Priest,parishioner and posterity: A Dutch urban legend or historical fact?

This article analyzes the influence of priests on the number of children among Dutch Catholics between 1935 and 1970, based on a survey held among old retired priests and priests who had abandoned the priesthood as well as their parishioners. Whereas we heard dramatic testimonies of meddlesome priests, which are popularly considered to be undisputed fact, these practices were found to have disappeared earlier than generally assumed due to the process of modernization within the Church. Interviews with both priests and parishioners showed the prominent role played by the transfer of religious values in the parental home, sexual taboos and by the lack of information about sexuality and birth control.     

What Happened to Educational Equality? Tracing the Demise of Presidential Rhetoric on Racial Inequality in Higher Education

This article asks why discussion of racial inequality in higher education is absent from presidential speeches, which helps us understand why it is absent from the public agenda. I find a decrease in presidential speech about race and education after the 1980 and 1984 elections. By analyzing Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan's rhetoric during those elections, we can see that Carter struggled to promote affirmative action and, instead, supported historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Reagan adopted Carter's arguments about HBCUs and used them to support his strategy to appeal to whites' and white ethnics' racial resentments. This dynamic led to a political stalemate: Democrats could not address educational inequality, distance themselves from Republicans, and appeal to majority whites. Therefore, presidents had no incentive to address inequality in higher education. While educational inequality still exists, it remains absent from presidential speeches.     

Social preferences and private provision of public goods: A ‘double critical mass’ model

We set up an evolutionary game-theoretic model aimed at addressing the issue of local public good provision via direct commitment of voluntary forces (private donors and nonprofit providers) only. Two classes of agents are assumed to strategically interact within a ‘double critical mass’ model and we investigate the critical factors affecting the dynamic outcomes of such interaction. Further, we explore the conditions under which (what we term) ‘evolutionary crowding-out/in’ occurs, depending on agents’ degree of opportunism, social comparison and positive selective incentives (such as subsidies given by the government to ‘virtuous’ citizens or nonprofits only).     

Distance travelled and offence characteristics in homicide,rape, and robbery against business

Purpose. We aimed (1) to describe distances from home to offence locations (journey‐to‐crime) of offenders in difficult‐to‐solve homicides and rapes as well as robberies against businesses; (2) to see whether the distances in these offences differ from each other; and (3) to test whether selected features related to the offence would be associated with the distances. Methods. Lists of difficult‐to‐solve (DTS) homicides (N = 99) and rapes (N = 56) as well as robberies against businesses (N = 275) from the city of Milan (Italy) were acquired. The collected data consisted of home and offence location coordinates with information on the behaviour of the offenders (for rapes and homicides). The journey‐to‐crime functions were calibrated using the journey‐to‐crime module of CrimeStatIII©. Results. Most distances were short. In homicides, distances were below 1 km, in rapes below 2 km whereas in robberies against businesses almost 6 km. Some crime features were correlated with the distances in rape and homicide cases. Combining the behavioural information to a spatial behaviour measure allowed for better prediction of travelled distances compared to using single variables. Conclusions. The results have practical implications for crime investigations as the crime features explored were, as a rule, such that they would be known by the police prior to the offender being identified. A general theoretical framework for binding together journey‐to‐crime distances and offender crime scene behaviour and other important crime features is needed.     

Evaluation of the Role of Toxicological Data in Discriminating Between H2S Femoral Blood Concentration Secondary to Lethal poisoning and Endogenous H2S Putrefactive Production

Hydrogen sulfide is a colorless gas and has a strong odor of rotten eggs. It is absorbed by the upper respiratory tract mucosa, and it causes histotoxic hypoxemia and respiratory depression by exerting an inhibitory effect on cytochrome oxidase. To evaluate the role of toxicological data in distinguishing between the H₂S blood concentration secondary to lethal poisoning and the endogenous H₂S produced during putrefaction, we compared the postmortem H₂S concentrations of six fatal H₂S poisoning cases (8.7–28.6 mg/L) with the postmortem concentrations of endogenous H₂S of 12 subjects who died from other causes (traffic‐related deaths) (2.2–32.7 mg/L). These results will be of interest to the forensic community as it underlines the importance of considering circumstantial evidence along with the toxicological and pathological findings in the identification of H₂S lethal poisoning.     

Priest,parishioner and posterity: A Dutch urban legend or historical fact?

This article analyzes the influence of priests on the number of children among Dutch Catholics between 1935 and 1970, based on a survey held among old retired priests and priests who had abandoned the priesthood as well as their parishioners. Whereas we heard dramatic testimonies of meddlesome priests, which are popularly considered to be undisputed fact, these practices were found to have disappeared earlier than generally assumed due to the process of modernization within the Church. Interviews with both priests and parishioners showed the prominent role played by the transfer of religious values in the parental home, sexual taboos and by the lack of information about sexuality and birth control.     

The identification of individuals by observational gait analysis using closed circuit television footage

This study investigated the ability of individuals with experience in gait analysis to identify people by observing features of gait recorded by closed circuit television cameras (CCTV). Seven experienced analysts each viewed five samples of footage. Each sample showed a “target walker” and five “suspect walkers.” The task of the experienced analysts was to determine which, if any, of the “suspect walkers” was the “target walker.” All of the participant “walkers” wore identical loose fitting clothing to mask anatomical and body contour features, and balaclavas to obscure facial features. The overall results showed that the experienced analysts made a correct decision in 124 of 175 cases (71%), significantly better than would have been expected to have occurred by chance (p < 0.05). A significant variation in correct decisions (p < 0.05) was shown to occur between the various angles from which the footage was recorded, footage recorded in the saggital plane showing the highest number of correct decisions. Significantly more correct decisions (p < 0.05) were also shown to occur when the footage of the “target walker” and that of the “suspect walker” were taken from the same angle. The results suggest that individuals with experience in gait analysis perform well in the comparative identification of suspects from CCTV footage, and therefore do have a role to play as expert witnesses in this field.