Traffic accident vs homicide: The contribution of DNA analysis to clarify this mystery. A case report

A marriage procession was going through the road when the vehicle met with a fatal accident and the wife of the driver died. The autopsy revealed lesions according with fatal traffic accident. But, a second autopsy revealed that there were injuries, but it was not reported in the first autopsy protocol. We analyze several autosomal STRs to typify some evidences collected inside the vehicle of traffic accident which were stained by the blood of the woman mortal victim. The results of the analysis of DNA suggested that the victim bled inside the vehicle and died and then, she was placed on the pavement and her husband simulated an accident.     

Excessive Prices: Using Economics to Define Administrable Legal Rules

European competition laws condemn as ‘exploitative abuses’the pricing policies of dominant firms that may result in adirect loss of consumer welfare. Article 82(a) of the EC Treaty,for example, expressly states that imposing ‘unfair’prices on consumers by dominant suppliers constitutes an abuse.Several firms have been found to abuse their dominant positionsby charging excessive prices in cases brought by the EuropeanCommission and the competition authorities of several MemberStates. Those cases show that the assessment of excessive pricingis subject to substantial conceptual and practical difficulties,and that any policy that seeks to detect and prohibit excessiveprices is likely to yield incorrect predictions in numerousinstances. In this paper, we evaluate the pros and cons of alternativelegal standards towards excessive pricing by explicitly consideringthe likelihood of false convictions/acquittals and the costsassociated with those errors. We find that the legal standardthat maximizes long-term consumer welfare, given the informationtypically available to regulators, would involve no ex postintervention on the pricing decisions of dominant firms. A possibleexception to this general rule is discussed.     

Poly- and Distinct- Victimization in Histories of Violence Against Women

We report results from pre-testing an Europe-wide Survey on Violence against Women. A questionnaire on women’s experiences of stalking, harassment, psychological, physical, and sexual violence by non-, ex-, and current partners was tested on 10 known victims of violence in intimate relations and 20 randomly selected women. Multiple Correspondence Analysis uncovered two profiles of victimization: women poly-victimized in multiple life ambits and women distinctly victimized in only some of them. Known-victims of intimate partner’s violence (IPV) were more likely to be poly-victimized than randomly selected women. Heterogeneity in women’s socio-economic conditions could only partly account for IPV’s over-representation among poly-victimized women. This gave more credence to an interpretation that highlights the role played by previous traumatic experiences of victimization on re-victimization.     

Corporate lobbying and political contributions and their effects on tax avoidance

This study looks at the impact of U.S. lobbying and political contributions on taxes avoided by U.S. publicly traded corporations. Previous research provides mixed conclusions about the effects when examined separately. Looking at political contributions and lobbying contributions simultaneously displays the larger picture. I find that lobbying expenditures and political contributions both lead to lower future taxes, but those political contributions are more effective in reducing taxes paid from what would be expected given the federal statutory rate. This study contributes to the literature in several ways. First, it provides empirical evidence on the positive effects of lobbying contributions and political contributions on taxes avoided. Second, the results of this study are particularly useful for future research following the U.S. Citizens United ruling that affects corporate lobbying and political contributions. Third, differing from previous research, I build a simultaneous equation model to jointly determine the link among lobbying contributions, political contributions, and taxes avoided addressing the endogeneity issues of those relationships. These insights can help firms, policy makers, and public affairs researchers understand the connection between contributions and tax avoidance.     

Discriminant function analysis for sex assessment in pelvic girdle bones: sample from the contemporary Mexican population

Sex assessment of skeletal remains plays an important role in forensic anthropology. The pelvic bones are the most studied part of the postcranial skeleton for the assessment of sex. It is evident that a population-specific approach improves rates of accuracy within the group. The present study proposes a discriminant function method for the sex assessment of skeletal remains from a contemporary Mexican population. A total of 146 adult human pelvic bones (61 females and 85 males) from the skeletal series pertaining to the National Autonomous University of Mexico were evaluated. Twenty-four direct metrical parameters of coxal and sacral bones were measured and subsequently, sides and sex differences were evaluated, applying a stepwise discriminant function analysis. Coxal and sacra functions achieved accuracies of 99% and 87%, respectively. These analyses follow a population-specific approach; nevertheless, we consider that our results are applicable to any other Hispanic samples for purposes of forensic human identification.