Why is corruption in Poland ``a serious cause for concern'?

Public perceptions of corruption are significant for their political consequences. But they are conceptually and empirically distinct from corruption. First, because perceptions of corruption run far ahead of experience. Second, because different factors influence the one more than the other – indeed poverty and low education increase perceptions of corruption while decreasing participation in it. Third, because the political consequences of corruption and corruption-perceptions differ not only in degree but in their targets – perceptions and experiences of corruption erode trust in different politicians and institutions.External moralising from institutions such as the EU may reduce corruption in Accession States while simultaneously increasing perceptions of it. And within these states, that moralising `culture which can resist corruption' which the EU demands, itself tends, perversely, to increase (not decrease) perceptions, suspicions, and allegations of corruption.     

Neck injuries as a reconstructive parameter in car-to-pedestrian accidents

The study has assessed the usefulness of injuries to the ligamentous, muscular and vascular neck structures for deducing about the presumable location of a pedestrian in relation to a motor vehicle at the moment of collision. The localisation of haemorrhagic suffusions in the lower insertions of the scalene (mainly) and sternocleidomastoid muscles has shown a correlation with the direction of the inertia force. No correlation has been observed between the direction of impact and damages to the cervical vascular bundles and the localisation of haemorrhagic suffusions in the upper insertions of the nape muscles. In some cases, injuries to the ligaments of the cervical vertebrae made up the complex characteristic of the direction of acting forces. The injuries of soft tissues and ligaments can, thus, facilitate the deductions about the direction of impact. However, the type of a car involved in the accident and the possibility that these injuries resulted from direct head or neck trauma should be considered.     

Pelvis and hip joint injuries as a reconstructive factors in car-to-pedestrian accidents.

The pelvic girdles of 371 pedestrian victims of road traffic accidents were evaluated during postmortem examinations. Additionally, 144 hip joints were opened. The pelvic injuries were found in 28% of the pedestrians hit exclusively in their upright position and 52% of the victims run over by a vehicle. The side of the body hit by a car was determined on the basis of the location of blood suffusions within the subcutaneous tissues and muscles of lower limbs as well as the character of injuries found in the knee and upper ankle joints. The findings were verified with the data from court records. It was shown that the injuries of the sacroiliac joints or vertical fractures of the posterior parts of iliac bones were useful parameters for determining the side (left or right) of the body hit by a vehicle. Moreover, it was found that a direct impact on the hip region was evidenced by the ipsilaterally localized fractures of the iliac ala, central hip fractures and intraosseous blood suffusions within the greater trochanter of the femur. The external dislocations of the hip joints (always) and bilateral injuries to the sacroiliac joints (usually) were observed in the victims run over by vehicles.     

Do Trained Dogs Discriminate Individual Body Odors of Women Better than Those of Men?*

Scent identification lineups using dogs are a potentially valuable forensic tool, but have been dismissed by some critics because of cases where a false identification was shown to have occurred. It is not known, however, why dogs appear to make more false indications to the odors of some persons than of others. In this study, human genders were compared as to the degree their individual odors are distinguishable or "attractive" to dogs. Six dogs were trained to smell an individual's hand odor sample and then find the matching hand odor sample in a lineup of five odors. Using one-gender lineups and two-gender lineups with different gender ratios, it was found that dogs trained for the study identified individual women's hand odors more accurately than those of men. It is hypothesized that this is either because of differences in chemical compounds making discrimination of women's odors easier, or because of greater "odor attractiveness" of women's scents to dogs.     

Trends in Police-recorded Offences

This article presents 10-year trends (1998–2007) on some common crimes: homicide, assault, rape, robbery, car theft, domestic burglary and drug offences. In addition, a few less common offences in police statistics, such as money laundering, corruption, offences against computer data and systems are discussed, even though trends of these crimes are not available. Trends are shown from Western, Central and Eastern Europe, where significant sociopolitical changes have occurred. Although police data actually describes more the recording practices of the officials than the amount of crime, police data is highly valuable for research purposes. Most countries continuously collect information about police activity, and the police is mostly the starting point for proceeding with a case in the criminal justice system. In the USA, all common offences recorded by the police have decreased during the recent years. In Europe, property crimes, homicide and robbery have decreased in most countries, but violence and drug crimes have increased. According to the crime victim surveys, the increase in assault cannot be explained by the increasing reporting activity of victims; the increase seems real. The level of crime differs considerably in different areas: for instance, homicide is most common in Eastern Europe, but assault is much higher in Western Europe.     

The Baltic miracle? The economic crisis and its consequences for young people in the labor market of the Baltic states, 2007–2017

ABSTRACT

The financial crisis (2008–2009) resulted in significant deterioration of the youth labor market in the Baltic states. In 2017, however, the Baltic states were among the countries with the highest employment-to-population ratio in Europe (the ‘Baltic Miracle’). This article shows that the observed progress is mostly due to the demographic changes in the three countries. Isolating the demographic effect demonstrated that it played crucial role in mitigating the negative effects of the crisis, especially in Latvia and Lithuania. The results of the study show that in 2017 only in Estonia had the youth labor market returned to its precrisis conditions.     

Application of subpopulation theory to evaluation of DNA evidence

The strength of any evidence can be assessed using a likelihood ratio (from Bayes' point of view). This is the ratio of the probabilities that the evidence would have been obtained given that the suspect is guilty and innocent, respectively. This, in turn, depends upon the probability that a match will be produced if the suspect is innocent. An essential population genetics parameter is the 'coancestry coefficient', or θ, or F(ST), which is the correlation between two genes sampled from distinct individuals within a subpopulation. In this paper, θ coefficients for the southern Polish population were calculated for three loci of forensic interest: TH01, TPOX and CSF1PO. Three small southern Polish subpopulations of different ethnic origin were analysed. The results suggest that values of θ appropriate to forensic applications are quite small in the southern Polish population (they vary in the range of 0.002 to 0.013), and the value of θ=0.03 suggested by the National Research Council is too conservative for the defendant.     

On the Need to Study Processes of Taking Minutes from Case Hearings: Contribution to and Call for Future Research

International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique - This paper’s aim is to promote greater interest in courtroom practices of...