Can the RUVIS Reflected UV Imaging System Visualize Fingerprint Corrosion on Brass Cartridge Casings Postfiring?

Comparisons are made between the visualization of fingerprint corrosion ridge detail on fired brass cartridge casings, where fingerprint sweat was deposited prefiring, using both ultraviolet (UV) and visible (natural daylight) light sources. A reflected ultraviolet imaging system (RUVIS), normally used for visualizing latent fingerprint sweat deposits, is compared with optical interference and digital color mapping of visible light, the latter using apparatus constructed to easily enable selection of the optimum viewing angle. Results show that reflected UV, with a monochromatic UV source of 254 nm, was unable to visualize fingerprint ridge detail on any of 12 casings analyzed, whereas optical interference and digital color mapping using natural daylight yielded ridge detail on three casings. Reasons for the lack of success with RUVIS are discussed in terms of the variation in thickness of the thin film of metal oxide corrosion and absorption wavelengths for the corrosion products of brass.     

Rape,Defendant Anonymity and Evidence‐Based Policy Making

In 2010, the Coalition government announced in its Programme for Government, that: ‘We will extend anonymity in rape cases to defendants.’ The question of anonymity for defendants accused of rape and other sexual offences, has been repeatedly raised in parliamentary debates over several decades, and has also received frequent attention in newspapers and, to a lesser extent, in academic and professional literature. The debate includes an array of factual claims and arguments that rest on weak empirical foundations. In November 2010, the Ministry of Justice published a report entitled: Providing Anonymity to those Accused of Rape: An Assessment of Evidence, which was intended to provide an evaluation of evidence that would inform the debate over defendant anonymity. This article critically examines this report and its discussion of key issues such as false rape allegations, and considers whether its conclusions can be relied upon by policy makers.     

Religious-Related Abuse in the Family

Religion provides directives for positive moral action and the promotion of human welfare; but religious beliefs can also foster and justify abusive behavior in the context of family life and child rearing. Parents, who are emotionally distraught and cannot control their responses to their child’s needs or misbehavior, might wield religious ideas to intimidate and control their children. In our paper we set forth two fundamental types of religion-related emotional abuse and discuss the complex role that religion can play in perpetuating abusive family relationships. We address the emotional aspects of religion-related abuse and also its transgenerational transfer. We present a case illustration focusing on how such abuse leads to dysfunctional patterns of behavior in family relationships and disruptions in emotion regulation processes. Applying a Relational Family Therapy model, we consider select therapeutic implications for addressing and overcoming religious abuse and restoring functional emotion regulation processes in families.     

VHA Primary Care Providers’ Perspectives on Screening Female Veterans for Intimate Partner Violence: A Preliminary Assessment

Female Veterans experience intimate partner violence (IPV) at alarming rates. The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) requires foundational research to guide the development of policy and programs to detect IPV among women Veterans and provide interventions. This pilot study reports findings from in-depth qualitative interviews conducted with 12 VHA primary care providers treating female Veterans in the New England region. Although most providers indicated that they were not currently routinely screening for IPV, they expressed positive attitudes and beliefs about screening in VHA primary care settings. Themes also included the importance of a comprehensive health care response to IPV, such as interdisciplinary coordination of care and team-based approaches to detection and intervention. Barriers to routine screening were identified, as well as recommendations for training programs and clinical tools to inform the successful implementation of a standardized IPV screening and response program in VHA. Although preliminary, these findings represent an initial step in an essential line of research.     

Secure pathways for women in the UK: lessons from the women’s enhanced medium secure services (WEMSS) pilots

Abstract

Women’s enhanced medium secure services (WEMSS) is a model of care aimed at providing a more appropriate level of security for women and, in so doing, reducing the number of women in high secure psychiatric services. In 2007, three Department of Health commissioned WEMSS pilots became operational. This study compared the clinical outcomes of women in WEMSS with control women in six standard medium secure services and one high secure service matched on key clinical and risk characteristics, in order to examine their pathways of care. Our findings confirm that the WEMSS pilots were successful in transitioning women from high secure services who had previously been thought unsuitable for medium secure services. However, WEMSS showed no additional clinical benefit, suggesting that these women could be cared for equally well within standard medium secure services. We make recommendations about WEMSS and the future shape of women’s secure care in England.     

Canada’s First Integrated Domestic Violence Court: Examining Family and Criminal Court Outcomes at the Toronto I.D.V.C.

This is the first quantitative study to examine Canada’s only Integrated Domestic Violence Court. The methodology used a quasi-experimental design with parallel groups with baseline equivalence. Results demonstrate that when support services are provided to victims of domestic violence during family separation, children benefit from greater involvement with both parents. There was more compliance with child support in the integrated court than the comparison group and compliance in custody and access were two variables that predicted the type of final custody orders. There were fewer judges involved in the IDVC court than comparison group; however, there were no differences in the number of court appearances between groups. The IDVC demonstrates a promising intervention to address domestic violence that involves both criminal and family law courts. Future research is needed to explore the views of children, victims and offenders about their experiences with the IDVC.     

Florida’s task force approach to combat human trafficking: an analysis of county-level data

Abstract

Since emerging in the USA during the 1990s, the multi-agency task force has become the preferred organizational structure for enforcing human trafficking laws and providing assistance to victims. These task forces often work across county lines and typically include law enforcement agencies, as well as social service and non-governmental organizations. The effect of collaborations with other types of agencies on law enforcement’s human trafficking arrests is unknown. County-level arrest data for human trafficking first became available through the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2014. In this paper, we present findings from county-level analyses with human trafficking arrests in the State of Florida as the dependent variable. Independent variables include the presence of a task force, sociodemographic characteristics, tourism measures, and police officers per capita. The strongest predictor of human trafficking arrests is the presence of a task force.     

Public education and organ donation: untested assumptions and unexpected consequences

While the number of individuals able to benefit from transplantation increases with technological developments, donation rates remain insufficient to cater for demand. A universal response to the insufficient number of donor organs has been public education to increase knowledge about donation and transplantation, and to encourage individuals to register their wishes about donation. Although education appears to have increased knowledge and encouraged individuals to register their wishes, it has not increased the number of organs available for transplantation. In fact, there is some evidence that encouraging people to register their wishes may be detrimental to increasing net donation rates. The failure of education programs to increase organ donation rates may be due in part to a failure to recognise that attitudes to donation are influenced by complex socio-cultural and personal beliefs, and not simply by knowledge. Research aiming to increase the rate at which organs are procured for donation must recognise that some individuals do not support transplantation and have their own personal reasons for maintaining this position. Educational interventions should not assume that increasing knowledge or simply encouraging individuals to declare a decision about donation will increase consent to donation.     

The Influence of Insects on Decomposition Rate in Buried and Surface Remains

Abstract: This article reports results of a comparative study of decomposition rates of wild rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) which were either (i) buried after exposure to insect activity, (ii) buried without exposure, (iii) kept above ground behind an insect screen, or (iv) continuously exposed above ground in a field experiment. Results showed that dipteran oviposition occurred consistently in groups i and iv only. Decomposition rates (measured by Total Body Score every c. 50 accumulated degree days [ADD]) of rabbits kept behind the screen and those buried without exposure showed no difference (p = 0.450). This was significantly slower than those buried after exposure (p = 0.0016) which was in turn significantly slower than those continuously exposed (p << 0.001). Temperatures collected from animals showed the presence of feeding larvae increased intra‐abdominal temperatures to >5°C above ambient. The findings support the assertion that insect presence is the primary agent affecting decomposition rate via tissue consumption and also the heat they generate.     

TOWARD THE DIFFERENTIATION OF HIGH‐CONFLICT FAMILIES: AN ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH AND CANADIAN CASE LAW

Social science research and the courts have begun to recognize the special challenges posed by “high‐conflict” separations for children and the justice system. The use of “high conflict” terminology by social science researchers and the courts has increased dramatically over the past decade. This is an important development, but the term is often used vaguely and to characterize very different types of cases. An analysis of Canadian case law reveals that some judges are starting to differentiate between various degrees and types of high conflict. Often this judicial differentiation is implicit and occurs without full articulation of the factors that are taken into account in applying different remedies. There is a need for the development of more refined, explicit analytical concepts for the identification and differentiation of various types of high conflict cases. Empirically driven social science research can assist mental health professionals, lawyers and the courts in better understanding these cases and providing the most appropriate interventions. As a tentative scheme for differentiating cases, we propose distinguishing between high conflict cases where there is: (1) poor communication; (2) domestic violence; and (3) alienation. Further, there must be a differentiation between cases where one parent is a primary instigator for the conflict or abuse, and those where both parents bear significant responsibility.