Hostage-Taking in the Context of Domestic Violence: Some Case Examples

Initial reports of domestic violence are generally made to law enforcement officers who must respond and intervene. A subset of these episodes involves cases in which the victim, and, in many instances her child(ren), have been taken hostage by her husband or partner. Moreover, there are indications that the number of such incidents is growing. The purpose of this project was twofold: (1) to provide one of the first reports on the prevalence and characteristics of these events, and (2) to more closely analyze domestic crisis (hostage) situations using actual case examples. All information was obtained from the Hostage Barricade Database System (HOBAS) of the FBIs Crisis Negotiation Unit. HOBAS is a postincident information collection tool which stores historical data from law enforcement agencies across the nation on hostage/barricade incidents. An examination of this database yielded different types of domestic hostage-taking acts and outcomes (e.g., tactical vs. negotiated resolutions, survival vs. death/injury of perpetrator and/or victim[s]). Implications of the findings, for future crisis negotiation efforts directed toward nonviolent resolution of these high-risk critical incidents, are discussed.     

Dutch cocaine trade: The perspective of Rotterdam cocaine retail dealers

This article based, on 38 in-depth interviews with Rotterdam cocaine retail dealers, aims to present a clearer picture of how cocaine supply lines in the Netherlands are organized in order to fine-tune policy with respect to crime, public order and safety on the different trade levels. On the retail level the market for cocaine is strictly separated in a market for crack cocaine versus a market for powder cocaine. The crack dealers are often hard drug users themselves living in relatively poor circumstances. Although dealing cocaine is their main activity, they tend to be involved in other activities related to the drug scene, e.g. smuggling cocaine via Amsterdam airport. The cocaine distribution line for supply on the local market is seldom more than two steps. Because the supply for the Rotterdam cocaine retailers comes mainly from small-scale imports, successful police operations against large-scale imports of cocaine will have little influence on the local cocaine supply in the Netherlands.     

Development of a harmonised method for the profiling of amphetamines V: Determination of the variability of the optimised method

This paper is the fifth in a series of six in relation to the development of a harmonised method for the profiling of amphetamine [L. Aalberg, K. Andersson, C. Bertler, H. Borén, M.D. Cole, J. Dahlén, Y. Finnon, H. Huizer, K. Jalava, E. Kaa, E. Lock, A. Lopes, A. Poortman-van der Meer, E. Sippola, Development of a harmonised method for the profiling of amphetamines I. Synthesis of standards and compilation of analytical data, Forensic Sci. Int. 149 (2005) 219-229; L. Aalberg, K. Andersson, C. Bertler, M.D. Cole, Y. Finnon, H. Huizer, K. Jalava, E. Kaa, E. Lock, A. Lopes, A. Poortman-van der Meer, E. Sippola, J. Dahlén, Development of a harmonised method for the profiling of amphetamines II. Stability of impurities in organic solvents, Forensic Sci. Int. 149 (2005) 231-241]. The third paper [K. Andersson, K. Jalava, E. Lock, L. Aalberg, Y. Finnon, H. Huizer, E. Kaa, A. Lopes, A. Poortman-van der Meer, M.D. Cole, J. Dahlén, E. Sippola, Development of a harmonised method for the profiling of amphetamines III. Development of the gas chromatographic method, Forensic Sci. Int., in press] dealt with the optimisation of the gas chromatographic and detection methods whereas the fourth paper [K. Andersson, K. Jalava, E. Lock, Y. Finnon, S. Stevenson, L. Aalberg, H. Huizer, E. Kaa, A. Lopes, A. Poortman-van der Meer, M.D. Cole, J. Dahlén, E. Sippola, Development of a harmonised method for the profiling of amphetamines IV. Optimisation of sample preparation, Forensic Sci. Int., in press] concerned the optimisation of the extraction method prior to GC analysis. This paper is a study of the optimised method in order to determine its stability. Investigations of within and between day variations were carried out in four laboratories. Moreover, variations between laboratories were also determined. Both flame ionisation detector (FID) and MS detection were used. One laboratory studied nitrogen-phosphorous detector (NPD) detection as well. For this task, 12 batches of amphetamine were prepared. Six of them were synthesised via the Leuckart route, three via the nitrostyrene route and three via the reductive amination route [A.M.A. Verweij, Impurities in illicit drug preparations: amphetamine and methamphetamine, Forensic Sci. Rev. 1 (1989) 2-11]. Taking into account all studied target compounds and the average results from four laboratories, the within day variation was around 6% for FID and 5% for MS, the between days variation was around 10% for FID and 8% for MS. For NPD detection, within day variation was 5% and between days variation 9% (only one laboratory). Finally, the inter-laboratory variation was about 12% for FID (four laboratories) and 10% for MS (three laboratories).     

Media Priming in a Multi-Party Context: A Controlled Naturalistic Study in Political Communication

This study investigates media priming effects in the context of a Summit meeting of European Union (EU) leaders. It differs in four ways from most previous non-experimental priming studies: (1) it provides survey data accompanied by a content analysis of the news, (2) it compares priming effects on evaluations of a number of political leaders, who differed in their visibility in the news, (3) it involves an issue with low salience, and (4) it studies priming effects in the context of a European Parliamentary democracy. The study involves a two-wave panel study (before and after the Summit) on a representative sample of 817 Dutch adults, and a content analysis of the newspaper and television news in the 8 weeks leading up to the Summit meeting. The study shows that media priming effects occur only for the politicians who appeared visible in the news in connection with the issue. The media priming effects were not significantly moderated by political attentiveness or by political knowledge. We also explore the aggregate level consequences of priming for the popularity of leaders, and demonstrate that, as a result of media priming, two politicians became more popular, despite having received a bad press.

Allocating responsibility among controllers,processors, and “everything in between”: the definition of actors and roles in Directive 95/46/EC

In Opinion 1/2010, the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party has provided additional guidance concerning the concepts of ‘controller’ and ‘processor’ contained in Directive 95/46/EC. This guidance aims to assist practitioners in their determination of whether an entity is acting as a controller or as a processor towards a particular data processing operation. Despite the fact that this opinion is informative, the existing framework still appears to leave room for a considerable amount of legal uncertainty. This uncertainty is attributable in part to the nature of the existing concepts, but also (and perhaps to a larger extent) to their apparent misalignment with current processing realities. In this paper, the author seeks to articulate why the existing concepts often remain difficult to apply in practice, in order to enable a constructive reflection on how these issues might be addressed in the future.     

Insights from Ted Palmer: experimental criminology in a different era

Objectives  

Report insights from the career of the noted evaluation researcher, Ted Palmer, on emerging issues in correctional research and correctional treatment.     

The Asymmetry of Legitimacy

State legitimacy is often said to have two aspects: an internal and an external one. Internally, a legitimate state has the right to rule over its subjects. Externally, it has a right that outsiders not interfere with its domestic governance. But what is the relation between these two aspects? In this paper, I defend a conception of legitimacy according to which these two aspects are related in an importantly asymmetrical manner. In particular, a legitimate state??s external right to rule affords it protections that include and go beyond what its internal right to rule enables it to do. This asymmetrical view, I argue, is preferable to its two main rivals: the view that a state??s internal and external legitimacy are separate issues, and the view that internal and external legitimacy are mirroring.     

Assessment of moral judgment and empathy in young sex offenders: a comparison of clinical judgment and test results

Professional decision making in forensic clinical practice may have lifelong consequences for offenders. Although information on moral development is important for prediction of reoffending and referral to adequate treatment, conclusions regarding moral development are still largely based on unstructured clinical judgment instead of assessment instruments. For this study, the authors examined to what extent unstructured clinical judgment of both moral judgment and victim empathy concurred with test results in a group of young sex offenders. Moral judgment was measured with the Sociomoral Reflection Measure-Short Form (SRM-SF), whereas victim empathy was measured with an extended version of the Basic Empathy Scale (BES). No significant associations were found between clinical judgment of moral judgment and the mean scores on the SRM-SF. However, clinical judgment of victim empathy was significantly associated with victim empathy on the Victim Empathy Scale but not consistently in the expected direction. Juvenile sex offenders, who were judged by clinicians to show little victim empathy, displayed lower mean scores on the Victim Empathy Scale than juvenile sex offenders who were evaluated to lack victim empathy or to have intact victim empathy. This study showed unstructured clinical judgment of moral development not to concur with test results. To improve decision-making processes regarding moral development, clinicians are advised to rely on instruments that assess moral development to inform clinical judgment. Further research is needed to examine which predictions are more accurate and to establish the predictive validity of moral development evaluations.