Personality Profiles in a Group of Battered Women: Clinical and Care Implications

Personality patterns, psychopathological symptomatology, dyadic relationship adjustment, and the characteristics of abuse suffered by a sample of women who attended residential services for battered women in Barcelona (Spain) are evaluated in this study. Over half the women had suffered psychological, physical, and sexual abuse on the part of her partner, mostly of long duration, and this had also been suffered by their children. The results obtained using the MCMI-II show a relatively low presence of anxious or depressive symptomatology and the predominance of a schizoid personality pattern. This means that clinical efforts need to be directed towards countering emotional withdrawal and social isolation. The importance of studying interpersonal patterns amongst battered women with a view to optimizing care and to preventing future victimization is also discussed.     

Searching the Soil: Forensic Importance of Edaphic Fauna After the Removal of a Corpse

Abstract: Arthropods at different stages of development collected from human remains in an advanced stage of decomposition (following autopsy) and from the soil at the scene are reported. The corpse was found in a mixed deciduous forest of Biscay (northern Spain). Soil fauna was extracted by sieving the soil where the corpse lay and placing the remains in Berlese–Tullgren funnels. Necrophagous fauna on the human remains was dominated by the fly Piophilidae: Stearibia nigriceps (Meigen, 1826), mites Ascidae: Proctolaelaps epuraeae (Hirschmann, 1963), Laelapidae: Hypoaspis (Gaeolaelaps) aculeifer (Canestrini, 1884), and the beetle Cleridae: Necrobia rufipes (de Geer, 1775). We confirm the importance of edaphic fauna, especially if the deceased is discovered in natural environs. Related fauna may remain for days after corpse removal and reveal information related to the circumstances of death. The species Nitidulidae: Omosita depressa (Linnaeus, 1758), Acaridae: Sancassania berlesei (Michael, 1903), Ascidae: Zerconopsis remiger (Kramer, 1876) and P. epuraeae, Urodinychidae: Uroobovella pulchella (Berlese, 1904), and Macrochelidae: Glyptholaspis americana (Berlese, 1888) were recorded for the first time in the Iberian Peninsula.     

Do Trained Dogs Discriminate Individual Body Odors of Women Better than Those of Men?*

Scent identification lineups using dogs are a potentially valuable forensic tool, but have been dismissed by some critics because of cases where a false identification was shown to have occurred. It is not known, however, why dogs appear to make more false indications to the odors of some persons than of others. In this study, human genders were compared as to the degree their individual odors are distinguishable or "attractive" to dogs. Six dogs were trained to smell an individual's hand odor sample and then find the matching hand odor sample in a lineup of five odors. Using one-gender lineups and two-gender lineups with different gender ratios, it was found that dogs trained for the study identified individual women's hand odors more accurately than those of men. It is hypothesized that this is either because of differences in chemical compounds making discrimination of women's odors easier, or because of greater "odor attractiveness" of women's scents to dogs.     

Economic and elections in Spain (1982–2008): Cross-measures,cross-time

In other leading Western democracies, the effects of economic voting are well-established. However, for Spain, a strong scholarly current argues against economic voting in that nation. Unfortunately, these various studies are limited, because they are based on incomplete survey cross-sections, which use individual subjective measures of the economy. We employ a full survey pool (of eight elections, 1982–2008), to examine the effects of two national economic measures (one objective and one subjective). In a carefully specified, and estimated, general voting model, the impact of economic conditions, variously measured, reveals itself to be statistically and substantively significant. After all, national economic voting in Spain appears to operate much as it does elsewhere.     

Prohibition of Torture and Other Cruel,Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment: Some Remarks on the Operative Solutions at the European Level and their Effects on the Member States. The Case of Italy

This paper analyzes European measures against torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in order to verify their effectiveness, especially in terms of the values that are actually being protected. First, it examines the distinction between the external and internal action of the European Union, highlighting ways in which the EU appears to be more attentive to combat practices of torture in third countries than to domestic incidents and the proposals to legalize torture made at a political level in some Member States. Then, it examines the European Court of Human Rights’ ruling in the Cestaro versus Italy case, focusing specifically on the fact that Italy was in breach of its obligations under Article 3 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, because the framework does not recognize torture as a crime and does not provide instruments of deterrence to effectively prevent the execution and the recurrence of such acts. Currently, the Italian Parliament is discussing a draft amendment to the Criminal Code and aims at introducing the concept of torture as a crime; however, in light of the comments made by the European Court of Human Rights, this project questions whether the proposed solution will be able to prevent a repeat of events similar to those that occurred in 2001 after the G8 Summit in Genoa.     

New forensic approach to age determination in children based on tooth eruption

The present study proposes equations for age determination both in living and dead children, obtained with the help of stepwise ascending multiple linear regression. The equations should be applied, based on the number of erupted teeth and tooth germs, which were detected on radiographs, during clinical examination and in infant skeletal remains. The proposed equations proved to be efficient just like Demirjian's method used as a reference today, and permit age estimation till 20 years of age.     

The 2000-2001 GEP-ISFG Collaborative Exercise on mtDNA: assessing the cause of unsuccessful mtDNA PCR amplification of hair shaft samples

We report the results of Spanish and Portuguese working group (GEP) of International Society of Forensic Genetics (ISFG) Collaborative Exercise 2001-2002 on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis. 64 laboratories from Spain, Portugal and several Latin-American countries participated in this quality control exercise. Five samples were sent to the participating laboratories, four blood stains (M1-M4) and a sample (M5) consisting of two hair shaft fragments. M4 was non-human (Felis catus) in origin; therefore, the capacity of the labs to identify the biological source of this sample was an integral part of the exercise. Some labs detected the non-human origin of M4 by carrying out immuno-diffussion techniques using antihuman serum, whereas others identified the specific animal origin by testing the sample against a set of animal antibodies or by means of the analysis of mtDNA regions (Cyt-b, 12S, and 16S genes). The results of the other three human blood stains (M1-M3) improved in relation to the last Collaborative Exercises but those related to hairs yielded a low rate of success which clearly contrasts with previous results. As a consequence of this, some labs performed additional analysis showing that the origin of this low efficiency was not the presence of inhibitors, but the low quantity of DNA present in these specific hair samples and the degradation.As a general conclusion the results emphasize the need of external proficiency testing as part of the accreditation procedure for the labs performing mtDNA analysis in forensic casework.