The autodegradation of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in human rib bone and its relationship to the time interval since death

This research explored the feasibility of using the degradation rate of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in human rib bone to determine the time interval since death. Postmortem human rib samples were surface sterilized and incubated under sterile conditions in either high or low humidity conditions at room temperature for a period of weeks. At selected times, portions of the bone were cut away, and the DNA from these samples was extracted and subjected to strand separating gel electrophoresis. The DNAs in the gels were transferred to a nylon membrane, preserving their relative positions as in the gel, and probed with radioactive total genomic human DNA. Autoradiograms produced were scanned and digitized. When the samples were incubated under identical conditions, the degradation rate of DNA in samples from different individuals appeared very similar. The DNA degradation rate may vary with temperature and humidity more than it varies between individuals.     

THE AMBIGUOUS JUVENILE ARREST

Uniformity of juvenile arrest definitions and operations was investigated in 49 police stations in rural, suburban, and large urban areas. Data were taken from interviews and questionnaires administered to police chiefs, clerks, and officers, as well as from on-site observations. The meaning of a juvenile arrest was found to vary widely and to reflect poorly the statutory requirements. Greatest uniformity was found among recording clerks. Their practice of recording as an arrest any juvenile brought or cited into the station provides a useful operational definition. Implications of these data for uniform crime reporting, program evaluation, and equal justice are suggested.     

Policy analytic implications for a theory of prediction and decision

Decision theory developed to prescribe the consistent choice behavior under uncertainty of an ideal individual. The policy analysis context of organizational decision-making, however, necessitates certain modifications to the fundamental decision theory in order to deal with the problems of group consensus, ill-defined objectives and disparate information sources. The argument is presented that more attention must be given to the explicit formulation of judgment and that, in particular, there has to be an integration of the methodology of forecasting into the decision-analytic framework. A consequence of adopting a decision-theoretic approach to forecasting is the apparent need to develop ways of synthesizing the set of available predictive methods in order to satisfy the subjectivist principle of total evidence utilization. The synthetic approach to forecasting is in contrast to the conventional selective method. A brief review of some operational methods of pursuing the synthetic approach is given.     

A Study of the Impact of Diversion and Community-Based Treatment on the Bucks County Juvenile Justice System, 1974–1979

This study examines the changes in three variables associated with the processing of delinquent youth by the Juvenile Court from 1974 through 1979. The data on numbers of youth referred to court, on adjudicatory probation and committed to public and private institutions is examined for a three-year period prior to significant court diversion and community-based treatment (1974–1976), and compared with a three-year period during which many diversionary services and treatments occurred (1977–1979). Data is also studied from two counties similar to Bucks in youth population-Delaware and Montgomery counties. The results show significant changes within Bucks County: a 9 percent decrease in total court referrals while Delaware experienced a 63 percent increase and Montgomery a 28 percent increase; significant reduction of probation in Bucks, a slight reduction in Montgomery and a 28 percent increase in Delaware County; and most importantly in terms of service costs, institutional commitments increased only 17 percent in Bucks, while increasing 63 percent in Montgomery and 208 percent in Delaware. Data on total reported offenses (crime rates) does not indicate major differences among the three counties; rather there seems to be variation in the types of services and processing of troubled youth which have resulted in 45 percent lower costs for the juvenile probation services in Bucks County.     

Police authority and reform in Augustan Rome and nineteenth-century England

This paper examines the police reforms of Augustan Rome and nineteenth-century England against the back-ground of the sociohistorical conditions within which they occurred. It reveals that the localism of reforms in Rome and the centralizing reforms of England were part and parcel of the traditional and modern societies from which they developed. Although this analysis offers few, if any, unequivocal historical lessons concerning the local autonomy and public accountability of modern law enforcement, it does reveal one of its basic dilemmas. Today's police work rests upon a legal rational system of social organization. It is, nevertheless, carried out within the exigencies of local communities of which it is though to be responsive. This dualism between universalistic and particularistic principles underlies current discussions of crime control and order maintenance. Attempts to dissolve this dilemma by focusing upon crime control or order maintenance to the exclusion of the other are inadequate inasmuch as the dilemma belongs to the very structure of society. Consequently, solutions such as external review boards and monitoring agencies or civilian monitoring organizations seem more appropriate as a means of maintaining the presence of universal norms while at the same time increasing levels of public accountability.