Clinical urinalysis of drugs and alcohol in instances of suspected surreptitious administration ("spiked drinks").

Many suspected victims of surreptitious drug and/or alcohol administration may present to hospitals or healthcare centres and never come to the attention of forensic or law enforcement professionals. Therefore, it is necessary to include clinical toxicological findings in order to assess the growing perception that instances have become more widespread within society. Between July 2002 and June 2004, 180 requests were received for toxicological analysis of individuals presenting to their GP or hospital following self-reported or suspected surreptitious drug administration (e.g. "spiked drink"). There was a rise of 77% in the number of requests from 2002-2003 to 2003-2004 which peaked in December of each year (most likely due to the increased socialization of people during the festive season). Between 2002 and 2004, 34% of patients were male and 66% were female with an overall average age of 25 (range 11-73). Following urinary analysis using immunoassay and gas chromatography (mass spectrometry, flame-ionisation detection and nitrogen-phosphorus detection), 59% of cases were negative for drugs and alcohol in 2002-2003 and 51% in 2003-2004. Drugs or alcohol were detected in 32% of cases in 2002-2003 and in 45% in 2003-2004. Out of the 169 cases analysed, ethanol (alcohol) was the most commonly detected compound (24% of cases), followed by amphetamines (amphetamine, MDMA, MDA, MDEA--11% of cases), cannabinoids (9% of cases), benzodiazepines (temazepam, nordiazepam, oxazepam--9% of cases), cocaine (4% of cases), opiates (dihydrocodeine, codeine--2% of cases), chlorpheniramine (0.6% of cases), ephedrine 0.6% of cases), fluoxetine (0.6% of cases), tramadol (0.6% of cases) and zopiclone (0.6% of cases). No gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB), gamma-butyrolactone (GBL) or flunitrazepam was detected in the cases analysed.     

The developmentally handicapped witness

This study compared the ability of 30 developmentally handicapped (DH) and 30 nonhandicapped individuals in their ability to report on witnessed events. Participants watched a film clip and were asked to respond to five different types of questions about it. Misleading or leading questions were embedded in three of the question types Results indicated that in response to free recall and very general questions, DH participants did not provide as complete responses as did nonhandicapped participants, although the information provided by both groups tended to be quite accurate. Both groups, and particularly DH individuals, were less accurate in responding to more focused shortanswer recall questions. In response to correct leading specific and statement questions, requiring recognition of the information provided, DH and control participants were comparable in their performance. DH participants had greater difficulty with misleading recall questions and false leading specific and statement questions. Results are discussed in terms of optimizing eyewitness accuracy in DH individuals.     

Political Science: A Look at the Discipline from a Postgraduate Perspective

Research has become increasingly important within social science since the introduction of the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). The RAE has served to simultaneously focus the attention of academic institutions upon research output and emphasise the obvious penalties of poor performance in this area in terms of potentially lower academic status, lower income and lower student numbers. Academic institutions have, therefore, begun to pay an increasing amount of attention to postgraduate research and the needs of postgraduates. This article questions the extent to which institutions are actually meeting these needs and reviews the extent to which institutions reap the potential benefits that employment of postgraduates can bring.     

Why we should not believe every lesson Andrew Moravcsik teaches us: A response

This article is a response to Andrew Moravcsik’s “What Can We Learn from the Collapse of the European Constitutional Project?”, published in No. 2, Vol. 47 (2006) of the PVS. In our reply we focus on three main points. First, we argue that Moravcsik’s apologia of the status quo does not convince in light of the challenges that a European Union currently with 27 member states and increasing heterogeneity is facing. Second, we discuss his causal chain model linking participation, deliberation and political legitimacy. We argue that Moravcsik confuses causality with conditionality. By doing so, he exaggerates claims of normative political science about the causal relationship between participation, deliberation and legitimacy, and makes it an unjustifiably easy target for critique. Third, we critically examine Moravcsik’s notion of democracy in order to show that his view of democracy as guaranteeing “certain social goods” brings about the risk of producing a theory of democracy without democracy.     

Children's Conceptual Knowledge of Lying and Its Relation to Their Actual Behaviors: Implications for Court Competence Examinations

Child witnesses must undergo a competence examination in which they must show appropriate conceptual understanding of lying and truth-telling, and promise to tell the truth. Three experiments (Ns = 123, 103, 177) were conducted to address the assumptions underlying the court competence examination that (1) children who understand lying and its moral implications are less likely to lie and (2) discussing the conceptual issues concerning lying and having children promising to tell the truth promotes truth-telling. Both measures of lying and understanding of truth- and lie-telling were obtained from children between 3 and 7 years of age. Most children demonstrated appropriate conceptual knowledge of lying and truth-telling and the obligation to tell the truth, but many of the same children lied to conceal their own transgression. Promising to tell the truth significantly reduced lying. Implications for legal systems are discussed.     

DNA typing of short tandem repeat loci on Y-chromosome of Greek population

Haplotype, allele frequencies and population data of nine Y-chromosome STR loci, DYS385I, DYS389I, DYS389II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393, were determined from a sample of 69 unrelated Greek male individuals.