Forensic Gait Analysis and Recognition: Standards of Evidence Admissibility

Gait is one biological characteristic which has attracted strong research interest due to its potential use in human identification. Although almost two decades have passed since a forensic gait expert has testified to the identity of a perpetrator in court, the methods remain insufficiently robust, considering the recent paradigm shift witnessed in the forensic science community regarding quality of evidence. In contrast, technological advancements have taken the lead, and research into automated gait recognition has greatly surpassed forensic gait analysis in terms of the size of acquired datasets and demographic variability of participants, tested variables, and statistical evaluation of results. Despite these advantages, gait recognition presents with different problems which are yet to be resolved. Therefore, courts should treat gait evidence with caution, as they should any other form of evidence originating from disciplines without fully established codes of practice, error rates, and demonstrable applications in forensic scenarios.     

State aid control in the modernisation era: Moving towards a differentiated administrative integration?

Despite contentions that state aid control is an instance of direct execution, the State Aid Modernisation (SAM) package has largely dispersed responsibility for giving effect to the common legal framework across national administrations. In this setup, the effectiveness of state aid law is confronted with asymmetric capacities, diffuse application of complex rules and difficulty in keeping dispersed powers under control. This article combines selected evidence on the operation of state aid control with a multidisciplinary analysis of the functioning of integration mechanisms in the European administrative space. The aim is to examine the potential effects of SAM. It contends that, while the reform has strengthened the Commission's dominance, the instruments of administrative integration might fail to secure adequate capacities and implementation performances at national level, due to constitutional constraints and opposing forces. This effect, it is argued, could be divisive, and risks undermining the integrity of the internal market.     

Accuracy of four dental age estimation methodologies in Brazilian and Croatian children

ObjectiveTo compare and analyse the accuracy of four age estimation methods using the mineralisation stages of the permanent teeth (Cameriere et al. [16] [CAM], Liliequist and Lundberg [LLH] and Nolla without third molars [NOL7] or with them [NOL8]) in a mixed population of Brazilians and a homogeneous population of Croatians.MethodsOrthopantomograms of 930 Brazilians (366 males and 564 females) and 924 Croatians (365 males and 556 females) aged between 8 and 14.99 years were analysed using the CAM, LLH, NOL7 and NOL8 age estimation methodologies.ResultsLLH presented the best absolute differences (ADs) among both populations without sex stratification, while CAM presented the worst results. In addition, the mean differences revealed underestimations, except when the LLH and NOL7 methods were used for the Brazilians. When the sample was stratified by sex, the best AD values were found with NOL7 (0.80) for the Brazilians and with LLH (0.98) for the Croatians. When the sample was stratified by sex and age, CAM presented high accuracy at the early ages, and LLH presented high accuracy at the older ages. The results obtained with the Nolla methods (NOL7 and NOL8) were mostly similar, but NOL7 yielded slightly better results.ConclusionsThe values for the Brazilians and the Croatians were relatively similar, and the techniques were properly applied in both population samples. The best method for evaluating both countries was LLH, followed by NOL7, NOL8 and CAM.     

Sector Well-Being Differences Among UK Police Custody Staff

The research explores a new model of staff well-being across UK police custodial services (public and private). These services are unique for the fact that police sergeant custody officers are supported by detention officers who can be publicly or privately contracted, with the latter providing a heterogeneous mix never previously researched. The model informs a survey approach conducted across four English police forces. Drawing on a diverse literature which compares health and criminal justice professions, this study explores the possibility that private sector detention officers will report lower levels of emotional exhaustion and workplace stress and higher levels of personal accomplishment than their public sector counterparts. Multilevel analyses, supplemented by ANOVA and t tests, detected statistically significant differences for private sector detention officers regarding higher levels of emotional exhaustion and lower levels of personal accomplishment and workplace stress (with the stress result the only one in the predicted direction). However, results should be interpreted as sample specific linked to privately contracted detention officer disquiet with their then employer (since replaced). That said, the results provide a good exploration of the model’s utility together with important lessons for model and survey development in the future.     

Why is Family Violence Lower Among Mexican Immigrants? The Protective Features of Mexican Culture

Although immigrants tend to be less involved in crime than the native-born, less is known about whether immigration is protective regarding family violence and, if so, why. This is especially problematic given that some cultural features of immigrants, such as machismo, may increase family violence. Using a random sample of adults in El Paso County, Texas, the present study finds that family violence is substantially lower among first generation Mexican immigrants compared to 1.5 generation immigrants, second generation Americans and third generation or higher Americans. Higher levels of acculturation to Mexico among first generation immigrants partially mediated, or explained, this finding. However, familism and machismo were not higher among first generation Mexican immigrants; and, while lower among first generation immigrants, acculturation to the US was not associated with higher levels of family violence. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

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’.     

Risk terrain modeling for road safety: identifying crash-related environmental factors in the province of Cádiz,Spain

Environmental Criminology has developed a robust framework that provides the scientific support and necessary foundation for crime analysis through crime mapping. This theoretical approach focuses on the situational and temporal characteristics of criminal opportunity rather than on the offender’s behavior for crime prevention. In the scope of road safety and traffic crashes, few studies have adopted this approach. This study used risk terrain modeling (RTM), developed by the Rutgers Center on Public Security, to determine the relative importance of varying environmental risk factors on alcohol-related crashes and traffic accidents. The independent variables consisted of a set of potential environmental risk factors, while the dependent variable comprised all DWI crashes and traffic accidents in the province of Cádiz in 2012. According to the results of the current study, restaurant locations are spatially associated with the occurrence of drunk driving crashes, while proximity restaurants and recreational lodging centers correlate with the sites of traffic accidents.     

The OSCE's post-September 11 agenda,and Central Asia

With an enlarged membership and a wide agenda including politico-security matters, economic and environmental issues and human aspects, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) aims at promoting stability and democratisation in its area, fostering good governance. The September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001 have prompted the organisation to reinforce its commitments with regard to the prevention of and combat against terrorism, as a primary goal in the pursuit of its main tasks of conflict prevention and management, and post-conflict rehabilitation. The institutional response of the OSCE has been translating its effort to address the new concerns while promoting its founding principles, both at headquarters and in the field. The extent to which the organisation's institutions and commitments are adequate to respond to the new challenges and promote good governance in the OSCE area are analysed. Are the OSCE principles, agreed commitments and elaborated post-September 11 agenda adequate to meet the many uncertainties and to build cooperation and security in the OSCE space? Is the OSCE prepared to respond effectively to the current challenges particularly with regard to Central Asia? Which means and what actions might the organisation pursue in the context of its new agenda? By matching words with action OSCE's contribution to global governance in Central Asia is clarified through assessing its means, activities and adequacy to meet old and new challenges.