Praxis and the disruption of organized crime groups

Although reports state the frequency of general crime has fallen across the developed world, no such trend is evident within organised crime. This has caused law enforcement agencies to search for more innovative approaches to tackle this global problem. Emerging prominently within this period has been a ‘disruption’ approach, albeit little systematic research currently supports its use. This study explores the way one English Police Force has tackled 15 Organised Crime Groups (99 individuals), using this type of approach. The study specifically examines the characteristics of the offender, the tactics used, and the re-offending levels following the police activity. It concludes by highlighting: the methodological challenges associated with the measurement of organised crime disruption; the ethical questions surrounding this type of intervention; and the overall effectiveness of the approach.     

Anatomy of a government massacre: Abuses of hostage‐barricade protocols during the Waco standoff

A systematic evaluation of the FBI's crisis negotiations with the Branch Davidians during a 51‐day standoff in 1993 is conducted. The analysis uncovers extensive violations of basic hostage‐barricade standards and protocols. The violations appear shortly after negotiations began indicating a premature disregard for the publicly declared goal of a peaceful resolution. Failed negotiations subsequently were cited by FBI officials as a rationale for organizing a violent and dangerous CS gas assault on the barricaded group, resulting in the destruction of the religious community and the deaths of 74 people. The violations do not appear to be random, incidental, or the result of disorganization, as officials claim. The data indicate that the FBI's on‐scene commanders and tactical component of the Hostage‐Rescue Team (HRT) contributed largely to the failed negotiations through methods of increased tactical pressure and psychological warfare providing justification for the high‐risk assault. The thesis is advanced that the HRT command may have pursued furtively what some insiders call a ‘Western’ view of hostage‐barricade incidents ‐ i.e., that negotiations should be used as a means of manipulating people into positions where a tactical solution can be executed. In this context, the standoff is analyzed as a government massacre. Possible motives for this state violence are linked to the sect's defiant posture, aspects of police culture, effective demonization of the sect, and the disturbing trend of ‘militarization’ within law enforcement.     

College Students’ Online Pornography Use: Contrasting General and Specific Structural Variables with Social Learning Variables

This research partially tests Akers’ social structure-social learning theory (SSSL). The data was collected online through a self-report questionnaire and nearly half (48.8%) of the sample of 812 college students reported visiting a porn site. To better understand this self-report behavior, bivariate correlations and three binary logistic regression analyses were conducted. In Model A, participants who were male, Hispanic, had more years in college, and more inclined toward homosexuality had an increased likelihood of visiting a porn site. In Model B, again, gender, ethnicity, year in school, and the sexuality scale were significant predictors. However, race appeared as significant for the first time along with number of sex partners, and frequency of masturbation, indicating that participants who were Black, had a greater number of sexual partners, and masturbated more frequently had an increased likelihood of visiting porn site. As with the first and second models, gender, race, sexuality scale, and frequency of masturbation were significant predictors in Model C. Additionally, differential peer association, differential reinforcement, and definitions favorable were significant, indicating that participants who had greater association with peers who viewed porn, who had observed someone watching porn and decided to mimic their behaviors, and who had defined visiting porn sites favorably had an increased likelihood of visiting a porn site. Overall, Akers’ SLT variables fully mediated ethnicity, year in school, and number of sex partners, but it only partially mediated gender, race, and sexuality scale.     

Recovery of DNA and fingerprints from touched documents

This study investigated the various factors affecting DNA profiling from DNA recovered from fingerprints deposited on paper before and after fingerprint enhancement treatments. The DNeasy^® plant mini kit (QIAGEN^®) was found to improve DNA recovery from paper by over 150% compared with the QIAamp^® mini kit. A significant decrease in the amount of DNA recovered was observed following treatment with DFO and/or Ninhydrin. This decrease in yield did not have a comparably significant effect on the quality of the SGM Plus™ profiles. Furthermore, this study found that whilst certain paper types, such as newspaper, magazine and filter paper allowed for the good recovery of DNA, common office paper and white card, strongly interfered with the recovery of DNA resulting in poor quality profiles.     

Th e Decision to Contract Out: A Study of Contracting for E-Government Services in State Governments

Government contracting, especially for information technology products and services, has accelerated in recent years in the United States. Drawing on the insights of privatization studies, the authors examine the economic and political rationales underpinning government decisions to contract out e-government services. This article tests the extent to which economic and political rationality influence governments' contracting decisions using data from multiple sources: a survey conducted by National Association of State Chief Information Officers, a survey by the National Association of State Procurement Officers, the Council of State Legislatures, and macro-level state data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Important factors affecting the state-level contracting decision are population size, market size, the competitiveness of the bidding process, the professional management of contracts, the partisan composition of legislatures, and political competition. Political rationales appear to play a major role in state contracting decisions. Some arguments associated with markets and economic rationality are clearly politically motivated.     

Single primer extension (SPEX) amplification to accurately genotype highly damaged DNA templates

High levels of non-authentic sequence data can be generated by traditional PCR-based methodologies when DNA is damaged, template numbers are small and/or the target amplification size too large. We therefore present an alternate methodology based on single primer extension (SPEX) amplification; that places no pre-defined size constraints on amplification and interacts with only one of the DNA strands at the target locus.