Supporting Accountability in the Field of Mediation

Over time, many fields of work - law, medicine, and teaching - matured from informal bodies of knowledge and skills, passed from one practitioner to another, into professions. In the process each began enumerating and affirming their intellectual and practical roots. Each also began testing practitioners to insure comprehension of relevant knowledge and an ability to demonstrate relevant skills. Family mediators in Canada have moved in this direction. In the United States, people who mediate interpersonal disputes also feel pressured to take additional steps to assure the quality of our work. This article summarizes what mediation organizations in the United States have done and could do to vouch for work in our field. But, taking additional steps calls for a clearer understanding of what a mediator should know and what they are expected to do. These two critical pieces of information remain nebulous. So, this article goes beyond describing ways of insuring accountability by also describing a recently completed job analysis, a tool frequently used in other fields of work to describe the skills and knowledge relevant to a particular job.     

Isolation of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) from saliva and forensic science samples containing saliva.

Saliva and saliva-stained materials were examined as potential sources of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) for DNA analysis and identity testing. In this paper, the authors demonstrate that DNA was isolated and DNA banding patterns suitable for DNA typing were obtained from fresh saliva and various saliva-stained materials, such as envelopes, buccal swabs, gags, and cigarettes. Furthermore, DNA and DNA banding patterns were obtained from actual forensic evidentiary samples containing mixed saliva/semen stains. The DNA banding patterns obtained from saliva or saliva-stained material were indistinguishable from the patterns obtained from blood or hair from the same individual. Intact DNA was readily isolated and DNA banding patterns were obtained from saliva stored at -20 degrees C and dried saliva stains stored under varying conditions. We conclude that saliva and saliva-stained material can be good sources of DNA for analysis and for DNA typing in certain forensic settings.     

Legal perceptions of forensic DNA profiling part I: a review of the legal literature

A forensic biologist is usually involved in the criminal justice system process somewhere between the police and the legal system, interacting in a practical context regularly and extensively with both. Forensic DNA research and development commonly involves initiatives that encroach into the neighbouring domains of the law enforcement or legal agencies. Despite this level of association, establishing meaningful cross-disciplinary communication and understanding within the justice system remains a challenge. As an example, there is an abundance of literature relating to forensic DNA profiling in legal and criminological periodicals. Such journals are perhaps outside the regular reading of forensic scientists and much of the legal discussion appears to go unnoticed. This situation is understandable; however, it is also undesirable particularly as forensic DNA developments are intertwined with significant changes in legislation and contentious issues of privacy, civil liberty and social justice. This paper attempts to address this shortcoming directly by summarising - from the viewpoint of a forensic scientist - some of the discussion in the legal literature. In particular the review focuses on discussion raising ideological and ethical concerns. Awareness of these views is of relevance to forensic science. It assists us to accurately place DNA evidence into context and to develop its role in achieving the broader criminal justice system objectives. Understanding the discussion also provides a way to enter the debate and communicate at an appropriate level the true potential of DNA to the legal community.     

Child abuse and chronic pain in a community survey of women

This study examined the relationship between a self-reported history of child physical and sexual abuse and chronic pain among women (N = 3,381) in a provincewide community sample. Chronic pain was significantly associated with physical abuse, education, and age of the respondents and was unrelated to child sexual abuse alone or in combination with physical abuse, mental disorder (anxiety, depression, or substance abuse), or low income. Number of health problems and mental health disorders did not mediate the relationship between physical abuse and chronic pain. Despite considerable evidence from the clinical literature linking exposure to child maltreatment and chronic pain in adulthood, this may well be the first population-based study to investigate this relationship for child physical and sexual abuse independently. The significant association between childhood history of physical abuse and pain in adulthood calls for a greater awareness of the potential for chronic pain problems associated with this type of maltreatment. Further research is needed to understand the mechanism for this complex relationship.