Tattoos, body experience, and body image boundary among violent male offenders

The author compared a measure of body image boundary and medically significant bodily experiences between 21 tattooed and 24 nontattooed men incarcerated for violent crimes. Although the tattooed and nontattooed subjects had no significant differences in their body boundary concepts or most other bodily experiences, the tattooed men were found to have a different distribution of scars on their bodies. Upon more detailed examination, it seemed that these different distributions could be explained by the observation that the tattooed subjects were the only ones with self-inflicted cuts. This finding further supports the notion that tattoos, despite their ostensibly decorative quality, may be a form of self-mutilation.     

DNA typing and forensic science

With new typing techniques forensic scientists can characterise individuals at the fundamental level of their DNA. Variation between individuals at this level can be used to discriminate between them. Why this is so and how it is achieved is described in relatively simple terms for legal and medical practitioners who have no formal training in genetics.     

Identification of atractyloside by LC-ESI-MS in alleged herbal poisonings

An LC-MS screening method was developed to detect the presence of atractyloside (ATR), the toxic principle of a commonly used medicinal plant in South Africa, Callilepis laureola, in biological matrices such as body fluids and human viscera.     

Identity,dignity and development as trajectory: Bihar as a model for democratic progress in Nepal? Part II. Nepal’s promise

Part I of this article traced the experience of India’s Bihar state as it shifted in the last decade of the twentieth century from a region dominated by landowning upper castes and plagued by entrenched poverty to one led by newly emergent middle castes. In a two-step process, these groups first attained a significant dignity and self-respect and then it became possible in the 2000s to turn to economic growth and improvement in living standards. Part II makes a case that Nepal, long suffering under conditions similar to those hobbling Bihar until recently, might follow a similar two-stage path of dignity and then development.     

The Commission on the Responsibility of the Authors of the War and on Enforcement of Penalties and its Contribution to International Criminal Justice After World War II

This article traces the evolution of discussions within the Commission on the Responsibility of the Authors of the War and on Enforcement of Penalties and the United Nations War Crimes Commission regarding the establishment of an international criminal court. The Commission on the Responsibility of the Authors of the War and on Enforcement of Penalties was the first war crimes commission that seriously debated establishing an international criminal court for the prosecution of war criminals. Following the discussions held in the UNWCC, the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg was created. All three institutions played a major part in the development of international criminal law.     

The uncertain future of US‐China relations

The coming months may be critical in determining whether it will be possible for the United States and China to forge a stable and productive relationship, says Harry Harding, Dean of the Elliot School of International Affairs, George Washington University. Problems are mounting in several sensitive areas of the relationship: human rights, trade, and security, and there remain differences between the two countries over Taiwan and Korea that could bedevil their bilateral ties. Furthermore, American critics of China are resuming their attacks on the relationship, charging that engagement has failed either to narrow differences or to promote common objectives. Harding argues that the benefits of the US‐China relationship are so great, and the costs of failure so large, that the two countries should make every effort to maintain the momentum toward building a constructive strategic partnership.