The impact of patrol staffing on police-citizen injuries and dispositions

This article examines the impact of one- and two-officer patrol units on police-citizen interactions which resulted in the filing of citizen complaints against the officer(s). Specifically, it is hypothesized that there is no difference between one- and two-officer units (1) in the rate of injuries to officers in hostile police-citizen interactions, (2) in the number of citizen complainant injuries received in such interactions, (3) in the number of resisting arrest-type charges placed against the citizen, and (4) in the type of charge placed against the citizen in the incident. The data indicate that the impact of staffing is felr more by citizens than officers. When controlling for shift and dangerousness of precinct of occurrence, citizens were found to be more likely to be injured in hostile police-citizen encounters than the police, especially when two officers were present. Officers in two-officer units were more likely to arrest the citizen in the incident which precipitated the complaint and the arrest of that citizen was most likely to be for the more serious charge of assaulting an officer. The results suggest that lone officers resolve more disputes without resorting to formal outcomes. The implications of these findings for police patrol strategy are discussed.     

The case of Jeffrey Dahmer: sexual serial homicide from a neuropsychiatric developmental perspective

Sexual serial homicidal behavior has received considerable attention during the last three decades. Substantial progress has been made in the development of methods aimed at identifying and apprehending individuals who exhibit these behaviors. In spite of these advances, the origins of sexual serial killing behavior remain for the most part unknown. In this article we propose a biopsychosocial psychiatric model for understanding the origins of sexual serial homicidal behavior from both neuropsychiatric and developmental perspectives, using the case of convicted serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer as the focal point. We propose that his homicidal behavior was intrinsically associated with autistic spectrum psychopathology, specifically Asperger's disorder. The relationship of Asperger's disorder to other psychopathology and to his homicidal behavior is explored. We discuss potential implications of the proposed model for the future study of the causes of sexual serial homicidal crime.     

Reduced volume PCR amplification reactions using the AmpFlSTR Profiler Plus kit

The forensic community continues to seek improvements in DNA typing methods on aspects such as sensitivity and efficacy. Reducing the volume of the AmpFlSTR Profiler Plus reagents offered greater sensitivity and improved the chance of obtaining useful results for samples with very low quantities of DNA and multiple source samples. On the downside, amplifications initiated with less than 0.4 ng of DNA exhibited a twofold increase in the standard deviation of peak ratios. This research suggested a twofold approach to analyzing samples. For samples with greater than 0.25 ng of DNA, a 25 microL reaction is appropriate. Samples that did not demonstrate quantifiable results, or that have less than 0.25 ng, can be amplified by drying the sample directly in the PCR tube and amplifying in a 5 microL reaction. The analyst can expect at least limited results with as little as 0.03 ng of DNA in the 5 microL reaction.     

Allele frequencies for 70 autosomal SNP loci with U.S. Caucasian, African-American, and Hispanic samples

189 samples from 3 different U.S. sample groups Caucasian (74), African American (71) and Hispanic (44) were typed for 70 autosomal genetic markers. These 70 markers are bi-allelic (C/T) short nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). For each sample, the 70 SNP markers were typed in 11 unique 6-plexes and a single 4-plex PCR. A total of 10 of the 210 tests (70 loci x 3 populations) for Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium indicated a statistically significant result. In order to evaluate the minimum number of SNP loci needed to distinguish all 189 samples from one another, we ranked the loci according to their levels of observed heterozygosity and p-values obtained upon testing for Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. The top 12 loci according to these ranking criteria were tabulated along with the number of unique genotypes observed when combining subsequent SNP markers. The 12 selected SNPs possessed an observed heterozygosity of >0.45 in all three populations examined and thus would be expected to exhibit more differences between samples. All of the 189 samples in this study were individualized with a subset of 12 SNP loci. However, it is likely that the addition of more than 12 SNP loci will be required to resolve larger sets of unrelated individuals from one another. By way of comparison, in these same 189 individuals all but one pair is resolved from one another with three of the traditional short tandem repeat (STR) loci possessing the highest heterozygosity values (D2S1338, D18S51, and FGA) run with the Identifiler kit. The final pair of unrelated samples could be resolved with the combination of 4 STR loci: D2S1338, D18S51, FGA, and VWA.     

Shyness, Sociability, and Parental Support for the College Transition: Relation to Adolescents’ Adjustment

A path model was tested in an ethnically diverse sample of 350 college students in which shyness, sociability, and parental support for the college transition were related to loneliness and friendship quality. Furthermore, friendship quality and loneliness were related to depression and anxiety. High levels of shyness, low levels of sociability, and low levels of parental support were related to high levels of loneliness. High levels of parental support for the college transition were related to more positive friendship quality. Multiple regression analyses suggested that loneliness, but not friendship quality, were related to adolescents’ anxiety and depression. In addition, the interaction between shyness and sociability was significantly related to anxiety for African-American adolescents such that adolescents who reported low levels of sociability in combination with high levels of shyness reported the highest levels of anxiety. There was also a significant interaction between sociability and parental support for African-American adolescents such that high levels of sociability in combination with low levels of parental support for the college transition were related to high levels of anxiety. For White adolescents, only loneliness was related to anxiety. Nina S. Mounts is an associate professor at Northern Illinois University. She received her PhD in child and family studies from University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her major research interests are on linkages between parent and peer contexts, parental management of adolescents’ peer relationships, and peer influence on adolescents. David P. Valentiner is an associate professor at Northern Illinois University. He received his PhD in clinical psychology from University of Texas-Austin. His major research interests are cognitive and emotional factors in anxiety disorders, including the development and maintenance of social anxiety. Katherine Anderson is a graduate student at University of Wisconsin-Madison. She received her MS in developmental psychology from Northern Illinois University. Her major research interests are on career identity development in college students. Michelle Boswell is a graduate student at Northern Illinois University. She received her MS in clinical psychology from Northern Illinois University. Her major research interests are on parenting effects on bullying and victimization.     

Administrative compensation of medical injuries: a hardy perennial blooms again

Periods in which the costs of personal injury litigation and liability insurance have risen dramatically have often provoked calls for reform of the tort system, and medical malpractice is no exception. One proposal for fundamental reform made during several of these volatile periods has been to relocate personal injury disputes from the tort system to an alternative, administrative forum. In the medical injury realm, a leading incarnation of such proposals in recent years has been the idea of establishing specialized administrative "health courts." Despite considerable stakeholder and policy-maker interest, administrative compensation proposals have tended to struggle for broad political acceptance. In this article, we consider the historical experience of administrative medical injury compensation proposals, particularly in light of comparative examples in the context of workplace injuries, automobile injuries, and vaccine injuries. We conclude by examining conditions that may facilitate or impede progress toward establishing demonstration projects of health courts.