From alcohol to liquid ecstasy (GHB)--a survey of old and modern knockout agents. Part 2: benzodiazepines and other sedatives/hypnotic drugs

Owing to the rapid progress in the development of synthetic pharmaceuticals, the classical knockout drugs such as chloroform and diethyl ether have been superseded by highly effective sedative and hypnotic drugs (e. g. methyprylone, clozapine and especially benzodiazepines). These are frequently given to the victim unnoticed by adding them to an alcoholic drink. In this way, alcohol still plays an important role as an interaction partner. The article presents relevant case examples together with their criminalistic background.     

Verwaltungsgerichtsbarkeit und Rechtsschutz

Die Verwaltungsgerichtsbarkeit zählt zu einem der zentralen Elemente des Rechtsschutzsystems und damit zum rechtsstaatlichen Gesamtkonzept der Bundesverfassung. Mit der Verwaltungsgerichtsbarkeits-Novelle 2012 wurden die Parameter der Verwaltungsgerichtsbarkeit insoweit grundlegend verschoben, als sich das dualistische Rechtsschutzmodell mit einer Kombination aus Administrativ- und gerichtlichem Rechtsschutz zu einem ausschließlich verwaltungsgerichtlichen Rechtsschutzsystem wandelt und auch die traditionelle Formgebundenheit des Rechtsschutzsystems relativiert wird. Der Beitrag untersucht zentrale Elemente dieses Systemwechsels aus rechtsstaatlicher Perspektive.     

The 2008 Declaration of Helsinki — First among Equals in Research Ethics?

The World Medical Association's (WMA) Declaration of Helsinki is one of the most important and influential international research ethics documents. Its most recent 2008 version declares unprecedented universal primacy over all existing national or international ethical, legal, or regulatory requirements. This self-proclaimed status as a set of minimal ethical standards raises important questions about the Declaration's appropriate normative status. The present paper argues that the new claim of ethical primacy is problematic and makes the Declaration unnecessarily vulnerable to criticism. Future revisions of the Declaration should therefore remove this claim and strengthen the document, first, by clarifying its normative status as a set of strong default recommendations, to be followed unless there is compelling ethical reason to do otherwise; and second, by improving the substance of the Declaration through further precision, specification, and argument.     

Assessing trait memory distrust: Psychometric properties of the Squire Subjective Memory Questionnaire

Purpose. When people suffer from memory distrust, they evaluate their memory in negative terms. Memory distrust plays an important role in police interrogations because it may underlie false confessions. The Squire Subjective Memory Questionnaire (SSMQ) intends to be a simple measure of trait memory distrust. To our knowledge, no data have been published about the psychometric properties of the SSMQ. Methods. Relying on five samples (Ns = 70–819) of healthy individuals and patients, we studied the psychometric characteristics of the SSMQ. Participants were recruited at the university, a neuropsychological unit or through advertisements in newspapers. They were asked to complete the SSMQ and several other tests. In this way, reliability and validity parameters could be assessed. Results. Principle component analysis showed that the SSMQ has a one‐dimensional structure referring to subjective memory evaluation. The SSMQ was found to have adequate reliability and good construct validity. Furthermore, it appears to correlate in a theoretically meaningful way with age and cognitive failures. Conclusions. All together, the SSMQ is a psychometrically sound screening tool that can be helpful in assessing subjective memory evaluations in the legal domain. In this way, vulnerable suspects can be identified in an early stage.     

Sexsomnia – a forensic psychiatric challenge – a case report

In rare penal cases, a defendant makes a claim that he or she was asleep at the time of an alleged crime. This article discusses a case of alleged sexsomnia where a man claimed that he had been asleep during a sexual encounter (rape) with a woman. The question that often arises during an investigation and in court is how complex a behaviour is someone able to perform and still be asleep? To assist the court in answering this question, forensic psychiatric experts may be appointed. But the experts were not present during the act and must therefore consider each case on the basis of the available information and existing research. This paper provides a brief overview of the research regarding sexsomnia. It will also discuss what kind of information is important to elaborate in these cases in order to clarify the premises for the experts’ conclusions to the court.     

Analysis of Explosives by GC‐UV

A mixture of explosives was analyzed by gas chromatography (GC) linked to ultraviolet (UV) spectrophotometry that enabled detection in the range of 178–330 nm. The gas‐phase UV spectra of 2,4,6‐trinitrotoluene (TNT), 2,4‐dinitrotoluene (DNT), ethylene glycol dinitrate (EGDN), glycerine trinitrate (NG, nitroglycerine), triacetone triperoxide (TATP), and pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) were successfully recorded. The most interesting aspect of the current application is that it enabled simultaneous detection of both the target analyte and its decomposition products. At suitable elevated temperatures of the transfer line between the GC instrument and the UV detector, a partial decomposition was accomplished. Detection was made in real time and resulted in overlaid spectra of the mother compound and its decomposition product. Hence, the presented approach added another level to the qualitative identification of the explosives in comparison with traditional methods that relies only on the detection of the target analyte. As expected, the decomposition product of EGDN, NG, and PETN was NO, while TATP degraded to acetone. DNT and TNT did not exhibit any decomposition at the temperatures used.     

Differentiating Factitious from Malingered Symptomatology: the Development of a Psychometric Approach

Psychometric symptom validity assessment is becoming increasingly part and parcel of psychological and neuropsychological assessments. An unresolved and rarely addressed issue concerns the differentiation between factitious and malingered symptom presentations: present-day symptom validity tests can assess whether an examinee presents with noncredible symptomatology, but not why an examinee does so. We explored this issue by developing the Symptom and Disposition Interview (SDI); a symptom validity test that incorporates strategies intended to gauge internal incentives associated with factitious disorder. The merits of the SDI were explored and compared to a traditional symptom validity test (the Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology) in two analogue studies, each with factitious and malingering conditions (n = 24–30 per condition) and a clinical control group (n = 34, n = 40). Overall, the results were positive: The SDI was as effective in detecting feigned symptom presentations as a traditional symptom validity test and superior in differentiating factitious from malingered symptom presentations. We conclude that the SDI is not ready for clinical use, but that psychometric approaches to the assessment of factitious symptomatology, such as the SDI, appear sufficiently promising to warrant future research.     

Countries start to explain how their climate contributions are fair: more rigour needed

In the lead-up to the Paris Agreement, every country was invited to submit an intended nationally determined contribution (INDC), and indicate how it is fair. We analyse how countries have explained the equity of mitigation and adaptation in 163 INDCs, providing a bottom-up analysis of equity to complement a literature that has focused on top-down allocations. While no single indicator of equity was used by all INDCs, a menu of quantified indicators or tiered approaches could provide bounded flexibility across different national circumstances. The most common equity indicator used in mitigation INDCs is the country’s ‘small share’ of global emissions, followed by per capita emissions. The emissions of individual ‘small share’ INDCs add up to 24% of annual global emissions when using a consistent data set. Per capita emissions are used across a range of countries with low (0.5) to high (25 t CO₂–eq per capita) values for that indicator. Adaptation is included in 89% of INDCs, of which more than half quantify impacts in some manner, and two-thirds use vulnerability as an equity argument. Broadly, we find that most claims to equity are either unsubstantiated or drawn from analysis by in-country experts. Only two INDCs refer to independent evidence, and none consider the consequences of their approach when applied to all countries. Given that the aggregate effect of INDCs will not be sufficient to keep global temperature increase well below 2 °C, and even less to keep temperature below a 1.5 °C rise, the INDCs have distributional implications. More rigorous information is needed to assess relative fair shares, which could be provided officially in future nationally determined contributions (NDCs). Absent improved information, it is likely that researchers and civil society will continue to assess informally what could be considered fair. A hybrid approach to equity—combining bottom-up assessment and top-down allocation—would be consistent with the hybrid architecture of the Paris Agreement, which comprises bottom-up elements such as NDCs and top-down elements such as global goals. Improved information on equity in NDCs will be an important input to the global stocktake ‘in the light of equity’.     

Cases of fatal poisoning in post-mortem examinations at the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Greifswald--analysis of five decades of post-mortems

Apparently, fatal poisoning as cause of death are still rarely found in unnatural deaths investigated in the institutes of forensic medicine. In the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the University of Greifswald, 10-15% of the post-mortem autopsies displayed an intoxication during the last several decades with a possible decreasing tendency. Thirteen thousand eight hundred and nineteen autopsies were carried out in our institute-situated in a low populated rural area-during the last 50 years with the confirmed death cause intoxication in 1,589 times. In this study, especially the intoxication causes and the substance classes of the poisonous agents have been investigated. In addition, we analyzed the frequency of intoxications as well as sex and age of the deceased. Surprisingly, CO-intoxications were found most frequently with an incidence of 49% followed by alcohol intoxications with 21%. The latter was not unexpected taking into account the habits of the local population. Medical drugs and narcotics take only the third place, although the abuse of modern narcotics drugs is already visible even in the far east of Germany. The spectrum of substances which are abused, taken accidentally or deliberately is continuously changing, reflecting scientific progress in the pharmaceutical industry as well as fashion tendencies. Therapeutic use is almost always followed by abuse. Our results confirm prior experience concentrating mostly on other poisons like heavy metals or herbicides, etc. In addition, we could demonstrate the influence of political conditions on use and distribution of illegal drugs in Germany. Our study clearly demonstrates that insufficient equipment or analytical methods are no longer the reason for any problems uncovering lethal intoxications. They are rather due to insufficient investigations of the corpses (without considering the possibility of an intoxication as differential diagnosis) and to frequent mistakes of the prosecutor's office in death without signs of physical violence. These facts may explain the above mentioned decreasing tendency of intoxications, but they also clarify that this tendency probably does not correspond to reality.