Experimental design for acquiring relevant data to address the issue of comparing consecutively manufactured tools and firearms

The comparison of consecutively manufactured tools and firearms has provided much, but not all, of the basis for the profession of firearm and toolmark examination. The authors accept the fundamental soundness of this approach but appeal to the experimental community to close two minor gaps in the experimental procedure. We suggest that “blinding” and attention to appropriateness of other experimental conditions that would consolidate the foundations of our profession. We do not suggest that previous work is unsound.     

Die (neue) Haftung für Schäden an der Biodiversität

Zusammenfassung  Mit dem Umweltschadensgesetz wird im deutschen Umweltrecht eine neuartige Haftung für Sch?den an der Biodiversit?t eingeführt. Die n?here juristische und naturwissenschaftliche Bestimmung dieser Umweltsch?den sieht sich jedoch mit mehreren Problemfeldern konfrontiert. Ausgehend von der gesetzlichen Schadensdefinition als erhebliche nachteilige Auswirkungen auf den günstigen Erhaltungszustand bestimmter Lebensr?ume oder Arten behandelt der Beitrag die Frage, wann solche Auswirkungen erheblich nachteilig sein k?nnen. Um den Begriff der “Erheblichkeit” einzugrenzen, wird die Rechtsprechung und Literatur zu ?hnlich unbestimmten Rechtsbegriffen aus anderen Bereichen des Umweltrechts auf ihre Verwertbarkeit und Anwendbarkeit überprüft. Im Ergebnis kann allein auf die im Rahmen der FFH-Vertr?glichkeitsprüfung anerkannten Kriterien zurückgegriffen werden.     

Child Sexual Abuse in Turkey: An Analysis of 1002 Cases

This study investigated the characteristics of abuse suffered by children, the dimensions of the psychiatric effects associated with abuse, and the factors affecting these. One thousand two cases aged under 18, exposed to sexual abuse, and referred over a 7‐year period were assessed. Girls represented 80.8% of cases, and the numbers rose with age. The aggressors were all male, and 88.2% were known to their victim. Approximately half the children were exposed to sexual abuse involving penetration. Psychological pathology was identified in 62.1%. Female gender, the presence of penetration, physical violence, and incest significantly increased the development of psychological pathology. Levels of awareness in people close to and trusted by the child must be raised to minimize the adverse effects of trauma in the long term, preventive measures must be taken, and medical and social support units from which victims can receive assistance need to be established.     

Is There an Association Between the Body Mass Index and Interpersonal Violent Behavior?

An inverse relationship between the body mass index (BMI) and the risk of completed suicide was shown in several studies. Furthermore, it is suggested that obesity might be associated with a lower risk for violent criminality. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyze whether a higher BMI is associated with a lower risk for being arrested due to violent behavior in a sample of 43,992 male offenders. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was applied to assess the relationship between different BMI categories and categories of committed crime as outcome variable by including various covariates. Our results indicated that compared to a normal BMI a higher BMI was associated with a significantly lower risk for being arrested in different crime categories associated with interpersonal violence, such as crimes against life and limb (for example: odds ratio = 0.60, CI 95%: 0.52–0.69 for 30–34.9 kg/m²).     

Comment on Andreas von Hirsch: The Roles of Harm and Wrongdoing in Criminalisation Theory

Whereas liberals tend to emphasize harm as the decisive criterion for legitimizing criminalisation, moralists take a qualified notion of wrongfulness as sufficient even when no harm is at hand. This comment takes up Andreas von Hirsch’s “dual element approach” requiring both harm and wrongfulness as necessary conditions for criminalisation and argues that Joel Feinberg’s account of harming as violation of moral rights is perfectly compatible with it. Subsequently, two issues from the liberalism-moralism debate on criminalisation are examined: The difficulty of how to determine wrongfulness beyond the scope of harming, and the so far disregarded question of whether the democratic legislator is free within the framework of constitution to criminalise whatever conduct he wants to prevent irrespective of philosophical constraints.