Predictors of re-offending in German substance-abusers in legal detention: a prospective population-based cohort study

This study aimed to evaluate whether the elapsed time after release to first re-offense is longer for those who complete coerced forensic addiction treatment than for those who fail to complete the treatment. It is also aimed to identify predictors of re-offending for both those who complete such treatments as compared with those who do not. Two hundred and sixty-one patients discharged from five German forensic addiction clinics were investigated on 65 anamnestic, socio-demographic, and therapeutic process variables. One hundred and fifty-one patients were prematurely discharged and returned to prison (group A; time at risk [TAR] = 58.7 months), 110 finished treatment successfully (group B; TAR = 44.2 months). Federal Criminal Register data were used for follow-up. Univariate survival analyses and multivariate stepwise Cox-regression models were computed. Twelve predictors in group A revealed a four-factor model: age at admission to treatment, duration of concurrent prison sentence, number of entries in the criminal register, and attendance at prior substitution programs. The model for group B covered five out of eight predictors: regular working activities before first diagnosis of mental illness, type of main offense, (secondary) traffic offenses, outpatient rehabilitation treatments, and escapes during treatment. Successful completers of forensic addiction treatment are slower to re-offend than non-completers.     

The framing and governance of climate change adaptation projects in Lao PDR and Cambodia

This study explores the way climate change adaptation projects in Cambodia and Lao PDR have been framed. Four frames were identified: inadequate infrastructure; information deficits; limited planning capacity; and insecure access. In all frames, there was internal coherence among: the problems identified; the form solutions are expected to take; and who should be included and in what roles. All projects claimed to be addressing the needs of farmers vulnerable to climate change. The infrastructure, information, and capacity frames are apolitical and privilege expert knowledge, whereas the access frame places rights and justice issues centrally, and thus holds more potential for addressing the root causes of vulnerabilities and supporting more just distribution of resources and power. Framing can interact with how projects are governed, for example, through assigning roles to actors based on types of solutions prescribed. The extent and direction of frame elaboration also depend on how a project is governed. Meeting local needs and objectives, for example, is constrained when external actors have too much influence in project governing structures, and initial project plans written from afar are followed too narrowly. This study shows that frames are an important part of the governance of adaptation projects.     

Policy learning as complex contagion: how social networks shape organizational beliefs in forest-based climate change mitigation

Policy Sciences - Policy learning can alter the perceptions of both the seriousness and the causes of a policy problem, thus also altering the perceived need to do...     

Duplications of the Y-chromosome specific loci P25 and 92R7 and forensic implications

In the present study, we demonstrate that two commonly used Y-chromosome single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), P25 and 92R7, are paralogous sequence variants (PSVs) originating from segmental duplications and that at least one of the sequence variants in each group of loci is polymorphic. Several methodologies were used in order to detect the SNP alleles and the PSVs of the loci. All results obtained with the various typing techniques supported the conclusion. The allele distributions of the binary markers were analysed in more than 600 males with seven different haplogroups. For P25, the ancestral allele C was found in several samples from different haplogroups. The derived allele A was always present with an additional C variant. Haplogroup P was defined by the derived allele A at the 92R7 locus. However, the ancestral allele G was always associated with an A variant due to the duplication.     

Squalene in hair--a natural reference substance for the improved interpretation of fatty acid ethyl ester concentrations with respect to alcohol misuse

Fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEE) are incorporated into hair mainly from sebum. For this reason, the use of their concentration CFAEE as marker of excessive alcohol consumption is complicated by interindividual differences of the activity of the sebum glands and of elimination by hair care and hair cosmetics. Furthermore, an influence of the investigated hair length due to increasing accumulation from proximal to distal was found. Therefore, it was examined whether these sources of error can be avoided if in addition to CFAEE the relative FAEE concentrations CFAEE/CSQ related to squalene SQ as a natural reference compound were used for interpretation. Sebum contains about 10-20% SQ. A sensitive and reliable method for the determination of SQ in addition to FAEE from the same hair extracts by high performance liquid chromatography with photo diode array detector (HPLC-DAD) was developed. The concentrations of ethyl myristate, ethyl palmitate, ethyl oleate, ethyl stearate and squalene were determined and CFAEE/CSQ was calculated for 13 teetotallers, 16 social drinkers, 12 fatalities with excessive alcohol abuse at life time and 9 cases with unclear alcohol anamnesis. CSQ ranged from 0.02 to 1.97 microg/mg (mean 0.67 microg/mg). From the results follows that squalene enables a control of the lipid content of hair and a correction of CFAEE in cases with deviations from the usual lipid content in a similar way as creatinine in urine. Preliminary values of CFAEE/CSQ were suggested for the upper limit for teetotallers (< 0.6 ng/microg) and the lower limit for excessive alcohol abuse (> 1.5 ng/microg). However, the relative concentration CFAEE/CSQ cannot completely replace the absolute concentration CFAEE, and both should regularly be used for an improved interpretation with respect to alcohol abuse.     

On Myth,Considered as a Method for Legal Thought

The textual form of law relates to language and not to narration but to myth. Law's text does not develop in the temporal sequence of past-present-future, but spreads by analogy of concentric circles. If ‘normal’ myth is a folklore of people then the law is a myth retold by lawyers. For the sake of separation of legal myth from mythology as a whole, law creates its own rituals. In post-modern societies the mythologization of law becomes even more important as the boundaries between legal and lay communities are challenged. Classical legal theories cannot deal with this change and Kafka's The Trial is as good a jurisprudence as any other legal theory. This revised version was published online in November 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Dentists' qualifications affect the accuracy of radiographic identification

This study assessed the effects of forensic odontologists' training and experience upon the accuracy of their dental radiographic identifications. Forty participating odontologists with various levels of training and experience completed a Web-based survey of their qualifications and then completed nine Web-based radiographic identification cases. They made their identifications using the American Board of Forensic Odontology Categories and Terminology for Body Identification. The results indicate that odontologists with high levels of training and experience performed significantly more accurately than those with lower levels. We conclude that high levels of training and experience in forensic odontology should be developed, maintained, and required of dentists who participate in a forensic team dealing with challenging identification cases.     

A collaborative study of the EDNAP group regarding Y-chromosome binary polymorphism analysis

A collaborative study was carried out by the European DNA Profiling Group (EDNAP) in order to evaluate the performance of Y-chromosome binary polymorphism analysis in different European laboratories. Four blood samples were sent to the laboratories, to be analysed for 11 Y-chromosome single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs): SRY-1532, M40, M35, M213, M9, 92R7, M17, P25, M18, M153 and M167. All the labs were also asked to submit a population study including these markers. All participating laboratories reported the same results, indicating the reproducibility and robustness of Y-chromosome SNP typing. A total of 535 samples from six different European populations were also analysed. In Galicia (NW Spain) and Belgium, the most frequent haplogroup was R1b*(xR1b1,R1b3df). Haplogroup F*(xK) is one of the most frequent in Austria and Denmark, while the lowest frequency appear in Belgium. Haplogroup frequencies found in this collaborative study were compared with previously published European Y-chromosome haplogroup data.