Distortion in Fingerprints: A Statistical Investigation using Shape Measurement Tools

Friction ridge impression appearance can be affected due to the type of surface touched and pressure exerted during deposition. Understanding the magnitude of alterations, regions affected, and systematic/detectable changes occurring would provide useful information. Geometric morphometric techniques were used to statistically characterize these changes. One hundred and fourteen prints were obtained from a single volunteer and impressed with heavy, normal, and light pressure on computer paper, soft gloss paper, 10‐print card stock, and retabs. Six hundred prints from 10 volunteers were rolled with heavy, normal, and light pressure on soft gloss paper and 10‐print card stock. Results indicate that while different substrates/pressure levels produced small systematic changes in fingerprints, the changes were small in magnitude: roughly the width of one ridge. There were no detectable changes in the degree of random variability of prints associated with either pressure or substrate. In conclusion, the prints transferred reliably regardless of pressure or substrate     

Identifying Urban Flashpoints: A Delphi-Derived Model for Scoring Cities’ Vulnerability to Large-Scale Unrest

Although great strides have been made toward forecasting state-level instability, little progress has been made toward the prediction of outbreaks of urban unrest. This article presents a method for the assessment of cities’ vulnerability to large-scale urban unrest. Forty-five factors correlated with urban unrest are identified and weighted by an expert panel. Based on expert elicitation through an iterative Delphi exercise, the explicitly methodological discussion describes both the process and the resulting assessment framework. Results include a tool that will allow users to rank cities on their vulnerability to large-scale urban unrest.     

Overreporting Voting: Campaign Media,Public Mood,and the Vote

This study used regional telephone survey data collected after the 1996 U.S. presidential election to examine how two possibly important affective variables public mood and political cynicism predict actual as compared with self-reported voting. Public mood, a construct introduced by Rahn, Kroeger, and Kite (1996) to suggest how affective processes may play a role in political behavior, is shown to have two distinct but positively correlated dimensions, one positive and one negative. After demographic variables were controlled, perceived media usefulness predicted positive mood about the presidential election, which in turn predicted self-reported voting. Negative campaign attitude predicted negative mood, which, in turn, influenced actual but not self-reported voting. Political cynicism, although correlated with both positive and negative public mood, predicted neither measure of voting. The bifurcation of influence of negative and positive public mood about elections may explain why researchers have often shown positive affect to influence voting (as measured by self-report), and why political consultants have continued to rely on negative campaigning and the reported increases in negative feelings it engenders in voters to influence actual votes.     

Reactions of latent prints exposed to blood

We explored whether an undeveloped latent print (fingermark) exposed to blood and later developed by enhancement with blood reagents such as amido black (AB) or leucocrystal violet (LCV) could appear as a genuine blood mark. We examined three different experimental conditions. In Experiment I, fingermark residue only was tested, as a control to confirm that fingermark residue alone does not react with the blood reagents AB and LCV. Experiment II investigated whether latent fingermarks exposed to blood dilutions could be treated with AB or LCV and subsequently appear as a genuine blood mark enhanced with AB or LCV. Experiment III tested whether latent fingermarks exposed to whole blood could be processed with AB or LCV and subsequently appear as a genuine blood mark enhanced with AB or LCV.The present study found that indeed, fingermark residue alone does not react with the blood reagents AB and LCV. In Experiment II, an interaction occurred between the fingermark residue and the diluted blood that caused the ridges to appear a red color. In the present study, this interaction is called a faux blood mark. While the faux blood mark phenomenon occurred most often following exposure to diluted blood, it did not occur consistently, and a predictable pattern could not be established. However, the reaction occurred more frequently following extended fingermark residue drying times. Faux blood marks are distinguishable from genuine blood marks prior to enhancement with blood reagents. Following treatment with blood reagents, it became increasingly difficult to determine whether the enhanced mark was a genuine blood print or a latent fingermark exposed to diluted blood. Latent fingermarks exposed to whole blood often resulted in a void prior to enhancement, but following treatment with blood reagents, were difficult to distinguish from a genuine blood mark enhanced with blood reagents.     

Testing the construct validity of the PICTS proactive and reactive scores against six putative measures of proactive and reactive criminal thinking

This study tested the construct validity of the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) Proactive (P) and Reactive (R) scores. The layperson version of the PICTS was administered to 277 (65 male, 212 female) undergraduates and correlated with putative measures of proactive and reactive criminal thinking. The hypothesis that P and the proactive scales would correlate ≥.30 in zero-order correlations and regression equations controlling for R, whereas R and the reactive scales would correlate ≥.30 in zero-order correlations and regression equations controlling for P found support in this study. This corroborates the construct validity of the PICTS P and R scores and indicates that self-report measures of moral disengagement and neutralization, on the one hand, and impulsivity and risk taking, on the other hand, may serve as effective proxies for proactive and reactive criminal thinking, respectively.     

The Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles and Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version as Incrementally Valid Predictors of Recidivism

A follow-up of 107 male federal prison inmates previously tested with the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) and Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL:SV) was conducted to test the incremental validity of both measures. The PICTS General Criminal Thinking (GCT) score was found to predict general recidivism and serious recidivism when age, prior charges, and the PCL:SV were controlled. The PCL:SV, on the other hand, failed to predict general and serious recidivism when age, prior charges, and the PICTS were controlled. These findings support the hypothesis that content-relevant self-report measures like the PICTS are capable of predicting crime-relevant outcomes above and beyond the contributions of basic demographic variables like age, criminal history, and such popular non-self-report rating procedures as the PCL:SV.     

Effect of a longer versus shorter test-release interval on recidivism prediction with the psychological inventory of criminal thinking styles (PICTS)

The General Criminal Thinking (GCT) score of the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) was correlated with recidivism data obtained on 284 released male federal prisoners. The sample was divided into those inmates who had been released within 24 months of having completed the PICTS (shorter test-release interval; n = 138) and those inmates who had been released more than 24 months after having completed the PICTS (longer test-release interval; n = 146), and recidivism was measured by subsequent arrests and convictions accrued during a 6- to 78-month follow-up. Although the GCT score successfully predicted release outcome in the shorter test-release interval group, it failed to predict release outcome in the longer test-release interval group. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

The Developmental Significance of Adolescent Romantic Relationships: Parent and Peer Predictors of Engagement and Quality at Age 15

From a longitudinal sample (n = 957; 49.9% male; 77.3% White/non-Hispanic) of participants studied from infancy through age 15, adolescents’ depth of engagement in, and quality of romantic relationships were predicted from early and contemporaneous parent–child interactive quality and peer social competence. High quality maternal parenting and peer experiences prior to and during adolescence tended to be negatively associated with the depth of engagement in this domain for the full sample, yet positively associated with the quality of adolescents’ romantic relationships for the sub-set of individuals currently dating at age 15. Results reconcile contrasting views of the origins of romantic relationship engagement and quality and the positive versus negative developmental salience of romantic relationships in adolescence.     

Earning through learning in legislatures

This inquiry applies Gary Becker’s theoretical notions of general and specific training to the experiential learning that occurs within political institutions, in particular the U.S. Congress. In the process, we isolate economic facets of these legislative experiences that influence the rental-value of human capital derived from congressional training. We identify four factors that structure legislators’ post-elective wages: pre-congressional salary, year of entry, tenure, and variables closely related to general training in Congress—specifically, assignment to powerful legislative committees, acquisition of broad skill packages, investment in expanding skill-set proficiencies, and to a lesser extent, life-cycle driven declines in such investments.