A mixed DNA profile controversy revisited

Semaan et al. (J Forensic Res, 2020, 11, 453) discuss a mock case “where eight different individuals [P₁ through P₈] could not be excluded in a mixed DNA analysis. Even though … expert DNA mixture analysis software was used.” Two of these are the true donors. The LRs reported are incorrect due to the incorrect entry of propositions into LRmix Studio. This forced the software to account for most of the alleles as drop-in, resulting in LRs 60–70 orders of magnitude larger than expected. P₁, P₂, P₄, P₅, and P₈ can be manually excluded using peak heights. This has relevance when using LRmix which does not use peak heights. We extend the work using the same two reference genotypes who were the true contributors as Semaan et al. (J Forensic Res, 2020, 11, 453). We simulate three two-donor mixtures with peak heights using these two genotypes and analyze using STRmix?. For the simulated 1:1 mixture, one of the non-donors’ LRs supported him being a contributor when no conditioning was used. When considered in combination with any other potential donors (i.e., with conditioning), this non-donor was correctly eliminated. For the 3:1 mixture, all results correctly supported that the non-donors were not contributors. The low-template 4:1 mixture LRs with no conditioning showed support for all eight profiles as donors. However, the results from pair-wise conditioning showed that only the two ground truth donors had LRs supporting that they were contributors to the mixture. We recommend the use of peak heights and conditioning profiles, as this allows better sensitivity and specificity even when the persons share many alleles.     

A study in relation to the random distribution of four fibre types on clothing (incorporating a review of previous target fibre studies).

A new target fibre study was undertaken building upon eight previous published studies, which are reviewed here. Fifty-eight items of outer clothing, obtained from households across England, were taped and searched for three types of commonly occurring fibres and one less common fibre type. The tapes were examined using a combination of automatic and manual searching. Any fibres similar to the target fibres were removed and examined using microspectrophotometry, comparison microscopy, thin layer chromatography (TLC) and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) where applicable. One polyester fibre, four acrylic fibres and eleven wool fibres were found that matched the three commonly occurring target fibre samples. None of the less common polyester fibres were found. One item had six matching wool fibres and another had the polyester fibre and an acrylic fibre recovered from it. The remaining eight fibres were each recovered from individual items. The results suggest that finding a large number of fibres that match a control is unlikely to happen by chance, which supports the findings of the previous target fibre studies.     

The prevalence and characteristics of intimate partner violence in a community study of Chinese American women

A community probability-sampled survey was done of 181 Chinese American women to investigate the prevalence and nature of intimate partner violence (IPV) in Chinese Americans. Of participants, 42% knew a Chinese woman who had experienced IPV. Also, 14% had experienced IPV themselves in their lifetime (8% severe and 6% minor), 3% in the previous year, and 2% currently. In Chinese American women who were ever married, the lifetime prevalence of IPV was 17%. IPV resulted in physical injuries for 31% of women and affected their work and education. Exploratory analysis suggests that relationship problems and partner's alcohol use may be risk factors for IPV in this group.     

The classification and discrimination of glass fragments using non destructive energy dispersive X-ray microfluorescence

Frequency of analytical characteristics is best estimated on glass recovered at random. However, as such data were not available to us, we decided to use control windows for this estimation. In order to use such a database, one has to establish that the recovered fragment comes from a window. Therefore, elemental analysis was used both for classification and discrimination of glass fragments. Several articles have been published on the subject, but most methods alter the glass sample. The use of non destructive energy dispersive X-ray microfluorescence (microXRF) for the analysis of small glass fragments has been evaluated in this context. The refractive index (RI) has also been measured in order to evaluate the complementarity of techniques. Classification of fragments has been achieved using Fisher's linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and neural networks (NN). Discrimination was based on Hotelling's T2 test. Only pairs that were not differentiated by RI followed by the Welch test were studied. The results show that neural network and linear discriminant analysis using qualitative and semi-quantitative data establishes a classification of glass specimens with a high degree of reliability. For discrimination, 119 windows collected from crime scene were compared: using RI it was possible to distinguish 6892 pairs. Out of 129 remaining pairs, 112 were distinguished by microXRF.     

But,i wouldn't wany my wife to work there! A history of discrimination against women in the hotel industry

Historians have tended to view legislation that discriminated against women hotel workers as a result of the efforts of the temperance movement which became popular in the latter part of the nineteenth century. This paper argues that the proponents of the moral suasion explanation oversimplify the complex issue of women's status in the hotel industry. Two distinct types of legislation are identified and the paper argues that they both had very different agendas.

Legislation controlling barmaids was imposed from above on a reluctant hotel industry. It was primarily concerned with the measurement and control of the numbers of barmaids. In contrast, the question of women's right to hold a license dealt with qualitative considerations. Consequently it was more concerned with marital status, age and professional experience of female license applicants. Unlike the barmaid debate, the impetus to restrict women licensees came from within the industry itself. This paper argues that barmaid control was primarily a social issue while the control of women licensees was primarily a labour issue.

The prohibition on women becoming employers in the hotel industry has important implications for the relationship between gender and social class. In spite of the oppressive structural and legal barriers, women have shown remarkable resilience and have been able to preserve their place in an industry which is well suited to their skills.     

Tax Expenditure Reporting: The Utilization of an Innovation

Central to this article is the question, “Are tax expenditure reports used?” State legislators serving on tax committees in ten states were surveyed regarding their use and their perceptions of others' use of tax expenditure report information. Responses indicate (1) strong acceptance and broad use of report information; (2) purposes and policy stages of use characteristic of technical information use; and (3) use focused predominantly on resource acquisition (revenue) policy rather than resource allocation (budget) policy. Thus it appears that tax expenditure reporting does not operate to secure budgetary control over tax expenditures, and consequently tax expenditures continue largely to escape budget scrutiny.     

Civil Asset Forfeiture Laws and Equitable Sharing Activity by the Police

Research Summary

For several decades, critics have argued that civil forfeiture laws create incentives for law enforcement to increase departmental revenue by “policing for profit.” By using data on federal equitable sharing payments to nearly 600 local law enforcement agencies between 2000 and 2012, we examine the relationship between the characteristics of state forfeiture laws and equitable sharing payments to local agencies. Our results indicate that agencies in states with state laws that are more restrictive or less rewarding to police collect more in federal equitable sharing. This finding supports the critics’ argument that police behavior in regard to forfeiture activities is influenced by the financial rewards and burdens involved.

Policy Implications

Our results reveal that the findings of investigative journalism and case study research, that is, that police forfeiture activities are influenced by financial rewards, may be more generalizable to law enforcement than previously thought. Despite recent state‐level reforms, federal equitable sharing and most state forfeiture laws provide limited due process protections and have minimal accountability or reporting requirements. Concerns about the impact of civil forfeiture practices on perceptions of procedural justice and police legitimacy are discussed, and possible policy reforms are reviewed.     

The Missing Link: Explaining the Political Mobilisation of Islam in Indonesia

Abstract

Why has an increase in personal piety among Indonesia's Muslims not translated into electoral gains for Islamic political parties? To help explain this conundrum, this article focuses on the role of Indonesia's mass Islamic social organisations, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah. Using a political economy lens, it argues that control over state resources and the provision of social welfare facilities have helped political parties maintain power over the years and that NU and Muhammadiyah have at times played important mediating roles in this process. Extending this analysis into Indonesia's contemporary politics, it then proposes that since 2004 in particular, the health and education facilities provided by NU and Muhammadiyah are becoming less important to ordinary people in relation to the services provided by the state. It concludes that this trend has weakened the ability of these organisations to channel public support to political parties/candidates and is one reason why Islamic parties have not been able to capitalise on increased religiosity in the social sphere.     

Evidence for a heritable brain basis to deviance-promoting deficits in self-control

Purpose

Classic criminological theories emphasize the role of impaired self-control in behavioral deviancy. Reduced amplitude of the P300 brain response is reliably observed in individuals with antisocial and substance-related problems, suggesting it may serve as a neurophysiological indicator of deficiencies in self-control that confer liability to deviancy.

Methods

The current study evaluated the role of self-control capacity—operationalized by scores on a scale measure of trait disinhibition—in mediating the relationship between P300 brain response and behavioral deviancy in a sample of adult twins (N = 419) assessed for symptoms of antisocial/addictive disorders and P300 brain response.

Results

As predicted, greater disorder symptoms and higher trait disinhibition scores each predicted smaller P300 amplitude, and trait disinhibition mediated observed relations between antisocial/addictive disorders and P300 response. Further, twin modeling analyses revealed that trait disinhibition scores and disorder symptoms reflected a common genetic liability, and this genetic liability largely accounted for the observed phenotypic relationship between antisocial-addictive problems and P300 brain response.

Conclusions

These results provide further evidence that heritable weaknesses in self-control capacity confer liability to antisocial/addictive outcomes and that P300 brain response indexes this dispositional liability.