Stranger rape: classifying Spanish sexual offences using multiple correspondence and cluster analyses

We have analysed the information in 342 police reports of stranger sexual offences recorded in 2010. We have carried out a multiple correspondence analysis and a cluster analysis using modus operandi variables to identify differential profiles in these types of sexual offences. We have come up with three profiles of stranger sexual offences, which concur in the two techniques used. By analysing the personal variables of the offenders with such profiles, we have found differences in terms of the offender’s country of origin and age. We will discuss the consequences of these results on the police investigation of stranger sexual offences.     

An Unplanned Complex Suicide by Multiple Blank Cartridge Gunshots and Cutting

Blank firing guns are readily accessible in most countries due to an absence of legal regulations. These weapons are capable of causing lethal injuries. We report a rare case of secondary (unplanned) complex suicide committed with a knife and blank cartridge pistol. A 59‐year‐old man was found dead with three superficial incisions in his neck and a gunshot wound to the chest. The external examination revealed an entrance wound in the left chest region consistent with contact shooting. The appearance of a muzzle imprint suggested two discharges. The autopsy showed a slightly hemorrhaged but otherwise intact pericardium, blood in the pericardial sac, and a channel‐like defect in the anterior wall of the left cardiac ventricle. The cause of death was attributed to cardiac tamponade. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported case of unplanned complex suicide involving an unmodified blank firing gun.     

Development and Validation of a Method Using Dried Oral Fluid Spot to Determine Drugs of Abuse

A liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry method using dried oral fluid spots was developed and validated for the simultaneous quantification of cocaine, benzoylecgonine, cocaethylene, amphetamine, and 3,4‐methylenedioxymethamphetamine. The oral fluid was applied to a Whatman 903 grade paper and submitted to a drying time of 2.5 h. The extraction procedure was optimized by chemometric approach using simplex centroid design. Spots were extracted with a mixture of acetonitrile, buffer, and methanol. Calibration curves covered a linear concentration range of 40–500 ng/mL. Validation parameters of linearity, precision, accuracy, selectivity, carryover, matrix effects, and stability were evaluated and showed satisfactory results. Spot homogeneity was also satisfactory, with less than 15% of deviation from nominal concentration. Spot volume did not influence accuracy when less than 100 μL of the sample was applied to the spot. The validation of the proposed method suggests a potential application in different scenarios in toxicology.     

Sanctuary Policies and City-Level Incidents of Violence, 1990 to 2010

Despite media coverage of isolated incidents of violent crime perpetuated by undocumented immigrants in cities with sanctuary policies, there is scant systematic research on the relationships between the adoption of sanctuary policies, unauthorized immigration, and crime. We compile city-level data from official sources and use fixed-effects negative binomial regression to examine whether the adoption of city-level sanctuary policies and the concentration of unauthorized Mexican immigrants are associated with homicide and robbery incidents in 107 U.S. cities, across three decades. We find evidence that the adoption of sanctuary policies is associated with a reduction in robberies but not homicide. In contrast, an increase in the relative size of a city’s unauthorized Mexican immigrant population corresponds with a reduction in homicide; however, only in sanctuary cities. Lastly, shifts in violence during our study period are consistently related to social structural characteristics of cities, which are findings consistent with social disorganization theory.     

Children’s and parents’ involvement in care order proceedings: a cross-national comparison of judicial decision-makers’ views and experiences

This paper presents the views of judicial decision-makers (n = 1794) in four child protection jurisdictions (England, Finland, Norway, and the USA (California)), about whether parents and children are provided with appropriate opportunities to participate in proceedings in their countries. Overall, the study found a high degree of agreement within and between the countries as regards the important conditions for parents’ and children´s involvement, although the four systems themselves are very different. There was less agreement about children’s involvement than parents’, and the court decision-makers from Norway and Finland were more likely to express doubts about this. Nevertheless, the main message from the judicial decision-makers is that they are relatively satisfied as to how parents’ and children´s involvement is handled in their countries. Whether or not this confidence is justified, the emphasis on achieving effective involvement of children and parents in court proceedings is likely to grow, with major implications for the workers, decision-makers and agencies involved.     

The Repoliticization of Collective Action After Neoliberalism in Peru

Examining the popular uprising against the privatization of electric service in Arequipa and other revolts against foreign direct investment in Peru, this article explores the changing basis of antigovernment mobilizations against economic liberalization. It suggests that the transition from Fujimori to Toledo led to a major shift in the political opportunity structure, creating a more conducive environment for greater levels of mobilization while increasing the leverage of challengers, along with their chances to achieve positive goals. These new forms of collective resistance are geographically segmented or territorialized; they present concrete demands; and they often involve unexpected actors, yet they resonate at the national level. These results confirm the expectations from recent repoliticization literature insofar as collective actors remain acutely responsive to market reforms in more democratic settings.     

The effectiveness of institutional borrowing restrictions: Empirical evidence from Spanish municipalities

The need for restrictions on borrowing by subnational governments is a generally accepted notion that is justified both by public choice theory and by the fact that such restrictions are in force in the majority of decentralized countries. Furthermore, recent breaches of the Stability and Growth Pact of the European Union have led to the introduction of legislative tools aimed at balancing the budget at all levels of government have come to the forefront of interest in European public finance research. This paper is concerned with the financial situation and debt level of Spanish municipalities from 1988 to 2000. We have two main objectives: the first is to assess the value of mandatory limitations on municipal borrowing and past trends in the borrowing policies adopted by Spanish local authorities. The second is to develop an econometric model using panel data stratified by population size to measure indebtedness in Spanish municipalities. These measures enable us to formulate a series of hypotheses to explain municipal borrowing practices, which are then tested empirically. The evidence thus obtained appears to support the effectiveness of institutional borrowing restrictions to introduce some financial discipline in the borrowing policies adopted by local governments in Spain.     

Global Shift: The U.N. System and the New Regionalism in Latin America

This study analyzes Latin America in light of the post–Cold War transformation of the global system. Much of Latin American foreign policy studies traditionally has been concerned with the region's subordinate position to "core" countries (generally, developed states and their ruling elites) and the degree to which these countries' policies constrain Latin American policies and development. While this juxtaposition is still a major topic, it ignores the leverage of new "spheres of authority" (SOAs), where global rules and norms are increasingly sustained. A hypothesis presented here is that the U.N. system is an example of such an SOA, which creates a new context for the insertion of periphery demands in the international agenda. A second hypothesis is that such insertion is increasingly made through the creation of new regional groupings, which are an expression of national development and security demands. Such processes carry both new possibilities and challenges.     

Online reference database of European Y-chromosomal short tandem repeat (STR) haplotypes

The reference database of highly informative Y-chromosomal short tandem repeat (STR) haplotypes (YHRD), available online at http://ystr.charite.de, represents the largest collection of male-specific genetic profiles currently available for European populations. By September 2000, YHRD contained 4688 9-locus (so-called "minimal") haplotypes, 40% of which have been extended further to include two additional loci. Establishment of YHRD has been facilitated by the joint efforts of 31 forensic and anthropological institutions. All contributing laboratories have agreed to standardize their Y-STR haplotyping protocols and to participate in a quality assurance exercise prior to the inclusion of any data. In view of its collaborative character, and in order to put YHRD to its intended use, viz. the support of forensic caseworkers in their routine decision-making process, the database has been made publicly available via the Internet in February 2000. Online searches for complete or partial Y-STR haplotypes from evidentiary or non-probative material can be performed on a non-commercial basis, and yield observed haplotype counts as well as extrapolated population frequency estimates. In addition, the YHRD website provides information about the quality control test, genotyping protocols, haplotype formats and informativity, population genetic analysis, literature references, and a list of contact addresses of the contributing laboratories.     

Reproductive technologies and the legal determination of fatherhood

In Re D is the most recent in a line of cases to raise problems with the determination of legal fatherhood under s.28(3) of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990. The judgments in In Re D are interesting in particular because they demonstrate the growing currency of the idea that a child has a right to ‘genetic truth’. They also further evidence the ‘fragmentation of fatherhood’. This case is best understood as part of a complex and ongoing negotiation of men’s role in the family in the light of shifting family forms.