Securitization,insecurity and conflict in contemporary Xinjiang: has PRC counter-terrorism evolved into state terror?

ABSTRACT

In the Introduction to this special issue, I first provide an overview of the programme of 'de-extremification' and mass internment in Xinjiang since early 2017. I then situate this development against the ‘ideological turn’ in Chinese Communist Party policy under President Xi Jinping, highlighting the new emphasis on stability maintenance and ideational governance. Next, I explore experiences of (in)security in Uyghur communities in- and outside of Xinjiang in the era of internment to consider how far PRC counter-terrorism initiatives have now evolved into state terror. In doing so, I apply Ruth Blakeley's (2012) definition of state terror as a deliberate act of violence against civilians, or threat of violence where a climate of fear is already established by earlier acts of violence; as perpetrated by actors on behalf of or in conjunction with the state; as intended to induce extreme fear in target observers who identify with the victim; and as forcing the target audience to consider changing its behaviour. Finally, I discuss the six contributions to the special issue.     

Reconstruction of root morphology in skeletonized remains with postmortem dental loss.

A reversible technique is presented in which the root morphology of missing teeth in skeletonized human remains can be reconstructed for the purpose of radiographic comparison and postmortem identification. In this technique, which is based upon pilot studies with skeletonized mandibles of archival remains, the alveolar socket walls are sealed with a coat of cyanoacrylate cement and injected with a mixture of vinyl polysiloxane and barium sulfate. Radiographs are produced with the radiopaque mixture in place, which highlights the antemortem morphology of the roots. Subsequently, the impression material is removed, resulting in no gross alteration of the evidence. The radiographs made with this technique, as well as the impressions, can be stored for later use at a trial or pending the discovery of antemortem dental evidence.     

Evaluation of Raman spectroscopy for the analysis of colored fibers: a collaborative study

A collaborative study on Raman spectroscopy was carried out by members of the ENFSI (European Network of Forensic Science Institutes) European Fibres Group (EFG) on three dyed fibers: two red acrylics and one red wool. Raman instruments from six different manufacturers were tested as well as nine different laser wavelengths ranging from blue (lambda = 458 nm) to near infrared-NIR (lambda = 1064 nm). This represents the largest comparison study of Raman analytical parameters carried out on identical fiber samples. For the chosen fiber and dye samples, red lasers (lambda = 633 and 685 nm) gave the poorest spectral quality whereas blue (458 nm), green (514 nm) and near infrared lasers (785, 830 and 1064 nm) provided average results. Blue (488 nm) and green lasers (532 nm) globally gave the best quality spectra. Fluorescence problems were often encountered with some of the excitation wavelengths and therefore a flexible Raman instrument equipped with different lasers can be recommended to measure forensic fiber samples. The instrument should also be equipped with a Raman microscope in order to be able to focus on a single fiber. This study shows that Raman spectroscopy usually enables the identification of the main dye present in a colored fiber; however, minor dye components are much more difficult to detect. SERRS (Surface Enhanced Resonance Raman Scattering) techniques give an improvement of the dye's spectral intensity but no spectral improvement was observed for the two red acrylic and red wool fibers tested.     

Conduct and its Consequences: Attempts at Debiasing Jury Judgments

Jurors in negligence cases are supposed to judge a defendant by the reasonableness of his or her conduct and not by the consequences of that conduct. But several studies have shown that a cognitive heuristic known as hindsight bias can skew post hoc judgments of some prior behavior. Thus, jurors who must evaluate the actions of a defendant may be influenced inappropriately by the consequences of those actions. A complementary problem arises when jurors must evaluate the injuries incurred by the plaintiff. Here, jurors' knowledge about the defendant's allegedly negligent conduct can proactively influence their assessment of the plaintiff's injuries and determination of damages. The purpose of the present study was to examine the effectiveness of two procedural techniques intended to reduce or eliminate the impact of hindsight bias in negligence cases—multiple admonitions from a judge about the proper use of evidence—and bifurcation (actually withholding irrelevant evidence from jurors). We presented a re-enacted automobile negligence trial to 355 jury-eligible adults drawn from the community, varied the evidence and instructions that they heard, and measured liability judgments and damage awards from individual jurors both before and after deliberating, and from juries. Results showed that admonitions were generally ineffective in guiding jurors to the proper use of evidence but that bifurcation was relatively more effective. Deliberations had no curative effect on jurors' misapplication of evidence.     

Y-chromosome STR haplotypes in Somalis

A total of 201 males from Somalia were typed for the Y-chromosome STRs DYS19, DYS385a/b, DYS389-I, DYS389-II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393, DYS437, DYS438 and DYS439 with the PowerPlex Y kit (Promega). A total of 96 different haplotypes were observed and the haplotype diversity was 0.9715. The number of unique haplotypes was 71 while the most common haplotype was observed 24 times.     

Y-chromosome STR haplotypes in Danes

A total of 185 unrelated Danish males were typed for the Y-chromosome STRs DYS19, DYS385a/b, DYS389-I, DYS389-II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393, DYS437, DYS438 and DYS439 using the kits PowerPlex Y (Promega), ReliaGene Y-Plex 6 and ReliaGene Y-Plex 5 (Reliagene Technologies). A total of 163 different haplotypes were observed and among these, 144 haplotypes were unique. The gene diversity was 0.9985. In DYS392, a variant allele migrating as a 10.2 allele was observed. Sequencing of the allele showed a deletion upstream the repeated area.     

Fear and criminal victimization among elderly public housing residents

The influence of crime among the elderly was investigated in this study. The study suggests that crime prevention programs among the elderly should be implemented with some reservations. Since the risks of criminal victimization are low among the elderly, it may not be possible to reduce those rates much further, even with elaborate security programs for the elderly. On the contrary, raising the salience of crime by placing great emphasis on preventive behavior may well foster social isolation among the elderly.