The Politics of Adoption: Child Rights in the Brazilian Setting

This paper, centered on adoption policy in Brazil, asks to what extent the open–ended principles apparent in international child rights accords, filtered down through different national laws, adjust to local realities. Ethnographic data on child circulation practices in urban favelas is compared with specific clauses in the 1990 Brazilian Children's Code, as well as with adoption policies in North America, to question the code's way of legislating which children can be placed for adoption, on what terms they should be placed, and who has the power to place them.     

Rapid analysis of caffeine in "smart drugs" and "energy drinks" by microemulsion electrokinetic chromatography (MEEKC)

A novel method based on microemulsion electrokinetic chromatography (MEEKC) with diode array detection (DAD) for rapid determination of caffeine in commercial and clandestine stimulants, known as "energy drinks" and "smart drugs", is described. Separations were carried out in 50 cm × 50 μm (ID) uncoated fused silica capillaries. The optimized buffer electrolyte was composed of 8.85 mM sodium tetraborate pH 9.5, SDS 3.3% (w/v), n-hexane 1.5% (v/v) and 1-butanol 6.6% (v/v). Separations were performed at a voltage of 20 kV. Sample injection conditions were 0.5 psi, 3 s. Diprofilline was used as internal standard. The determination of the analytes was based on the UV signal recorded at 275 nm, corresponding to the maximum wavelength of absorbance of caffeine, whereas peak identification and purity check was performed on the basis of the acquisition of UV radiation between 200 and 400 nm wavelengths. Under the described conditions, the separation of the compounds was achieved in 6 min without any interference from the matrix. Linearity was assessed within a caffeine concentration range from 5 to 100 μg/mL. The intra-day and inter-day precision values were below 0.37% for migration times and below 9.86% for peak areas. The present MEEKC method was successfully applied to the direct determination of caffeine in smart drugs and energy drinks.     

Hair testing and self-report of cocaine use

Hair analysis is a useful tool in both clinical and forensic fields: it allows information about drugs of abuse (DOA) consumption to be obtained. However, in spite of analytical results, sometimes patients continue to deny using drugs or, on the contrary, insist on describing themselves as severe drug addicts; indeed there are often considerable difficulties in getting truthful statements about the real amount of drugs used. In this study we have tried to compare cocaine concentration in hair samples with self-reported drug intake. We enrolled 113 subjects (61 Africans, 52 Caucasians) who had been recently sent to jail. They were asked to tell about their use of illicit drugs during the last three months and then submitted to hair analysis. Hair segments (3 cm) were analyzed by GC-MS for amphetamines, cocaine and opiates. Useful data was obtained from 82 subjects, separated into two main groups on account of ethnic origin (African or Caucasian) and divided further into daily, weekly and monthly users. The results showed qualitative results and self-reported consumption to be in good agreement, although the correlation between frequency of consumption and concentration in hair revealed sometimes higher concentrations in contrast with the admission of low consumption. There was a definite separation between occasional and daily use (especially in Caucasian people), while concentrations found where weekly use was reported were more variable. Concentrations of cocaine measured in Africans' hair were much higher than in Caucasians'. Even if this study is exclusively based on self-report, it provides some interesting information in order to differentiate the frequency of consumption, and especially underlines the great importance of ethnic bias on hair analysis.     

Study of Chilean Children’s Dental Maturation*

Abstract: In forensic science, determining a person’s chronological age has become a challenge for researchers. Determining age using dental calcification is becoming increasingly important. The objective of this study is to estimate the dental age of the children’s population in Region VIII, Chile. The sample was randomly taken from children under the care of the Faculty of Dentistry at the Universidad de Concepción in Chile. The study encompasses 159 children between 3 and 14 years of age. The dental age was determined following the Demirjian method. The Bland–Altman method was applied to establish the correlation. It was determined that the range between chronological and dental age is similar, and the degree of correlation between both ages is nearly perfect. In conclusion, the degree of correlation between the chronological and dental ages for each gender is also very good although it is slightly higher for females.     

Field validity of the HCR-20 in forensic medium security units in Flanders

Structured risk assessment has become a part of routine practice in forensic settings. However, little attention has been paid to the clinical applicability of existing tools. The present research focused on the performance of the Historical Clinical Risk Management-20 (HCR-20) – one of the most commonly used tools for structured professional judgment – in the daily practice of three medium security units in Flanders. Areas under the curve for the prediction of violent recidivism during (N?=?168) and after (N?=?105) medium security treatment were non-significant. In addition, analyses showed that the HCR-20 was mainly of interest in identifying low-risk individuals. Further research measuring different aspects of predictive validity in applied settings is recommended.