The decline in sexual assaults in men's prisons in New South Wales: a "systems" approach

Male prison rape and sexual assaults remains a serious and sensitive issue in many countries. Human rights groups claim that sexual assaults among male prisoners have reached pandemic proportions and need to be stopped. Researchers for many years have studied the causes of male sexual assault in prison and offered numerous recommendations on its prevention. Few, however, have presented evidence for a decline in male prisoner sexual assaults and investigated the reasons for the decline. This article provides evidence from population-based surveys of a steady decrease in male prisoner sexual assaults in New South Wales (NSW) between 1996 and 2009. The authors conducted in-depth interviews with former and current inmates, and using a "systems" approach they discuss the complexity of sexual assaults in prison, incorporating a multiplicity of perspectives. In particular, they bring together different sources of data and discuss this in relation to changes in power structures and control in a modern prison, the attitudes of older and younger prisoners, the concept of "duty of care," introduction of prison drug programs, and prisoner attitudes toward gender and sexuality. In anthropology, the term "system" is used widely for describing sociocultural phenomena of a given society in a holistic manner without reducing the complexity of a given community.     

Stability studies of ALD-52 and its homologue 1P-LSD

With the emergence of new psychoactive substances (NPSs) over the years, the substances detected on stamps (also known as blotter papers) have also evolved from the traditional drug—lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) to the multiple variants of lysergamides such as ALD-52 and 1P-LSD. The analysis of such blotter papers is usually done by solvent extraction followed by identification using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS). This study has shown that hydrolysis to form LSD was observed in GC-MS analysis when ALD-52 was extracted with methanol. The extraction of ALD-52 using other solvents such as acetonitrile, ethanol, isopropyl alcohol, ethyl acetate, and acetone, followed by GC-MS analysis, was investigated. It is shown that alcoholic solvents such as methanol and ethanol will result in the conversion of ALD-52 to LSD during GC-MS analysis, whereas the sterically hindered isopropyl alcohol will prevent this conversion. Investigation also shows that the hydrolysis of ALD-52 to LSD occurs at the GC injector port. It was also observed that the degree of hydrolysis was more pronounced at a lower concentration (0.1 mg/mL). The study was extended to a close analog—1P-LSD, and the results showed that 1P-LSD similarly hydrolyzes to LSD. However, 1P-LSD was observed to be more stable than ALD-52 due to steric hindrance because of the propanoyl group.     

Beyond ‘Don't Be Evil’: The European Union GSP+ Trade Preference Scheme and the Incentivisation of the Sri Lankan Garment Industry to Foster Human Rights

Orthodox discourse on business and human rights tends to conceive of the human rights responsibility of corporations in terms of minimising the negative human rights impacts of their own activities, as opposed to exerting a net positive effect on human rights. On 15 August 2010, however, Sri Lanka's access to the EU's Generalized System of Preferences (GSP)+ trade incentives was withdrawn for reasons relating to that country's human rights record, creating an actual positive economic incentive for Sri Lankan businesses to actively engage the government on its human rights record. In this context, the author explores the potential for the Sri Lankan garment industry, which is highly dependent on exports to the EU, to effect positive human rights change in Sri Lanka.     

Interpreting the Basic Law and the Adjudication of Politically Sensitive Questions

In this paper, I shall essentially lay out five interpretiveprinciples that the Hong Kong judiciary should observe. First,the Hong Kong judiciary can disable themselves from giving effectto National People's Congress (NPC) Acts that are inconsistentwith the Basic Law. Second, the Court of Final Appeal has aduty to make a reference to the NPC's Standing Committee (NPCSC)when it needs to adjudicate over two conflicting Basic Law provisions,one whose affairs fall within the Central Government's concernsand the other which falls within the limits of Hong Kong's autonomy.Third, in reading the text of the NPCSC Interpretation narrowlywhile observing its central tenor, the Court would be respectingthe plenary interpretive mandate conferred on the NPCSC whileretaining its role as the primary interpreter of the Basic Law.Fourth, so far as a Mainland National Law has been formallyincorporated into the Basic Law, it cannot be deemed in violationof another constitutional clause. Finally, I would argue thatnot all constitutional affairs falling within the limits ofHong Kong's autonomy are automatically justiciable; where thereis a textual commitment to a coordinate branch of government,the Court may only interfere with the decisions made by thepolitical branches on traditional grounds of judicial review,i.e. illegality, irrationality or procedural impropriety.     

Government’s credible commitment in economic policy-making: Evidence from Singapore

Policy Sciences - Studies of participatory policy-making show citizens’ participation in policy-making yield better solutions and more successful policy performance. But studies of the Asian...     

Investigation of class characteristics in English handwriting of the three main racial groups: Chinese, Malay and Indian in Singapore

This paper investigated the class characteristics in English handwriting of the Chinese, Malays and Indians in Singapore, many of whom learned their native language as a second language. One hundred and fifty-four handwriting exemplars were collected and features such as letter designs, pen-lifts, letter spacing and embellishments were studied. A number of characteristic features peculiar to the individual racial group were identified, which confirmed the impact of their native language writing systems on English handwriting.     

Performance evaluation of two multiplexes used in fluorescent short tandem repeat DNA analysis

The performance of two commercial multiplex kits that together amplify the 13 core short tandem repeat (STR) loci currently in use by forensic laboratories and the U.S. national Combined DNA Indexing System (CODIS) were evaluated. The typing systems examined were AmpFlSTR Profiler Plus and AmpFlSTR COfiler (PE Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA). Electrophoretic separation and detection of the fluorescent PCR products was achieved by capillary electrophoresis (CE) using an ABI Prism 310 Genetic Analyzer. The studies addressed the on-site validation of the instrument, the software, and each typing system. These studies included instrument sensitivity, resolution, precision, binning, peak height ratios, mixtures, stutter, and the amplification of non-probative and simulated forensic samples. Other additional developmental-type work is also reported herein, such as species specificity testing and amplification of environmentally insulted samples. Amplification conditions were found to be robust and the primer sets shown to be specific to human DNA. Stutter and peak height ratios fell within limits published by the manufacturer and other laboratories. The data demonstrate that the CE instrument can consistently resolve fragments differing in length by one base and that the +/-0.5 base bin used by the Genotyper software is acceptable for making accurate allele calls. Correct typing results were obtained from non-probative and simulated case samples, as well as samples exposed to outdoor environmental conditions. The results support the conclusion that DNA extracted from biological samples routinely encountered in the forensic laboratory can be reliably analyzed with AmpFlSTR Profiler Plus and COfiler using CE.