Singing the same tune? International continuities and discontinuities in how police talk about using force

This article focuses on a research project conducted in six jurisdictions: England, The Netherlands, Germany, Australia, Venezuela, and Brazil. These societies are very different ethnically, socially, politically, economically, historically and have wildly different levels of crime. Their policing arrangements also differ significantly: how they are organised; how their officers are equipped and trained; what routine operating procedures they employ; whether they are armed; and much else besides. Most relevant for this research, they represent policing systems with wildly different levels of police shootings, Police in the two Latin American countries represented here have a justified reputation for the frequency with which they shoot people, whereas at the other extreme the police in England do not routinely carry firearms and rarely shoot anyone. To probe whether these differences are reflected in the way that officers talk about the use of force, police officers in these different jurisdictions were invited to discuss in focus groups a scenario in which police are thwarted in their attempt to arrest two youths (one of whom is a known local criminal) by the youths driving off with the police in pursuit, and concludes with the youths crashing their car and escaping in apparent possession of a gun, It might be expected that focus groups would prove starkly different, and indeed they were, but not in the way that might be expected. There was little difference in affirmation of normative and legal standards regarding the use of force. It was in how officers in different jurisdictions envisaged the circumstances in which the scenario took place that led Latin American officers to anticipate that they would shoot the suspects, whereas officers in the other jurisdictions had little expectation that they would open fire in the conditions as they imagined them to be.

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“Modern” death qualification

We report on the results of a comprehensive statewide survey of death penalty attitudes in which respondents were categorized in terms of their death-qualified or excludable status under several different Supreme Court doctrines governing the death-qualification process. We found that although changes in public opinion with respect to the death penalty in general have altered the relative sizes of the death-qualified and excludable groups, significant differences remain between them on a number of attitudinal dimensions, no matter which doctrines are employed to define these groups. We discuss the implications of these recent data, especially with respect to the Supreme Court's continued reference to the death-qualified jury as an index of community standards with respect to the death penalty itself.     

Pain-Related Symptom Reporting Among Hispanics: Implications for Forensic Psychological Evaluations

Competent forensic psychologists constantly pursue the understanding of cultural differences. The purposes of this paper were to describe and explain the literature regarding the influences of the Hispanic culture on reports of pain-related symptoms and disabilities, and to illustrate ways in which culture-specific factors can impact a forensic psychological evaluation that includes malingering identification. The reviewed literature indicates that, as a group, Hispanics do not consistently differ from other ethnic groups on pain-related symptom reports. However, when examining culture-specific indicators, individuals from a Puerto Rican background and those with high acculturation to the American culture tend to report more pain and psychological distress than non-Hispanic Whites and other Hispanic subgroups. Additionally, language barriers and cultural-structured views of health and illness seem to hinder help-seeking options among the Mexican and less-acculturated Hispanics. Based on these results, we discuss a number of recommendations to make forensic psychological evaluations more sensitive to differences in acculturation and country of heritage. By taking these within-culture characteristics into consideration, the forensic psychologist can most accurately comprehend the meanings associated with the Hispanic client’s pain-related experience.     

The stationarity of inflation in Croatia: anti-inflation stabilization program and the change in persistence

This study examines the impact of the anti-inflation stabilization policies on the behavior of inflation in Croatia in the early 1990s and through the subsequent post-stabilization period using fractional integration techniques. Indeed, the implementation of the stabilization program in October 1993 brought immediate deflation with a relative high degree of inflation stability in the post-stabilization period. With allowance for a structural break corresponding to the stabilization program in October 1993, the degree of persistence was substantially reduced with the fractional differencing parameter being positive but close to zero in the post-stabilization period.     

A Morphological and Morphometric Study of Bite Marks Caused by Mice (Mus Musculus) on Different Baits for Forensic Purposes

In animal bites, the dental attributes can be fundamental in identifying the marks made by various species on different matrices. Although rodent bite marks have been studied in the context of postmortem interference, little research has used different baits to analyze these marks linking not only specific behavior patterns but also the possibility of structural damage. Twenty mice (Mus musculus) were exposed to different baits to study their bite marks in a controlled model. The known pattern of parallel and multiple grooves has been seen in all baits, but polyvinyl chloride and fiber‐optic cable were significantly different between each other and the other baits. Some baits showed patterns of anchorage of the upper incisors and space between the lower incisors when gnawing. This technical note represents a novel model of analysis where veterinarians and/or dentists may be asked to give an opinion on alleged animal bite marks.     

The determination of CK,LDH and its isoenzymes in pericardial fluid and its application to the post-mortem diagnosis of myocardial infarction

After having studied 144 pericardial fluids, from the same number of judicial corpses, we propose the measurement of CK for the postmortem diagnosis of myocardial infarction, since it is a reliable, exact and easy technique available to an ordinary laboratory. Providing that contaminated samples be disregarded, the fluids are centrifuged early, and the cadavers be under 48 hours old, the study of CK enzymatic levels in the pericardial fluid allows the postmortem differentiation of myocardial infarction from other causes of death.     

West Nile virus encephalitis

West Nile virus (WNV) is a mosquito-borne virus that has caused a large number of deaths in the United States since the first outbreak in New York City in 1998. The outbreak initially was limited to the northeast but has since spread across the entire continental United States. WNV causes a variety of clinical symptoms, but the most severe consequences result from central nervous system infection, resulting in meningitis, encephalitis, or meningoencephalitis. We present a case of a 62-year-old male with metastatic cancer, who died as a result of WNV encephalitis. This is followed by a discussion on the epidemiology of WNV and a detailed summary of the methods and resources available to make a diagnosis of WNV infection postmortem. The material presented in the discussion should provide the forensic pathologist with all the information necessary to make a diagnosis of WNV infection postmortem. If nothing else, the routine collection and storage of serum, cerebrospinal fluid, and tissue for every case can enable the forensic pathologist to make this diagnosis even in cases in which WNV is not suspected until after autopsy.     

Autosomic STR population data in two Caribbean samples from Colombia

In this work, a sample of 124 unrelated individuals from San Andres Island and Santa Marta City (Colombia) was studied for the nine STRs included in the AmpFlSTR Profiler kit (CSF1PO, D3S1358, D5S818, D7S820, D13S317, FGA, TH01, TPOX and vWA). Although these two populations are geographically apart, San Andres is an Island in the middle of Caribbean Sea (about 480 miles northwest the Colombian mainland) and Santa Marta City located in the coast, exact test showed no differentiation between both population samples (P=0.39445+/-0.0805). Therefore, allele frequencies and parameters of forensic interest were estimated for the global sample.