The effect of household corrosive substances on latent fingermark development in the context of deliberate corrosive substance attacks

Corrosive substance attacks (CSA) are a prevalent issue in the UK with 525 offenses involving a corrosive substance reported to the police in the year ending March 2022. Easy availability, low cost, and concealability in public are common reasons for choosing a corrosive substance as a weapon. The Metropolitan Police revealed that 68% of 1849 CSA cases resulted in no suspect identified or evidential difficulties. There is limited research into the effect of corrosive substances on latent fingermarks. This study aimed to determine the potential for fingermarks to be recovered from surfaces exposed to a household corrosive substance within the context of a deliberate CSA. Natural and sebaceous-loaded fingermarks were exposed to Domestos bleach, Harpic limescale remover (hydrochloric acid-based) and lemon juice. Harpic limescale remover had the most detrimental effect, with only 7.1% of fingermarks (n = 378) exposed being identifiable (defined as sufficient clear ridge detail for identification) after enhancement, followed by bleach with only 10.3% of fingermarks (n = 378) identifiable. Lemon juice had the least detrimental effect on fingermarks, with 40.5% fingermarks (n = 378) identifiable compared to 53.4% for the controls (not exposed to any substance; n = 378). Throughout the study, fewer natural fingermarks were identifiable after exposure to corrosive substances compared to sebaceous fingermarks which was as expected. Overall, this study demonstrated that there is potential to recover latent fingermarks, depending on their composition, following exposure to a household corrosive substance. This area warrants further research to establish best practice to maximize the potential to recover identifiable fingermarks.     

我国近年来反腐败问题研究综述

本文从腐败本质问题界定、腐败行为特征及其成因、腐败测度、反腐败策略四个方面,对我国反腐败问题进行了文献综述。本文提出,腐败是滥用公共权力谋取特殊权利的一切行为。当前我国腐败行为呈现出绝对权力腐败猖獗、从滥用公共权力向滥用公共资源转变、腐败手段更加复杂和隐蔽、灰色腐败倾向明显等新特征。滥用权力的欲望、官员的经济理性、公共权力寻租、行政监督缺位、行政道德失范是腐败产生的主要原因。中国应创新腐败测度方法,科学测度腐败程度,推进反腐国际化。客观权衡腐败零容忍、全面反腐、权力反腐的利弊,综合使用经济处罚、道德教育与法律惩处手段,加强对腐败行为的行政监督。     

Clarifying the complex chemistry of cobalt(II) thiocyanate-based tests for cocaine using single-crystal X-ray diffraction and spectroscopic techniques

Cobalt(II) thiocyanate-based tests are routinely used to screen cocaine products, with the formation of a blue species interpreted as a positive response. An array of other organic bases has been identified as false positives – including well-documented cocaine product adulterant lidocaine and its salt. False positives prompt continued test development, though improvements are hindered by unresolved product structures and reaction pathways. Toward greater clarity, cobalt(II) thiocyanate reactions with cocaine hydrochloride, along with lidocaine and its salt, were investigated using multiple analytical techniques. Reactions involving cocaine hydrochloride yielded glassy, amorphous blue material while reactions of lidocaine hydrochloride monohydrate produced larger, needle-like crystals whose structure was determined via single-crystal X-ray diffraction to be an ion pair (Hlidocaine⁺)₂([Co(SCN)₄]²⁻)·H₂O. While the blue precipitate isolated from reactions involving cocaine hydrochloride was unsuitable for crystallographic structure determination, comparative ultraviolet–visible, attenuated total reflectance infrared, and Raman spectroscopic analysis – along with elemental analysis – supports that this solid is comprised of a comparable ion pair (Hcocaine⁺)₂[Co(SCN)₄]²⁻. Pink crystals isolated from lidocaine reaction vessels were identified as coordination compounds cis-[CoL₂(SCN)₂] and trans-[CoL₂(SCN)₂] where L = lidocaine, while pink crystals from both cocaine hydrochloride and lidocaine hydrochloride monohydrate reaction vessels were the coordination polymer trans-[Co(H₂O)₂(SCN)₂]·H₂O. The results presented herein enable reaction optimization to favor a desired product, whether ion pair or coordination species.     

From General to Commissioner to General—On the Popular State of Policing in South Africa

Less than two decades after the end of apartheid, South Africa is witnessing a range of policy interventions that almost iconoclastically challenge the premises of democratic governance. Police military ranks have been reintroduced and an exemplary postapartheid law governing the use of lethal force has also been amended in favor of police discretion. Simultaneously, however, community policing, a benchmark for democratic policing, is being rolled out on unprecedented scale. This article argues that the seemingly contradictory mobilization of militarized policing and popular civilian institutional forms has a definite logic and captures the postcolonial condition of policing in South Africa: a populist‐oriented ANC administration has allowed practices of popular policing underwritten by a desire for a forceful state to capture the law that had previously restrained this kind of policing. The result is a violent but intimate relationship between police and people, a situation in which the law is estranged from itself and normalized into the informal realm of private policing.     

Is sexually abusive behaviour in personality disordered inpatients analogous to sexual offences committed prior to hospitalization?

Abstract

Sexually abusive behaviour by personality disordered patients presents a serious threat to the integrity of staff–patient relationships and the safety of other residents. The occurrence of such behaviour is also problematic for the offending patient, as it may impact on perceived treatment needs and their access to the community. This paper reports on a study of sexually abusive behaviour in a high security psychiatric hospital. It also examines the relationship between these behaviours and patients’ history of sexual offending. The results showed a high frequency of low-severity sexually abusive behaviour and no significant associations between sexually abusive behaviour during hospitalization and sexual offence history. These findings imply that low-severity sexually abusive behaviour within secure settings may be determined, partly, by environmental conditions. This sexual abuse may also be functionally dissimilar to severe sexual abuse perpetrated in the community. The meaning and determinants of sexual abuse within secure settings must be scrutinized carefully and comprehensively before they are considered analogous to previous sexual offences.     

Protesters,Parliamentarians, Policymakers: The Experiences of Australian Green MPs

This article details the distinctive style and political commitments that Green members of parliament (MPs) bring to representative democracy in Australia. Based on in-depth interviews with 16 sitting federal and state Green MPs, it examines the extent to which the political culture, grassroots organisation and values of this left-libertarian party influence the parliamentary role orientations and legislative behaviour of its MPs, and how this fits with existing research on parliamentary representatives. The analysis reveals mixed results: while the legislative priorities and representative focus of MPs appear to be influenced more by previous social movement and parliamentary experience rather than overarching party orientations, the party's culture has had a strong impact on MPs' views regarding issues of conscience and their style of representation. Drawing on the comparative experience of Green parties throughout Western Europe, this article utilises the prism of role orientations to assess the conflicting imperatives Australian Green MPs face in staying true to their movement origins while their party becomes increasingly professional and influential in the parliamentary arena.     

Attachment,anger and anxiety of male sexual offenders

Abstract

Common factors underlie sexual and non-sexual aggression, and they co-occur at high rates. This study reports on whether Dutton et al.'s model of partner abuse (1994) also predicts sexual offender status. Incarcerated sexual offenders (n?=?144) and non-sexual offenders (n?=?34) completed a voluntary, anonymous survey of attachment, anger and anxiety measures. Sexual offenders produced significantly higher insecure attachment (p?=?0.001), anger (p?<?0.05) and generalized anxiety (p?<?0.01) scores than non-sexual offenders. Intended multivariate analyses were prohibited by multicollinearity between predictors. Although insecure attachment, anxiety and anger distinguish sexual from non-sexual offenders, their predictive power in a multivariate model is yet to be determined. Awareness of the co-occurrence of sexual and non-sexual violence would improve assessment and treatment approaches for professionals in both arenas.     

Increased risk of fatal intoxication and polypharmacy among psychiatric patients at death

Patients suffering from psychiatric disorders have an excess mortality and a shorter life span expectancy compared to the general population. Furthermore, they are treated with multiple drugs and are known to have an increased risk of drug abuse. In this study, we aimed at investigating the pharmaceutical drug and drug of abuse profiles of the deceased included in the Danish prospective autopsy‐based forensic study on psychiatric patients, SURVIVE. Using the postmortem systematic toxicological analysis results, we identified 129 different consumed compounds in our population (n = 443). Polypharmacy (≥5 compounds) was detected in 39.5% of the deceased. Deceased with a psychiatric diagnosis or who died from a fatal intoxication had significantly more compounds at the time of their death compared to having either no psychiatric diagnosis or another cause of death, respectively. Evidence of drug abuse was present, as 29.8% of our total population had consumed either methadone or illicit drugs of abuse, excluding tetrahydrocannabinol. Of those deceased with a psychiatric diagnosis, 33.6% had either consumed methadone or illicit drugs of abuse, a greater number than those without a psychiatric diagnosis. Fatal intoxication was the most frequent cause of death (40.6%) with methadone as the major intoxicant. Here, we found that those without a psychiatric diagnosis had fewer fatal pharmaceutical drug intoxications compared to the psychiatric diagnosis groups. Our findings add further context to understanding the excess mortality of psychiatric patents, since there is an increased occurrence of fatal intoxication, polypharmacy, and drug abuse in this population.