Forensic Performance Analysis of Load‐Limiting Devices in Automotive Seat Belt Retractors

The introduction of frontal airbags and seatbelt pretensioners for front seat occupants provided an opportunity to address injuries caused by seatbelt loading by introducing load‐limiters, which were intended to reduce belt loading while maintaining proper restraint. Investigation and forensic analysis of real‐world crashes identified that the implementation of these devices, in some circumstances, increased the potential of injury. This paper focuses on the trade‐offs of load‐limiters, that is, the reduction loading to the occupant versus the corresponding increase in seatbelt webbing and occupant movement. If the additional webbing introduced is not controlled, the risk of injury to the occupant is increased and could result in more frequent and severe injuries rather than a reduction. This paper quantifies the webbing introduced by load‐limiter activation through forensic analysis of the seatbelt involved in real‐world crashes and testing and assesses its effect on the injuries sustained by the occupant.     

A Randomized Trial of Probation Case Management for Drug-Involved Women Offenders

This paper reports findings from a clinical trial of a probation case management (PCM) intervention for drug-involved women offenders. Participants were randomly assigned to either PCM (n=92) or standard probation (n=91), and followed for 12 months using measures of substance abuse, psychiatric symptoms, social support and service utilization. Arrest data were collected from administrative datasets. The sample (N=183) included mostly African American (57%) and White (20%) women, with a mean age of 34.7 (SD = 9.2) and mean education of 11.6 years (SD = 2.1). Cocaine and heroin were the most frequently reported drugs of abuse, 86% reported prior history of incarceration, and 74% had children. Women assigned to both PCM and standard probation showed change over time in the direction of clinical improvement on 7 of 10 outcomes measured. However, changes observed for the PCM group were no different than those observed for the standard probation group. Higher levels of case management, drug abuse treatment, and probationary supervision may be required to achieve improved outcomes in this population.     

The "untreatability" of psychopathy and hospital commitment in the USA

One argument in support of a public policy of not subjecting persons with psychopathic disorders to civil or criminal commitment is that these disorders do not improve with treatment. This article examines the relationship between the assumption of untreatability of psychopathic disorders and outpatient civil commitment, inpatient civil commitment, and insanity acquittee commitment. Research on the treatability of psychopathy is reviewed and the treatment of conditions co-morbid with psychopathy is considered. Research evidence is insufficient to support the conclusion that psychopathy is improved, worsened or not affected by treatment. Evidence does support effective treatments for conditions that can be co-morbid with psychopathic disorders including impulsive aggression which can be interpreted as a manifestation of psychopathic disorder.The absence of evidence based treatment efficacy for psychopathic disorders is a logical reason for not subjecting individuals with only a psychopathic disorder to involuntary hospitalization. This assumption should not becloud the possibility of treatable co-morbid conditions which may or may not qualify for involuntary hospitalization. Where the primary mental disorder, for which an individual is involuntarily hospitalized, results in behavioral improvement, the continued presence of a psychopathic disorder itself, should not be sufficient reason to continue coerced confinement. Even so, where the primary disorder is incompletely treated, psychopathy can be considered a risk factor when deciding upon the appropriate time for discharge and when formulating a safe and effective after care plan.     

Inside the prison black box: toward a life course importation model of inmate behavior

The importation model is a venerable theoretical explanation for inmate misconduct but it has not been extended in nearly 50 years. The current study advances a life course importation model of inmate behavior where life events in childhood cascade to predict antisocial behavior during adolescence and misconduct occurring during periods of confinement. Based on data from 2,520 institutionalized male delinquents, ordinary least squares, logistic, and negative binomial regression models indicated that family background variables were largely predictive of multiple facets of delinquent careers. Negative binomial regression models of institutional misconduct indicated that proximal delinquent career variables were more consistently associated with misconduct than distal family background factors. Because institutional behavior can be understood as the importing of family deprivation experiences and chronic delinquency, the life course importation model is a useful conceptual framework to study crime over the life course, even including periods of confinement.     

The ability of the blowflies Calliphora vomitoria (Linnaeus), Calliphora vicina (Rob-Desvoidy) and Lucilia sericata (Meigen) (Diptera: Calliphoridae) and the muscid flies Muscina stabulans (Fallén) and Muscina prolapsa (Harris) (Diptera: Muscidae) to colonise buried remains

A novel method for the non-destructive age determination of a blood stain is described. It is based on the measurement of the visible reflectance spectrum of the haemoglobin component using a microspectrophotometer (MSP), spectral pre-processing and the application of supervised statistical classification techniques. The reflectance spectra of sample equine blood stains deposited on a glazed white tile were recorded between 1 and 37 days, using an MSP at wavelengths between 442 nm and 585 nm, under controlled conditions. The determination of age was based on the progressive change of the spectra with the aging of the blood stain. These spectra were pre-processed to reduce the effects of baseline variations and sample scattering. Two feature selection methods based on calculation of Fisher's weights and Fourier transform (FT) of spectra were used to create inputs into a statistical model based on linear discriminant analysis (LDA). This was used to predict the age of the blood stain and tested by using the leave-one-out cross validation method. When the same blood stain was used to create the training and test datasets an excellent correct classification rate (CCR) of 91.5% was obtained for 20 input frequencies, improving to 99.2% for 66 input frequencies. A more realistic scenario where separate blood stains were used for the training and test datasets led to poorer successful classification due to problems with the choice of substrate but nevertheless up to 19 days a CCR of 54.7% with an average error of 0.71 days was obtained.     

Implementation of the Americans with Disabilities Act in State Police and Highway Patrol Agencies: Results of a National Survey

This article provides an empirical analysis of Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) implementation within the law enforcement profession. Specifically, the study reports results from a national survey of state police/highway patrol agencies regarding practical implementation of the ADA. The data is analyzed in terms of population size and collective bargaining status. Results of this endeavor indicate that implementation of the ADA within law enforcement is difficult, especially as applied to the work of sworn personnel. These challenges are somewhat diminished when applied to non-sworn personnel such as dispatchers, administrators, and clerical personnel. The most substantial obstacles to implementation of the ADA within law enforcement is not associated with political officials or administrators. Instead, most arise from the lack of training and vague legislative language and regulatory standards. Smaller states and those without collective bargaining report lower levels of accommodation; however, there are few statistically significant differences in terms of population and collective bargaining.