Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children: an Assessment of Offender Characteristics

The commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC), specifically child trafficking, producers or consumers of child sex trafficking (i.e., prostitution), sexual abuse images, and enticement, has become a growing area of concern. The increasing profitability of CSEC, combined with the clandestine nature of the offenses, calls for immediate attention from international law enforcement and the mental health community. Paramount to the resolution of this global crisis is the identification of the perpetrators of various CSEC crimes. The research pertaining to these offenders is most frequently aggregated and limited to basic demographic data, providing a larger, more generalized picture of CSEC. The purpose of this study is to determine characteristics, within a sample of known CSEC offenders, that differentiate among offenders who engage in sex trafficking as trafficker; engage in sex trafficking as a producer or consumer; produce, distribute, or possess child sexual abuse images; and travel or use enticements to engage in illicit sexual contact with a minor. This observational, survey design includes a record review of 98 offenders who were processed through the FBI Miami Field Office. Results showed that males are more likely to engage in CSEC offenses compared to females. Offenders who collect child sexual abuse images tended to be employed, had no history of prior arrests, and were older than other CSEC offenders. Additionally, engaging in befriending strategies in order to gain access to a victim was also predictive of involvement in child sexual abuse images. Unemployment was the only statistically significant predictor of engaging in child sex trafficking as either a sex buyer or a producer. Finally, perpetrators who engaged in the traveling/enticement of victims were found to be younger, unemployed, single, and without a known history of contact offending. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Non-traumatic forensic neuropathology

The practicing Forensic Pathologist is likely to encounter case material in which either the cause of death or a major contribution to the cause of death is underlying damage to or disease of the central nervous system. While it is good practice in many instances to have a working relationship with a Department of Neuropathology, from which advice and practical help can be sought, there may be instances when the Forensic Pathologist needs to proceed on a basis of a working knowledge of Forensic Neuropathology up to and including how to examine the specimen and take tissue blocks for processing and subsequent histological examination. Some of the more common conditions of the central nervous system such as damage consequent to hypoxia-ischaemia, hypoglycemia and epilepsy, the encephalopathies associated with altered sodium concentration, deficiency due to Vitamin B(1) and various neurodegenerative diseases that manifest as dementia and include Alzheimer's disease, cortical Lewy body disease and the prion disorders, are outlined in this article.     

A test of the effectiveness of speaker verification for differentiating between identical twins

This paper presents investigations into the ability of speaker verification technology to discriminate between identical twins. It is shown that whilst, in general, the genetic and non-genetic characteristics of voice are both of value to speaker verification capabilities, it is the latter which is highly beneficial in the separation of the speech of identical twins. It is further demonstrated that through the use of unconstrained cohort normalisation as a complementary means for the exploitation of such voice characteristics, the verification reliability can be considerably enhanced for both identical twins and unrelated speakers. Experiments were conducted using a bespoke clean-speech database consisting of utterances from 49 identical twin pairs. The paper details the problem in speaker verification posed by identical twins, discusses the experimental investigations and provides an analysis of the results.     

Death by obstruction: sudden death resulting from impromptu ingestion of drugs

Over an 18-month period, the department of Forensic Medicine and Science at the University of Glasgow investigated four rather unusual drug-related deaths. In all cases, death was due to the obstruction of the airway by a foreign body after an attempt to evade arrest. In all cases, the obstruction was drug packages of various shapes and sizes. Results of toxicology revealed levels of drugs that may have had a significant respiratory effect on the deceased in three of the cases. Rupturing of the packages and hence leakage of drugs being conducive to death was obvious in only one case.     

Book reviews

Ephraim Maisel, The Foreign Office and Foreign Policy 1991–1926 (Brighton: Sussex Academic Press 1994), £35. ISBN 1–898723–04–4.

Timothy P. Maga, The World of Jimmy Carter: U.S. Foreign Policy 1977–1981 (West Haven, CT: University of New Haven Press, 1994). 189 pp. ISBN 0–936385–23–0.

Michael Leifer, Dictionary of the Modern Politics of South‐East Asia (London and New York: Routledge, 1995), xii + 271pp. £45. ISBN 0–415–04219–4.

Christopher C. Harmon and David Tucker (eds.), Statecraft and Power: Essays in Honor of Harold W. Rood (Lanham and London: University Press of America with the National Institute for Public Policy, 1994), 284pp ISBN 0–8191–8718–6.