Dimensional Review of Scales for Forensic Photography

Scales for photography provide a geometrical reference in the photographic documentation of a crime scene, pattern, or item of evidence. The ABFO No. 2 Standard Reference Scale (1) is used by the forensic science community as an accurate reference scale. We investigated the overall accuracy of the major centimeter graduations, internal/external diameters of the circles, error in placement of the circle centers, and leg perpendicularity. Four vendors were selected for the scales, and the features were measured on a vision‐based coordinate measurement system. The scales were well within the specified tolerance for the length graduations. After 4 years, the same scales were measured to determine what change could be measured. The scales demonstrated acceptable stability in the scale length and center‐to‐center measurements; however, the perpendicularity exhibited change. The study results indicate that scale quality checks using certified metal rulers are good practice.     

Historical Everyday Geopolitics on the Chile-Peru Border

Geopolitics is increasingly seen by scholars as occurring in everyday spaces and performed by ordinary people. This paper extends this idea to historical work to examine how citizens themselves (re)produce geopolitics at the time of historical events. It does so through a case study of geopolitical tension on the Chile-Peru border in the 1970s. Through oral histories and newspaper analysis, a historical everyday geopolitics approach reveals how those living in the Chilean border city of Arica played a part in promoting national and border security. This centres the embodied and emotional experiences of those affected by violence and conflict.     

Can Comprehensive Immigration Reform Be Both Liberal and Democratic?

Social Science and the Public Interest

Social Science and the Public Interest March/April 2010     

De-Democratisation and Rising Inequality: The Underlying Cause of a Worrying Trend

This article is concerned with the question of why economic inequality has increased so dramatically in recent decades and what can be done about it. It suggests that the fundamental cause of the recent rise in economic inequality, underlying all the more proximate factors, is a major process of de-democratisation that has taken place since the 1970s, which has increased the political representation of capital while reducing that of labour. The article pulls together a wide range of research from different disciplines in order to decisively show the ways in which economic governance has been de-democratised in this period. This analysis has important consequences with regard to policy attempts to reduce inequality and suggests that these must focus not on technical issues but on ways to strengthen democracy. And if the dynamics of de-democratisation are fundamentally global, then solutions must also be global. These conclusions are in stark contrast with current academic and policy approaches which tend to focus on technical, rather than political, solutions, and which focus overwhelmingly at the national, rather than the global, level. This article thus calls for a major rethinking of the causes of rising inequality and the policy changes needed to reduce it.     

From ‘Christians doing development’ to ‘doing Christian development’: the changing role of religion in the international work of Tearfund

This article seeks to bring more nuance to recent discussions about the role of faith in religious development NGOs. It takes an in-depth look at Tearfund, a leading Evangelical development NGO, and explores the ways in which faith shapes its conceptualisation of development, its programme design, and its implementation strategy. The article traces the process through which Tearfund actively sought to bring faith into the centre of its development work, and argues that grappling with faith in this way can lead religious development NGOs to innovate new approaches to development that are at least somewhat outside of mainstream development thinking.     

The Making of an Accidental Crisis: The United States and the NATO Dual-Track Decision of 1979

This analysis re-examines the Carter Administration’s formulation of policy on the theatre nuclear force issue following the neutron bomb affair. It demonstrates that European leaders did not foist the arms control component of the NATO dual-track decision on Jimmy Carter. Rather, the Carter Administration understood the merits of an arms control component following the August 1978 PRM-38 review and thought that Soviet–American arms control negotiations would play a crucial role in resolving the conflict between NATO and the Warsaw Pact over theatre nuclear forces. This analysis also considers the previously unexamined interactions between the United States and the Soviet Union in the months leading to the dual-track decision. It reveals that American officials underestimated the degree of Soviet anger over the dual-track decision, believing that arms control negotiations with the Soviets on theatre nuclear forces would be possible and productive. The Carter Administration did not foresee the Euromissiles crisis.     

New strategies for an old rivalry? China–Russia relations in Central Asia after the energy boom

China and Russia both have interests in bordering Central Asia. China's thirst for energy has seen its footprint expand rapidly in the region relative to that of Russia, Central Asia's historical hegemon. With the two powerful neighbors’ history of competition and conflict, the shift in relative influence between them risks a resurgence of bilateral rivalry. Referencing the scholarly literature on strategic rivalry, this article examines how energy relations have helped shaped the trajectory of China-Russian relations in Central Asia, particularly after the shock that came with the collapse of oil and gas prices in 2008–2009.     

The impact of source of income laws on voucher utilization

Vouchers are lauded both for being the most efficient way of delivering housing assistance to needy households and for the potential to allow poor households to access better neighborhoods. The success of vouchers is of course predicated on recipients being able to successfully use a voucher. For a number of reasons, including discrimination by landlords on the basis of source of income (i.e. a voucher), voucher recipients frequently cannot find apartments to lease. Using a difference-in-differences approach the research reported here examines how Source of Income anti-discrimination laws affect the utilization of housing vouchers.

The findings indicate that utilization rates are higher among Local Housing Authorities in jurisdictions with Source of Income anti-discrimination laws. These findings suggest such laws can be an effective tool for increasing the rate at which vouchers are successfully utilized. In a time of scarce resources for affordable housing this is an important policy tool that should not be over looked.     

Recent developments

THE COMPANY EXECUTIVE AND THE LAW, by David Springfield, published by Heinemann. (1970) at £1. 15s. (£3. 3s., hardback). 296 pp.

CONTRACT, by F. R. Davies, published by Sweet and Maxwell (Concise College Texts series) (1970) at £1. 1s. (paperback), 233 pp.

LABOUR ORGANISATIONS: A MACRO AND MICRO SOCIOLOGICAL COMPARISON, by Mark Van de Vall, published by Cambridge University Press (1970) at £2. 15s. 257 pp.

THE LAW OF TORT IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT, by Mary Bell Cairns, published by Shaw &; Sons (2nd. ed., 1970) at £4. 4s. 272 pp.

INDUSTRIAL LAW NOTEBOOK, by Norman M. Selwyn, published by Butterworths (1970) at 12s. 81 pp.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ON THE LAW OF MEETINGS by R.S. Sim, published by Butterworths at 10s. 80 pp.

DECISION ON EUROPE, by Derek H. Hene, published by Jordan &; Sons (1970) at £2. 15s. 224 pp.