Helping women understand their risk in situations of intimate partner violence

Only approximately one-half of the 456 women who were killed or almost killed by a husband, boyfriend, or ex-husband or ex-boyfriend in a recent national study of homicide of women accurately perceived their risk of being killed by their abusive partner. Women are unlikely to overestimate their risk; however, many will underestimate the severity of the situation. From the same study, it was found that relatively few of the victims of actual or attempted intimate partner femicide were seen by domestic violence advocates during the year before they were killed; they were far more likely to be seen in the health care system. Implications are drawn as to innovative ways that women who are abused can be identified and with skilled assessment of the danger in their relationship helped make more informed plans for their safety.     

Screening for cocaine metabolite fails to detect an intoxication

Testing for the presence of cocaine (COC) is common in postmortem and clinical laboratories. COC use may be detected by screening urine specimens for COC metabolite. In the forensic arena, screening positive results are confirmed by a more specific and sensitive technique, such as gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. This article reports the case of an individual who died of COC intoxication but whose immunoassay screen (EMIT) for COC metabolite was negative. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis of the urine detected benzoylecgonine (BE) at a concentration of 75 ng/mL and COC at 55 ng/mL. These concentrations explain the negative screening result since the cutoff concentration of the assay was 300 ng/mL for BE. The reported cross reactivity with COC was 25,000 ng/mL. However, heart blood concentrations of COC and BE were 18,330 and 8640 ng/mL, respectively. The results from this case provide evidence that an EMIT test alone may fail to detect COC use. Individuals utilizing results of drug screening by immunoassay must be aware of the limitations of this testing methodology.     

International joint ventures in space: The international space welding experiment

The International Space Welding Experiment (ISWE) was a joint venture between the NASA George C. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama and the E.O. Paton Welding Institute (PWI) in Kiev, Ukraine. ISWE was manifested as an element of the United States Microgravity Payload-4 (USMP-4) to demonstrate the feasibility of space welding as an operational maintenance process. On December 6, 1996, ISWE was demanifested due to conflicts between various experiments vying for limited astronaut EVA opportunities. Current plans include possible manifesting to the Russian space station MIR for welding to be performed by Russian cosmonauts. This paper illustrates the conflicts that can arise when designing and building a set of spaceflight hardware under one set of standards and trying to launch that hardware on another nation's vehicle. Issues which became areas of concern included language/communication, openness, qualification test procedures, material standards, and safety. The significant number of issues identified in this relatively small project in international space cooperation indicates how important it will be to reach a new consensus for conducting future large scale cooperative ventures. Imperative to attaining this consensus is an international conference where all space faring nations mutually develop and agree to a uniform set of standards.     

The distribution of and factors associated with intimate terrorism and situational couple violence among a population-based sample of urban women in the United States

It has been proposed that two distinct forms of intimate partner violence exist: intimate terrorism and situational couple violence. This article describes the distribution of factors that characterize intimate terrorism and situational couple violence, including controlling behaviors, violence escalation, and injury, among a representative sample of 331 physically assaulted women living in 11 North American cities. In addition, respondent, partner, and relationship characteristics associated with each form of violence are identified. Most women who experienced physical assault also experienced controlling behavior by their male partner. In multivariate analyses, respondent's young age, violence escalation in the relationship, partner's access to guns, previous arrests for domestic violence offenses, poor mental health, and previous suicide attempts or threats were associated with intimate terrorism, defined as experiencing one or more controlling behaviors. These results suggest that situational couple violence is rare and that moderate and high levels of controlling behaviors are associated primarily with partner factors.     

Childhood attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) symptoms and adolescent female sexual victimisation: mediating and moderating effects of risky behaviours

Abstract

The mediating effects of risky behaviours on the linkage between childhood attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) symptoms and adolescent sexual victimisation in college women were examined using structural equation modelling (n=374). The moderating effects of timing onset of risky behaviours were also examined. General risky behaviour was not a significant mediator. Rather, findings supported a specificity hypothesis suggesting risky sexual behaviour is a better explanation of the ADHD symptoms–sexual victimisation association than is general risky behaviour. Early onset of alcohol or marijuana use, consensual sexual activity and staying out all night interacted with childhood ADHD symptoms to increase general risky behaviour and sexual risk-taking. We conclude that to understand the risk for sexual victimisation in adolescent females with childhood ADHD symptoms it would be advisable to focus specifically on sexual risk-taking.     

Development and Initial Evaluation of a Suicide Prevention Curriculum for Domestic Violence Hotline Workers

Despite evidence of an intersection between suicide risk and intimate partner violence (IPV), crisis hotlines tend to focus on callers at-risk for suicide or callers involved in IPV, but not both. In an effort to begin to address this gap, we developed and conducted an initial pilot test of a suicide prevention curriculum for hotline workers at the National Domestic Violence Hotline (NDVH), highlighting the intersection of these two public health issues. A mixed methods approach was used as a first step to assess the impact of the 3-h suicide prevention training for 42 domestic violence hotline workers. Results showed significant increase in knowledge regarding suicide risk from pre to post-training and a high degree of satisfaction among attendees. Focus groups conducted with hotline workers 3 months after training indicated a greater willingness to engage callers in suicide screening and prevention efforts. A 6-month follow-up focus group with NDVH managers revealed that suicide prevention had become more integrated in the agency culture, a finding that was consistent with an environmental scan of the workplace that showed an increase in displays of suicide prevention information. In sum, suicide prevention training can be feasibly incorporated into domestic violence hotline workers’ roles. Limitations and suggestions for future studies are discussed.     

A dedicated automated system for extraction, quantification and STR amplification of forensic evidence samples

Forensic DNA analysis is a multi-step process involving extraction of DNA, quantification of human DNA in the extract, amplification using multiplex STR systems, separation of products, and data analysis. The backlog of forensic casework is increasing worldwide. Automation is one significant way to alleviate the bottleneck of sample processing in forensic labs. The HID EVOlution™ Combination System described here is a robust, reliable sample processing platform, easily adapted to forensic laboratory workflows. Using a variety of forensic sample types including: blood stained FTA paper, cotton fabric and denim, dried blood spiked with known PCR inhibitors, saliva on cotton swabs, and semen stains, we found that yields of human DNA and STR profiles obtained with AmpFlSTR^® Idenitfiler^® kits were complete, highly reproducible, and equivalent to results obtained using the manual PrepFiler™ reagent extraction method. Automated operation was clean, and no cross-contamination was detected between extraction blanks and interspersed high DNA content samples.