Differentiation of dried blood stains of pregnant females, from fetal blood and amniotic fluid by determination of alpha fetoprotein

Alpha-feto-protein can be detected in the dried bloodstains of fetal blood, blood from pregnant women, and in the amniotic fluid by radioimmunoassay. Alpha-feto-protein alone is not sufficient from exact differentiation. In addition, quantitative analysis of the total protein or electrophoresis is required.     

Sudden natural death at the wheel--a particular problem of the elderly?

Thirty-nine autopsy cases of sudden natural death at the wheel were analysed with special respect to the questions if this is a peculiar problem of the elderly and if there are particular pathological features in the elderly. The ages ranged from 33 through 83 years and the median age was 56.4 years. 97% of the deaths were attributable to cardiovascular diseases, about 90% to coronary heart disease. People older than 60 years of age tended to exhibit severe chronical arterio-sclerotic changes of the coronary arteries, especially multiple calcified stenoses and myocardial scars, but there was a low percentage of recent thrombotic occlusion of a coronary artery.     

A new method in criminology: use of ELISA to detect AFP on different materials with monoclonal anti-alpha-fetoprotein

A new method has been introduced to distinguish normal adult serum stains from fetal or newborn serum and amniotic fluid stains with ELISA in cases of criminal abortion and infanticide. The method is based on the sensitive detection of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) by a two-site enzyme immunoassay (EIA) following its elution with high efficiency from different materials (e.g., cotton, paper, synthetic fabric, or glass) by phosphate-buffered 0.5 M NaCl solution.     

Population density and assaults in jails for men and women

Jail populations and capacities are increasing across the United States. Such increases raise questions about the potential for increased violence in crowded jails, such as those in Dade County, Florida. The study uses incident reports for the Dade County Jails Pretrial Detention Center (PTDC) for men and the Women’s Detention Center (WDC) for the year 1984. Assaults are examined in relation to total population, density by floors and total facility, and for the race/ethnicity and age of inmates. Findings show that density alone, or “crowding,” has the greatest effect on the number and rate of assaults. Neither age nor race/ethnicity appear to be significantly related to assaults, except in the WDC for white inmates. For both facilities assaults appear to decline when Black inmates are predominant in a living area and rise when whites predominate. The reasons for this phenomenon are not entirely clean. The author acknowledges the assistance of the administration and staff of the Dade County Department of Correction and Rehabilitation in the collection of these data. Kris Siddharthan, Department of Health Services Administration at FIU, and Ray Surette of the Criminal Justice Department, reviewed and made helpful comments regarding the paper.     

Neuro-linguistic programming and the police: Worthwhile or not?

In the seventies Bandler and Grinder (1975, 1979; Grinder &; Bandler, 1976) developed their model of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). The aim of this model is to facilitate communication between persons (Particularly between counselors and clients). There is a growing body of literature on NLP; it is nowadays even used in a police context (Gray, 1991; Mayers, 1993; Rhoads &; Solomon, 1987). What does NLP mean? To what extent does empirical research support the NLP-model? And, to what extent is NLP useful for the police? This article addresses these three questions.