An examination of program integrity and recidivism of a cognitive-behavioral program for incarcerated youth in The Netherlands

The present study examined whether the cognitive behavioral program EQUIP for incarcerated youth would reduce recidivism and whether higher levels of program integrity – the extent to which a program is implemented as intended – would strengthen the effectiveness of EQUIP on recidivism. Program integrity was measured using a multifaceted program integrity instrument assessing the level of exposure, adherence, participant responsiveness, and quality of delivery. Participants (N = 133) were recruited from five juvenile correctional facilities in the Netherlands. The EQUIP program was implemented with low to moderate levels of program integrity (M = 54%). No differences were found between the experimental and control group in the prevalence, frequency, and seriousness of recidivism. In addition, within the experimental group, program integrity did not strengthen the effectiveness of EQUIP on the prevalence, frequency, and seriousness of recidivism. With these low-to-moderate levels of program integrity EQUIP did not reduce recidivism.     

Formalized Policy Entrepreneurship as a Governance Tool for Policy Integration

Policy entrepreneurs and their role for policy change, policy integration and cross-cutting governance has been thoroughly investigated. Here, focus is on a previously neglected aspect of policy entrepreneurship: the tendency to employ public bureaucrats with formal positions to act as policy entrepreneurs for policy integration. Based on 34 interviews with these actors in the Swedish local and regional government, three versions of this formalized policy entrepreneurship are identified: Informal compensation for formal vertical flaws, Making others do things and Integration in the vertical formal organization. These versions of formalized policy entrepreneurship brings a deeper understanding to the development of governance for policy integration, and also to the policy entrepreneurial role in the political-administrative organization.     

War as a pretext to wave the rule of law goodbye? The case for an EU constitutional awakening

The war in Ukraine triggered significant changes at the European Union level. The speed at which the EU has achieved progress on sanctions, migration and defense is particularly impressive. But the Russian aggression against Ukraine has also served as a pretext for putting aside internal discussions about the rule of law, and provided additional political rationales for inaction against Member State governments responsible for the violation of European values, as well as triggered the deepening of double standards in several fields. Against this background, the paper argues that using this crisis as a justification for further inaction in the context of EU values is not a sustainable course of action. The Union must not delay further the need to act to halt the insidious erosion of democracy and the rule of law within its own borders both at the national and supranational level.     

Morphometric Analysis of the Neurocranium in an Adult South African Cadaveric Sample,

Craniometric studies of South Africans yield high accuracies of sex and ancestry classification, but most assess only inter‐group variation of Black and White individuals, excluding the highly heterogeneous Colored group, which constitute a significant proportion of the population. This study applied a geometric morphometric approach to the neurocrania of 774 Black, Colored, and White individuals to assess sex and ancestry estimation accuracy based on the detected morphological variation. Accuracies of 70% and 83% were achieved for sex and ancestry, respectively, with ancestry‐related variation contributing the largest proportion of overall observed variation. Even when comparing the closely related Black and Colored groups, relatively high accuracies were obtained. It is thus recommended that a similar approach be used to develop a contemporary three‐dimensional database, which can be used to objectively, reliably, and accurately classify unknown remains in the South African forensic context.     

Violence risk profile of medium- and high-security NGRI offenders in Belgium

Under Belgian law, offenders not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI) are committed by the courts to forensic mental health treatment. The use of violence risk assessment tools has become routine in these settings. However, there are no national statistics regarding violence risk assessment in the Belgian forensic population. A study was undertaken to collect risk assessment data (PCL-R, VRAG, HCR-20) on a large cohort of forensic patients committed to Medium Security units in the Flanders region and in High-Security units in the Walloon region. Flemish patients were expected to present a lower risk compared with their Walloon counterparts. Instead, data yielded by a structured risk assessment method demonstrate the opposite. Moreover, the majority of patients in Flemish facilities had committed violent offenses and were institutionalized for shorter periods whereas the majority of Walloon patients had committed sexual offenses and were institutionalized for markedly longer periods.     

Cardiovascular malformations and sudden death in infancy

BACKGROUND: We survey the postmortem findings of cardiovascular malformations in infants under the age of 1 year who died suddenly and unexpectedly, in a way that mimicked sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), and evaluate the importance of the malformation for the fatal outcome. METHODS: Four hundred fifty-seven infants under the age of 1 year, who died between 1982 and 2001, were investigated at the Department of Forensic Medicine in Stockholm, Sweden. RESULTS: Cardiovascular malformations were found in 18 infants (3.9%). Only 6 of 18 malformations, mostly severe, were clinically diagnosed before death. In the other 12 infants, cardiovascular malformations were found, such as atrial or ventricular septal defects, coarctation of aorta, stenosis of the aortic or pulmonary artery orifice, and aneurysm of the membranous portion of the interventricular septum. In all instances, the heart weight was increased. CONCLUSIONS: The observation of undiagnosed cardiovascular malformations as the only explanation for the cause of sudden and unexpected death in apparently healthy infants may advocate more examinations of the infant during early life. It is also important to enlarge the debate of the cause of death in infants with cardiovascular malformations. Should they be included in borderline SIDS?     

Systematic study on STR profiling on blood and saliva traces after visualization of fingerprint marks

This paper describes a systematic study of the influence of optical, physical, and chemical methods used for fingerprint enhancement on subsequent DNA analysis of biological stains. Latent fingerprints as well as fingerprints in contact with blood and saliva on different surfaces were treated with dactyloscopic methods. As a general finding, subsequent STR profiling of the blood/saliva traces led to good results after all the enhancement methods included in this study. Concerning blood enhancement procedures, the airbrush technique showed deleterious effects on subsequent STR analysis in some cases. We therefore recommend the implementation of the layer technique, as it brings advantages for fingerprint enhancement as well. It could also be shown that, as can be necessary in practical casework, two enhancement methods can be performed on a single stain without having influence on STR profiling. In terms of methodological variety, this paper reflects a comprehensive study performed on STR profiling after fingerprint enhancement methods, including rare methods and variations of techniques, which can be a useful alternative in certain case scenarios.     

Ecstasy--deadly risk even outside rave parties

Fatalities due to 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, "ecstasy") are rare in Austria, although the use of designer drugs has become quite common. This is the first published case of a fatal MDMA intoxication in Austria. A 19-year-old girl died after the consumption of ecstasy tablets in the apartment of a friend. Blood analysis gave a concentration of MDMA as 3.8 mg/L and traces of its metabolite MDA. Cannabinoids were found as well. This case shows that the consumption of MDMA, without physical stress, can lead to death.