Changes in the morphology and presumptive chemistry of impact and pooled bloodstain patterns by Lucilia sericata (Meigen) (Diptera: Calliphoridae)

Bloodstain pattern analysis can be critical to accurate crime scene reconstruction. However, bloodstain patterns can be altered in the presence of insects and can confound crime scene reconstruction. To address this problem, we conducted a series of controlled laboratory experiments to investigate the effect of Lucilia sericata (Meigen) on impact bloodstains and pooled bloodstains in association with three combinations of common surfaces (linoleum/painted drywall, wood floor/wallpaper, and carpet/wood paneling). L. sericata fed from the pooled bloodstains and added insect stains through regurgitation and defecation of consumed blood. L. sericata formed defecatory trails of insect stains that indicated directionality. Defecatory stains fluoresced when viewed at 465 nm with an orange filter. These observations differed from Calliphora vicina insect stains because feeding on blood spatter was not observed and trails of insect stains were formed by L. sericata. The fluorescence of defecatory stains can be used as a method to detect insect stains and discriminate them from real bloodstains.     

Factors influencing the contamination of UK banknotes with drugs of abuse

Bank of England banknotes sampled from different locations in the UK have been analysed for the presence of cocaine, diamorphine (DAM), Delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA). A database of the contamination detected is routinely used as a benchmark against which the contamination detected on seized banknotes can be compared. Evidence presented at court details how banknotes seized from a suspect may differ from banknotes in general circulation in terms of their contamination with controlled drugs. A question arising from such evidence is whether seized banknotes could have become contaminated through being in circulation in drug "hot spots". In order to address this issue, a Plackett-Burman experimental design was used to investigate the influence of source location and other factors on banknote contamination with drugs of abuse. Banknotes were drawn from banks in eight regions throughout the UK. Each location could be described by a unique combination of the factors under investigation, namely whether the location was rural or urban, in the North or South of the UK, and whether it was a port of entry. The socio-economic class and the proportion of drug offenders in the area and the denomination of the banknotes were also considered as potentially influential factors. Indices were calculated to describe the degree to which samples were contaminated with different drugs, and normal probability plots were used to identify the factors that could account for the contamination observed. Whilst some factors were more influential than others, it was shown that, at the 95% confidence level, none of the proposed factors were significant influences on the contamination. Cocaine contamination on banknotes has been shown to follow a log-normal distribution. It was, therefore, possible to calculate F- and t-statistics to compare the cocaine contamination on the entire sample set with that detected on a second sample set consisting of banknotes all drawn from a single bank branch. It was shown that both inter-bank samples and intra-bank samples had similar variance and similar contamination levels at the 95% confidence level. This suggests that there are no significant regional trends in the contamination of banknotes with drugs of abuse across the UK.     

A comparison of plastic cable ties based on physical,chemical and stable isotopic measurements

Plastic cable ties can be utilised in a range of serious criminal activities and a comparison of cable ties, or fragments, may form part of the physical evidence presented to a Court of law. This research assessed the potential value of evidence based on the analysis of plastic cable ties. Twenty packets of black coloured plastic cable ties (nominally 200 mm × 4.8 mm) were purchased in pack sizes ranging from 25 to 100 individual cable ties (Brisbane, Australia, March 2015). Representative samples from each packet were visually examined, compared and tested to determine their physical dimensions, chemical compositions and stable isotopic compositions (δ²H, δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N).All of the individual cable ties from a given packet were found to be indistinguishable with respect to appearance, physical, chemical and isotopic measurements (within-batch variability). Individual cable ties were also found to be isotopically homogeneous with respect to hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen. All of the cable ties analysed were found to have very similar chemical compositions and to be manufactured predominantly from nylon 6,6. The elemental compositions of composite samples, prepared from each packet, were found to be highly variable and, as such, were of very limited value.Cable ties from ten of the twenty packets were uniquely characterised by physical appearance (between-batch variability). Physical measurements such as the width, thickness and tooth-count of the grip section did not provide additional discrimination. Cable ties from nineteen of the twenty packets were uniquely characterised by isotopic composition, based on δ²H and δ¹⁵N measurements. Samples from two packets of Crescent brand cable ties were found to be indistinguishable with respect to all of the tests applied in this study. These two packets were inadvertently purchased from the same retailer and had the same barcode and batch number. It was considered a reasonable assumption that these two packets originated from the same manufacturing batch.The authors reason that a likelihood ratio (that might be presented to a Court of law) can be derived from this type of discrete data based on a calculation of the possible combinations of distinguishable objects (unordered sampling with replacement) in a convenience sample collected from the background population. In this example, a database of 19 distinguishable objects can yield a likelihood ratio as high as 210, with a verbal equivalent of “moderately strong support” for a proposition that two cable ties have the same isotopic composition because they originate from the same batch rather than by random chance.     

A Problem Postponed: Britain and the Future of Austria-Hungary, 1914-18

Imperial security and the need to contain Germany drove British policy towards Austria-Hungary during the First World War more than its view of the Dual Monarchy itself, and shifts in the course of that policy reflected the changing fortunes of war. Given its strategic interests, Britain had less scope to sustain Austria as a great power than Paul W. Schroeder has argued. Those priorities also limited the role of specialists like R.W. Seton-Watson and Sir Lewis Namier to advising on the implementation of policies made by the war cabinet rather than shaping decisions themselves. Development of wartime policy towards Austria cast the priority Britain placed on Central and Eastern Europe into sharp relief, helping to explain trends in its approach to the region through the 1940s.     

Globalisation as a Problem of Political Analysis: Restoring Agents to a 'Process without a Subject' and Politics to a Logic of Economic Compulsion*

Globalisation, in both the popular and academic vernacular, is presented as a non-negotiable external economic constraint, which must simply be accommodated. Consequently, it is a process whose content, nature and consequences are not amenable--either in practice or in principle--to political, far less democratic, deliberation. It is not at all surprising, then, that the invocation of globalisation should be associated with the logic of economic compulsion and the absence of political choice. This paper argues that the perception of the non-negotiable character of globalisation is both misleading and, at the same time, intimately connected to its depiction as a causal 'process without a subject'. For it is only by failing to specify the mechanisms of complex change, in which agents are necessarily implicated, that generic and agentless processes such as globalisation acquire their necessitarian, non-negotiable and apolitical character. Restoring subjects to the process of globalisation and assessing the extent to which their behaviour is informed by constructions of globalisation are urgent challenges for critical political analysts. They are crucial to the broader task of demystifying globalisation, of holding it open to democratic political scrutiny and, in so doing, of challenging its perceived logic of no alternative. If we are to do this, we must develop an account of globalisation capable of acknowledging and incorporating a dynamic understanding of the relationship between conduct and context, and the material and the ideational. In short, if the character, content and consequences of the process of globalisation are to be held to account, we must first restore agents to this process without a subject and politics to this logic of economic compulsion.     

Delinquency theory and prevention: A radical alternative

Twentieth century America has seen several delinquency prevention programs come into vogue and then collapse under the pressure of ever increasing rates of delinquency; pressuring policy makers to continue their search for new and better programs. Yet, new prevention programs are not pulled out of a hat. Because these programs are based on certain assumptions about human behavior they are, for the most part, derived from theories of crime and delinquency causation. Pursuing this relationship between theory and practice, this paper grounds the emergence of delinquency prevention with the development of positivist criminology, identifies the conceptual and practical deficiencies of positivist theories of crime and subsequent prevention strategies and presents the prevention directive of contemporary Marxist “Critical Criminology.”     

Legal and scientific probability of causation of cancer and other environmental disease in individuals

How to evaluate and apply probabilistic scientific evidence that cancer (or other diseases) have been caused by chemical substances (or other environmental agents) constitutes a critical problem which must be addressed by legal institutions. This article analyzes the basis of the current scientific concepts of causation and the means of incorporating epidemiological and statistical evidence of causation into the legal process, primarily with respect to cases of harm to individuals. Experiments with and adjustments of the legal system to effect an adequate accommodation of such probabilistic evidence are suggested.