Allele sharing in first-degree and unrelated pairs of individuals in the Ge F I AmpFlSTR Profiler Plus database

Eleven Italian forensic laboratories participated in a population study based on the AB Profiler Plus loci with proficiency testing. The validated database, including 1340 individuals, is available on-line. Tests for Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, gametic unbalance, and heterogeneity of gene frequency were generally not significant. Gene frequencies at each locus were consistent with those of two previously published Italian studies, but different from a third. Individuals of each subsample were paired, and the total number of alleles shared across the nine loci was determined in each pair. The analysis was replicated over the total sample. In addition, two samples of mother-child pairs (N=315) and full-sib pairs (N=91) were subjected to allele sharing analysis. The resulting distributions were sufficiently distinct from the sample of unrelated pairs as to be of practical usefulness.     

Managing conflict: Interactional strategies of learning handicapped and nonhandicapped adolescent girls

Naturalistic observations of learning handicapped and nonhandicapped high school girls were conducted to explore differences in the types and effectiveness of interaction strategies used during troubled peer contacts. Findings indicated that learning handicapped girls engaged in more conflict than nonhandicapped females and that this conflict generally involved dominance/submission themes and was managed in ways which increased the probability of future conflict. Conflict involving nonhandicapped girls mostly focused on selfishness or low tolerance for peer's habits and was handled in ways which lowered the likelihood of future disagreements. Implications of these findings with regard to the social standing of the learning handicapped girls in the school setting is discussed.This research was supported by Grant No. HD23097 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.Received her Ed. D. from Columbia University. Current interest is social competence and family relations of learning handicapped populations.     

The Great Rabbit Massacre – A “Comedy of the Commons”? Custom, Community and Rights of Public Access to the Links of St Andrews

In the US courts and legal scholars have rediscovered the English doctrine of custom. In her essay ``The Comedy of the Commons: Custom, Commerce, and Inherently Public Property', Professor Carol Rose argues that customary uses of recreation lands should be upheld by courts because the highest value of such land is achieved by keeping them open to the public. Rose relies in her argument on the English doctrine of custom, but the doctrine of custom legitimates local not public use. British legal history, however, provides an example of such a ``public' common in the Links of St Andrews. In the case Dempster v. Cleghorn, the golfing public sought to vindicate their customary right to the maintenance of golfing ground as it had been ``in all times past'. This article examines the case of Dempster, and the consequent riot, and asks whether it was a ``comedy of the commons'. It concludes that despite ten years of litigation and the extirpation of the Dempsters' warrened rabbits, the case nevertheless is a ``comedy of the commons' that provides a model of the meditation of public use by local custom and community. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Leader Effects and Voting for the Populist Radical Right in Western Europe

Charismatic leaders are often assumed to drive the electoral success of populist radical right parties. Yet, little attention is given to how voter evaluations of leaders influence individual voting behavior. To our knowledge, no systematic and comparative tests of this empirical question exist. In this paper, we test to what extent voters’ support for populist radical right parties is fueled by leaders' appreciation. In order to examine leader effects on the populist radical right vote, we rely on an original dataset pooling 29 National Election Studies from ten established West European parliamentary democracies (1985‐2018). Our analysis finds that: (1) voters’ evaluation of party leaders is significantly associated with voting for populist radical right parties; (2) leader evaluations are more important than left‐right self‐placement when it comes to voting for the populist radical right, and (3) leader effects are more important for populist radical right voters than for other voters.     

Results of the 2018 Rapid DNA Maturity Assessment

Three commercially available integrated rapid DNA instruments were tested as a part of a rapid DNA maturity assessment in July of 2018. The assessment was conducted with sets of blinded single-source reference samples provided to participants for testing on the individual rapid platforms within their laboratories. The data were returned to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for review and analysis. Both FBI-defined automated review (Rapid DNA Analysis) and manual review (Modified Rapid DNA Analysis) of the datasets were conducted to assess the success of genotyping the 20 Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) core STR loci and full profiles generated by the instruments. Genotype results from the multiple platforms, participating laboratories, and STR typing chemistries were combined into a single analysis. The Rapid DNA Analysis resulted in a success rate of 80% for full profiles (85% for the 20 CODIS core loci) with automated analysis. Modified Rapid DNA Analysis resulted in a success rate of 90% for both the CODIS 20 core loci and full profiles (all attempted loci per chemistry). An analysis of the peak height ratios demonstrated that 95% of all heterozygous alleles were above 59% heterozygote balance. For base-pair sizing precision, the precision was below the standard 0.5 bp deviation for both the ANDE 6C System and the RapidHIT 200.     

Identifying psychological pathways to polyvictimization: evidence from a longitudinal cohort study of twins from the UK

Journal of Experimental Criminology - Examine the extent to which cognitive/psychological characteristics predict later polyvictimization. We employ a twin-based design that allows us to test the...     

The global farms race: land grabs,agricultural investment,and the scramble for food security

In a widely read paper, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, World Bank and others propose systematic property rights formalization as a key step in addressing the problems of irresponsible agricultural investment. This paper examines the case of Cambodia, one of a number of countries where systematic land titling and large-scale land concessions have proceeded in parallel in recent years. Cambodia's experience exemplifies the challenges of the ‘formalization fix’ – the proposition that property formalization constitutes a preferable front-line defense against land grabbing – and highlights formalization's uneven geography as an issue that has yet to generate adequate discussion internationally. Three dimensions of Cambodia's less-than-successful formalization fix efforts stand out: (1) the spatial separation of systematic land titling and agribusiness concessions that emerged during the 2000s and has only recently begun to be addressed; (2) the deployment of property formalization as a means of land grabbing, especially when applied selectively and unevenly; and (3) the political arena of efforts to legitimize ‘state land’. The paper questions the formalization fix as a policy solution, and argues for both greater spatial transparency in property formalization efforts throughout the global South, and greater attention to the problem of unmapped state land in general.