The role of respondent gender and sexual orientation in shaping punitive attitudes and perceptions of responsibility for same- and opposite-sex student-teacher relationships

ABSTRACT

The sexual double standard posits that men and women are perceived differently for their sexual experiences, including experiences of sexual violence and misconduct. This study explores these gendered perceptions for situations involving teacher-student sexual contact where the student is a minor. A quasi-experimental vignette design (n?=?648 respondents), where the gender of the teacher and student, is used to explore how both same and opposite sex teacher-student gender dyads shape perceptions of the teacher and student, including responsibility, positive outcomes for the student, and punitive attitudes. We found that men are less likely to hold the teacher responsible and more likely to indicate positive student outcomes while women are more punitive toward the teacher. Respondent sexual orientation largely did not influence perceptions. We situate these findings in the literature on child sexual abuse involving authority figures and the implications for theory are discussed.     

Medicolegal death investigator workplace safety hazards: A scoping review of the literature

In the United States, medicolegal death investigation practices and policies pertaining to sudden unexpected deaths are mandated by state government. Practices vary across states, which contributes to inconsistency in job prerequisites and training. In preparation for a study focused on occupational safety and health of medicolegal death investigators in their on-scene and follow-up activities, a scoping review was conducted to document known occupational safety risks and health-related conditions associated with death investigation. Searches used Boolean and subject heading operators both broad and narrow in scope, and search terms included scene responder, hazard, investigator, forensic pathology, injury, and safety. Twenty-five articles met inclusion criteria, which included seventeen survey-mixed method designs, two systematic reviews, five quasi-experimental designs, and one case study. Twelve articles addressed mental health and eleven focused on risks associated with infectious disease. One article addressed the risk of chemical exposure from cyanide among autopsy personnel (including forensic pathologists) and nine included a wide range of employees within the setting of medical examiner or coroner offices. One article, addressing burnout, included employees in a forensic science laboratory setting as well as medicolegal death investigators and two articles included forensic pathologists and medicolegal death investigators. Only one article addressed medicolegal death investigators specifically. Articles addressing occupational and environmental hazards of medicolegal death investigators associated with musculoskeletal, respiratory, cardiovascular, radiological, nuclear, electrical, or explosive threats were not identified. There is little published about safety risks inherent in conducting death investigations. Research is needed to adequately inform health promotion and injury prevention strategies.     

Forensic Informativity of ~3000 bp of Coding Sequence of Domestic Dog mtDNA

The discriminatory power of the noncoding control region (CR) of domestic dog mitochondrial DNA alone is relatively low. The extent to which the discriminatory power could be increased by analyzing additional highly variable coding regions of the mitochondrial genome (mtGenome) was therefore investigated. Genetic variability across the mtGenome was evaluated by phylogenetic analysis, and the three most variable ~1 kb coding regions identified. We then sampled 100 Swedish dogs to represent breeds in accordance with their frequency in the Swedish population. A previously published dataset of 59 dog mtGenomes collected in the United States was also analyzed. Inclusion of the three coding regions increased the exclusion capacity considerably for the Swedish sample, from 0.920 for the CR alone to 0.964 for all four regions. The number of mtDNA types among all 159 dogs increased from 41 to 72, the four most frequent CR haplotypes being resolved into 22 different haplotypes.     

Abolishing the Death Penalty: An Untested Legal Argument

This paper supplies the logical and substantive framework for an untested challenge to the legality of the death penalty in the United States. As such, it yields a novel strategy for appellants and supporting amici seeking review of capital cases in the United States Supreme Court. With twin reliance on the right of the people to reparation for harm wrongly inflicted by others and their constitutional right to Due Process of Law under the Fourteenth Amendment, this paper advances the argument that the mere possibility of a wrongful execution yields an imperative for abolishment of capital punishment by the Court.