An unusual shotgun injury pattern produced by an intermediate target

Discharge of a shotgun with a shotgun casing in its muzzle as a "dust cover" produced a pattern of injuries suggestive of combined intermediate- and distant-range wounds.     

The "empty heart" sign

Approximately 15% of victims of instantly lethal central nervous system trauma have an empty or nearly empty heart at autopsy. This article defines and discusses the "empty heart" sign.     

Legalization of consensual unions in Mexico

Data examined in this study are from the 1976 Mexican Fertility Survey. The authors review previous findings and compare information from this survey with data from the 1969 PECFAL Survey. They then examine the types of consensual union and factors such as women's age, educational status, occupation, premarital fertility, and rural or urban residence. The focus of the study is on the extent to which consensual unions eventually become legal marriages. The authors also investigate the increasing probability of termination of marriage through divorce or separation, especially in urban areas.     

Book reviews

Handbook of Legal Information Retrieval Edited by J Bing, Norwegian Research Centre for Computers and Law, Oslo, in co‐operation with T Fjeldvig, T Harvold and R Svoboda North‐Holland 1984, US $96.25

Information Technology: The Challenge to Copyright. James Lahore, Gerald Dworkin and Yvonne Smyth Sweet & Maxwell and The Centre for Commercial Law Studies 1984, £12.00

Data Processing and the Law Edited by Colin Campbell Sweet and Maxwell 1984, £20.00

Le droit des Contrats Informatiques — Principes — Applications Centre de Recherches informatique et droit des Facultes Universitaires de Namur Maison Ferdinand Larder (Brussels), 1983, 45 FB

Computer Insecurity Adrian R.D. Norman Chapman and Hall 1983, £14.95

The Data Protection Act Richard Sizer and Philip Newman Gower Publishing, 1984, £16.95

The Data Protection Act 1984 Professor Bryan Niblett Oyez Longman Publishing, 1984, £18.00

The Data Protection Act 1984 — A Guide to the New Legislation J. A. L. Sterling CCH Editions, 1984, £15.00

Privacy and Data Protection — An International Bibliography Professor David H. Flaherty Mansell Publishing, 1984, £23.50

Computer Contracts R Morgan & G Stedman Oyez Longman Publishing 1984, 2nd Edition, £27.50

Computer Contracts Handbook Michele Rennie Sweet & Maxwell 1984, £15.00

Computer Contracts — An International Guide to Agreements and Software Protection Hilary Pearson Financial training 1984, £14.95     

Wrongful termination lawsuits: the employers finally win a few

Much attention has been given of late to the erosion of the "employment-at-will" doctrine. Exceptions to this doctrine began to emerge when courts held that at-will employees could sue if their termination violated public policy. The at-will doctrine was further eroded by court rulings that a contract requiring good cause in order to terminate could be inferred from employee handbooks, company personnel policies, and circumstances of employment. As the initial flood of wrongful termination lawsuits now reaches the appellate level, some guidance on the standards employers must observe can be drawn from court decisions. The authors examine these decisions as well as the legislative reform being proposed in response to them.     

An examination of the psychological aspects of bite marks

The intent of this paper is to present some psychological threads which appear to be operative for the perpetrator of bite marks. In the catalogue of multiple motivations, there appears to be a current theme of power, control, potency, and the attempt to have a psychological symbolization of the perpetrator's omniscient capacity for absorbing life essences. In an examination of these highly complex needs, the modern perpetrator appears to act out consistently with cultural biases coupled with immediate psychological needs which have pressed for expression. Due to a pattern of psychologically expressed ritualism, the perpetrator will often inadvertently leave important psychological clues at the crime scene. The attack style, mode of death, characteristics of the victim, etc.--these components reveal the information on the type of psychological needs that the perpetrator is trying to satisfy. In the cases of bite marks associated with violent crime, it becomes crucial to an "investigator" what type of personality characteristics are welded together to form this kind of need complex. After reviewing cases reported in the literature and after conducting psychological interviews with perpetrators, three major groups of perpetrators seem to be apparent. The first group is motivated out of an anger track, the second group is motivated out of sadistic biting, and the third is out of the more traditional "cannibal complex" motif.     

Spleen and portal lymphnode pathology in fatal drug addiction

Spleen and portal lymphnode sections from 86 drug addicts submitted for medico-legal autopsy at the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Copenhagen in the year 1979 were studied together with tissue sections from 24 "normal" persons. In 70% of the drug addicts the spleen weight was more than 200 g, and in 71% portal lymphnode hyperplasia was found. Birefringent foreign material was found in spleen tissue of drug addicts in 72% and in portal lymphnode tissue in 44%. Signs of antigen stimulation in both spleen and portal lymphnode tissue evaluated by the number of germinal centre and plasma cells were found in more than 80% of the drug addicts compared with about 20% of the "normal" persons. The results were related to anamnestic information of duration of drug abuse, to the spleen weight, to the occurrence of birefringent material and to the liver changes. Examination of lysozyme and immunoglobulin containing cells using the indirect preoxidase technique was performed in a total of 72 cases of spleen tissue, 59 cases of portal lymphnode tissue from drug addicts, 24 cases of spleen tissue and 18 of portal lymphnode tissue from "normal" persons. Lysozyme, IgM and IgG containing cells were found significantly more often among drug addicts than "normal" persons. The results indicate that the splenomegalia and the portal lymphnode hyperplasia often found in drug addicts are caused by continuous antigen stimulation due to repeated injections of various antigens.