China Internet going wild: Cyber-hunting versus privacy protection

The Internet is notoriously known to be the “human flesh search engine” in China when it is used against private individuals for the purpose of social shaming, monitoring and revenge. In such case of cyber witch hunting, personal information of the targeted individuals is often ruthlessly exposed and their lives are mercilessly disrupted. In the face of the growing resort to the human flesh search engine, the Beijing Court delivered the first ruling condemning this practice and affirming privacy rights for Chinese citizens at the end of 2008. This article discusses the trend of cyber-manhunt in China, with specific focus on the judgment of the Beijing Court. It points out the inadequacy in the ruling and argues that legislative enactment to protect personal information at the national level is essential in China.     

Experiences of Stalking Victims and Requests for Help in Three European Countries. A Survey

Previous research by the Modena Group on Stalking (MGS) regarding awareness and recognition of stalking by police officers and general practitioners using case scenarios showed significant differences across three countries. It was also hypothesized that victims used different pathways when seeking help. To explore the experience of requesting help by victims of stalking in different European countries a detailed survey was completed by 391 victims of stalking in Belgium (n = 145), Italy (n = 126) and Slovenia (n = 120). The research confirmed the significant intensity and duration of stalking and psychological distress for victims. Victims used several pathways to survive stalking. Some victims reported that informal interventions they or family/friends implemented were effective, but the majority had to have recourse to helping agencies. Significant differences in help seeking behaviour were found between the three countries. In Belgium victims contacted the police, as well as other helping agencies, more often and more precociously than in Italy and Slovenia. Restriction orders against the stalker were considered the most effective intervention. Police were regarded as the least supportive agency, taking victims less seriously, and not being particularly effective at stopping the stalkers. Police were ranked after family/friends, lawyers and colleagues, with regards effectiveness, except in Belgium, where Police’s effectiveness was ranked second after lawyers. Stalking often requires the mobilization of multiple helping agencies by victims and it is important that victims are aware of what help is available to them and that agencies become more sensitive to their needs.     

Law, Space, and Place: Reframing Comparative Law and Legal Anthropology

In her book Mapping Marriage Law in Spanish Gitano Communities (2006) , Susan Drummond challenges the disciplinary perspectives of comparative law and legal anthropology in her study of Gitano marriage practices. By reframing the way in which the "local" or "locale" is viewed—through an ethnographic study of Gitanos—she displaces the traditional boundaries ascribed to comparative law, with its focus on taxonomy and structure, and with legal anthropology's approach to culture. Her study not only elucidates how national and transnational law intersect, but highlights the complex interconnections between local law and the larger systems of law that attempt to regulate it. This detailed interdisciplinary depiction of the spatial and temporal dimensions of law demonstrates the importance of taking account of scale, projection, and representation that requires both comparative law and legal anthropology to rethink the nature of space and place and their relationship with law from both their macro- and microperspectives.     

Effectiveness of pupil diameter in a probable‐lie comparison question test for deception

Purpose. There were three objectives of this study: (1) To assess the possibility of using pupil diameter as an index of deception in the context of a comparison question polygraph test. (2) To determine if pupil diameter would make a significant contribution to an optimal multivariate classification equation in combination with the traditional predictor variables used in field polygraph practice. (3) We explored the possibility of replacing one or more of the traditional predictor variables with pupil diameter. Methods. We used a laboratory mock crime experiment with 24 participants, half of whom stole $20 (US) from a secretary's purse. Participants were tested with a comparison question test modelled after standard field practice. Physiological measures were taken with laboratory quality instrumentation. Features were extracted from the physiological measures. Those features were subjected to a number of different statistical analyses. Results. Innocent participants showed larger increases in pupil diameter in response to probable‐lie questions than to relevant questions. Guilty participants did not show differential responding to the question types. The additional of pupil diameter to a multivariate classification model approached, but did not reach significance. Subsequent analyses suggest that pupil diameter might be used to replace the traditional relative blood pressure measure. Conclusions. Pupil diameter was found to be a significant predictor variable for deception. Pupil diameter may be a possible replacement for the traditional relative blood pressure measure. Additional research to explore that possibility would seem to be warranted.     

Unusual suicide with a chainsaw

Described here is a case of suicide with the use of a chainsaw. A female suffering from schizophrenia committed suicide by an ingenious use of a chainsaw that resulted in the transection of her cervical spine and spinal cord. The findings of the resulting investigation are described and the mechanism of suicides with the use of a chainsaw is reviewed. A dry bone study was realized to determine the bone sections, the correlation between anatomic lesions and characteristics of chainsaw. The damage of organs and soft tissues is compared according to the kinds of chainsaw used.     

Sexual relationship power, intimate partner violence, and condom use among minority urban girls

This study examined the association between sexual relationship power, intimate partner violence, and condom use among African American and Hispanic urban girls. In this sample of 56 sexually active girls, 50% did not use condoms consistently and therefore were at higher risk for acquiring HIV or sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Teens who experienced more intimate partner violence had a significantly higher likelihood of inconsistent condom use and therefore a greater risk for HIV/STDs. Girls' sense of sexual control in their relationships was not directly associated with inconsistent condom use but was inversely related to verbal and emotional abuse. Interventions aimed at reducing HIV/STD risk for adolescent girls need to address patterns of dominance and control in adolescent relationships as well as multiple forms of partner violence. This suggests the need for multilevel intervention approaches that promote girls' agency and multiple ways to keep girls safe from perpetrators of partner abuse.     

Risk assessment in offenders with intellectual disability: a comparison across three levels of security

In mainstream offender samples, several risk assessments have been evaluated for predictive validity. This study extends this work to male offenders with intellectual disabilities. Participants from high-, medium-, and low-security settings, as well as community settings, were compared on a range of risk assessments. The Violence Risk Appraisal Guide, HCR-20-Historical Scale, the Risk Matrix 2000-C (combined risk), and the Emotional Problems Scales-Internalising discriminated between groups, with participants from high security having higher scores than those in medium security, who had higher scores than those in the community. The Violence Risk Appraisal Guide, all HCR-20 scales, the Short Dynamic Risk Scale, and the Emotional Problems Scales (Internalising and Externalising) showed significant areas under the curve for the prediction of violence. The Static-99 showed a significant area under the curve for the prediction of sexual incidents. The discussion reviews the value of these various scales to intellectual disability services.     

Policing Australia’s ‘heroin drought’: using an agent-based model to simulate alternative outcomes

Our paper examines how street-level drug markets adapt to a macro-level disruption to the supply of heroin, under three experimental conditions of street-level drug law enforcement: random patrol, hot-spot policing and problem-orientated policing. We utilize an agent-based model to explore the relative impact of abstractions of these three law enforcement strategies after simulating an ‘external shock’ to the supply of heroin to the street-level drug market. We use 3 years of data, which include the period of the ‘heroin drought’ in Melbourne (Australia) that commenced in late 2000 and early 2001, to measure changes in a selected range of crime and harm indicators under the three policing conditions. Our results show that macro-level disruptions to drug supply have a limited impact on street-level market dynamics when there is a ready replacement drug. By contrast, street-level police interventions are shown to vary in their capacity to alter drug market dynamics. Importantly, our laboratory abstraction of problem-orientated policing is shown to be the optimal strategy to disrupt street-level injecting-drug markets, reduce crimes and minimize harm, regardless of the type of drug being supplied to the market.

A Multi-mediation Model on the Relations of Bullying,Victimization, Identity,and Family with Adolescent Depressive Symptoms

This study investigated a multi-mediation model of the relationship between bullying behavior, peer victimization, personal identity, and family characteristics to adolescent depressive symptoms in 194 high school students, 12–18 years of age. In the first model, peer victimization mediated the relation between bullying behavior and depressive symptoms. In the second model, personal identity mediated the relation between peer victimization and depressive symptoms. In the final model, the two mediation models were combined. The relative influence of family characteristics on all variables in the two mediation models was studied using structural equation modeling. The results supported both mediation models and confirmed the influence of family characteristics on all variables in the mediation models. This study indicates that victimization by one’s peers has consequences for adolescents’ psychological health when their personal identity is affected. In addition, the study was able to model several processes in which family characteristics were related to adolescent depressive symptoms. Moreover, the final combined model (in which the two mediation models and the influence of family characteristics on all variables were confirmed) explained half of the variance in adolescent depressive symptoms.