Genetic variation in hemp and marijuana (Cannabis sativa L.) according to amplified fragment length polymorphisms

Cannabis sativa L. (Cannabaceae) is one of the earliest known cultivated plants and is important in the global economy today as a licit and an illicit crop. Molecular markers distinguishing licit and illicit cultivars have forensic utility, but no direct comparison of hemp and marijuana amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) has been made to date. Genetic variation was surveyed in three populations of fiber hemp and a potent cultivar of marijuana using AFLP markers. Ten primer pairs yielded 1206 bands, of which 88% were polymorphic. Eighteen bands represented fixed differences between all fiber populations and the drug cultivar. These markers have practical utility for (1) establishing conspiracy in the cultivation and distribution of marijuana, (2) identifying geographic sources of seized drugs, and (3) discriminating illegal, potent marijuana cultivars from hemp where the cultivation of industrial hemp is permitted.     

The Effects of a Police/Victim Assistance Crisis Team Approach to Domestic Violence

A police/victim assistance crisis intervention program was evaluated over a 6-month period for its effect on police-related outcomes. Police report data on crisis team cases (N = 96) were compared to a random selection of family violence cases (N = 80) that were not served by the crisis team. The crisis team cases generated more arrests; however, victim cooperation was lower than in noncrisis intervention cases. Implications for work with family violence and victim assistance are discussed, as well as needs for future research.     

Risk assessment vs real prediction: The prediction problem and public trust

Confusing risk assessment and the prediction of individual behavior has led to false claims which, if translated into juvenile court or adult sentencing policies (selective incapacitation, for example), may lead to further erosion in public confidence in the justice system. Considerable emphasis has been placed on the consequences of false positives in the literature and in this paper. The false negative has different but equally damaging effects because the impression may be given that increasing the severity of sanctions for selected serious offenders is the solution to juvenile delinquency and adult crime. Analysis of official police records for three birth cohorts from Racine, Wisconsin, reveals that, although high-risk groups produce a disproportionate share of the delinquent and criminal behavior recorded in police reports and juveniles in high-risk groups continue into adult crime disproportionately to others, serious juvenile offenders still account for only a portion of the serious offenses that will ultimately be committed by adults. Therefore, selective incapacitation of early offenders may take only a small bite out of crime. When referrals rather than police contacts were utilized as the predictor variable, there was little difference in predictive efficiency.     

“What Guarantees Do We Have?” Legal Tolls and Persistent Impunity for Feminicide in Guatemala

Guatemala has one of the highest levels of killings of women and impunity for violence against women in the world. Despite laws created to protect women, Guatemala, like other countries, generally fails at implementation. This article examines justice system obstacles in contemporary Guatemala to processing cases of feminicide—killings of women because they are women in a context of impunity—comparing two recent feminicide cases. It argues that the sociopolitical context in Guatemala, including structural violence, widespread poverty, inequality, corruption, and normalization of gender violence against women, generates penalties, or “legal tolls,” that are imposed on victims' families and contribute to impunity through undermining victims' attempts to navigate the justice system. The analysis focuses on the tolls of fear and time: the need to overcome fear of retaliation and the extraordinary time and effort it takes to do so in a corrupt and broken system.     

Sex Trafficking and the State: Applying Domestic Abuse Interventions to Serve Victims of Sex Trafficking

Advocacy and scholarship addressing sex trafficking as a human rights issue has become a transnational effort, but there has been less attention to sub-national efficacy. Through analyzing progressive justice system responses to domestic violence in Duluth, Minnesota that have been adopted worldwide, this paper demonstrates how to effectively apply these local advances in order to address sex trafficking on a global scale. This paper makes a theoretical contribution to understanding the intersections between domestic abuse and sex trafficking. A key empirical finding is that a coordinated community response (including the justice system and women’s organizations) is crucial for advancing domestic abuse training, monitoring, and legislation—and this coordination can also be productively utilized for improving responsiveness to victims of sex trafficking across a diverse range of socio-legal and economic contexts.     

Mobilizing justice in sociolegal research: a mixed methods meta-analysis

Crime, Law and Social Change - Justice as a concept has permeated sociolegal scholarship in the U.S. since the founding of Law and Society as a field in the mid 1960s. Much of this scholarship has...     

University technology transfer in China: a literature review and taxonomy

The Chinese university system is one of the world’s largest academic research performers and technology transfer is one of the system’s central roles. Academic interest in Chinese university technology transfer in both the West and China has increased in parallel. This review aims to outline what is known and evaluate the state of research about university technology transfer in China. To be comprehensive, uniquely this review considers the relevant journal articles in both English and Chinese languages. The major themes and methodologies used by authors are identified. The evolution of the literature, particularly those in Chinese from general discussions often with minimal citations to more empirically rigorous studies is documented. It is also shown that the English and Chinese language literatures have little overlap in terms of citations, thereby indicating that the two research communities are still largely disconnected. It is found that the sources of data have remained quite limited and the quantitative research is based almost entirely upon government statistics collected for administrative purpose. The concluding discussion suggests possible avenues for future progress in terms of developing new data sources and increasing the cross-fertilization of two research communities.