Characterisation of variant alleles at the HumD21S11 locus implies unique Australasian genotypes and re-classification of nomenclature guidelines

Several variant alleles of the HumD21S11 locus have only been reported in Australasian population samples. Fifteen such alleles were observed in Caucasian and Australian Aborigine sub-population databases compiled from residents of the state of Western Australia. Each variant was sequenced to authenticate the allelic designation and determine the structural conformation. Nine novel structural variants are described. The structure of the repeat region of these rare alleles combined with the STR designation brings aspects of the HumD21S11 nomenclature guidelines into question, in particular the designation of common incomplete repeats (or "0.2's"). The conformation of the sequences provides evidence in support of a genetic relationship between the Australian Aborigine and the Papuan people.     

The Dark Figure of Online Property Crime: Is Cyberspace Hiding a Crime Wave?

A pronounced drop in crime, since the early 1990s, has encompassed every crime category tracked by the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports, including property crime. However, over the same period, the rates of online property crime (OPC) have been on the rise according to available evidence. We delineate the extent of our knowledge and data concerning cybercrime and identity theft and, using data from several nationally representative victimization surveys, offer an alternative view of property crime trends while pointing out the glaring gap in crime reporting and accounting in relation to the growing category of property crimes perpetrated online. In addition, we compare estimated costs of traditional property crime vs. OPC. Finally, we identify the main challenges for obtaining reliable data on OPC and discuss their implications, especially when applying the traditional methods of compiling crime statistics.     

Reviews

Susan Gross Solomon (ed.), Pluralism in the Soviet Union. Essays in Honour of H. Gordon Skilling. London: Macmillan, 1983, xiii + 179 pp. £20.00.

George Yaney. The Urge to Mobilize: Agrarian Reform in Russia, 1861–1930. Urbana, Chicago, London: University of Illinois Press, 1982, xii + 599 pp. £18.75.

Roy Medvedev, All Stalin's Men. Translated by Harold Shukman. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1983, x + 184 pp. £8.95.

Robert F. Byrnes (ed.), After Brezhnev: Sources of Soviet Conduct in the 1980s. London: Frances Pinter, 1983, xviii + 457 pp., bibliography and index, h/b £16.50, p/b £6.95.

Basile Kerblay, Modern Soviet Society (translated by Rupert Swyer). London: Methuen, 1983, xxvi + 321 pp. h/b £16.00, p/b £7.95.

Max Hayward, Writers in Russia: 1917–1978. Edited and with an introduction by Patricia Blake. London: Harvill Press, 1983, lxxvi + 340 pp. £7.95.

Dina R. Spechler. Permitted Dissent in the USSR. Novy mir and the Soviet Regime. New York: Praeger, 1982, xxiv + 296 pp. $27.95.

Everett M. Jacobs (ed.), Soviet Local Politics and Government, London: George Allen & Unwin, 1983, xiv + 225 pp. £15.00, $28.50.

Alan H. Smith, The Planned Economies of Eastern Europe. London: Croom Helm, 1983, 249 pp. £16.95.

John Löwenhardt, The Soviet Politburo. Translated by Dymphna Clark, Edinburgh: Canongate, 1982, 152 pp. £7.95.

Stephen Clissold, Djilas: the progress of a revolutionary. Introduction by Hugh Setton‐Watson. London: Temple Smith, 1983, 343 pp. £15.00.

Steven L. Burg, Conflict and Cohesion in Socialist Yugoslavia: Political Decision Making Since 1966. Princeton, N. J.: Princeton U. P., 1983, xii + 365 pp. $49.00.

Elizabeth Kridl Valkenier: The Soviet Union and the Third World. New York: Praeger, 1983, 185 pp. $21.95.

Dorothy Atkinson, The End Of The Russian Land Commune, 1905–30. Stanford, Calf.: Stanford UP, 1983, xii + 457 pp. $29.50.

Alain Touraine, et al., Solidarity: Poland 1980–81, Cambridge and Paris: CUP jointly with Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, 1983, xvii + 203 pp. paperback £6.95.