Reports from “Backstage” in Entertainment News

While “serious” news outlets struggle financially in the United States, evidence suggests that entertainment news coverage is thriving. By expanding upon Erving Goffman’s performance perspective and performance theory, this article seeks to illuminate representations of celebrities in the news media, with attention to the recent news stories regarding Tiger Woods and Sandra Bullock. The analysis also explores the off-screen performance of celebrities—developed and presented in news stories, interviews and photographs—and the repercussions when reports of a celebrity’s unmanaged backstage performance exposes the front stage performance as a pretense.     

A Comparison of Four Presumptive Tests for the Detection of Blood on Dark Materials

Detection of blood on dark materials is difficult for crime scene examiners so presumptive tests are used to assist. This study compared the ability of luminol, leuko crystal violet, tetramethylbenzidine, and Combur Test®E to detect whole, diluted blood (1:100) and a key‐shaped blood transfer stain (1:10), on dark cotton sheeting, tea towel, socks, synthetic carpet, and car mats. Powdered bleach was used to evaluate specificity of the blood detection tests. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), and overall misclassification rate (OMR) assessed the quality of the blood tests. Luminol was the preferred test for diluted blood having the highest sensitivity (79%–96%), NPV (66%–93%), and the lowest OMR (3%–15%). Luminol was also found to be most efficient with a testing time on 25 items of 2 h 50 min compared with up to 8 h. Overall, luminol was the most effective method, also providing information on bloodstain patterns.     

Can analysis of a small clod of soil help to solve a murder case?

Soil forensics utilizes extensive soil information to answer legal questions and test hypotheses. The main difficulty often is the determination of different variables from a small amount of soil sample collected on the suspect. We developed a sequential mineralogical and chemical analyses to assess a limited quantity of soil vestiges (0.5 g) from a suspect's vehicle (adhered to the outside rear-view mirror and to the left front fender) involved in a murder case and compared them with the surface samples found at the victim's body disposal site at the Graciosa Road, Paraná State, Brazil. All results affirm that the suspect’s vehicle could have been in contact with the edge of the Graciosa Road, approximately the place where the victim’s body was located. As a result of the soil analysis and comparison, the results support the likely contact of the suspect’s vehicle with the crime scene.     

Instittutional attachments and self-control: Understanding deviance among Hispanic adolescents

This study tested the ability of the general theory of crime and social control theory to account for self-reported deviance among a sample of 298 Puerto Rican high school students. The following hypotheses were examined: (1) Low attachment levels (to parents, religion, school, and friends) will positively and significantly predict deviance, (2) Individual with low levels of self-control will be more likely to report involvement in deviance, and (3) Low self-control will mediate the relationship between attachments (parents, religion, school, and friends) and deviance. Results indicated support for social control theory and did not support the general theory of crime. Self-control was not significantly predictive of deviance whereas many of the institutional attachment variables were important predictors of deviance among Hispanic high school students (attachment to parents, school, and friends). Theoretical and policy implications of the findings supportive of social control theory are discussed.     

Reconciliation: I Know It When I see It 1

States emerging from conflict increasingly seek ways in which to address the violence and human rights abuses of the past in order to move forward into a more peaceful future. The initial responses to mass atrocities were based in legal processes focused on the punishment of the person responsible for the harm. The inadequacy of such an approach resulted in the introduction of a variety of new goals in the transitional period, including the abstract notion of reconciliation which is increasingly advanced as the central goal in dealing with the legacy of the past. This article argues that the failure to examine the relationship between a discourse originally based on human rights and legal approaches and the introduction of reconciliation has only added new challenges rather than resolved existing ones and therefore must be re‐examined. The article also argues that no single approach should take prominence in addressing mass atrocities. Rather a range of options should be available to victims, in particular given the relative youth and inexperience of approaches to violent conflict.     

Labour supply and wages among nuclear and extended households: The Surinamese experiment

This article explores labour market behaviour of members of extended and nuclear households in Suriname. Previous analyses have found that co‐operative childcare opportunities within the extended household increase female labour force participation. Such coordination implies correlated participation decisions, which invalidates standard assumptions made in estimating participation with probits and wages with regressions. We employ a GMM estimation, which allows correlation among household members. We find that extended and nuclear household members are not significantly different in participation propensities, but do differ significantly in wages. We argue that greater home production opportunities in extended households dilute labour market effort and hours, reducing earnings.     

Prébisch's rationale for protection

The major critics of Prébisch's rationale for protection have tended to overlook an important premise of his argument. The premise is that technological improvements arising in the secondary industries of the advanced countries are transferred much more slowly (i) than they occur, (ii) than the prices of the exports of the advanced countries are allowed to decline, and (iii) than technological improvements are transferred to the export industries of underdeveloped countries. All innovations are assumed to be developed in the advanced countries. Can a disparity between rates of transfer provide the essential justification for Prébisch's policy? The disparity can be said to arise from a hindrance to the transfer of advanced technology to the import‐substituting industries. The conclusion of this paper is that the policy can be justified only when (i) protection is capable of offsetting the hindrance, (ii) it is possible to ensure, during the period of protection, that the transfer of future advances can occur without hindrance, and (iii) the expansion of production possibilities resulting from the newly‐available technology allows income to increase sufficiently (over some period of time) to offset the cost of protection.     

A Comparison of Enhancement Techniques for Footwear Impressions on Dark and Patterned Fabrics,

The use of chemical enhancement techniques on porous substrates, such as fabrics, poses several challenges predominantly due to the occurrence of background staining and diffusion as well as visualization difficulties. A range of readily available chemical and lighting techniques were utilized to enhance footwear impressions made in blood, soil, and urine on dark and patterned fabrics. Footwear impressions were all prepared at a set force using a specifically built footwear rig. In most cases, results demonstrated that fluorescent chemical techniques were required for visualization as nonfluorescent techniques provided little or no contrast with the background. Occasionally, this contrast was improved by oblique lighting. Successful results were obtained for the enhancement of footwear impressions in blood; however, the enhancement of footwear impressions in urine and soil on dark and patterned fabrics was much more limited. The results demonstrate that visualization and fluorescent enhancement on porous substrates such as fabrics is possible.     

“Another National Milestone”: Canada's 1927 Election to the Council of the League of Nations

Ten days after announcing its candidature, and amidst some surprise, Canada was elected to a non-permanent seat on the Council of the League of Nations. This article will show how and why this came about. In so doing, it will demonstrate that Canada's election was an important episode from several perspectives. First, it was a milestone in Canada's gradual international coming of age, confirming that it was entitled to all the rights and responsibilities of League membership. Second, it was a significant step in the development of the Commonwealth into an association of equals. And, third, it contributed to the gelling of the emerging group system in elections to the League Council.     

Characterization of 26 miniSTR loci for improved analysis of degraded DNA samples

An additional 20 novel mini-short tandem repeat (miniSTR) loci have been developed and characterized beyond the six previously developed by our laboratory for a total of 26 non-CODIS miniSTR markers. These new markers produce short PCR products in the target range of 50-150 base pairs (bp) by moving the primer sequences as close as possible-often directly next to the identified repeat region. These candidate loci were initially screened based on their small amplicon sizes and locations on chromosomes currently unoccupied by the 13 CODIS STR loci or at least 50 Mb away from them on the same chromosome. They were sequenced and evaluated across more than 600 samples, and their population statistics were determined. The heterozygosities of the new loci were compared with those of the 13 CODIS loci and all were found to be comparable. Only five of the new loci had lower values than the CODIS loci; however, all of these were much smaller in size. This data suggests that these 26 miniSTR loci will serve as useful complements to the CODIS loci to aid in the forensic analysis of degraded DNA, as well as missing persons work and parentage testing with limited next-of-kin reference samples.