Collective Security and a New World Order: Justifying Australia's Participation in the Persian Gulf Crisis, 1990-91

In response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait on 2 August 1990, Australia's Labor government committed a naval task force to participate in the enforcement of sanctions, and subsequently, the Gulf War to expel Iraq from Kuwait. The Australian government justified its response to the Persian Gulf crisis in various ways, including the threat it posed to national and international security, and by employing representations of Australian identity and the radical Otherness of Saddam Hussein. The paper considers these aspects, then focuses on two ostensibly complementary justifications. Firstly, the rapid commitment was represented as a necessary act of collective security connected to revitalisation of the United Nations. Secondly, it was justified as contributing to the development of a post-Cold War new world order (NWO), framed within Australian regional security interests and shaped by the US alliance. The paper argues that the Australian discourse melds the justifications, despite collective security, based on UN leadership, sitting uneasily with a NWO premised on US leadership, without having to attend to the tensions between the two justifications.     

Designing a graduate entry route for police recruits: lessons from a rapid evidence assessment of other professions

ABSTRACT

Policing in the UK is currently undergoing changes to the training and attained qualifications of entry level police officers. The College of Policing is in the process of developing three entry routes into the profession, one of which is a graduate conversion course for those new recruits who hold, at a minimum, a Bachelor’s degree. The objective of this research was to gather evidence on existing conversion courses to inform the development of this route. A rapid evidence assessment was undertaken to a narrative synthesis of the literature on graduate conversion courses in other professions. Fifty-one studies were identified and coded. Four main themes emerged from the available evidence as being central. These themes – learning styles, translating theory into practice, teaching methods and assessment were cross cut by pedagogical sub-themes of collaborative learning, and reflective practice. Policy and practice implications for a policing conversion course are drawn out to guide development and delivery of police training and education in the 21^st century.     

Assessing the Utility of Soil DNA Extraction Kits for Increasing DNA Yields and Eliminating PCR Inhibitors from Buried Skeletal Remains

DNA identification of human remains is often necessary when decedents are skeletonized; however, poor DNA recovery and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) inhibition are frequently encountered, a situation exacerbated by burial. In this research, the utility of integrating soil DNA isolation kits into buried skeletal DNA analysis was evaluated and compared to a standard human DNA extraction kit and organic extraction. The soil kits successfully extracted skeletal DNA at quantities similar to standard methods, although the two kits tested, which differ mechanistically, were not equivalent. Further, the PCR inhibitors calcium and humic acid were effectively removed using the soil kits, whereas collagen was less so. Finally, concordant control region sequences were obtained from human skeletal remains using all four methods. Based on these comparisons, soil DNA isolation kits, which quickened the extraction process, proved to be a viable extraction technique for skeletal remains that resulted in positive identification of a decedent.     

Establishing the Limits of TrueAllele® Casework: A Validation Study

The limits of the expert system, TrueAllele^® Casework (TA), were explored using challenging mock casework profiles that included 17 single‐source and 18 two‐, 15 three‐ and 7 four‐person DNA mixtures. The sensitivity (ability to detect a minor contributor) of the TA analysis process was examined by challenging the system with mixture DNA samples that exhibited allelic and locus dropout and other stochastic effects. The specificity (ability to exclude nondonors) was rigorously tested by interrogating TA derived genotypes with 100 nondonor profiles. The accuracy with which TA estimated mixture weights of contributors to the two‐person mixtures was examined. Finally, first‐degree relatives of donors were used to assess the ability of the system to exclude close relatives. TA demonstrated great accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity. TA correctly assigned mixture weights and excluded nearly all first‐degree relatives. This study demonstrates the analysis power of the TrueAllele^® Casework system.     

Evaluating the Child Abuse and Neglect Institute: Does Training Affect Decision‐Making?

Traditionally, training evaluations have focused on participants' satisfaction and self‐reported knowledge gain. The current study uses a different approach to evaluate the Child Abuse and Neglect Institute (CANI), a training program designed to educate judicial officers on best practices in child abuse and neglect cases. CANI participants were asked to review a case scenario and render decisions about the case before and after the trainings. Findings suggest CANI has several positive impacts on judicial decision‐making, including an increased willingness to engage the father, an increased focus on the child, and increased motivation to comply with the Indian Child Welfare Act.