Evaluation of a Visualization Assay for Blood on Forensic Evidence

In forensics, bloodstains on dark fabrics might be invisible for the naked eye. Although several visualization, presumptive, and confirmatory blood tests have been developed, all have one or more disadvantages, especially on DNA analysis. We report here the use of a visualization assay that can visually detect blood drops up to 1/20 dilution. In this assay, the fabric is placed between two wet filter papers and covered by glass surfaces on both sides. Pressure is applied on the glass surfaces in which bloodstains transfer onto the filter papers through capillary forces. Detected stains can be tested with other more sensitive presumptive blood tests performed on the filter paper. Even more, DNA analysis can be performed on the transferred bloodstains. The presented visualization assay is easy to perform, extremely cheap, requires little hands on time, and does not affect bloodstain pattern analysis.     

Contests Among Bureaucrats

This paper deals with double lobbying: several bureaucratsparticipate in joint lobbying to get a high total departmental budget, butthey also engage in antagonistic lobbying to reap as high a share of thetotal budget as possible. The antagonistic lobbyingconstitutes a contest among the bureaucrats. This papercharacterizes the Nash equilibria in lobbying and shows inwhich way exogenously fixed bureaucratic incomes induce thesame or different lobbying behavior as incentive incomes.     

Crimes against children in nineteenth-century France

Abuse of children is not entirely a modern phenomenon but the definition and classification of abusive practices has changed. Modern concepts of child abuse date only from the 1880s in France. Child abuse in twentieth-century terms of emotional and physical assault, neglect, abandonment, and sexual molestation was not considered a crime during most of the past century. Prior to the 1880s, only two acts, abortion and infanticide, constituted crimes against children. Child abandonment, rather than a crime, was the state supported, societally acceptable alternative to abortion and infanticide. After abandonment, malnourishment and neglect of these children, even to the point of death, likewise were not crimes. With changes in attitudes of the 1880s, parental neglect, assault, and starvation of children became defined as child abuse as did perceived immoral behavior of the parents such as habitual drunkenness and debauchery. Under these new definitions of abuse, state officials could deprive parents of their legal rights and make the children wards of the state for their own protection. The state becamein loco parentis. This essay explores the changing perceptions of child abuse, and the increasing state intervention for the care of abused children after the 1880s.     

Does Europe Need a Constitution?

Abstract: In what has become known as the ‘Maastricht II’ debate the call for a European constitution plays a great part. Often it is even expected to provide the solution to Europe's democracy problem. This paper looks at the calls for a constitution and asks how far they are already met by the Treaties and what consequences fully meeting them would have for the Union and the Member States.     

Patient information on drug therapy. A problem of medical malpractice law: between product safety and user safety

Medicinal products are associated with risks as well as potential therapeutic benefits. This is reflected by the legal requirements for patient information on drug therapy which can be differentiated into general product information, regulated by pharmaceutical (i. e. product safety) law, and individual patient information on the treatment with the product, which is subject to medical malpractice law. The physician's duty to inform the patient comprises therapeutic information as well as information required for informed consent. Therapeutic information intends to empower the patient to comply with the requirements of treatment and to protect him/her against preventable danger and risk; it is part of the medical treatment, aimed at the individual patient and his/her personal situation. Information required for informed consent enables the patient to a self-determined decision on the treatment offered; it can be divided into information on the course of treatment and risk information. Product information and treatment information complement each other; the former should be the basis of individual information on the concrete treatment, provided by the physician in a mandatory oral conversation with the patient. Product information cannot replace the physician's individual information about the treatment.     

Ricochet Behavior on Glass—Critical Ricochet Angles,Ricochet Angles,and Deflection Angles

For shooting scene reconstruction purposes, knowledge about the ricochet behavior of bullets provides valuable information. In this study, the critical ricochet angles of four cartridge types were established on plain float glass. The estimates of the critical ricochet angles varied between cartridge types and were 21.0° for .32 Auto FMJ bullets, 15.8° for 9 mm Luger FMJ bullets, 17.6° for .45 Auto FMJ bullets, and 21.3° for 9 mm Luger, Action NP bullets. The corresponding ricochet and deflection angles per incidence angle varied depending on the state of the ricocheted bullets. The mean ricochet angles are always lower than the corresponding angles of incidence, and the mean ricochet angles for the FMJ bullets with undamaged jackets are lower than those of bullets where the jacket is either damaged or the bullet partially ricocheted and partially perforated. Mean ricochet angles are lower for undamaged FMJ bullets than for undamaged Action NP bullets.     

Gerhard oder Helmut? ‚Unpolitische’ Kandidateneigenschaften und ihr Einfluss auf die Wahlentscheidung bei der Bundestagswahl 1998

This article examines to what degree the voting decision in 1998 was affected by personal, ‘nonpolitical’ qualities of the two chancellor candidates, i.e. Gerhard Schroeder and Helmut Kohl: personal integrity, physical attractiveness, and family life. Drawing on the German national post election study 1998, it is demonstrated that the two candidates’ personal qualities had in fact a significant impact on the voting decision. Differentiating between several personal attributes, personal integrity proves to be somewhat more important than truly nonpolitical attributes such as the physical attractiveness or the candidates’ family life. All in all, hypotheses on personalization receive support from the analyses presented in this article.     

When Citizens Fight Back: Justice Sensitivity and Resistance to Political Reform

A considerable number of individuals show resistance to reform, whereas others, although similarly affected, do not react in a resistant way at all. Based on research showing that people differ concerning how sensitive they are toward being a victim of injustice (victim justice sensitivity), we argued that people high in victim justice sensitivity perceive a reform more as an illegitimate limitation to their freedom resulting in more reactance. Consequently, people high in victim justice sensitivity should show more resistance to reform. We conducted three studies to test these assumptions. Our studies revealed that physicians (healthcare reform, Study 1) and students (introduction of tuition fees, Studies 2 and 3) with higher victim justice sensitivity experienced more reactance and thus showed more resistance to reform. The implications of these results for the implementation of political reforms are discussed.     

Neither decline nor sclerosis: The organisational structure of the German environmental movement

The conventional view of the life‐course of social movements is that they institutionalise, develop hierarchical structures and, as a consequence, de‐radicalise. This article assesses this image by examining the recent history of the German environmental movement, using two surveys of national and Berlin‐based environmental groups. The analysis suggests that there are no indications of a decline or sclerosis in the movement. Contrary to what some observers have claimed, we find at least a stable number of groups, an increase in the size of their membership and other resources, as well as the maintenance of a decentralised movement structure. Moreover, empirical evidence does not lend support to the idea that the movement, at the aggregate level, has been pacified in terms of its protest.