Computer crime enforcement in Texas: Funding,training, and investigating problems

As a new challenge to law enforcement, computer crime has recently received increasing attention from law enforcement and government officials. However, most writings about this issue are not empirical. This study fills this void by examining the attitudes of computer crime officers in Texas in two areas: general problems in dealing with computer crime, and the impact of demographic and institutional support factors on officers' attitudes. The results are: (1) more budgetary support and training are needed; (2) lack of computer skill/knowledge is the most problematic for computer investigations/forensics; (3) the idea of cooperating and sharing resources has already been utilized; and (4) officers understand the complexity of computer crime but are uncertain about its seriousness. The size of the city and whether the departments have a computer crime unit are the most significant factors that impact officers' attitudes toward the need for institutional support. This study suggests four elements (officers' attitude, institutional support, personnel, and network) that are important to successfully combat against computer crime; these elements need to be included in the development and implementation of both short-term and medium-term plans. Authors' Note: Dr. Sutham Cheurprakobkit is Associate Professor of Criminal Justice in the Department of Sociology, Geography, and Anthropology, Kennesaw State University, 1000 Chastain Road, Kennesaw, GA 30144. Gloria Pena is a criminology major at The University of Texas of the Permian Basin, Odessa, TX 79762.     

Quality of Laypersons' Assessment of Forensically Relevant Stimuli,

The current study examined the potential for cognitive bias in lay examiners' comparisons of footwear impressions within the technical review process while addressing limitations of previous research. Prior research has found inconsistent results regarding the extent to which cognitive bias may influence forensic comparisons, often asking non-experts to review forensic stimuli above their competency level. Furthermore, past research has largely ignored the potential for cognitive bias during the technical review process. In collaboration with the Miami-Dade Police Department's Forensic Services Bureau, we examined the effects of previous examiners' level of experience and prior knowledge of the previous examiner's decision on the technical review stage of footwear impression stimuli. Before lay examiners were presented with pairs of known match and nonmatch footwear impressions, they were either told that an expert or a novice had previously examined them and determined them to be either a match, nonmatch, or inconclusive (plus a no-information condition). Participants then evaluated each pair of footwear impressions to make their own determinations of match, nonmatch, or inconclusive. Results support the technical review process for all decision types, as known nonmatch stimuli were generally more difficult for lay examiners to assess than known match stimuli. Knowledge of a prior examiner's decision and status was observed only when the prior decision was inconclusive, suggesting the need for inclusion of inconclusive decisions in future research examining cognitive bias in forensic examination.     

Literary reviews

Thinly‐veiled autobiography

The Enigma of Arrival. V S Naipaul, London: Viking. 1987. 318pp. £10.95hb

Unmasking Mexico

The Good Conscience. Carlos Fuentes, London: André Deutsch. 1986. 148pp. £8.95hb/£3.95pb

A Change of Skin. Carlos Fuentes, London: André Deutsch. 1986. 462pp. £6.95pb

The Old Gringo. Carlos Fuentes, London: André Deutsch. 1986. 199pp. £8.95

Alternative realities: novels from Brazil

Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands. Jorge Amado, London: Serpent's Tail. 1986. 553pp

High Art. Rubem Fonseca, London: William Collins Sons. 1987. 345pp. £9.95

Maíra. Darcy Ribeiro, London: Picador, Pan Books, 1985. 353pp. £3.50

Perceptions of Nicaragua

To Bury Our Fathers. Sergio Ramirez, London: Readers International. 1984. 253pp. £5.95pb

Stories. Sergio Ramirez, London: Readers International. 1986. 118pp. £3.95pb

The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey. Salman Rushdie, London: Picador. 1987. 171pp. £2.95pb

The double yoke: women's writing from the Third World

Other Fires: Stories from the Women of Latin America. Edited by Alberto Manguel, London: Picador. 1986. 222pp. £3.50pb

Unheard Words: Women and Literature in Africa, The Arab World, Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America. Edited by Mineke Schipper, London and New York: Allison and Busby. 1985. 288pp. £4.95pb

A Double Colonization: Colonial and Post‐Colonial Women's Writing. Edited by Kirsten Hoist Petersen & Anna Rutherford London: Dangaroo Press. 1986. 188pp. £15.95hb/£8.95pb

Future landscapes

A Sport of Nature. Nadine Gordimer, London: Jonathan Cape. 1987. 396pp. £10.95hb

A Land Apart: A South African Reader. Edited by André Brink and J M Coetzee, London: Faber and Faber. 1986. 256pp. £9.50hb

Satires of class and power

Out of India. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, London: John Murray. 1987. 288pp. £10.95hb

Rich Like Us. Nayantara Sahgal, London: Hodder and Stoughton. 1987. 268pp. £3.95pb

The oil of acceptance

Talkative Man. R K Narayan, London: William Heinemann. 1986. 123pp. £7.95hb

Occupied Palestine: the writer as eyewitness

The Secret Life of Saeed: The Pessoptimist. Emile Habiby, London: Zed. 1985. 169pp. £9.95hb/£3.95pb

Wild Thorns. Sahar Khalifeh, London: Al Saqi. 1985. 207pp. £3.95pb

Poetry and politics

Modern Poetry of the Arab World. Translated and edited by Abdullah al‐Udhari, London: Penguin. 1986. 154pp. £3.95pb

Spanning Muslim Literature

The Worlds of Muslim Imagination. Edited by Alamgir Hashmi, Islamabad: Gulmohar. 1986. 270pp. $12.95hb

Pakistani Literature. Edited by Alamgir Hashmi, Islamabad: Gulmohar. 1987. 107pp. $10.00hb     

DNA profile evidence in complex disputed paternity cases: The analysis of 300 real cases

In disputed paternity cases where the putative father is unavailable DNA from one or more of his relatives could be used. However, interpreting results is often difficult, because of the partial information regarding the parental genotype obtained from his relatives. We analyzed results obtained in 300 real paternity cases performed through close relatives of the real father (sib, half-sibs, one grandparent and/or uncle). DNA was typed with PowerPlex (Promega) and the LR estimated with the Software BDGen. As expected the higher LR values were achieved with sibs and half-sibs (in such cases where his/her mother was available for testing). The LR values were tight related to the number of uninformative loci, which varied between 0 and 13. In 10% of the reviewed cases, 10 or more non-informative loci were observed; all of them associated LR values below 0.01. Thus, providing evidence in favor of no relatedness.     

The 2000-2001 GEP-ISFG Collaborative Exercise on mtDNA: assessing the cause of unsuccessful mtDNA PCR amplification of hair shaft samples

We report the results of Spanish and Portuguese working group (GEP) of International Society of Forensic Genetics (ISFG) Collaborative Exercise 2001-2002 on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis. 64 laboratories from Spain, Portugal and several Latin-American countries participated in this quality control exercise. Five samples were sent to the participating laboratories, four blood stains (M1-M4) and a sample (M5) consisting of two hair shaft fragments. M4 was non-human (Felis catus) in origin; therefore, the capacity of the labs to identify the biological source of this sample was an integral part of the exercise. Some labs detected the non-human origin of M4 by carrying out immuno-diffussion techniques using antihuman serum, whereas others identified the specific animal origin by testing the sample against a set of animal antibodies or by means of the analysis of mtDNA regions (Cyt-b, 12S, and 16S genes). The results of the other three human blood stains (M1-M3) improved in relation to the last Collaborative Exercises but those related to hairs yielded a low rate of success which clearly contrasts with previous results. As a consequence of this, some labs performed additional analysis showing that the origin of this low efficiency was not the presence of inhibitors, but the low quantity of DNA present in these specific hair samples and the degradation.As a general conclusion the results emphasize the need of external proficiency testing as part of the accreditation procedure for the labs performing mtDNA analysis in forensic casework.     

Automatic cost-of-living adjustments and the structural federal budget deficit

The mounting budget deficit is both economically and politically in supportable Projections of the unified federal budget deficit and the structural unified federal budget deficit and the structural deficit and the structural deficit converge in the next few years, indicating that nearly all of the deficit is the result of policy choices.

Efforts to significantly reduce the deficit must focus on the largest componenet of federal spending, entitlements such as social security, federal retirements, and medicare. Entitlements account for 45 percent of federal spending. About two-thirds of the growth in these programs arises from automatic cost of living adjustments (COLAs). Each one percent COLA increase adds $23 billion to the deficit over the next two decades.

It is debated whether COLA restraint should be included in deficit reduction efforts. Advocatesargue that COLAs are a major cause of deficits , tha trestraint is fair after a decade in which benefits grewfaster than in flation and wages, and that restraint improves the solvency of major programs. COLA restraint also reduces the deficit quickly, spread s the burden of deficit reduction over a very large group, and allows nominal benefits to remain at current levels, or even to grow, albeit more slowly. Opponents of restraint argue that COLAs are a fundamental program feature, that COLAs are needed to maintain beneficiaries purchasing power, and that recipients would experience economic hardship if COLAS were reduced.

Common approaches to restrain COLAs emphasize either short-term budget savings or long-term program reform. Past successful efforts to restrain COLAs have been related to ensuring program solvency or ensuring equal treatment of individuals in different programs.Proposals to slow COLA growth to achieve budgetary savings haven ot been successful.

Three types of COLA options seem viable under current economic and political conditions: A one-year COLA freeze, a cap on the COLA at two-thirds the rate of

inflation, and a cap on the COLA at two percentage points less than the rate of inflation. The one-year COLA freeze reduces the deficit most quickly, but produces less savings in the long-run than the other options.

A major attraction of formula reductions in the COLA is that the concept may be extended to other areas of the federal budget and greatly reduce the federal deficit. A plan to limit growth to two percentage points less than in flation on COLAs, other entitlements,national defense, discretionary domestic programs, and income tax indexing would reduce the deficit by one-half by 1990. An overall budget reduction plan based on CCLA restraint may be the only approach left for policy-makers who have exhausted other approaches to reducing the deficit.     

M13 Bioprints: non-isotopic detection of individual-specific human DNA fingerprints with biotinylated M13 bacteriophage

M13 bacteriophage was labelled by primer extension with biotin-11-dUTP and was successfully used as probe to study human hypervariable minisatellites (DNA fingerprints) in Southern blots. The method, which we called M13 Bioprints, presents two advantages over conventional DNA fingerprinting. First, it is easily accessible, since it utilizes the widely available M13 phage as a probe. Second, it makes use of biotin, which is safer, simpler and more economical than isotopic labels.     

Separation and divorce in Mexico: a demographic perspective

Data from the 1976 Mexican Fertility Survey are analyzed to determine the extent of legitimization of children born out of wedlock. The socioeconomic characteristics of women in consensual and legal unions are compared. The frequency and timing of legalization of consensual unions is analyzed, and the number of consensual unions and the frequency of legalization in rural and urban areas are compared. The role of pregnancy in forcing legalization and the stability of legal unions with and without prior cohabitation are studied. (SUMMARY IN ENG)     

Substitution of human for horse urine disproves an accusation of doping*

In order to detect switching and/or manipulation of samples, the owner of a stallion asked our lab to perform a DNA test on a positive doping urine sample. The objective was to compare the urine DNA profile versus blood and hair DNA profiles from the same stallion. At first, 10 microsatellite markers were investigated to determine the horse identity. No results were obtained when horse specific markers were typed in the urine sample. In order to confirm the species origin of this sample we analyzed the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene. This analysis from blood and hair samples produced reproducible and clear PCR-RFLP patterns and DNA sequence match with those expected for horse, while the urine sample results were coincident with human. These results allowed us to exclude the urine sample from the questioned stallion and determine its human species origin, confirming the manipulation of urine sample.