Developing a Spatial-Temporal Method for the Geographic Investigation of Shoeprint Evidence

Abstract:  This article examines the potential of a spatial-temporal method for analysis of forensic shoeprint data. The large volume of shoeprint evidence recovered at crime scenes results in varied success in matching a print to a known shoe type and subsequently linking sets of matched prints to suspected offenders. Unlike DNA and fingerprint data, a major challenge is to reduce the uncertainty in linking sets of matched shoeprints to a suspected serial offender. Shoeprint data for 2004 were imported from the Greater London Metropolitan Area Bigfoot database into a geographic information system, and a spatial-temporal algorithm developed for this project. The results show that by using distance and time constraints interactively, the number of candidate shoeprints that can implicate one or few suspects can be substantially reduced. It concludes that the use of space-time and other ancillary information within a geographic information system can be quite helpful for forensic investigation.     

An Economic Justification for Open Access to Essential Medicine Patents in Developing Countries

This paper offers an economic rationale for compulsory licensing of needed medicines in developing countries. The patent system is based on a trade-off between the "deadweight losses" caused by market power and the incentive to innovate created by increased profits from monopoly pricing during the period of the patent. However, markets for essential medicines under patent in developing countries with high income inequality are characterized by highly convex demand curves, producing large deadweight losses relative to potential profits when monopoly firms exercise profit-maximizing pricing strategies. As a result, these markets are systematically ill-suited to exclusive marketing rights, a problem which can be corrected through compulsory licensing. Open licenses that permit any qualified firm to supply the market on the same terms, such as may be available under licenses of right or essential facility legal standards, can be used to mitigate the negative effects of government-granted patents, thereby increasing overall social welfare.     

Plea Bargainings: Ethics and Politics

This article argues for a re-orientation of the debates concerning plea bargaining in the light of a process of re-legitimation currently under way in which professional codes of ethics are given new importance. In the new rhetoric, plea bargaining is claimed to be in line with rather than contrary to traditional adversarial principles. The focus of this paper is to argue for a re-affirmation of deep-seated principles which contextualize professional ethics in the wider domain of the politics of criminal justice.     

A Case Study: Sale of Railway Consulting Services

Queensland Rail has developed a market niche in South East Asia, where it advises on profitable narrow-guage rail operations. This article outlines the extent of Queensland Rail involvement with the region and offers practical advice for commercial dealings with one important customer, Vietnam.     

Constructing the Market: Commercialization and Privatization in the Royal Mail

The public sector in the UK has become the object of constant reform and change as part of the government's project to increase the remit of the private sector and the role of markets. There is much debate about the effect such a move to market relations has on public services. There is increasing concern with the way market–based reforms are linked to a new pattern of organizational structure and strategy that negates and/or opposes the traditional political processes associated with the public sector. This article focuses on the case of the Royal Mail to explore how such a transformation is both complex and contested. It reveals how 'the market' within the public sector is to a large extent politically constructed, and that the public–private dichotomy over–simplifies what is a complex process of negotiating meaning, forming alliances, lobbying for support, handling conflict and exerting influence. It demonstrates how various readings of 'the market' emerge, and that any solutions of how to become more commercial can be the result of political machinations. The implications of this analysis go beyond Royal Mail and can be generalized across the public sector.     

Disability beneficiaries who work and their experience under program work incentives.

This research examines the return to work by Disability Insurance beneficiaries who were first entitled to benefits in 1980-81 and who were originally selected to be interviewed in the New Beneficiary Survey. To facilitate an examination of actual labor-force participation by beneficiaries, information on work and participation in program work incentives was collected from their claims folders. The analysis shows that approximately 10 percent of disability beneficiaries work during their initial period of benefit entitlement. About 80 percent are granted a trial work period, and over 70 percent of those granted trial work successfully complete it. More than half of them, however, were not successful in leaving the rolls through their work effort. In fact, benefit terminations due to work occurred for fewer than 3 percent of all beneficiaries in the cohort; approximately one-third of them had returned to the rolls by the end of the period under study. Beneficiaries most likely to make a work attempt were young and had a high level of education. Those with a high Social Security benefit amount were less likely to make a work attempt.