Transnational Exchange of Forensic DNA: Viability,Legitimacy, and Acceptability

Forensic DNA profiling and databasing have become increasingly significant resources for criminal investigations in many jurisdictions. More recently, there have been attempts to recruit these technologies into the policing of cross-border organized crime, migration and terrorism. We examined the trajectory of one such attempt, the establishment and operationalisation of the Prüm Treaty within the European Union. We describe the way in which early technological considerations underlying DNA profile exchange, managed within law enforcement bureaucracies, have given way to a concern with broader societal issues and the necessity for a multifaceted scrutiny of this particular technolegal innovation. Central to this issue is the hybrid nature of exchange arrangements created as a result of the European Council Decision on Prüm (2008). The Prüm Treaty departs from the increasingly normalized framework for criminal justice cooperation, and at the same time, does not facilitate DNA exchange within a more traditional multinational instrument. We consider the significance and implications of the political decisions behind Prüm, as well as the consequences for the development of transnational DNA exchange in terms of three key issues: technical and scientific challenges (viability); legal challenges (legitimacy); and ethical and socioeconomic challenges (acceptability). Unless the Prüm structure is reformed, an important and promising initiative may remain encumbered with unresolved problems of legitimacy and acceptability. A lack of direct democratic involvement of many member states precluded the creation of consensus on issues such as privacy, data protection and due process issues, upon which legal and political regimes could then act.     

CUSTODY EVALUATIONS

In presenting the evidence to court, a custody evaluator has to consider three distinct audiences: the judge, the legal representatives, and the family. Each will look for different things in the evaluation report, each may interpret what is written differently, and each may have different expectations. Consequently, the evaluator has a number of roles and has to adopt a variety of strategies that are sensitive to the needs of the court and the client. At the same time, the evaluator must be able to withstand the constraints and scrutiny that are part of the legal process. This article examines the difficulties this poses for the evaluator in preparing for and presenting evidence to court and looks at some of the ways problems can be avoided.     

Psychosocial factors associated with depression in urban adolescent females: Implications for assessment

The major goals of this research were (1) to determine the incidence of depression in a nonclinical sample of urban adolescent females and (2) to identify demographic, sociocultural, and behavioral factors related to depression in this group. A racially and socioeconomically heterogeneous sample of 116 adolescent girls was recruited from public high schools in the San Francisco Bay Area. Measures used were the Beck Depression Inventory, the Mooney Problem Check-List, and a brief demographic questionnaire. Depression was found to be significantly related to parental occupation, geographical mobility, and number of self-reported problems. Implications for assessment are discussed.This research was supported by a Biomedical Research Support Grant awarded to the author as the principal investigator through the University of California at Berkeley, 1981–1982. This is a revised version of a paper presented at the annual meeting of the Western Psychological Association, San Francisco, California, April 1983.Dr. Gibbs holds an M.S.W. and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of California at Berkeley. Her major research interests are in the areas of adolescent psychopathology and psychiatric help-seeking patterns of minority and low-income clients.     

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