Friction Marks of Stabbing Tools in Tires

When receiving a stabbed tire for examination, forensic toolmark examiners can determine whether a suspect tool was used in a specific crime based on class-characteristics and individual-characteristics marks that have been left by the tool on the tire. This study discusses friction marks and their forensic value during the examination of a punctured tire. The term friction mark refers to the noticeable mark around the penetration area on a tire's surface. Tires designed to create high friction when contacting a road. Due to this design, friction is created between the stabbing tool shank and the sides of the hole. As a result of this friction, the shank of the stabbing tool wears the outer layer of tire around the hole. This leaves a friction mark whose general shape reflects the cross-sectional shape of the stabbing tool’s shank. This phenomenon was observed and named by Locke (7) in his evaluation of tire puncture marks with knives. This article demonstrates the same phenomenon with other types of stabbing tools. Test stabs were produced with different tools representing a variety of cross-sectional shapes of shanks, and the resulting friction marks were photo-documented and discussed. Correlations between the various cross-sectional shapes and their corresponding friction marks are shown. Based on friction mark examination, the examiner: (i) can infer suspect tool shank cross-sectional shape with the evaluation of the friction mark shape and (ii) can deduce the maximum dimensions of the shank. This examination simplifies and accelerates the forensic comparison procedure and the investigation time.     

Improve Toolmarks' Impressions in Soft Wax

When the forensic toolmarks laboratory receives for examination and comparison a tool that is suspected of having been involved in a crime, the expert performs tests designed to determine whether or not the specific tool generates the same toolmarks as those found at the crime scene. This is performed by testing tool striation on a piece of soft metal, such as lead, and examining the marks left by the tool. Studies have shown that wax may be an optimal material for this purpose. This study examines the use of wax at different temperatures and shows that quality of results is better when the wax is cooled (recommended temperature is ?18°C). At this temperature, the wax is flexible enough but does not smear and is not sticky. This makes the obtained marks clearer and of better quality.     

The Coproduction of Primary and Secondary Legislation: Israel as a Case Study of Substitutive Relationships

Much has been written since the early 1980s about the costs of regulation and the various ways to curb them, but thus far no one has examined empirically the rise or decline of other forms of legislation, mainly primary legislation, in the context of the “war on regulation.” This article examines the extent to which the decline in the rate of production of secondary legislation in Israel since 1985 has been driven by changes in the rate of production of primary legislation. Using an original longitudinal data set, we count, codify various dimensions, and compare the type and length of primary and secondary legislations and the number of delegated provisions that primary legislations contain. We find that the relationship between primary and secondary legislation is not hierarchic, as one might have expected, but has become partially substitutive. The decline in the rate of production of secondary legislation in Israel is, perhaps paradoxically, associated with the rise of primary legislation. This opens a new research agenda on the relationships between primary and secondary legislation that goes well beyond the Israeli case.     

Diffusion and Effects of Cyber-Crime in Developing Economies

Cyber-crime's footprints across the developing world are getting bigger. The aim of this article is to examine the structure of cyber-crimes in developing economies. Its central idea is that economic and institutional factors facing cyber-criminals and potential victims in the developing world are different from those in the developed world. In economies characterised by low internet penetration rates and few resources devoted to fighting cyber-crimes, formal institutions related to such crimes tend to be thin and dysfunctional. A cyber-criminal is less likely to be stigmatised in such economies. Moreover, organisations' and individuals' technological and behavioural defence mechanisms are likely to be weaker. Many people in developing economies are also attracted into cyber-crime because of high unemployment and low wages.