Sequenced allelic ladders and population genetics of a new STR multiplex system

The advent of PCR technology and use of short tandem repeat (STR) loci improves throughput and reduces costs whilst a high level of discrimination can be achieved. A new system, comprising seven STRs, was developed to compliment the existing systems. This paper describes the preparation of allelic ladders of the most commonly observed alleles of a new STR multiplex system (third generation; TGM multiplex); all alleles have been sequenced. Meioses studies estimated a mutation rate of 0-0.4% across loci. Statistical independence was investigated by employing exact tests; chi(2)-tests and excess homozygosity tests. The results demonstrated that the allele proportions do not differ from those expected and that there was no consequential dependence between loci. The discriminating power of the system was examined using 295 Caucasian, 140 Afro-Caribbean and 212 Asian unrelated samples, and was found to be approximately 1 in 50 million, 1 in 85 million and 1 in 20 million for each of these groups, respectively.     

Urgent issues and prospects at the intersection of culture,memory, and witness interviews: Exploring the challenges for research and practice

The pursuit of justice increasingly relies on productive interactions between witnesses and investigators from diverse cultural backgrounds during investigative interviews. To date, the role of cultural context has largely been ignored by researchers in the field of investigative interviewing, despite repeated requests from practitioners and policymakers for evidence-based guidance for the conduct of interviews with people from different cultures. Through examining cultural differences in human memory and communication and considering specific contextual challenges for investigative interviewing through the lens of culture, this review and associated commentaries highlight the scope for considering culture and human diversity in research on, and the practice of, investigative interviewing with victims, witnesses, and other sources. Across 11 commentaries, contributors highlight the importance of considering the role of culture in different investigative interviewing practices (e.g., rapport building, questioning techniques) and contexts (e.g., gender-based violence, asylum seeking, child abuse), address common areas of cultural mismatch between interviewer–interviewee expectations, and identify critical future routes for research. We call for an increased focus in the investigative interviewing literature on the nature and needs of our global community and encourage constructive and collaborative discussion between researchers and practitioners from around the world to better identify specific challenges and work together towards evidence-based solutions.     

addressing violence against women as a form of hate crime: limitations and possibilities

In 1998, the Labour government introduced legislation broadening British sentencing powers in relation to crimes aggravated by the offender’s hostility towards the victim’s actual or perceived race, religion, sexual orientation or disability. Gender is a notable omission from this list. Through a survey of eighty-eight stakeholders working in the violence against women (VAW) sector, this paper explores both the potential benefits and possible disadvantages of adding a gender-based category concerned with VAW to British hate crime legislation. The majority of participants believed that a hate crime approach would offer significant benefits, especially in terms of the symbolic power of the law to send a message to society that VAW is unacceptable. However, most also recognised that the addition of a VAW category to current legislation would involve major practical and conceptual difficulties, not least those resulting from problematic assumptions about the nature of hate crimes versus VAW, and a general unwillingness on the part of policy-makers to address the socio-cultural inequalities that underpin VAW. Overall, the fact that the majority of participants favoured inclusion, on the basis that the possible symbolic benefits were likely to outweigh the potential practical disadvantages, is significant: it speaks to the power of hate crime legislation to challenge many forms of inequality and discrimination still endemic in British society.     

Representing the state? School and teacher in post‐Sendero Peru⋆

The school and the teacher give rise to different images and sets of meaning. Locating schools is a technique of government and teachers are supposed to act as mediators between state and society. But teachers are also local intellectuals and have actively engaged in discourses of dissent and challenges to the state. This article explores the changing identity, situation and representation of provincial schoolteachers in post‐conflict Andean Peru. It draws on material from Tarma province to debate the extent to which the former racist “social order”, upheld by school and teacher, has been destabilised and superseded.     

From Research Evidence to “Evidence by Proxy”? Organizational Enactment of Evidence‐Based Health Care in Four High‐Income Countries

Drawing on multiple qualitative case studies of evidence‐based health care conducted in Sweden, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom, the authors systematically explore the composition, circulation, and role of codified knowledge deployed in the organizational enactment of evidence‐based practice. The article describes the “chain of codified knowledge,” which reflects the institutionalization of evidence‐based practice as organizational business as usual, and shows that it is dominated by performance standards, policies and procedures, and locally collected (improvement and audit) data. These interconnected forms of “evidence by proxy,” which are informed by research partly or indirectly, enable simplification, selective reinforcement, and contextualization of scientific knowledge. The analysis reveals the dual effects of this codification dynamic on evidence‐based practice and highlights the influence of macro‐level ideological, historical, and technological factors on the composition and circulation of codified knowledge in the organizational enactment of evidence‐based health care in different countries.