Heavy Metal Music and Adolescent Suicidal Risk

This study probes the differentiating characteristics (family relationships, social–psychological attitudes, drug use, and suicidal risk) of youth who prefer heavy metal (HM) music, worship music, and use music for vicarious release. Data analysis was based on a sample of 275 secondary school students between the ages of 14 and 18. Logistic regressions revealed that HM music preference and worshipping is not significantly related to suicidal risk when controlling for other risk factors. These findings were found for both boys and girls. Surprisingly, the use of music for vicarious release was inversely related to suicidal risk for girls. These findings are discussed within the framework of Arnett's alienation theory (Arnett, J. (1991). J. Youth Adolesc. 20(6): 573–592) and Roe's uses-gratification theory (Roe, K. (1995). J. Youth Adolesc. 24(5): 617–631) regarding adolescent socialization and media purposes.     

An analysis of police officers' decisions about whether to refer cases of child abuse for prosecution

Facial composite research has mainly focused on their investigative value. No. comparable attention was drawn to their probative value – the extent to which a composite image may serve as incriminating or exonerating evidence against a defendant. The existing data resulting from mock-juror research allow only cautious conclusions and applies solely to the common law system. Therefore an experiment was conducted involving laypeople (N = 74) and prosecutor apprentices (N = 72). All participants received case materials of a robbery committed by a young male, including the victim's and defendant's testimonies and other evidence. In both samples, the facial composite evidence was manipulated so that participants viewed a composite image that was either a good or a poor match to the defendant. A facial composite that bore a strong resemblance to the defendant influenced the assessment of the eyewitness' credibility in the apprentices sample, but failed to affect other dependent variables. Surprisingly, laypeople ignored the facial composite no matter how well it resembled the defendant. Significant differences in the assessment of eyewitness' credibility, the strength of the defense case, the credibility of the defendant's alibi, and his culpability were found between the prosecutor apprentices and laypeople. The practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

When Politics Matters: The Impact of Politicians' and Bureaucrats' Preferences on Salient and Nonsalient Policy Areas

For three decades, the “politics matters” literature has found that political ideology is an important explanation of public policy. However, this literature systematically fails to include the influence of the bureaucracy. In fact, it is almost impossible to identify a single study in this literature that controls for the influence of the permanent bureaucracy. In this article, we investigate whether politics still matters when bureaucratic preferences are taken into account. We do this in a simultaneous test of political and bureaucratic influences on public budgets, a policy measure often studied in the “politics matters” literature. We find that political preferences trump bureaucratic ones in policy areas salient to the public but not in less salient areas. This might be comforting news from a democratic perspective. However, as public budgets represent an easy case for political influence, it is food for thought that political preferences do not always prevail.     

The association between investigative interviewers' knowledge of question type and adherence to best‐practice interviewing

It is well established that not all investigative interviewers adhere to ‘best‐practice’ interview guidelines (i.e., the use of open‐ended questions) when interviewing child witnesses about abuse. However, little research has examined the sub skills associated with open question usage. In this article, we examined the association between investigative interviewers' ability to identify various types of questions and adherence to open‐ended questions in a standardized mock interview. Study 1 , incorporating 27 trainee police interviewers, revealed positive associations between open‐ended question usage and two tasks; a recognition task where trainees used a structured protocol to guide their response and a recall task where they generated examples of open‐ended questions from memory. In Study 2 , incorporating a more heterogeneous sample of 40 professionals and a different training format and range of tests, positive relationships between interviewers' identification of questions and adherence to best‐practice interviewing was consistently revealed. A measure of interviewer knowledge about what constitutes best‐practice investigative (as opposed to knowledge of question types) showed no association with interviewer performance. The implications of these findings for interviewer training programs are discussed.     

Cyanide quantification in post-mortem biological matrices by headspace GC-MS

Cyanide is a powerful chemical asphyxiant found in some forensic cases following voluntary (suicide) or involuntary ingestion (fire, accidental exposure). A quantification method for cyanide that is specifically suited to post-mortem forensic purposes was developed. Determination was performed by headspace gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry using a GS-GASPRO column on an HP-6890 gas chromatograph with an HP-5973N mass detector. The biological sample was treated with an internal standard, frozen, glacial acetic acid was added and the sample was then incubated at 60°C for 15min. The headspace was sampled with a disposable syringe, and analyzed to quantify hydrogen cyanide. Isotopically labeled cyanide ((13)C(15)N) was used as the internal standard to minimize matrix effect and sampling error. The method produced an extended linear dynamic range (0.07-50μg/mL), and a method detection limit of 0.02μg/mL. Identical calibration curves were obtained when blood, gastric contents and aqueous solutions were used as the calibration standard matrix. This method was also successful in quantitating cyanide in gastric contents, one of the most variable biological fluids. The method has been validated and is being used for current forensic cases such as fire victims and suicides.     

Differential effects of general versus cued invitations on children’s reports of a repeated event episode

The ability to describe individual episodes of repeated events (such as ongoing abuse) can enhance children’s testimony and assist the progression of their cases through the legal system. Open-ended prompts have been advocated as a means to assist children in accurately retrieving information about individual episodes. In the current study, two subtypes of open-ended prompts (cued and general invitations) were compared for their effects on five- to nine-year-olds’ (n?=?203) reports about individual episodes of a repeated event. Interviews occurred 1–2 weeks after the last of 4 event sessions. Cued invitations assisted children to provide specific details about individual episodes of a repeated event, while general invitations were useful to elicit more broad happenings of the episodes. The accuracy of responses to general invitations was similar for children of all ages up to one week after the event, but at a longer interview delay younger children were less accurate than older children. There were no differences in the accuracy of responses to cued invitations as a function of age or interview delay. Results suggest that interviewers tasked with eliciting accounts of individual episodes from a repeated event, such as ongoing abuse, should consider the differential efficacy of each prompt-type on children’s reports.     

Age calculation using X-ray microfocus computed tomographical scanning of teeth: a pilot study

To correlate dental age with an individual's chronological age based on the calculated volume ratio of pulp versus tooth volume measured, an X-ray microfocus computed tomography unit (microCT) with 25 microm spatial resolution was used to non-destructively scan 43 extracted single root teeth of 25 individuals with well-known chronological age. Custom-made analysis software was used by two examiners to obtain numerical values for pulpal and tooth volume. The ratio of both was calculated and statistically processed. No significant intra- or inter-examiner differences were found. In fact, a very strong concordance correlation coefficient was found. Linear regression analysis showed a coefficient of determination (r) of 0.31 which suggests that there is a rather weak correlation between the volume ratio of pulp versus tooth and biological age. Although rather time consuming, this technique shows promising results for dental age estimation in a non-destructive manner using X-ray microfocus computed tomography.     

The Effect of Intellectual Disability on Children's Recall of an Event Across Different Question Types

This research examined the performance of 80 children aged 9-12 years with either a mild and moderate intellectual disability when recalling an innocuous event that was staged in their school. The children actively participated in a 30-min magic show, which included 21 specific target items. The first interview (held 3 days after the magic show) provided false and true biasing information about these 21 items. The second interview (held the following day) was designed to elicit the children's recall of the target details using the least number of specific prompts possible. The children's performance was compared with that of 2 control groups; a group of mainstream children matched for mental age and a group of mainstream children matched for chronological age. Overall, this study showed that children with either a mild or moderate intellectual disability can provide accurate and highly specific event-related information. However, their recall is less complete and less clear in response to free-narrative prompts and less accurate in response to specific questions when compared to both the mainstream age-matched groups. The implications of the findings for legal professionals and researchers are discussed.