The effectiveness of various strategies to improve DNA analysis of formaldehyde-damaged tissues from embalmed cadavers for human identification purposes

Formalin-fixed tissues provide the medical and forensic communities with alternative and often last resort sources of DNA for identification or diagnostic purposes. The DNA in these samples can be highly degraded and chemically damaged, making downstream genotyping using short tandem repeats (STRs) challenging. Therefore, the use of alternative genetic markers, methods that pre-amplify the low amount of good quality DNA present, or methods that repair the damaged DNA template may provide more probative genetic information. This study investigated whether whole genome amplification (WGA) and DNA repair could improve STR typing of formaldehyde-damaged (FD) tissues from embalmed cadavers. Additionally, comparative genotyping success using bi-allelic markers, including INDELs and SNPs, was explored. Calculated random match probabilities (RMPs) using traditional STRs, INDEL markers, and two next generation sequencing (NGS) panels were compared across all samples. Overall, results showed that neither WGA nor DNA repair substantially improved STR success rates from formalin-fixed tissue samples. However, when DNA from FD samples was genotyped using INDEL and SNP-based panels, the RMP of each sample was markedly lower than the RMPs calculated from partial STR profiles. Therefore, the results of this study suggest that rather than attempting to improve the quantity and quality of severely damaged and degraded DNA prior to STR typing, a more productive approach may be to target smaller amplicons to provide more discriminatory DNA identifications. Furthermore, an NGS panel with less loci may yield better results when examining FD samples, due to more optimized chemistries that result in greater allelic balance and amplicon coverage.     

Intoxicated eyewitnesses: prevalence and procedures according to England’s police officers

Despite the apparent role alcohol plays in criminal offences, there is at present no evidence available as to the extent of the problem of intoxicated witnesses within England. To address this lack of research, police officers from seven constabularies completed an online survey addressing issues such as the prevalence of intoxicated witnesses, how officers determine intoxication, the procedures employed and their effectiveness. Officers indicated that intoxicated witnesses were a common, to very common, occurrence with most officers determining intoxication through physical symptoms and the witness’s own admission. In terms of interviewing witnesses, the majority of officers indicated that initial details were taken whilst witnesses were intoxicated, but the evidential interview was taken when sober. Officers also indicated that if the witness was intoxicated then the case was less likely to proceed to court and that officers viewed the witness as less accurate. These findings are considered from a criminal justice perspective and discussed in relation to future research.     

The Meat in the Sandwich: Welfare Labelling and the Governance of Meat‐chicken Production in Australia

This article critically examines the degree to which higher‐animal welfare label claims change animal welfare regulation and governance within intense meat‐chicken ('broiler') production in Australia. It argues that ethical labelling claims on food and other products can be seen as a ‘governance space’ in which various government, industry and civil society actors compete and collaborate for regulatory impact. It concludes that ethical labelling can act as a pathway for re‐embedding social concerns in the market, but only when it prompts changes that become enshrined in standard practice and possibly the law itself. Moreover, the changes wrought by ethical labelling are small and incremental. Nevertheless, labelling may create ongoing productive tension and ‘overflow’ that challenges the market to listen to and accommodate actors (including animals) on the margins to create ongoing incremental changes.     

“Legality with a Vengeance”: Reclaiming Distribution for Sociolegal Studies

The law and society community has argued for decades for an expansive understanding of what counts as “law.” But a content analysis of articles published in the Law & Society Review from its 1966 founding to the present finds that since the 1970s, the law and society community has focused its attention on laws in which the state regulates behavior, and largely ignored laws in which the state distributes resources, goods, and services. Why did socio‐legal scholars avoid studying how laws determine access to such things as health, wealth, housing, education, and food? We find that socio‐legal scholarship has always used “law on the books” as a starting point for analyses (often to identify departures in “law in action”) without ever offering a programmatic vision for how law might ameliorate economic inequality. As a result, when social welfare laws on the books began disappearing, socio‐legal scholarship drifted away from studying law's role in creating, sustaining, and reinforcing economic inequality. We argue that socio‐legal scholarship offers a wide range of analytical tools that could make important contributions to our understanding of social welfare provision.     

Social Ecological Correlates of Family-Level Interpersonal and Environmental Microaggressions Toward Sexual and Gender Minority Adolescents

Microaggressions are associated with mental and behavioral health problems and are common experiences for sexual and gender minority adolescents (SGMA). Little is known about the social ecological correlates of family-level interpersonal and environmental microaggressions for SGMA. Utilizing a national sample of SGMA (N?=?1,177), this study (a) identified the frequencies of family-level interpersonal and environmental microaggressions by participant demographics and (b) examined individual-, family-, and structural-level factors associated with interpersonal and environmental microaggressions. Outness to parents, a transgender or genderqueer identity, and higher levels of gender role non-conformity were associated with higher frequencies of interpersonal microaggressions. Higher levels of family-level child maltreatment and religiosity were associated with higher frequencies of interpersonal and environmental microaggressions. State-level non-discrimination protections were associated with lower frequencies of environmental microaggressions. Suggestions for increased individual-level support for gender non-binary adolescents as well as family targeted preventive strategies are discussed. Areas for future research are highlighted.     

Can the hidden hand of the market be an effective and legitimate regulator? The case of animal welfare under a labeling for consumer choice policy approach

In Australia, labeling for consumer choice, rather than higher government regulation, has become an important strand of the policy approach to addressing food animal welfare. This paper illustrates the usefulness of “regulatory network analysis” to uncover the potentials and limitations of market‐based governance to address contentious yet significant issues like animal welfare. We analyzed the content of newspaper articles from major Australian newspapers and official policy documents between 1990 and 2014 to show how the regulatory network influenced the framing of the regulatory problem, and the capacity and legitimacy of different regulatory actors at three “flashpoints” of decisionmaking about layer hen welfare in egg production. We suggest that the government policy of offering consumers the choice to buy cage free in the market allowed large‐scale industry to continue the egg laying business as usual with incremental innovation and adjustment. These incremental improvements only apply to the 20 percent or so of hens producing “free‐range” eggs. We conclude with a discussion of when and how labeling for consumer choice might create markets and public discourses that make possible more effective and legitimate regulation of issues such as layer hen welfare.