecasting

Risk terrain modelling (RTM) is emerging as an effective approach for predicting how and where crimes concentrate within cities and regions. However, in its previous applications there is a tendency to overestimate the influence of external environmental risks and preventive factors. Most studies applying RTM have investigated factors associated with the characteristics of the urban setting, whilst only a limited number have focused on identifying the risks associated with the availability and the characteristics of potential targets for criminals. This study uses RTM to identify the spatial risk and protective factors related to residential burglaries in the city of Milan, Italy. Factors considered are the neighbourhood- and target-related contextual factors, the exposure to crime and potential mitigating strategies. The results show that when the place and target of the offence are intrinsically related a target-oriented approach to select factors is useful for increasing the understanding of why some locations are most likely to experience future crimes. Indeed, the peculiarities of the target itself are integral to understan both the decision-making of criminals and the overall level of crime risk. Related policy implications are discussed.     

Real protection for the embryo.

This article fundamentally analyses the current protection that the Italian law offers to the embryo. Likewise, the author, contrary to those who are of the opinion that the embryo is a person subject to law, exposes his polemic theory in which he places the embryo within the scope of things. Specifically, he argues that the embryo has a quasi-personal category. In order to justify this, he analyses the moral and legal history of the statute of the embryo, he makes a difference between the biological life and the legal life. The author establishes that the concept of the person has been and will continue to be a very controversial concept, concluding with a study on the Italian legislation in respect to the protection of the embryo.     

Application of Raman Spectroscopy and Surface‐Enhanced Raman Scattering to the Analysis of Synthetic Dyes Found in Ballpoint Pen Inks*

Abstract: The applicability of Raman spectroscopy and surface‐enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) to the analysis of synthetic dyes commonly found in ballpoint inks was investigated in a comparative study. Spectra of 10 dyes were obtained using a dispersive system (633 nm, 785 nm lasers) and a Fourier transform system (1064 nm laser) under different analytical conditions (e.g., powdered pigments, solutions, thin layer chromatography [TLC] spots). While high fluorescence background and poor spectral quality often characterized the normal Raman spectra of the dyes studied, SERS was found to be generally helpful. Additionally, dye standards and a single ballpoint ink were developed on a TLC plate following a typical ink analysis procedure. SERS spectra were successfully collected directly from the TLC plate, thus demonstrating a possible forensic application for the technique.