Interrogative Specialists and False Confessions: Debunking the Con Artist Myth

Within the criminal justice system, confessions are an extremely powerful form of evidence. Unfortunately, innocent people sometimes falsely confess to crimes they did not actually commit. Such travesties of justice have sparked a significant degree of academic research into the false confession phenomenon. Within the existing literature, there exists a conceptual framework that the interrogative methods and actions of law enforcement officers are a key cause of false confessions with some researchers going so far as to suggest that law enforcement interrogators act as confidence men who trick criminal subjects into confessing. However, few researchers have actually questioned law enforcement officers about false confessions and even fewer have consulted with officers who specialize in interrogation. This study is a subset of a larger qualitative case study designed to explore the experiences of 13 federal law enforcement polygraph examiners who specialize in interrogation regarding their approach to criminal interrogation and their experiences with both true and false confessions. This study focused on the personal processes federal law enforcement polygraph examiners use in reviewing Miranda rights and documenting confessions. NVivo software was used to organize the data. Common themes in interview responses were then identified and revealed that participants employ an open, detailed, and straightforward approach in reviewing Miranda rights and documenting the confessions of criminal subjects. These findings contradict the premise that law enforcement interrogators inherently operate as confidence men by tricking and manipulating criminal subjects.     

Post-9/11 International Artist Exchanges Between the United States and the Middle East

Since 9/11, the U.S. government has gradually increased its budget for cultural exchange to improve its estranged relationship with Middle Eastern ¹ 1. The Middle East, or the greater Middle Eastern region, is frequently labeled with distinctive titles. For example, the State Department identifies the region as the “Near East,” and “North Africa and the Middle East” is broadly utilized by the grant-related organization, the Foundation Center. Additionally, the term “Arab” refers to someone who uses the Arabic language and whose cultural background is Arabic. Thus, to promote consistency and to prevent unnecessary confusion, “the Middle East” will be utilized in this article. countries. However, U.S. private foundations have been reluctant to sponsor international artist exchanges with the region. This article describes the funding trends of both public and private sources; explains the consequences and coping strategies of U.S. arts presenters through a case study of the Kennedy Center's 2009 Arabesque Festival; and examines the effects of the new laws and regulations created after the terrorist attacks that seem to be influencing the activities of private funders.     

单位犯罪主体之质疑

《刑法》虽然规定了单位可以成为犯罪主体,但是,单位成为犯罪主体存在着一系列的理论与实际问题,可能导致宪政上的困境。单位成为犯罪主体并不能有效地达到预防犯罪的刑罚目的,应该取消单位作为犯罪主体的规定。     

突发自然灾害应急社会背景下的工伤损害赔偿研究

在突发自然灾害背景下,正在工作中的人员的伤亡应该按照工伤待遇处理,非正在工作中的人员的伤亡应该按照医疗保险的规定处理,其他没有劳动关系的人员的伤亡,按照国家的规定享受相应的抚恤和救济。关于救援者的伤亡问题,如果是政府或者是单位组织的,有单位归属的,通过单位统筹的工伤保险获得赔偿及相关待遇。没有单位归属的或者是个人志愿者,应该由国家及政府部门给与补偿。建议在法律中规定突发灾害背景下的救援人员的工伤赔偿利益;修改工伤保险条例,明确不可抗力发生时的工伤条款;建立应急社会背景下的志愿者工伤救济基金。     

Advance directives as an instrument in an ageing Europe

Advance directives are written or oral statements that are intended to govern healthcare decision-making for their authors, for both positive and negative decisions, should they lose decisional capacity in the future. In a Europe which is facing an ageing population, advance directives play an increasing role to (help) formulate the wishes from elderly patient once they start losing the capacity to decide independently. Advance directives should not only be used as a formulation of the patients' previously made decision, but can also be used as guidelines to better understand the previous expressed wishes of the patient. If the advance directive is formulated in too vague form, the healthcare proxy and/or the healthcare trustee can help the physician interpret the directive. This broader approach towards advance directives is reflected in the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights, as well as on the European legislative level.     

Isolation and identification of an isomeric sildenafil analogue as an adulterant in an instant coffee premix

The proliferation of adulterated health foods and beverages in the market demands a comprehensive analytical strategy to identify the adulterants, particularly those of isomeric phosphodiesterase 5 (PDE5) inhibitors. An instant coffee premix (ICP) purchased from an online retailer was flagged for suspected adulteration through PDE5 inhibition assay. The ICP was then analysed using suspected-target and non-targeted screenings of a liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Based on these findings, a PDE5 inhibitor initially assigned as compound X was isolated from the ICP by employing a liquid chromatography-diode array detection before its structural elucidation with liquid chromatography-ultraviolet (LC-UV) spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. The suspected-target screening matched the protonated molecule ([M + H]⁺) precursor ion of compound X at m/z 499.2310 with two suspected analytes that are structural isomers of one another. The fragmentation patterns of compound X were comparable to those analogues in the dithiocarbodenafil group through the non-targeted screening. These findings, complemented by the LC-UV and NMR spectroscopy data, together with the chromatographic separation of related structural isomers, conclude the identity of compound X. To our best knowledge, this is the first study to report the presence of 3,5-dimethylpiperazinyl-dithiodesmethylcarbodenafil in an ICP sample.

Key points

• The herbal-based male sexual performance products’ lucrative market has instigated their rampant adulteration, particularly with PDE5 inhibitors.
• The adulterated products may also contain analogues of the approved PDE5 inhibitors, which usually passed into the market undetected as they are not included in the routine targeted screening procedure.
• The present study detected, isolated, and identified an isomeric sildenafil analogue from an instant coffee premix sample using rapid qualitative assay and comprehensive analytical analysis.
• This paper highlighted the applicability of the established strategies for routine casework, particularly in a forensic drug testing laboratory.

     

Becoming an Informant

Though widely acknowledged as vital to law enforcement, social scientists have largely ignored the practice of confidential informing. The extant literature on the topic is primarily comprised of experientially based practical guides to informant management and a handful of field studies drawing information from informants in the study of other undercover practices. This study features data obtained from in‐depth interviews with eighty‐four former informants drawn from five southern states identified through a purposive‐snowball sampling strategy. Informant accounts suggest that the practice of confidential informing is an institutionalized component of a general narcotics enforcement pattern characterized by duplicity and social control irony. Confidential informant work is observed as a moral career entailing deviant identity maintenance through neutralizations and insider perspective. Narratives confirmed a motivational typology accounting for role assumption and informant–agent dynamics and orient discussion around practice and research implications.