Recovery of DNA from Latent Fingerprint Tape Lifts Archived Against Matte Acetate

This study was driven by court order to examine methods to remove, extract, and STR‐type potential DNA entrapped between latent fingerprint lifting tape and matte acetate that was collected from a 1977 crime scene. Results indicate that recovery of appreciable quantities of DNA is more challenging once adhesive is attached to matte acetate cards and even more difficult when fixed following black powder enhancement. STR amplification of extracts from entrapped fingermarks collected following the dusting/lifting procedure did not produce robust profiles, and extraneous peaks not expressed by print donors were detected for some samples. A hearing was set to argue whether there was DNA remaining to be tested, and if so, whether that DNA could be exculpatory in this postconviction matter. The studies herein provided the basis for the court's decision to not require the testing.     

Gender Differences in the Longitudinal Impact of Exposure to Violence on Mental Health in Urban Youth

There is evidence of gender differences in psychopathology during adolescence, but little research has investigated gender differences in trauma-related symptoms. Exposure to violence is a commonly experienced potentially traumatic event among urban adolescents, and the few studies examining gender differences in its mental health impact have produced inconsistent findings. The present study examines the moderating effects of gender on the longitudinal association between exposure to violence and a variety of mental health symptoms (externalizing, internalizing, PTSD, dissociation) in a racially diverse urban adolescent sample (N = 615; 50.6% female; Time 1 mean age = 14.15; Time 2 mean age = 16.70). For both genders, exposure to violence prospectively predicted increases in all types of symptoms. Although boys reported more exposure to violence on average, girls experiencing violence were more likely to experience dissociative (but not PTSD, internalizing, or externalizing) symptoms. The results suggest that adolescent girls exposed to potentially traumatic events may be especially vulnerable to experiencing certain trauma-related symptoms and imply gender-specific pathways to trauma-related psychopathology.     

The Death Penalty: An Unusual Punishment America is Inflicting Upon Itself

The United States is the only Western, industrialized nation still executing criminal offenders. The Constitutional provision that is most often used to call the appropriateness of capital punishment in the United States into question is the 8th Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. Opponents of capital punishment have often argued various reasons why the death penalty is a cruel punishment, but the Supreme Court of the United States has not agreed. A new approach to abolition advocacy is needed. Since the death penalty has not been determined cruel, I submit a new legal argument based on the unusual nature of capital punishment. Utilizing systems theory, I posit the death penalty is an unusual criminal punishment due to the extraordinary range of persons beyond merely the defendant who are negatively impacted by executions.     

Virtual determination of sex: metric and nonmetric traits of the adult pelvis from 3D computed tomography models

Examination of the adult os coxae and sacrum is one of the most common methods of sex estimation from bone. Medical imaging, such as computed tomography (CT), provides the opportunity for three-dimensional (3D) imaging of the skeleton from clinical scans of known individuals in situ. In this study, a randomly selected subset of abdominopelvic CT-derived models were used to evaluate simple, repeatable metric methods of sex estimation based on a combination of obstetric measurements and the traditionally nonmetric Phenice-derived traits. A four-variable discriminant function for sex estimation was developed based on statistical analyses. Overall, the cross-validated accuracy of this method was 100%, with inter-observer error showing an average of only 2.2%. Comparative analysis was run on the data set using FORDISC 3.0. This study shows that current sex determination standards from the pelvis should be updated to include more in vivo data to increase the accuracy of identification.     

Racial Residential Segregation and Social Control: A Panel Study of the Variation in Police Strength Across U.S Cities, 1980–2010

Despite a great deal of theoretical and empirical attention given to racial residential segregation and its influence on a number of social problems in the United States, few scholars have examined the role that this persistent form of racial inequality plays in shaping the magnitude of formal social control efforts. Our study examines this relationship by assessing the potential influence that the isolation of minorities may have on efforts to control crime in urban centers across the United States. Using a pooled time-series regression technique well suited for the analysis of aggregate, longitudinal data, we assess the potential influence of racial segregation on the size of municipal police departments in 170 U.S. cities between 1980 and 2010. After accounting for minority group size, economic threat, crime, and disorganization, we find that racial residential segregation has a significant non-linear effect on police force size. Cities with the most racially integrated populations have the smallest police presence but at very high levels of segregation, police strength levels off. This finding is consistent with expectations derived from the contact hypothesis. Under such conditions, majority group members appear to be less inclined to demand greater crime control measures such as increased police protection. Period interactions with residential segregation also suggest that this relationship has grown stronger in each decade since 1980. Overall, our study provides strong support for threat theories and the contact hypothesis but offers necessary refinements.