Logical evaluation of evidence when a person is suspected of committing two separate offences.

We consider the problem of drawing inferences within a legal framework when a person is a suspect for two separate offences. Although we are primarily concerned with scientific evidence the issue inevitably arises as to how that evidence interacts with other, non-scientific evidence. We show that, in this particular context, the evidence can be conveniently classified into three categories that concern, respectively: the first crime only; the second crime only; and evidence that relates to similarities between the two crimes. Two case examples are considered and we consider DNA, fibres and eyewitness evidence. These are viewed from the perspective of a prosecutor who has to decide whether or not to charge a suspect with one or both crimes. Graphical sensivity analyses are presented which have features that are not intuitively obvious.     

Where and When to Spank: A Comparison Between U.S. and Japanese College Students

Although physical punishment has been studied for decades, there are gaps in the literature regarding frequently used form, context, and cross cultural differences. A comparison was made using 227 college students in the United States and Japan, who were presented with four scenarios and surveyed regarding attitudes toward physical punishment, perceptions of appropriate discipline methods, and past experience with physical punishment. Japanese and U.S. respondents reported similar personal experience with physical punishment (Japanese 86%, U.S. 91%). However, U.S. respondents reported a higher likelihood of being hit with an object than did Japanese respondents. For U.S. respondents, the bottom and the hand were the top two sites on the body used for physical punishment, whereas the head and the face were the top two places for the Japanese sample. Unlike U.S. respondents, type of child misbehavior was found to have an impact on Japanese respondents’ views on the appropriate discipline method.     

The use of the laser for determining the direction of the shots and the position of the victim's body in gunshot wounds

In this article a practical case is described when gunshot directions and position of a victim's body at the moment of each shot were determined by natural simulation using an LG-78 laser (made in the form of a gun).     

Determination of MDMA, MDA, MDEA and MBDB in oral fluid using high performance liquid chromatography with native fluorescence detection

This paper describes the analytical methodology for the determination of MDMA, MDA, MDEA and MBDB in oral fluid. After a liquid–liquid extraction, the analysis was carried out by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), with fluorescence detection. The detector wavelength was fixed at 285 nm for excitation and 320 nm for emission. The mobile phase, a mixture of phosphate buffer (pH = 5) and acetonitrile (75:25), and the column, Kromasil 100 C8 5 μm 250 mm × 4.6 mm, allowed good separation of the compounds in an isocratic mode in only 10 min. The method was validated and showed good limits of detection (2 ng/mL) and quantitation (10 ng/mL) for all the amphetamine derivatives. No interfering substances were detected. A stability study of these compounds in oral fluid stored at three different temperatures (−18, 4 and 20 °C) over 10 weeks was conducted, showing a time-dependent degradation of the four compounds.     

Analysis of Δ-tetrahydrocannabinol in oral fluid samples using solid-phase extraction and high-performance liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

An analytical method using solid-phase extraction (SPE) and high-performance liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS) has been developed and validated for the confirmation of Δ⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in oral fluid samples. Oral fluid was extracted using Bond Elut LRC-Certify solid-phase extraction columns (10 cm³, 300 mg) and elution performed with n-hexane/ethyl acetate. Quantitation made use of the selected ion-recording mode (SIR) using the most abundant characteristic ion [THC + H⁺], m/z 315.31 and the fragment ion, m/z 193.13 for confirmation, and m/z 318.00 for the protonated internal standard, [d₃-THC + H⁺]. The method proved to be precise for THC, in terms of both intra-day and inter-day analyses, with coefficients of variation less than 10%, and the calculated extraction efficiencies for THC ranged from 76 to 83%. Calibration standards spiked with THC between 2 and 100 ng/mL showed a linear relationship (r² = 0.999). The method presented was applied to the oral fluid samples taken from the volunteers during the largest music event in Portugal, named Rock in Rio-Lisboa. Oral fluid was collected from 40 persons by expectoration and with Salivette^®. In 55% of the samples obtained by expectorating, THC was detected with concentration ranges from 1033 to 6552 ng/mL and in 45% of cases THC was detected at concentrations between 51 and 937 ng/mL. However, using Salivette^® collection, 26 of the 40 cases had an undetectable THC.     

Wilton Marion Krogman, Ph.D. (1903-1987): the end of an era

Dr. Wilton Marion Krogman was one of the major founders of physical and forensic anthropology in the United States. His extraordinary career spanned nearly six decades, and he was universally admired and respected for his scholarship, teaching, research, wit, and humanity. While studies based on human skeletal remains have long been used to assist the medicolegal system, the late Dr. Krogman can be credited with uniting these areas into the discipline of forensic anthropology. His "Guide to the Identification of Human Skeletal Material" (1939) in the F.B.I. Law Enforcement Bulletin became the foundation of this discipline; his monumental book The Human Skeleton in Forensic Medicine (updated with the author in 1986) solidified its establishment. The purpose of this paper is to pay tribute to this great man and outline his influence on the development and advancement of forensic anthropology.     

Situational variation in moral judgment: In a stage or on a stage?

Two issues were examined in this study—the consistency of moral judgment across different types of dilemma and different social contexts, and the relationship between the structure (stage) of moral judgment and the content of moral decisions. Forty subjects were given two hypothetical dilemmas about business decisions and two standard Kohlberg dilemmas. Half the subjects directed their responses to a business audience, half to a philosophical audience. Responses to the moral dilemmas were scored in accordance with the Colby and Kohlberg (1987) scoring manual. Stage of moral reasoning was found to be significantly higher on the Kohlberg dilemmas than on the business dilemmas. A significant interaction between type of dilemma and audience was attributed to the tendency of subjects directing their responses to a business audience to interpret one of the business dilemmas in terms of the moral order of business, but for subjects directing their responses to a philosophy audience to treat it as a philosophical dilemma. The other business dilemma evoked uniformly low-level moral judgments. The amount of selfishness intrinsic in subjects' moral choices on the business dilemmas was significantly negatively correlated with moral maturity on the business dilemmas, but not with their moral maturity on Kohlberg's test. These results are interpreted as more consistent with models of moral development such as those advanced by C. G. Levine ([1979] Stage Acquisition and Stage Use: An Appraisal of Stage Displacement Explanations of Variation in Moral Reasoning, Human Development, Vol. 22, pp. 145–164), J. Rest ([1983] Morality, in: P. H. Mussen [ed.], J. H. Flavell and E. Markman [Vol. eds.], Handbook of Child Psychology [Vol. 3, 4th ed.], John Wiley & Sons, New York), and R. Harré ([1984]) Personal Being: A Theory for Individual Psychology, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts), which posit a relatively wide range of within-person stage use and emphasize the determining power of social situations, than with the more constructivistic model of moral development of Colby and Kohlberg (1987).This research was supported by Grant No. 410-87-1115 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.Received B.A. and M.A from Simon Fraser University. Research interests include moral development, and the influence of social interaction and language on the development of reasoning.Received Ph.D. from Harvard University. Research interests include moral development, altruism, and self-deception.     

Behavior of animal blood in blood typing systems. Isoelectric focusing of erythrocyte acid phosphatase and phosphoglucomutase

Isoenzyme band patterns of animal blood erythrocyte acid phosphatase (EAP) and phosphoglucomutase-1 (PGM) were studied by isoelectric focusing on ultrathin polyacrylamide gels. For blood from all animals tested (dog, cat, cow, sheep, and goat), the overall band patterns for both isoenzymes were different from those of the most common human types of these enzymes, although some animal EAP and PGM bands appeared in the human band areas. When mixtures of human and animal red blood cells were studied, it was found that misinterpretation of human types was possible only if the overall band pattern of the mixtures was ignored. For the animal blood tested, the strong PGM bands appearing outside the human band areas could be used as "markers" for the possible presence of animal blood in the samples tested.