Searching the Soil: Forensic Importance of Edaphic Fauna After the Removal of a Corpse

Abstract: Arthropods at different stages of development collected from human remains in an advanced stage of decomposition (following autopsy) and from the soil at the scene are reported. The corpse was found in a mixed deciduous forest of Biscay (northern Spain). Soil fauna was extracted by sieving the soil where the corpse lay and placing the remains in Berlese–Tullgren funnels. Necrophagous fauna on the human remains was dominated by the fly Piophilidae: Stearibia nigriceps (Meigen, 1826), mites Ascidae: Proctolaelaps epuraeae (Hirschmann, 1963), Laelapidae: Hypoaspis (Gaeolaelaps) aculeifer (Canestrini, 1884), and the beetle Cleridae: Necrobia rufipes (de Geer, 1775). We confirm the importance of edaphic fauna, especially if the deceased is discovered in natural environs. Related fauna may remain for days after corpse removal and reveal information related to the circumstances of death. The species Nitidulidae: Omosita depressa (Linnaeus, 1758), Acaridae: Sancassania berlesei (Michael, 1903), Ascidae: Zerconopsis remiger (Kramer, 1876) and P. epuraeae, Urodinychidae: Uroobovella pulchella (Berlese, 1904), and Macrochelidae: Glyptholaspis americana (Berlese, 1888) were recorded for the first time in the Iberian Peninsula.     

Targeting the Treatment: The Strategy behind Lyndon Johnson's Lobbying

Lyndon Johnson woke up studying whip counts, went to bed reading the Congressional Record, and invested countless hours in between translating that political intelligence into a lobbying offensive. The result, famously christened “The Johnson Treatment,” remains the archetype practitioners and political scientists cite when appraising presidential leadership on Capitol Hill. Yet Beltway folklore aside, we know little about how LBJ helped forge winning legislative coalitions. Stepping back from the (countless) colorful anecdotes, this study offers a new and systematic look at Lyndon Johnson's lobbying. Specifically, after exploring theoretical models of presidential coalition building, we then investigate their operational tenets using original data on all President Johnson's contacts, with each member of Congress, in both chambers, for every day he was president.     

Proximal End Root Morphology Characteristics in Antemortem Anagen Head Hairs

The proximal end morphology of antemortem anagen head hair was compared with the characteristics documented to occur in postmortem hairs. Antemortem anagen and telogen head hairs (N = 967) were recovered following exposure to seven environments. Root morphology characteristics consistent with those reported in postmortem hairs were observed in 66 (14%) hairs exposed to a water, normal saline, outdoor soil, or indoor shower environment. Thirty‐three anagen hairs (7%) exhibited a root band at the proximal end. The mean distance from the root tip to the onset of the root band ranged from 0.23 to 0.7 mm, depending on the environment. The mean distance from the root tip to the onset of the root band was 0.46 mm, with a mean band length of 0.44 mm. The results illustrate the need to better characterize postmortem banding through quantitative measurements, including the range for root tip to band distance and the overall band length.     

Lighting and Homicides: Evaluating the Effect of an Electrification Policy in Rural Brazil on Violent Crime Reduction

Introduction

This study estimates the effects of lighting on homicides in rural areas of developing countries.

Methods

We use an IV strategy by exploring the LUZ PARA TODOS or Light for All (LPT) program that was adopted by the federal government to expand electrification to rural areas in Brazilian municipalities in the 2000s as an exogenous source of variations in access to electricity.

Results

Our results indicate a significant decrease in homicide rates in municipalities the Northeast region, which is the poorest region of the country and most affected by the policy expansion. We estimate that helping a municipality increase from zero electricity coverage to full coverage reduces homicide rates by 92 per 100,000 inhabitants. This is equivalent to moving a municipality that is at the 99th percentile to the median (zero) of the crime distribution across municipalities. In addition, we perform placebo exercises using sub-samples of predominantly urban municipalities. The results increase our confidence in the IV strategy since our primary results were from areas with a larger percentage of rural population, as should be expected by the policy.

Conclusions

This study contributes to the extant literature by investigating the effects of lighting on homicides in a different context, rural areas of a developing country (Brazil).

     

A Gramscian Approach to Studying the Judicial Decision-Making Process

This paper applies a Gramscian analytical framework to scrutinise the judicial decision-making process. Based on two distinct research projects, the article explores how, on one hand judges in criminal courts can be identified as part of the bureaucratic machinery of the state, as ‘technicians of repression’; whereas, on the other hand, human rights judges can be distinguished as providing ‘moral and intellectual leadership’ in their production and reproduction of certain values. Some of the key questions this article seeks to answer are: What is the role of hegemony in the judicial decision-making process? To what extent are legal actors both ‘technicians of repression’ and ‘moral and intellectual leaders’? This paper uses examples from empirical research conducted at courts in Argentina and at the European and Inter-American Courts of Human Rights to identify and explore this dual role of judges as both repressive technicians and moral and intellectual leaders in neo-liberal capitalist societies.     

The hidden electoral connection: analysing parliamentary questions in the Chilean Congress

Legislators in presidential countries use a variety of mechanisms to advance their electoral careers and connect with relevant constituents. The most frequently studied activities are bill initiation, co-sponsoring, and legislative speeches. In this paper, the authors examine legislators’ information requests (i.e. parliamentary questions) to the government, which have been studied in some parliamentary countries but remain largely unscrutinised in presidential countries. The authors focus on the case of Chile – where strong and cohesive national parties coexist with electoral incentives that emphasise the personal vote – to examine the links between party responsiveness and legislators’ efforts to connect with their electoral constituencies. Making use of a new database of parliamentary questions and a comprehensive sample of geographical references, the authors examine how legislators use this mechanism to forge connections with voters, and find that targeted activities tend to increase as a function of electoral insecurity and progressive ambition.     

A Spanish population study of 17 Y-chromosome STR loci

Haplotype, allele frequencies and population data of 17 Y-chromosome STR loci DYS19, DYS385, DYS389I, DYS389II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393, DYS437, DYS438, DYS439, DYS460 (GATA A7.1), DYS461 (GATA A7.2), GATA A10, GATA C4 and GATA H4 were determined from a sample of 148 unrelated male individuals from Spain. A total of 144 haplotypes were identified by the 17 Y-STR markers, of which 141 were unique, two were found in two individuals and one was found in three individuals. The haplotype diversity (99.95%) and discrimination capacity (97.30%) were calculated. Comparisons were made with previously published haplotype data on other Iberian population samples and no significant differences were found.     

Objective measurement of dental color for age estimation by spectroradiometry

Age-related changes in tooth color have been described previously, however, the use of dental color for age estimation in forensic odontology has been limited due to the difficulty of measuring color objectively. This study presents an objective method for determining dental color to estimate the age of an individual. Dentine color in 250 teeth from patients ranging in age from 10 to 89 years was determined by spectroradiometry. Color measurements were performed as suggested in the CIE 1931 (International Commission on Illumination). Chromaticity coordinates (x, y, z), luminance (Y), whiteness index (WIC, Z%, WIC) and yellowness index (YI) were obtained. Correlations between these colorimetric variables and aging were established by linear regression analyses. All the variables fit the mathematical model with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.53 to 0.75. This method of color measurement produced an expected associated error of calibration averaging 13.7 years about the mean estimated values, at a 70% level of confidence. Two different multiple regression models for dental age estimation were tested, and variables that made the greatest contributions to age calculation were identified. To determine the effect of postmortem interval on tooth color and its influence in age estimation, 37 teeth obtained from human skeletal remains buried during an interval ranging from 21 to 37 years were also studied. In this material, the correlation between age and dental color measured by spectroradiometry was weaker than in fresh extracted teeth.It is concluded that determination of dentine color by spectroradiometry is a potentially useful objective method to estimate age in forensic studies in combination with other methods.