Children’s Exposure to Partner Violence in Homes Where Men Seek Help for Partner Violence Victimization

In the last several decades, the field of family violence has paid increasing attention to children’s exposure to partner violence (CEPV). Most of this research has focused on the children of women seeking help for partner violence (PV) victimization. In this paper we examine exposure to PV among children of men who sought help for PV victimization (n?=?408), as compared with children of men in a population-based sample (n?=?666). We examined children’s exposure to psychological, physical, and sexual PV and also examined CEPV that is perpetrated by women, men, or both partners. The results show that CEPV is higher among children of helpseeking men than among children of men from the population-based sample, and that most of that PV is perpetrated by the female partner. We did not find differences in CEPV based in child age or gender. We discuss implications for the field of family violence professionals.     

An Exploratory Study of Honor Crimes in the United States

There is a lack of research on honor crimes within the United States. We used an open source search methodology to identify the victim-offender relationship and motivations for this crime within the United States. Using data collected based on the protocol for the United States Extremist Crime Database (ECDB), we identified a total of 16 honor crimes with 40 victims that occurred between January 1st 1990 and December 31st 2014 in the United States. Based on our findings, the overarching motivations for honor crimes in the United States were the perpetrator’s former partner beginning the process of separation and the westernized behavior of the victim, typically the offender’s daughter or step-daughter. Honor crimes were not limited to current/former intimate partners or daughters, as they also included the death of extended family members (e.g. in-laws, nieces, and cousins). Policy implications and directions for future research on honor crimes are discussed.     

Crime Continuity and Psychological Inertia: Testing the Cognitive Mediation and Additive Postulates with Male Adjudicated Delinquents

Objectives

Crime continuity is one of the best documented and least understood aspects of criminal behavior. Psychological inertia, the notion that cognitive variables mediate the relationship between earlier and later expressions of the same behavior, was tested as a possible explanation for crime continuity.

Methods

The cognitive mediation and additive postulates of the psychological inertia theorem were tested in a path analysis using self-report data from 1170 male delinquent members of the Pathways to Desistance study (Mulvey in Paper presented at the American Society of Criminology Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, 2012). Wave 1 delinquency served as the independent variable, Wave 3 delinquency served as the dependent variable, Wave 2 outcome expectancies for crime, self-efficacy, general criminal thinking, and social capital served as the mediator variables, and 12 different baseline measures from criminological theory served as control variables in this study.

Results

General criminal thinking and low self-efficacy successfully mediated the relationship between past and future offending after age, race, early behavioral problems, peer criminality, family criminality, parental knowledge and monitoring, parental hostility, routine activities, measured intelligence, and precursors for each of the mediators were controlled. Social capital (cumulative disadvantage), by comparison, failed to mediate crime continuity in this study.

Conclusions

Effective cognitive mediation of the relationship between Wave 1 offending and Wave 3 offending and evidence that the effect may be additive offer preliminary support for the cognitive mediation and additive postulates of the psychological inertia theorem. Practical implications of these results include the need to routinely assess cognitive factors in criminal populations and target these factors for intervention.

     

Secular Change in Morphological Pelvic Traits used for Sex Estimation

This research evaluates secular change in Phenice's (Am J Phys Anthropol, 30, 1969 and 297) three morphological traits of the pubis, as described by Klales et al. (Am J Phys Anthropol, 149, 2012 and 104): medial aspect of the ischio‐pubic ramus, subpubic contour, and ventral arc. Ordinal scores were collected for these traits and compared between a sample of innominates from the historical Hamann–Todd Collection (n = 170) and modern Bass Donated Collection (n = 129). Using the Freeman–Halton test, significant differences between temporal sample score frequencies were found for all traits in females and for the subpubic contour and ventral arc in males. Despite these findings, classification accuracy using logistic regression between the temporal periods remained low (68.7%). These results suggest that secular changes in trait expression are occurring; however, sex estimation methods using these traits and created with historical samples are still applicable to modern forensic cases. In fact, the secular changes occurring in these traits contribute to better classification accuracy between sexes in modern populations.     

Animal experiments on the detection of an exposure to "chemical mace" (author's transl)]

To answer the question whether a negative result of gas chromatographic blood analysis for components of chemical mace proves that no or at most only slight tear gas exposure can have occurred, animal experiments were carried out. In the blood of 10 guinea pigs, which were exposed to the contents of chemical mace for 1--6 h, the solvants 1,1,2-trichloro-1,2,2-trifluorethane (freon 113) and 1,1,1-trichloroethane could easily be detected--even 23 h after the end of exposure or after a storage of the blood samples for 18 weeks--whereas the lacrimator chloracetophenone (CN) could not be found at all. In vitro experiments showed that CN relatively quickly reacts with components of blood. Therefore, blood samples should be analyzed for CN after withdrawal as soon as possible. In case of inhalation of the contents of chemical mace, i.e., after the comparatively mildest form of CN application, most probably no traces of the lacrimator at all can pass into the blood due to the quick reaction of CN with proteins of the respiratory surface of the lung.     

Diagnosis and the dole: the function of illness in American distributive politics

This article argues that the concept of illness has certain properties that make it a convenient administrative device for managing a need-based redistributive system in a society whose primary distributive system is based on work. These properties--cultural acceptance of illness as a legitimate excuse for not working, objective standards for identifying illness, and restrictiveness--have led to the widespread use of illness as an eligibility criterion for many social benefits, including cash transfers, services, privileges and exemptions. Paradoxically, the traditional rationales for using illness as one of the keystones of categorical welfare policy are eroding, yet welfare programs based on illness certification are growing rapidly. To explain this anomaly, the author suggests that medical certification as a distributive mechanisms serves certain latent political functions, such as allowing welfare programs to be responsive to political unrest, siphoning off opposition to controversial policies by the granting of medical exemptions to intense opponents, are reducing political conflict by using physicians as arbiters.     

Amino acid content in fresh sperm and sperm stains

Seminal fluid was studied biochemically for sperm identification in stains. The qualitative and quantitative distribution of amino acids in samples of fresh sperm has been alayzed. These findings were compared to the results of a similar study of fresh samples and stains of urine, saliva, vaginal fluor, and sweat. The results obtained show a specific and relatively constant level of amino acids in each of five biological liquids. There was no significant variation in results between fresh samples and stains.     

Sudden unexpected death from cardiac concussion (commotio cordis) with unusual legal complications

Sudden and unexpected death may result from cardiac concussion following blunt force trauma to the thorax. Undiagnosed pathologic disease must be carefully evaluated as a possible contributory element. Legal complications may arise from any autopsy. It is recommended that a photograph be taken upon completion of the autopsy. This photograph and adequate records can be used to refute any charges against the pathologist or assistants for the poor condition of a body after its release.