Criminal Labelling,Publicity, and Punishment

This paper considers whether publicizing criminal labels is justified as a form of punishment. It begins by arguing that making criminal labels public is inevitably stigmatizing and that stigmatization is not, as is often implied, a defining aspect of censure, but needs independent justification. It argues that justifying grounds for public criminal labelling cannot be found in either the communicative account of punishment or deterrence theory. Rather, public criminal labelling should be understood as undermining of both the communicative and the deterrent functions of punishment. Recent empirical work is drawn upon to support the claims about public criminal labelling and deterrence.     

Deadline or guideline? – Stipulations as to time in IT contracts

In this article practical guidance is offered on the implications of English law rules relating to stipulations as to time in IT contracts, with reference to recent case law.     

Transcranial magnetic stimulation over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex affects emotional processing: accounting for individual differences in antisocial behavior

Journal of Experimental Criminology - The study was designed to investigate the effects of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) on emotional...     

Building Successful Technology Commercialization Teams: Pilot Empirical Support for the Theory of Cascading Commitment

Improving the process of commercializing a technology from a public lab requires a deep understanding of which factors actually contribute to successful commercialization. Such factors are complex, including the quality of the technology itself, choice of transfer mechanism, quality of business intelligence, project evaluation and selection techniques, team building processes, organizational structures, reward and penalty structures, financial support, human resources support, and project management tools, among others. This article focuses on the improvement of team-building processes. It describes a pilot empirical test of the theory of cascading commitment, using data from a study of 34 technology transfer cases from 5 different Canadian federal labs. Of the 34 cases, 20 were successful, 11 were unsuccessful, and 3 were uncertain. In this paper, success was defined as the private sector manufacturer's perception of how well the project attained the profit objective associated with sales of a new product which embedded the new technology. The pilot results provide directional support for the key propositions of the theory: 1) a complete team of both public and private organizations is necessary; 2) a complete team of key individuals (linchpins) from within each organization is necessary; 3) there is an optimal sequence for recruiting the organizational partners; 4) there is an optimal stage for recruiting each organizational partner; 5) high commitment from every linchpin is necessary; 6) linchpin commitment to the team is determined by a variety of factors; and 7) the probability of success is improved if the team of linchpins remains intact until the commercial launch is achieved. Some provisional implications for management practice are provided, as well as suggestions for future research.     

Gamma-hydroxybutyric acid stability and formation in blood and urine

Gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) can cause problems in interpretation of toxicological findings due to its endogenous nature, significant production in tissues after death and potential formation in stored samples. Our study was designed to determine the influence of storage conditions on GHB levels and its possible in vitro formation in blood and urine in cases where no exogenous use of GHB or its precursors was suspected. The samples were prepared by validated method based on liquid-liquid reextraction with adipic acid internal standard and MSTFA derivatization and assayed on a GC-MS operating in EI SIM mode. The first part of the study was performed with pooled blood and urine samples obtained from living and deceased subjects stored with and without NaF (1% w/v) at 4 and -20 degrees C over 8 months. In ante-mortem samples (both blood and urine) no significant GHB production was found. After 4 months of storage, the substantial GHB rise up to 100 mg/Lwas observed in post-mortem blood stored at 4 degrees C without NaF with subsequent gradual decrease in following months. The inhibition of GHB production was apparent during storage in NaF treated frozen blood samples. In post-mortem urine only slight temporary GHB levels were ascertained (up to 8 mg/L). The second part of our study was aimed to analyse 20 individual post-mortem blood samples stored at 4 degrees C for 16-27 days between autopsy and analysis without preservation followed by storage at 4 degrees C with NaF for 4 months. The temporary GHB production with maximum of 28 mg/Lwas detected in some samples.     

Methamphetamine in hair and interpretation of forensic findings in a fatal case

Hair analysis for drugs has been developing and is considered a significant tool for distinguishing between recent and long-term drug abuse in forensic and clinical toxicology. Chronic consumption of drugs can gradually induce certain harmful effects on the human organism and can exacerbate some pre-existing diseases. Analysis for drugs in blood or urine in isolation does not provide sufficient information about the history of drug-use by a person and their results cannot be correlated directly with the toxic effects displayed. The chronic abuse of methamphetamine is known to be associated with cardiovascular diseases. During or after autopsy certain types of morphologic alterations are found in the hearts of stimulant addicts. The rapid increase in blood pressure after an intravenous methamphetamine dose can be risky for addicts with arteriosclerosis. However, the anamnestic data about a deceased person may not always be available to explain the pathological findings and to classify the cause of death correctly. The aim of this study was to demonstrate the value of hair analysis for drugs in the context of explaining pathological cardiovascular alterations observed during the autopsy in a case where methamphetamine consumption was involved. In this case, only methamphetamine and metabolites were detected with traces of ephedrine. Ephedrine is the precursor chemical in the illicit synthesis of methamphetamine (known in the Czech Republic as "Pervitin"). The femoral blood level of methamphetamine was 1500 ng/ml. It was documented by a witness that the 31-year-old man died within 1h after an intravenous injection of the drug. The cause of death was established as cerebral edema due to cerebellar bleeding shortly after an intravenous dose of methamphetamine. Findings of methamphetamine in the first three 2-cm hair segments (numbered from the roots) were nearly equal (132+/-9 ng/mg). In the fourth 2-cm segment, it was approximately one-half of previous values. In the remaining, distal 7-cm hair segment sample, the value of methamphetamine was higher and comparable to the third segment. These results provide clear evidence that the man had been a chronic methamphetamine abuser for more than 8 months. This information can help to explain the pathology, the consequence of which could be the bleeding into the cerebellum after the last single methamphetamine dose.     

Multilateral determinants of regionalism revisited

The idea that some features of the multilateral trading system create incentives for countries to join preferential trade agreements (PTAs) is among the first and most influential explanations for the wave of regionalism in the last decades. Until recently, only a few empirical studies have explored this hypothesis and their results have been accepted by many researchers and policy-makers to be a fact. In this study we revisit the question of whether multilateral events are important determinants of regionalism. We use an extended dataset and implement several empirical specifications in the analysis. Unlike previous work, our results provide little support for the relevance of variables such as the number of GATT/WTO members, ongoing trade negotiation rounds, and trade disputes as predictors of PTA formation.