Europäisierung — ein weites Feld. Literaturbericht und Forschungsfragen

Eusammenfassang Wenngleich sich Europ?isierung in der Politikwissenschaft noch zu keinem eigenst?ndigen Theoriestrang verdichtet hat, haben die Aktivit?ten in diesem Forschungsbereich in den vergangenen Jahren erheblich zugenommen. Nationalstaatliche Ver?nderungsprozesse fest im Blick, brachten diese Arbeiten einen lange vernachl?ssigten Bereich zurück auf die Forschungsagenda: die Rückwirkung der europ?ischen Integration auf den Nationalstaat. Dieser Bericht spiegelt den aktuellen Stand der Europ?isierungsdebatte wider und umfasst sowohl Prozesse der Europ?isierung von EU-Mitgliedsstaaten als auch von (potenziellen) Beitrittskandidaten. Darüber hinaus werden dringliche Forschungsfragen zukünftiger Europ?isierungsstudien aufgeworfen, um einen bescheidenen Beitrag zur wissenschaftlichen Debatte zu leisten.     

Molecular study of time dependent changes in DNA stability in soil buried skeletal residues

In the past years, many publications about identification and sex-determination of dry human bones by means of DNA analysis have been published. However, few studies exist that investigate the potential use of DNA technique to determine the postmortem interval (PMI). In the present study we analyzed the rate of increasingly smaller fragments of chromosomal DNA and PMI.     

Assessing measurement invariance of PCL-R assessments from file reviews of North American and German offenders

Cross-cultural research on psychopathy necessitates assessment methods that are generalizable across linguistic and cultural differences. Multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis was used to compare the factorial structure of Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) assessments obtained from file reviews of North-American (N = 2622) and German (N = 443) male offenders. The analyses indicated that the 18 item, 4-factor model of the PCL-R obtained with the standard PCL-R protocol (interview and file review) also holds for file review data. On a factor-by-factor level, the data are commensurate with strong factorial invariance of factor loadings and item thresholds for the Interpersonal and Lifestyle factors, and with likely metric invariance for the Affective factor. The Antisocial factor showed structural differences between the two samples. The results imply that cultural or environmental factors more strongly influence the judgment and/or expression of antisociality. Based on the results, cross-cultural comparisons between North-American and German offenders in terms of PCL-R psychopathy should be limited to the Interpersonal and Lifestyle factors. Further research using data obtained through the standard protocol (i.e., interview plus file information) is encouraged.     

Operational benefits and challenges of the use of fingerprint statistical models: a field study

Research projects aimed at proposing fingerprint statistical models based on the likelihood ratio framework have shown that low quality finger impressions left on crime scenes may have significant evidential value. These impressions are currently either not recovered, considered to be of no value when first analyzed by fingerprint examiners, or lead to inconclusive results when compared to control prints. There are growing concerns within the fingerprint community that recovering and examining these low quality impressions will result in a significant increase of the workload of fingerprint units and ultimately of the number of backlogged cases. This study was designed to measure the number of impressions currently not recovered or not considered for examination, and to assess the usefulness of these impressions in terms of the number of additional detections that would result from their examination.     

National and local vulnerability to climate-related disasters in Latin America: the role of social asset-based adaptation

The Latin American region is particularly prone to climate-related natural hazards. However, this article argues that natural hazards are only partly to blame for the region's vulnerability to natural disasters with quantitative evidence suggesting instead that income per capita and inequality are main determinants of natural disaster mortality in Latin America. Locally, the region's poor are particularly susceptible to climate-related natural hazards. As a result of their limited access to capital, adaptation based on social assets constitutes an effective coping strategy. Evidence from Bolivia and Belize illustrates the importance of social assets in protecting the most vulnerable against natural disasters.     

Institutional Foundations of Legislative Speech

Participation in legislative debates is among the most visible activities of members of parliament (MPs), yet debates remain an understudied form of legislative behavior. This study introduces a comparative theory of legislative speech with two major implications. First, party rules for debates are endogenous to strategic considerations and will favor either party leadership control or backbencher MP exposure. Second, in some systems, backbenchers will receive less time on the floor as their ideological distance to the party leadership increases. This leads to speeches that do not reflect true party cohesion. Where party reputation matters less for reelection, leaders allow dissidents to express their views on the floor. We demonstrate the implications of our model for different political systems and present evidence using speech data from Germany and the United Kingdom.