Evaluation of Four Fingerprint Development Methods for Touch Chemistry Using Matrix‐Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization/Time‐of‐Flight Mass Spectrometry,

Four preparation techniques for MALDI/TOF mass spectrometry were compared to determine the ability to gather intelligence for investigations through the chemical analysis of latent fingerprints, defined as “touch chemistry.” Compatible fingerprint development processes used for identification along with new techniques are necessary to evaluate touch chemistry. Ten volunteers deposited fingerprints from solvent residues containing drugs and explosives onto microscope slides. The developers included (A) fingerprint powder, (B) MALDI matrix, (C) fingerprint powder and lifting, and (D) cyanoacrylate fuming with fingerprint powder. Qualitative identification was based on ion images and spectra. The highest average detection rates (88%) were found using methods A and B. Methods C (52%) or D (18%) had limited success. Results demonstrate the importance of imaging coupled to extracted mass spectral data in detecting analytes in deposited fingerprints. Overall, the results suggest continued development of touch chemistry applications could prove useful for gathering intelligence and forensically relevant information.     

The Ironies of Helping: Social Interventions and Executable Subjects

Law and society scholars have theorized about the link between capital punishment and the hegemony of individualism, but few offer empirical investigations to illustrate how individualism makes capital punishment possible (and vice versa) in the contemporary United States. In order to fill this gap, we analyze the legal and human service records that were compiled in the construction of one executable subject, Daniel Farnsworth. Using a critical discourse approach, we look at what was said and not said about Daniel in the records created by various helping agencies. In our analysis, we demonstrate how the helping agencies involved in Daniel's life repeatedly relied on an individuating psychological paradigm that led them to produce decontextualized catalogs of his actions and characteristics. Next, we illustrate how these pathologizing accounts were, ironically, later invoked in court in the name of preserving his life. Finally, we explain how "helping" discourses, along with the rules that regulate capital defense practice, straightjacket defense attorneys into reinforcing individualism in this context.     

Long-Term Effects of Adolescent Negative Self-Feelings on Adult Deviance: Moderated by Neighborhood Disadvantage, Mediated by Expectations

This paper tests two competing hypotheses, derived from general strain and middle class measuring rod theories, regarding the moderating effects of neighborhood disadvantage on the long-term relationship between adolescent negative self-feelings and adult deviance. The results from longitudinal data support the middle class measuring rod theory: adolescent negative self-feelings increase adult deviance only in middle status neighborhoods and not in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods. Furthermore, this effect in middle status neighborhoods is mediated by low expectations of the future in while still in adolescence. Our findings show the importance of studying the combination of both the social psychological and the contextual influences on deviance.     

April 19

Richard Abanes, American Militias: Rebellion, Racism and Religion. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996. Pp.296, biblio, index. $13.49 (paper). ISBN 0–8308–1368–3.

John George and Laird Wilcox, American Extremists: Militias, Supremacists, Communists, & Others. Amherst, NY: Promethius Books, 1996. Pp.443, index.. $31.45 (cloth), $24.95 (paper). ISBN 1–57392–058–4.

Jim Keith, OKBOMB!: Conspiracy and Cover‐Up. Lilburn, GA: Illuminet Press, 1996. Pp.237, index. $14.95 (paper). ISBN 1–881532–08–9.

Kenneth S. Stern,A Force Upon the Plain: The American Militia Movement and the Politics of Hate. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996. Pp.303, biblio, index. $24.00 (cloth), $15.26 (paper). ISBN 0–684–81916–3.

Brandon M. Stickney, “All American Monster”: The Unauthorized Biography of Tim McVeigh. Amherst, NY: Promethius Books, 1996. Pp.336, index. $23.95. ISBN 1–57392–088–6.

Jess Walter, Every Knee Shall Bow: The Truth & Tragedy of Ruby Ridge & The Weaver Family. New York: ReganBooks, 1995. Pp.375. $24.00 (cloth), $6.29 (paper). ISBN 0–06–0391 74‐X.