Sudden infant death syndrome risk factors with regards to sleep position, sleep surface, and co-sleeping

We present a study of 102 Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) deaths using a retrospective review of medical examiner autopsy reports. The prevalence of sleep related risk factors with regards to sleep surface, sleep position, and co-sleeping were determined in a population of infants less than 1-year-old. Of the 102 SIDS deaths, 67 (65.7%) were not in a crib, 63 (61.8%) were prone, and 48 (47.1%) were co-sleeping. However, 94 (92.2%) of these deaths had at least one risk factor present. Only 8 (7.8%) infants had slept alone, in a crib or bassinet, and on their back or side. Infants less than 4-months-old had a higher rate of co-sleeping (54.7%) than the older infants (25.9%), and a higher frequency of heart malformations at post-mortem examination. The older infants were more likely to exhibit pulmonary and tracheal inflammation, and neuropathology.     

Barriers to services for rural and urban survivors of rape

A significant proportion of survivors of rape do not utilize formal services to cope with the aftermath of rape. Understanding victimization experiences in environments that differ on resources, such as rural versus urban areas, may be an important dimension to consider in understanding barriers. Thirty women (18 rural and 12 urban) were recruited from rape crisis centers to participate in focus groups. Study results suggest that (a) survivors of rape experience many barriers to service utilization, (b) there were some differences in barriers to service utilization that were mentioned only in rural areas and some that were mentioned only in urban areas that may suggest that community context is important to consider in understanding barriers to service use, and (c) barriers to health and mental health services overlap with barriers to criminal justice system services.     

Predictors of Child Abuse Potential Among Military Parents: Comparing Mothers and Fathers

The present study examines the predictors of child abuse potential for at-risk fathers and mothers serving as active duty Army members and their spouses. Although fathers are perpetrators of child physical abuse and neglect in a substantial portion of reported cases, what is known about factors associated with child maltreatment comes almost exclusively from studies of perpetrating mothers. Thus, the inclusion of a large sample of fathers in the present study makes a significant contribution to the extant literature. Participants were 175 fathers (93% active-duty) and 590 mothers (16% active duty) of young children enrolled in an Army-sponsored home visitation program. Regression analyses indicated that there were both common and unique predictors of child abuse potential for mothers and fathers. Common predictors included depression, parental distress, and family conflict. Low family expressiveness was predictive only for fathers, whereas marital dissatisfaction, low social support, and low family cohesion were predictive only for mothers. Possible reasons for these gender differences and the implications of these results for child maltreatment interventions are discussed.     

Technical communication: rationale and technique for examination of nervous system in suspected infant victims of abuse

Most victims of fatal child abuse are under the age of 2 years and have a fairly typical pattern of injuries that involve the brain and spinal cord. Documenting these injuries in a systematic fashion is of paramount importance in establishing the cause and manner of death. Although the importance of recognizing these injuries is widely understood, there are few guidelines for the optimal examination of the central nervous system to document these changes. A standard procedure for postmortem dissection of the brain and spinal cord that preserves the anatomy of the cervicomedullary junction is outlined. Changes in the cervicomedullary junction and spinal cord are an underappreciated marker for shaking injury in children. This technique, along with examination of the eyes and optic nerves, will optimally identify the injuries associated with shaking injuries. A standard series of histologic sections are also outlined to document the corresponding microscopic changes.     

Cross-validation of the Self-Appraisal Questionnaire (SAQ): an offender risk and need assessment measure on Australian, British, Canadian, Singaporean, and American offenders

The Self-Appraisal Questionnaire (SAQ) is a 72-item self-report measure designed to predict violent and nonviolent recidivism among adult criminal offenders. The results from using samples from Australia, Canada, England, Singapore, and two samples from the United States (North Carolina and Pennsylvania) indicated that (a) the SAQ has sound psychometric properties, with acceptable reliability and concurrent validity for assessing recidivism and institutional adjustment; (b) there were no significant differences among the scores of the White, African American, Hispanic, and Aboriginal Australian offenders on the SAQ; (c) there were no significant differences among offenders who completed the SAQ for research purposes versus offenders who completed it as part of a decision-making process. Results provided support for the validity of the SAQ to be used with the culturally diverse offenders involved in this research and provided further evidence that contradicts concerns that the SAQ as a self-report measure may be susceptible to lying, and self-presentation biases.     

Stateless Law: Kelsen's Conception and its Limits

Hans Kelsen’s claim that the state and the law are identicalis surrounded by a somewhat mystical air. Yet, the ‘identitythesis’ loses much of its mystical aura when it is seenas an attempt to recast the state, qua social fact, in deontologicalterms. The state is seen as a condition necessary to accountfor the validity of legal acts. Indeed, the meaning of the stateis reduced to the function performed by a conception of orderin the reproduction of a system of norms. No further socialfact would attest to its existence. From a sociological pointof view, all law is essentially, and principally, law sans state.     

Australian Federal Police seizures of illicit crystalline methamphetamine ('ice') 1998-2002: impurity analysis

Nineteen crystalline methamphetamine ('ice') seizures captured by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) at the Australian border between 1998 and 2002 were analysed. Using a modified gas chromatograph-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) impurity profiling approach of these samples we have identified >30 compounds associated with methamphetamine and/or its synthetic route. Major impurities detected include 1,2-dimethyl-3-phenylaziridine 8, dimethylamphetamine 14, N-formylmethamphetamine 24, N-acetylmethamphetamine 25, 1,3-dimethyl-2-phenylnaphthalene 32, 1-benzyl-3-methylnaphthalene 33 and methamphetamine dimer 34. These data are suggestive of ephedrine/pseudoephedrine as the main precursor of the 'ice' samples seized during 1998-2002. Additionally the two naphthalenes 32 and 33 further identified that 15 items in 9 seizures were produced via the more specific ephedrine/hydriodic acid/red phosphorus method. One sample comprised 75% dimethylamphetamine and 9.7% methamphetamine, representing the first Australian seizure of imported dimethylamphetamine reported.     

Growth rates of the blowfly, Lucilia sericata, on different body tissues

Estimates of post-mortem interval based on forensic analysis of the age of blowfly larvae on a corpse, are generated from standardised larval development curves. These are derived from studies of the growth of larvae reared, usually, on liver and at a range of temperatures. However, it is possible that the species or organ on which the larvae feed, might significantly alter the rate of growth. The present study therefore compared the development of the blowfly Lucilia sericata (Meigen) (Diptera: Calliphoridae) fed on lung, liver and heart, from both cows and pigs. Half of the tissue samples used were liquidised while half were not, to assess whether structural differences in the food source were important. Larvae grew significantly faster and gave rise to larger adults when reared on pig compared to cow tissue and when reared on lung and heart compared to liver. Larvae completed feeding and wandered from the food source 31h earlier and grew 2mm longer when reared on lung compared to liver. Tissue structure had no or little effect on development. For the forensic entomologist, these results highlight the importance of recording the position of larvae removed from a body and the care that should be used when extrapolating development rates from standard curves based on larvae fed on only a single medium, particularly where that is liver.