A Comparison of Hypothermic Deaths in South Australia and Sweden

Case files from Forensic Science South Australia and the Swedish National Forensic Database were reviewed over a 6‐year period from 2006 to 2011 for cases where hypothermia either caused, or significantly contributed to, death. Data were analyzed for age, sex, time of year/season, place of discovery, circumstances of death, and underlying medical conditions. Despite the considerable demographic, geographic, and climatological differences, hypothermic deaths occurred at very similar rates in South Australia (3.9/100,000) and Sweden (3.3/100,000). Deaths from hypothermia in South Australia occurred predominantly indoors at home addresses, involving elderly females with multiple underlying illnesses and limited outside contacts. In contrast, Swedish hypothermic deaths generally occurred outdoors and involved middle‐aged elderly males. These data show that hypothermia may be a risk in warmer climates particularly for elderly, socially isolated individuals.     

The regulation of civilian drones' impacts on behavioural privacy

Surveillance technologies have burgeoned during the last several decades. To surveillance's promises and threats, drones add a new dimension, both figuratively and literally. An assessment of the impacts of drones on behavioural privacy identifies a set of specific threats that are created or exacerbated. Natural controls, organisational and industry self-regulation, co-regulation and formal laws are reviewed, both general and specific to various forms of surveillance. Serious shortfalls in the regulatory framework are identified. Remedies are suggested, together with means whereby they may come into being.     

Corporations and the Presumption of Innocence

Corporate behaviour is often regulated through the criminal law by means of reverse onus offences. Such offences are alleged to involve violations of the Presumption of Innocence. Such allegations almost always assume natural persons as defendants. The arguments supporting reverse onus offences are typically instrumental, to do with the importance of the social goals promoted and the ease of proof. The Presumption of Innocence is taken to be an autonomy right of natural persons and so not subject to being sidelined for reasons of law enforcement expediency. Corporations, however, are not natural persons: they have no autonomy right not to be treated as means. It may well be, then, that reverse onus offences are justified in the case of corporate defendants. I argue that the Presumption is not violated by such offences in the case of corporate defendants. I develop a broad concept of the criminal justice system as an allocative system, and argue that reverse onus offences properly allocate the burden of proof for corporations. Specifically, I argue that the normative demand for legal innocence is sufficiently met by the availability of a due diligence defence; that the responsibility of corporations when prohibited harms occur is properly a form of outcome-responsibility; and that taking into account issues of reciprocity, legitimacy and power reverse onus offences justly allocate the burden of proof in the case of corporate defendants.     

Alcohol intoxication may exacerbate the effects of blunt cranial trauma through changes in brain free magnesium levels

Moderate to high levels of alcohol decrease brain intracellular free magnesium concentration, a factor known to be critical in brain injury. Phosphorus magnetic resonance spectroscopy was used to examine changes to brain free magnesium concentration after blunt cranial trauma in alcohol-intoxicated rats. Rats exposed acutely or chronically to alcohol sufficient to increase blood alcohol levels to between 150 and 350 mg/dL demonstrated a brain free magnesium level that was 20-50% less than in nonintoxicated animals (p < 0.01). After injury, brain free magnesium levels declined more rapidly and to a greater extent in alcohol-affected animals than in nonintoxicated control animals (p < 0.001). As both preinjury depletion of magnesium and degree of magnesium decline after brain injury have been associated with poor recovery, these findings suggest that moderate to severe alcohol intoxication may predispose the brain to a worse outcome by reducing brain free magnesium levels, both before and after injury.     

Circumstances of death and diagnostic difficulties in brushfire fatalities

The deaths of 10 bushfire (brushfire) victims (aged 2-59 years; M/F 1:1) from the files of Forensic Science SA in Adelaide, South Australia, over an 8-year period (January 2002 to December 2009) are reported. Nine of the victims were found in or near motor vehicles. Death was attributed to incineration (N = 5), trauma from bushfire-related vehicle crashes (N = 2), inhalation of products of combustion with hyperthermia (N = 1), inhalation of products of combustion (N = 1), and undetermined (N = 1). Death scenes covered large areas and involved many victims. Loss of infrastructure and closure of local roads owing to debris limited access and made the finding of bodies difficult. Bodies in such fires may be exposed to the damaging effects of weather and animal predation. Heat damage hindered pathological assessment with resultant delays in identification. Assessment of antemortem injuries and determination of causes of death were also complicated by the condition of some of the bodies.     

Animal-related fatalities--part I: characteristic autopsy findings and variable causes of death associated with blunt and sharp trauma

Animals may be responsible for an array of potentially lethal injuries. Blunt force injuries characteristically involve larger animals such as cattle or horses that may kick, crush, or trample a victim causing head and facial injuries. Farm workers in particular are at high risk of lethal injuries involving the head and torso. Significant blunt trauma may be found in vehicle occupants after collisions with large animals such as camels or moose. Rarely, zookeepers may be crushed by particularly massive animals such as elephants. Sharp force injuries usually involve carnivore bites, most often from dogs with a "hole and tear" pattern of wounding. Injuries from animals such as alligators and sharks may have a significant component of crushing. Incised wounds may result in death from exsanguination and air embolism. On occasion, blunt or sharp trauma from animal activity may be confused with postmortem damage or with inflicted injury from an assault.     

The More You Say the Less It Means: Overreporting and Attenuated Criterion Validity in a Forensic Disability Sample

A recent publication in Psychological Bulletin by McGrath et al. (Psychological Bulletin 136:450–470, 2010) challenged the necessity of response bias indicators in applied psychological assessment on the grounds that there is insufficient empirical support that shows that they are able to moderate the prediction of substantive measures. The current study challenges their conclusions by examining the effects of response bias in a sample of 2,275 disability litigants. We utilized the validity scales of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF; Ben-Porath and Tellegen, 2008) in order to establish a group of litigants who did not exhibit evidence of overreporting and compared them to a group of overreporting litigants. The overreporting group scored significantly higher on every Restructured Clinical Scale. Moreover, we compared the criterion validity between various substantive scales on the MMPI-2-RF and extratest measures [e.g., Beck Depression Inventory-II (Beck, Steer, & Brown, 1996)] and found evidence of significantly attenuated criterion validity in the overreporting group. Implications of the study in light of the review by McGrath and colleagues are discussed.     

THE TASMANIAN PUBLIC SERVICE AND THE FUTURE

Abstract: State governments in Australia have been regarded essentially as service deliverers, with the result that the specialist heads of public organizations, although technically competent, have rarely questioned the need for their activities. Nor does the argument that such questioning is the responsibility of the politician take account of the inertia of the existing system; an analysis of the activities which the Tasmanian government has undertaken over the past six years—including those of statutory authorities—shows a fair degree of stability. Thus we should consider building into the State's existing organizational arrangements some means of evaluating existing programs and new proposals. Such policy analysis should widen the narrow focus of the advice currently offered by public servants. Although there have been some moves in this direction in Tasmania (particularly in the Premier's Department), it has not been reflected in the structures of the public service generally. A survey of 22 government departments showed that only eight had officers concerned with evaluatory planning, and only three departments were engaged in innovative and initiatory planning. Other directions in which Tasmania's public organizations could move with benefit include an increase in lateral recruitment; breaking down the rigidity of the promotion appeals and classification systems; introducing flexible management and budgeting procedures throughout the service as a whole; and continually reviewing the structure and functions of public organizations. The questions that have been raised by recent inquiries into State and Federal government administration, namely coordination, efficiency, economy, effectiveness, decentralization and participation, have not stressed sufficiently the key issue for the public services of the 1980s, which is the nature of the relationship between the politician, the public service and the community.     

Jurors' use of probabilistic evidence

Mock jurors' use of probabilistic evidence was examined in a fractional factorial design manipulating 7 variables: strength of nonstatistical evidence; quantification of nonstatistical evidence; strength of statistical evidence; combination of 2 pieces of statistical evidence; instruction in use of Bayes' theorem; and presentation of fallacies (both prosecutor's and defense attorney's) concerning use of statistical evidence. One hundred eighty-nine subjects viewed 1 of 16 videotapes presenting a condensed mock trial. Subjects completed dependent measures after each of 4 witnesses and at the end of trial. The strength of both nonstatistical and probabilistic evidence affected verdicts; the other manipulations did not. Overall, subjects slightly underused the probabilistic evidence, as compared to their individualized Bayesian norms, and subjects did not succumb to fallacies. However, subjects greatly varied in over-or underutilization, even after Bayesian instruction. Future research should examine use of weak nonstatistical evidence, and should test different probabilistic instructions.