An Optimized Centrifugal Method for Separation of Semen from Superabsorbent Polymers for Forensic Analysis

Connection of a perpetrator to a sexual assault is best performed through the confirmed presence of semen, thereby proving sexual contact. Evidentiary items can include sanitary napkins or diapers containing superabsorbent polymers (SAPs), complicating spermatozoa visualization and DNA analysis. In this report, we evaluated the impact of SAPS on the current forensic DNA workflow, developing an efficient centrifugal protocol for separating spermatozoa from SAP material. The optimized filtration method was compared to common practices of excising the top layer only, resulting in significantly higher sperm yields when a core sample of the substrate was taken. Direct isolation of the SAP‐containing materials without filtering resulted in 20% sample failure; additionally, SAP material was observed in the final eluted DNA samples, causing physical interference. Thus, use of the described centrifugal‐filtering method is a simple preliminary step that improves spermatozoa visualization and enables more consistent DNA yields, while also avoiding SAP interference.     

Advocacy Perspectives on the Greenbook: Interviews with Domestic Violence Advocates from Three Federally Funded Greenbook Sites

Between 2000 and 2005, six sites engaged in local implementation of recommendations made in Effective Intervention in Domestic Violence and Child Maltreatment: Guidelines for Policy and Practice (the Greenbook), published by the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges in 1999. This three‐part article reflects recorded conversations in June and July of 2019 and captures the perspectives of five domestic violence advocates who participated in local Greenbook implementation (in El Paso County, CO; San Francisco County, CA; or Santa Clara County, CA) and their thoughts on the Greenbook work then, since then, and going forward.     

Chill out! Mooting and the affective domain

A vital aspect of successful advocacy is effective engagement by the advocate with the Bench. However, even where mooters have innate skills and talents, they are susceptible to sub-optimal performance where anxiety impedes their transition from innate skill to competition. Stage fright is common in many fields where public performance of a repertoire is the crucial and determinative measure of achievement. However, while anxiety is an inevitable, and often negative, aspect of any performance, there is in fact a range of anxietal intensity that is conducive to optimal performance. Assisting future advocates to recognise their optimal level of anxiety, and manage their anxiety throughout the preparation and participation phases of moot competitions is a significant role for the moot coach. This article explores anxiety as a principal artefact of the affective domain, its relevance to advocacy, and proposes a model against which moot coaches can frame preparation of mooting teams against a principled construct of the anxiety/mooting relationship. In so doing, it positions the affective domain as it relates to mooting in context with the cognitive and psychomotor domains.     

Traumatic brain injury in a forensic intellectual disability population

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) screening in forensic populations has been recommended, due to a high prevalence, links to specific offence profiles and poorer outcomes, such as higher rates of psychiatric disturbance, longer stays in prison, and reoffending. Research focusing on TBI among offenders with intellectual disability (ID) is lacking. This study therefore describes the implementation of TBI screening using the Brain Injury Screening Index (BISI©), TBI prevalence and correlates in a forensic ID service. TBI appeared under recorded in case notes, with considerably more patients self-reporting TBI. Reported causes of TBI differed somewhat to the general population, including childhood physical abuse, self-harming behaviour, and assault. Approximately one-third of injuries did not receive any treatment. Though further adaptations may be required on current screening measures for TBI in offenders with ID, screening can provide valuable information, contributing positively to individual patient therapeutic and risk formulations.     

An Investigation of Personality Traits in Relation to Adolescent School Absenteeism

We examined the Big Five personality traits of Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, Extraversion, and Openness, as well as four narrower traits of Aggression, Optimism, Tough-Mindedness, and Work Drive in relation to absences from school for middle- and high-school students. Participants were 248 seventh grade students, 321 tenth grade students, and 282 twelfth grade students. Most of the Big Five absence correlations were significant in the expected direction at all 3 grade levels. While Aggression, Optimism, Work Drive were significantly related to absences, only Work Drive added incremental variance to the prediction of absences beyond the Big Five traits. Study results were generally similar across grade levels. Findings were discussed in terms of dispositional absenteeism, the generalizability of the Big Five trait model, and the utility of more narrowband traits. Implications were drawn for early identification of absence-prone students and the precedent role of personality variables in school absence research on the effects of other variables, programs, and interventions.     

Adolescents’ Experiences of Victimization: The Role of Attribution Style and Generalized Trust

Positive attribution style, negative attribution style, and generalized peer trust beliefs were examined as mediators in the relationship between adolescents’ peer victimization experiences and psychosocial and school adjustment. A total of 280 (150 female and 130 males, M_age = 13 years 4 months, SD_age = 1 year 1 month) adolescents completed measures of peer victimization, global self-worth, depressive symptoms, social confidence, school liking, loneliness, attribution styles, and generalized trust beliefs. Multigroup path analysis revealed that: (a) negative attribution style mediated the relationship between cyber victimization and school liking and depressive symptoms for males and females; (b) positive attribution style mediated the relationship between cyber victimization, school liking, global self-worth, and depressive symptoms for females; and (c) generalized peer trust beliefs mediated the relationship between social victimization, depressive symptoms, social confidence, and loneliness for females. Consequently, attribution style and generalized trust beliefs differentially influence the relationship between peer victimization and adjustment.     

Chemical composition and structure of the microcrystals formed between silver(I) and gamma-hydroxybutyric acid and gamma-hydroxyvaleric acid

This study examined microcrystals formed by silver with gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) and gamma-hydroxyvaleric acid (GHV), the five-carbon analog of GHB, in the presence of silver, copper, and lanthanide nitrates. Distinct microcrystals formed with silver (+1) and lanthanum (+3) ions but not with the copper (+2) ions. The crystals formed with GHB were distinctly different than those formed with GHV and in all cases, the drug microcrystals were easily distinguishable from reagent crystals. X-ray diffraction analysis provided definitive structure for the microcrystals. The morphological differences between the silver-GHB and silver-GHV crystals were characterized using simple measurements such as size and angles provided by image recognition software. The utility of the test for casework was demonstrated using spiked beverage samples.     

Reviews

Wendy Brown, States of Injury: Power and Freedom in Late Modernity (Princeton University Press) Princeton, New Jersey, 1995

Anne Edwards and Susan Magarey (eds), Women in a Restructuring Australia: Work and Welfare (Allen & Unwin) St Leonards, NSW, 1994.

Tanya Castleman, Margaret Allen, Wendy Bastalich and Patrick Wright, Limited Access: Women's Disadvantage in Higher Education Employment (National Tertiary Education Union) Melbourne, 1995.

Wendy Weeks (in collaboration with women in women services), Women Working Together: Lessons from Feminist Women's Services (Longman Cheshire) Melbourne, 1993.

Shurlee Swain with Renate Howe, Single Mothers and Their Children: Disposal, Punishment and Survival in Australia (Cambridge University Press) Cambridge, 1995.

Kathleen Barry, The Prostitution of Sexuality (New York University Press) New York, 1995.

Susanne Kappeler, The Will to Violence: The Politics of Personal Behaviour (Spinifex) Melbourne, 1995.

Jill Bavin‐Mizzi, Ravished: Sexual Violence in Victorian Australia (University of New South Wales Press) Sydney, 1995.

Leonore Davidoff, Worlds Between: Historical Perspectives on Gender and Class (Polity Press) Cambridge, 1995.

Alison Lewis, Subverting Patriarchy: Feminism and Fantasy in the Works of Irmtraud Morgner (Berg) Oxford, 1995.

Adrian Howe, Punish and Critique: Towards a Feminist Analysis of Penality (Routledge) London, 1994.

Susan Joekes and Ann Weston, Women and the New Trade Agenda (UNIFEM) New York, 1994.

Ruth Frankenberg, White Women, Race Matters: The Social Construction of Whiteness (Routledge) London, 1993.