Theory and the scientific basis for forensic anthropology

Forensic anthropology has long been criticized for its lack of a strong theoretical and scientific foundation. This paper addresses this problem by examining the role of theory in forensic anthropology at different hierarchical levels (high-level, middle-range, and low-level) and the relevance of various theoretical concepts (taphonomic, agency, behavioral archaeology, nonlinear systems, and methodological theories) to the interpretation of forensic contexts. Application of these theories to a case study involving the search for the WWII Goettge Patrol illustrates the explanatory power these theories offer to the interpretation of forensic events as the end product of an often complex set of environmental constraints and behavioral interactions and choices. It also emphasizes the importance of case studies in theory building and hypothesis testing. A theoretical foundation does indeed currently exist in forensic anthropology; however, a recognition and broader implementation of anthropological (archaeological) theory is warranted and will further define forensic anthropology as a scientific endeavor.     

National Association of Medical Examiners position paper on the certification of cocaine-related deaths

The National Association of Medical Examiners Committee on Cocaine-related Deaths recommends that the following guidelines be applied in the process of documenting, interpreting, and certifying potential cocaine-related fatalities. The committee cautions that the investigation of any drug-related death requires a complete investigation of the circumstances of death, the death scene, and past medical history. It is also necessary to have the results of the forensic toxicological analysis and those of a complete forensic autopsy examination prior to formulating an opinion as to the cause and manner of death. Cocaine should be considered the underlying cause of the death when 1 or more of the following is true: (1). the circumstances surrounding the death can be associated with an acute cocaine exposure and there are no supervening causes of death; (2). the immediate cause of death is directly due to a readily identifiable mechanism or disease such as a gunshot wound or a stroke, yet the acute use of cocaine was the direct underlying cause of the trauma or the disease process; and (3). chronic cocaine use leads to a disease that results in an ultimately fatal pathologic process leading to organ injury and death. The committee further cautions that reported drug levels may not directly relate to the toxic or lethal effects of the drug upon the patient. These guidelines are intended for use by practicing medical examiners and physicians who certify drug deaths, as well as providing education tools for students.     

A preliminary investigation of the stages of adipocere formation

Adipocere is a postmortem decomposition product which forms from a body's adipose tissue. This study aimed to chemically demonstrate the process of conversion from adipose tissue to adipocere. Samples of adipocere were collected from pig cadavers that were allowed to decompose for varying intervals. Samples of soil were collected from beneath the cadavers and analyzed to determine the leaching effect of adipocere. Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) was used to quantify the fatty acid composition of pig adipocere. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was used as a confirmatory test and to identify other components such as triglycerides and calcium salts of fatty acids. The study demonstrates the process of adipocere formation and the stages of formation through which the process passes using chemical techniques.     

The impacts of public interventions: An examination of the forestry sector

This article measures welfare and distributive effects of public market interventions in forestry. These interventions represent both the demand (Jones Act shipping restrictions and minimum wage restrictions) and supply (state forest practice acts, forest incentives payments, taxes and public land management) sides of the market. The authors evaluate how well these programs promote the three standard economic justifications for market intervention: market failure, distributive justice, and stabilization. Their results indicate that, with the single exception of Timber Mart South (a government-sponsored price-reporting service), all market interventions fail to accomplish their efficiency and distributive objectives. Furthermore, the authors find that targeted regulatory programs (such as State Forest Practice Acts) have small impacts when compared to effects of taxation and public ownership.     

Progress toward Pay Equity in State Governments?

Are state governments fulfilling their responsibilities to be model employers of women and minorities? Using U.S. Census Bureau data on individual employees from 1980 to 2015, this article looks at how much progress state governments have made toward eliminating racial and gender pay differences. It examines whether differences in education, age/experience, citizenship, English ability, hours worked, and occupation explain the pay differences. Patterns and explanations vary substantially by group, but state governments are doing a better job than private firms of closing pay gaps on almost every measure .     

Different worlds of contention? Protest in Northwestern,Southern and Eastern Europe

Despite the voluminous literature on the ‘normalisation of protest’, the protest arena is seen as a bastion of left-wing mobilisation. While citizens on the left readily turn to the streets, citizens on the right only settle for it as a ‘second best option’. However, most studies are based on aggregated cross-national comparisons or only include Northwestern Europe. We contend the aggregate-level perspective hides different dynamics of protest across Europe. Based on individual-level data from the European Social Survey (2002–2016), we investigate the relationship between ideology and protest as a key component of the normalisation of protest. Using hierarchical logistic regression models, we show that while protest is becoming more common, citizens with different ideological views are not equal in their protest participation across the three European regions. Instead of a general left predominance, we find that in Eastern European countries, right-wing citizens are more likely to protest than those on the left. In Northwestern and Southern European countries, we find the reverse relationship, left-wing citizens are more likely to protest than their right-wing counterparts. Lessons drawn from the protest experience in Northwestern Europe characterised by historical mobilisation by the New Left are of limited use for explaining the ideological composition of protest in the Southern and Eastern European countries. We identify historical and contemporary regime access as the mechanism underlying regional patterns: citizens with ideological views that were historically in opposition are more likely to protest. In terms of contemporary regime access, we find that partisanship enhances the effect of ideology, while ideological distance from the government has a different effect in the three regions. As protest gains in importance as a form of participation, the paper contributes to our understanding of regional divergence in the extent to which citizens with varying ideological views use this tool.     

Untangling the Causal Effects of Sex on Judging

We explore the role of sex in judging by addressing two questions of long‐standing interest to political scientists: whether and in what ways male and female judges decide cases distinctly—“individual effects”—and whether and in what ways serving with a female judge causes males to behave differently—“panel effects.” While we attend to the dominant theoretical accounts of why we might expect to observe either or both effects, we do not use the predominant statistical tools to assess them. Instead, we deploy a more appropriate methodology: semiparametric matching, which follows from a formal framework for causal inference. Applying matching methods to 13 areas of law, we observe consistent gender effects in only one—sex discrimination. For these disputes, the probability of a judge deciding in favor of the party alleging discrimination decreases by about 10 percentage points when the judge is a male. Likewise, when a woman serves on a panel with men, the men are significantly more likely to rule in favor of the rights litigant. These results are consistent with an informational account of gendered judging and are inconsistent with several others.