Juvenile Justice and the 'Shift to the Left'

The notion of 'shift' is used as a symbol for procedure in criminal cases, understood as a sequence of legal interferences by the police, the prosecution and by proceedings in court. If this sequence is symbolised by a horizontal line, the procedural stages move from left to right. But the distribution of competences has recently lost its prior balance, due to 'modern' crime and society: The functions of the judge appear reduced, whereas the range of action of the prosecution has widened; also the police has gained more influence. On the symbolic line of procedural stages this all makes for a 'shift to the left'. This paper deals with the question as to whether juvenile justice is undergoing the same changes. The first answer is 'yes', based on the enlarged diversionary competence of prosecutors and the police. From a different perspective, however, juvenile offending is a 'natural' phenomenon connected with young age, which a priori places juvenile justice on a 'left' position of the imagined line. A plea is made for this juvenile justice to stick to its inherent concern for young offenders individually and not to sacrifice this to collective interests in public order and safety.     

Data on the PCR Turkish population based loci: LDLR, GYPA, HBGG, D7S8, and Gc

Allele and genotype frequencies for the five PCR-based loci were analyzed in 157 unrelated Turkish individuals. The five PCR-based loci included LDLR, GYPA, HBGG, D7S8, and Gc. The results of the chi-square and exact tests showed that the genotype distribution at the LDLR, GYPA, D7S8, and Gc loci did not significantly differ from the Hardy-Weinberg Expectation (HWE). However, the genotype distribution at the HBGG locus did not conform to HWE. Moreover, the genotype frequencies calculated in this study were compared with the published genotype frequencies of US African American and US Caucasian populations. The Turkish population was significantly different at the HBGG locus from the US Caucasian population. However, there were highly significant differences at the LDLR, HBGG, and Gc loci between the Turkish and African American populations.     

Unusual injury pattern in a case of postmortem animal depredation by a domestic German shepherd.

A case is presented of a 38-year-old woman with skeletization of the head, neck, and collar region and a circumscribed 26-cm x 19-cm defect on the left chest with sole removal of the heart through the opened pericardium but undamaged mediastinum and lungs. The injuries showed V-shaped puncture wounds and superficial claw-induced scratches adjacent to the wound margins that have been described as typical for postmortem animal depredation of carnivore origin and derived from postmortem animal damage by the woman's domestic German shepherd. The circumscribed destruction of the left chest with unusual opening of the pericardium is explained by the physiognomy of the muzzle of the German shepherd and differs from previous reports. Any case presented as postmortem animal mutilation should be viewed with skepticism and undergo a full autopsy.     

Sudden cardiac death following psychoemotional stress

Sudden death from cardiac arrest is described, which occurred after a minor accident. Morphologically, a coronary change was found in the sense of "juvenile coronary atherosclerosis" in connection with intramural bleeding postmortem. As there were no injuries in connection with the accident but psychoemotional stress had occurred, it is concluded that affective resonance resulting from the accident initiated the death. The pathological and pathophysiological relationships are discussed.     

A distant-range, suicidal shotgun wound of the back

The case being reported is one of a shotgun fatality with a thoracic back wound. A 23-year-old man was shot from a distance with trajectories going from back to front and on a nearly horizontal level. These findings observed in the autopsy could represent homicide, but scene investigation and police records were interpreted and it became clear that the case was suicide. Thus, this case shows that the determination of the manner of death requires a careful forensic investigation including autopsy findings, scene investigation, and reconstruction of the events.     

The influence of site of collection on postmortem morphine concentrations in heroin overdose victims

When assaying for postmortem morphine concentration, significant site sampling variability exists between central and peripheral sampling sites and even within sampling regions of the body. To study the variation, 76 suspected heroin overdoses were identified. Each had femoral artery (FA) and vein (FV), left and right ventricle and pooled heart blood samples obtained at autopsy. Forty-four tested positive for morphine. Morphine concentrations were determined by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, with sampling site differences reported as log-transformed ratios and compared by signed rank test.The mean FA to FV ratio for total morphine was 1.2 (range 0-4.5). The ratio for left heart to right heart total morphine was 1.1 (range 0.4-3.2). Left ventricular to FV total morphine ratio was 2.0 (range 0.6-6.9). In these opioid overdose deaths, FA and FV morphine concentrations are usually similar, although up to 4.5-fold differences were noted. Centrally obtained morphine concentrations are on average twice as high compared with peripheral morphine concentrations. Left and right ventricular morphine concentrations were usually similar, although up to 3.2-fold differences were noted (left side higher).     

Stain analysis using oligonucleotide probes specific for simple repetitive DNA sequences

The use of oligonucleotide fingerprinting is evaluated in practical forensic work, using both artificially and systematically produced stains as well as actual case work material. The probes (CAC5/(GTG)5 are superior because of their individualizing potential in comparatively fresh specimens with little DNA degradation, whereas (GACA)4, still produces substantial information when high molecular weight DNA is lacking. The overall limitations and the advantages of this technology are discussed in detail and compared to the classical minisatellite probes.