Assessing callous-unemotional traits in adolescent offenders: validation of the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits

The presence of callous-unemotional (CU) traits designates an important subgroup of antisocial youth. To improve upon existing measures, the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits (ICU) was developed to provide an efficient, reliable, and valid assessment of CU traits in samples of youth. The current study tests the factor structure and correlates of the ICU scale in a sample (n=248) of juvenile offenders (188 boys, 60 girls) between the ages of 12 and 20 (M=15.47, SD=1.37). Confirmatory factor analyses are consistent with the presence of three independent factors (i.e., Uncaring, Callousness, and Unemotional) that relate to a higher-order callous-unemotional dimension. Also, CU traits overall showed associations with aggression, delinquency, and both psychophysiological and self-report indices of emotional reactivity. There were some important differences across the three facets of the ICU in their associations with these key external criteria.     

Discriminant function sexing of the mandible of indigenous South Africans

South Africa currently has a high homicide rate. This results in a large number of unidentified bodies being recovered each year, many of which are referred to the forensic examiner. This situation has resulted in considerable growth of forensic anthropological research devoted to devising standards for specific application in South African medico-legal investigations. The standards suitable for Black South Africans now encompass a wide variety of skeletal elements (e.g. cranium, humerus, pelvis, femur, patella, talus, calcaneus), each with differing degrees of accuracy. Apart from a preliminary investigation of the Zulu local population, however, we note that there appears to be no established metric mandible discriminant function standards for sex determination in this population. The purpose of the present study is to undertake a comprehensive analysis of sexual dimorphism in the mandible of Black South Africans, incorporating individuals from a selection of the larger local population groupings; the primary aim is to produce a series of metrical standards for the determination of sex. The sample analyzed comprises 225 non-pathological mandibles of Black South African individuals drawn from the R.A. Dart Collection. Nine linear measurements, obtained from mathematically transformed three-dimensional landmark data, are analyzed using basic univariate statistics and discriminant function analyses. All of the measurements examined are found to be sexually dimorphic; the dimensions of the ramus and corpus lengths are most dimorphic. The sex classification accuracy of the discriminant functions ranged from 70.7 to 77.3% for the univariate method, 81.8% for the stepwise method, and 63.6 to 84% for the direct method. We conclude that the mandible is a very useful element for sex determination in this population.     

Forensic analysis of bioagents by X-ray and TOF-SIMS hyperspectral imaging

Hyperspectral imaging combined with multivariate statistics is an approach to microanalysis that makes the maximum use of the large amount of data potentially collected in forensics analysis. This study examines the efficacy of using hyperspectral imaging-enabled microscopies to identify chemical signatures in simulated bioagent materials. This approach allowed for the ready discrimination between all samples in the test. In particular, the hyperspectral imaging approach allowed for the identification of particles with trace elements that would have been missed with a more traditional approach to forensic microanalysis. The importance of combining signals from multiple length scales and analytical sensitivities is discussed.     

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.     

Prevalence of psychoactive substances in truck drivers in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region (France)

A previous study conducted in 1995 showed that psychoactive drug use by workers was higher in safety/security workstations than in the rest of the labour force. In order to verify this finding, we conducted a new study in 2003-2004 in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region, restricted to truck drivers. The aim of this study was to allow harmonizing the professional practice of the occupational physicians, proposing drug prevention and drug testing policies, validating the analytical methods and the guidelines in case of positive testing results. One thousand truck drivers were studied. Urines were tested for amphetamines, cannabinoids, cocaine, opiates, benzodiazepines, buprenorphine and methadone by immunoassay. Urine ethanol determinations were performed by an ADH method. Positive urines for drugs of abuse, methadone or buprenorphine were then tested by gas chromatography or liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. Out of the 1000 drivers, cannabinoids were detected in 85 cases, opiates in 41 cases, amphetamines in 3 cases and cocaine in only one case. Buprenorphine was detected in 18 cases, methadone in 5 cases and benzodiazepines in 4 cases. Urine ethanol was positive in 50 cases. We found only one case with 6-monoacetylmorphine. Other positive opiates were metabolites of antitussives. The relatively low number of benzodiazepine positive urines could be explained by the lack of sensitivity of the test we used. All these results confirm those of the previous study for cannabinoids and ethanol in safety/security workstations. Positive results for methadone and buprenorphine are eight times higher than in the general population. In conclusion, the authors think that it will be of a great interest to test urine of truck drivers for other classes of psychoactive drugs, using a liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry method.     

In Person

Paul Jones is with Jones & Co., a multi-lingual law firmin Toronto, Canada. He found time in his busy schedule to respondto questions posed by JIPLP. How did you first become interested in IP? I began as a commercial lawyer doing franchising, which ledto an interest in trade marks. Later I had a small client whowas threatened with litigation