Dangerousness of civil commitment candidates

This study followed a large, statewide sample of civil commitment candidates both in and out of the hospital for 6 months following their postcourt hearings to determine their postcourt dangerousness. It objectively measures dangerousness by dividing it into five legal components of behavior: (1) type, (2) object, (3) frequency, (4) weapon/means, and (5) severity of outcome. Using data from ward charts, readmission evaluations, recommitment affidavits, and arrest and community mental health center records, it describes candidates' dangerousness in terms of those, five components and compares that dangerousness with the alleged dangerous behavior that brought them into the civil commitment process. It finds that candidates do not tend to be dangerous in the 6 months following their court hearings.     

Suicide to harass others: clues from mythology to understanding suicide bombing attacks

Suicide by revenge, the Samsonic suicide, and the suicide by devotio, all described in classical mythology and also reported in the ethnographic literature, belong to the same class of suicidal behaviors as kamikaze suicide and the suicide bombing attack: suicide to harass and burden others or suicide with a hostile intent. The lack of a social dimension to share in a positive manner may lead an individual to integrate him/herself in another social structure, e.g., a military organization, which allows the individual to express his/her desires and personal identity only by destroying others and themselves. The dynamics of these forms of suicide are also likely to work in other displays of life-threatening behavior, such as family annihilation, mass murder, and spree killing. A more thorough investigation of the dynamics operating in suicide bombing attacks could, therefore, contribute to preventative strategies against violence at large.     

Racemization of aspartic acid from human dentin in the estimation of chronological age

The estimation of chronological age in cadavers, human remains and in living human beings by various methods is discussed. These methods, which are based on the age dependent non-enzymatic changes of l-form amino acids to d-form amino acids, mainly aspartic acid, are among the most reliable and accurate methods to date. Most of these methods use gas chromatography (GC). In this review, results of aspartic acid racemization in dentin at different targets are discussed. In addition, pre-considerations and guidelines are given for the selection of dentin from teeth. A pilot project was run to evaluate the efficiency of high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with fluorescence detection. New buffer conditions were found to obtain stable derivatives of aspartic acid enantiomers for the estimation of racemization.     

An evaluation of matching unknown writing inks with the United States International Ink Library

Utilizing a database of standards for forensic casework is a valuable resource. Undoubtedly, as more standards (and corresponding information about the specimens) are collected, there is a greater certainty of identification when a questioned and a known item cannot be distinguished after a series of analyses. The United States Secret Service and the Internal Revenue Service National Forensic Laboratory jointly maintain the largest known forensic collection of writing inks in the world, which is comprised of over 8500 ink standards collected worldwide, dating back to the 1920s. This study was conducted to evaluate the reliability of matching arbitrarily purchased pens with known inks from a database. One hundred pens were randomly obtained from a variety of sources and their respective ink compositions were compared with standards. Eighty-five of the inks were determined to be suitable for comparison utilizing optical examinations and thin-layer chromatography. Three of the inks did not match any of the specimens on record; one of these inks was similar to an ink from an identical brand of pen that was in the database, but had a modified formulation.     

A forensic entomology case from the Amazon rain forest of Brazil

The first case of application of forensic entomology in the Brazilian Amazonia is described. The corpses of 26 men were found in the rainforest in Rondonia State, Brazil. Fly larvae collected on the bodies during autopsy were identified as Paralucilia fulvinota (Diptera, Calliphoridae). No data or specimens were collected at the crime scene. At the laboratory, the larvae developed into pupae in 58 h and into adults in 110.5 h. The total development time for P. fulvinota was measured in field experiments inside the forest. The age of the larvae when collected from the bodies was estimated as the difference between the time required for them to become adults and the total development time for this species. The estimated age of the maggots and the minimum postmortem interval was 5.7 days.     

Mental Health Court Outcomes: A Comparison of Re-Arrest and Re-Arrest Severity Between Mental Health Court and Traditional Court Participants

Mental health courts have been proliferating across the country since their establishment in the late 1990's. Although numerous advocates have proclaimed their merit, only few empirical studies have evaluated their outcomes. This paper evaluates the effect of one mental health court on criminal justice outcomes by examining arrests and offense severity from one year before to one year after entry into the court, and by comparing mental health court participants to comparable traditional criminal court defendants on these measures. Multivariate models support the prediction that mental health courts reduce the number of new arrests and the severity of such re-arrests among mentally ill offenders. Similar analysis of mental health court completers and non-completers supports the prediction that a "full dose" of mental health treatment and court monitoring produce even fewer re-arrests.     

Further evidence of the validity of the Suicide Risk Assessment Scale for prisoners

The Suicide Risk Assessment Scale (SRAS; nine items) is useful in correctional settings but needed further validation. First, 44 inmates originally screened as suicidal with the SRAS were evaluated by institutional psychologists according to five criteria: suicidal urgency, risk, appropriateness of referral, need for short- or long-term watch. On the whole, the SRAS was judged to be as effective as a more elaborate test. Second, 242 suicidal and non-suicidal inmates were tested with the SRAS. Their results correlated better with suicidal risk (.71) than with urgency (.50). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis even showed that the SRAS performed better than a more elaborate test in predicting risk.