Country made scare gun vs. air gun--a comparative study of terminal ballistics using gelatine blocks

Country made scare gun also called as bandook in the vernacular language designed with an intention of scaring away the menacing animals is not only unique and effective but also potentially lethal and has found wide spread usage in the rural parts of India. Here an attempt has been made to study the characteristic features such as physical dimensions, mechanism of action of this weapon and to compare its penetrating ability with that of air gun, whose potential lethality is a well-documented fact, using the ballistic gelatine blocks at various ranges. It is hoped that keeping the existence of such firearms in mind by the forensic experts might help to solve the unexplained and bizarre firearm injuries encountered in day to day practice.     

Does democracy or personal freedom affect the flow and return of IS foreign fighters?

European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research - A considerable number of foreign fighters who joined the Islamic State (IS) came from developed countries enjoying high levels of democracy and...     

Spontaneous rupture of unscarred gravid uterus

Rupture of gravid uterus during pregnancy is a rare entity. Overall incidence of rupture of uterus during pregnancy is 0.07%. The maternal and fetal prognoses are bad especially when the rupture occurs in an unscarred uterus. Fortunately, the sole major risk factor of spontaneous rupture of unscarred uterus is preventable, which is "multiparity." In this article, we report the death of a pregnant woman and her unborn child because of spontaneous rupture of unscarred uterus.     

Stealing more is better? An economic analysis of Islamic law of theft

This study is the first attempt (in the field of Law and Economics) to apply economic analysis to shari’a or Islamic criminal law, in particular, that aspect of the law pertaining to theft. Shari’a imposes two main punishments for theft; hadd, a fixed penalty of amputation of the offender’s right hand under certain conditions and ta’zir, a discretionary punishment, less severe than hadd. From the viewpoint of marginal deterrence and multiplier principles, lesser crimes with low social harm are punished more severely with hadd whereas crimes with high social harm are punished with ta’zir. Moreover, as the probability of detection and sanction is less in those crimes of high social harm, criminals would have more incentive to commit them. Consequently, if Islamic criminal law is to be applied in its current form, crimes of high social cost are likely to become more frequent.     

Muslim Youth Unemployment and Expat Jihadism: Bored to Death?

Empirical studies analyzing the push factors of expat jihadism are scarce and typically give contradictory results. We hypothesize that youth unemployment, as opposed to overall unemployment, is a significant determinant of foreign fighters flow to join the Islamic State. Moreover, we also consider the interaction between youth unemployment and the Muslim population share as another meaningful variables affecting expat jihadism. Controlling for several variables including gross domestic product per capita; Gini; geographical proximity; the share of manufactures and services as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product; Polity score; and fractionalization, we provide strong evidence for the hypothesis that Muslim youth unemployment is a driver of expat jihadism not only for Muslim-majority countries, but globally.     

Social Welfare and ISIS Foreign Fighters

European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research - We provide empirical support for a positive relationship between social safety spending and the phenomenon of ISIS foreign fighters, particularly...     

Islamic constitutions and religious minorities

Public Choice - This study examines the effects of formal institutions, specifically constitutions that prescribe Sharia law as a source of legislation, on discrimination against religious...