Modeling the longitudinal impact of legal sanctions on narcotics use and property crime

Structural equation models are used to confirm the suppressive effects of legal sanctions, e.g., probation and parole, on narcotics use and property crime. Both concurrent and longitudinal effects of legal sanctions are tested within two different models, which together span the entire addiction career. The findings indicate that (1) the suppressive effects of legal sanctions are evident only when legal sanctions are operationalized as parole or probation officer contact where urine monitoring is utilized; (2) only concurrent suppressive effects are statistically significant, and longitudinal suppressive effects are not; (3) both narcotics use and property crime are suppressed by legal sanctions, although the latter is less responsive than the former to intervention by the criminal justice system; and (4) suppressive effects tend to be more pronounced later in the addiction career. The significance of the findings and the implications for criminological theory related to issues regarding surveillance effects are emphasized.     

Evaluation of Purkait's triangle method for determining sexual dimorphism

The identification of sex from the skeleton is an important demographic assessment in medicolegal investigations. Rama Purkait developed a method for estimating sex using measurements from a triangle defined by three points on the proximal end of the femur using skeletal material from Bhopal, India. This method was tested with measurements on 200 Indo-European and African American adult femora from the Terry collection using discriminant function analysis to determine if Purkait's method was valuable for determining sex in Americans. A side-by-side analysis was conducted of Purkait's "triangle method" and the maximum diameter of the femoral head to determine their relative value in assessing sexual dimorphism. In the study sample a single variable from Purkait's method provided 85.5% prediction accuracy, similar to 87% for the head diameter. Combining threshold values for a single variable from Purkait's method and the femoral head diameter raised the predictability to greater than 90% for both sexes.     

Reconsidering Peer Influences on Delinquency: Do Less Proximate Contacts Matter?

Much research on adolescent delinquency pivots on the notion of peer influence. The peer effect that is typically employed emphasizes the transmission of behaviors and attitudes between adolescents who are directly linked. In this paper, we argue that to rely solely on those direct social ties to capture peer influence oversimplifies the realities of adolescent society. We use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to show that indirect peer relations can exercise independent influences on adolescent delinquency. Adolescents actively draw on the examples of friends of friends, and even more distal peers, as they develop their repertoires of action and identity. We argue, however, that this behavior actually reflects adolescents’ ongoing struggle to impress their closest friends and to preserve their social circle. Indeed, the extent to which adolescents are willing to model the behavior of indirect contacts seems to decline as that behavior becomes more dissimilar from that of their close friends. Our findings dovetail with an account of the adolescent as a rational actor who struggles for social acceptance in a complex peer environment which offers conflicting behavioral models.

Multiple stable isotope characterization as a forensic tool to distinguish acid scavenger samples

Acid scavengers are frequently used as stabilizer compounds in a variety of applications. When used to stabilize volatile compounds such as nerve agents, the lower volatility and higher stability of acid scavengers make them more persistent in a post-event forensic setting. Compound-specific isotope analysis of carbon, nitrogen, and hydrogen in three acid-scavenging compounds (N,N-diethylaniline, tributylamine, and triethylamine) were used as a tool for distinguishing between different samples. Combined analysis of multiple isotopes improved sample resolution, for instance differentiation between triethylamine samples improved from 80% based on carbon alone to 96% when combining with additional isotope data. The compound-specific methods developed here can be applied to instances where these compounds are not pure, such as when mixed with an agent or when found as a residue. Effective sample matching can be crucial for linking compounds at multiple event sites or linking a supply inventory to an event.     

An inconclusive digital audio authenticity examination: a unique case

This case report sets forth an authenticity examination of 35 encrypted, proprietary-format digital audio files containing recorded telephone conversations between two codefendants in a criminal matter. The codefendant who recorded the conversations did so on a recording system he developed; additionally, he was both a forensic audio authenticity examiner, who had published and presented in the field, and was the head of a professional audio society's writing group for authenticity standards. The authors conducted the examination of the recordings following nine laboratory steps of the peer-reviewed and published 11-step digital audio authenticity protocol. Based considerably on the codefendant's direct involvement with the development of the encrypted audio format, his experience in the field of forensic audio authenticity analysis, and the ease with which the audio files could be accessed, converted, edited in the gap areas, and reconstructed in such a way that the processes were undetected, the authors concluded that the recordings could not be scientifically authenticated through accepted forensic practices.     

Hyperbolic Time Discounting, Offender Time Preferences and Deterrence

Objectives

This study examines the phenomena of intertemporal decision making??decisions involving costs and benefits that occur at different points in time. Two models of intertemporal time discounting are the exponential and hyperbolic models. Previous work in behavioral economics and psychology is relied on to make the case that the discounting of delayed outcomes (both gains and losses) may be hyperbolic rather than exponential.

Methods

Data were collected from 478 university undergraduate students who responded to a hypothetical scenario involving drunk driving. The potential gains and losses of drunk driving were delayed at five different intervals from ??tonight?? to ??10?years from now??, respondents were also asked to provide estimates of both the risk they would get caught if they did drink and drive and the probability that they would drink and drive under the conditions described in the scenario.

Results

Our results imply that individuals have hyperbolic time preferences for both rewards and gains, and that??unlike severity, the effect of which may be muted by risk??these discount functions appear to be operating independently of changes in the risk certainty of detection. Consistent with hyperbolic discounting, for example, when the benefit of drinking and driving was delayed by 1?week the self-reported intention to drink and drive increased by nearly 10%, however, when the gain was delayed by one month, intentions to drink and drive increased by only 4%. A smaller effect was found for delayed costs.

Conclusions

Avenues for additional research include the possibility of negative discount rates and the implications of persons?? awareness of their discount rates.     

Radiocarbon Analysis of Human Remains: A Review of Forensic Applications

Radiocarbon analysis of organic materials, with the comparison of values with those of the post‐1950 modern bomb curve, has proven useful in forensic science to help evaluate the antiquity of evidence. Applications are particularly helpful in the study of human remains, especially with those displaying advanced decomposition of soft tissues. Radiocarbon analysis can reveal if the remains relate to the modern, post‐1950 era and if so, also provide information needed to evaluate the death and birth date. Sample selection and interpretation of results must be guided by knowledge of the formation and remodeling of different human tissues, as well as contextual information and the approximate age at death of the individual represented. Dental enamel does not remodel and thus captures dietary radiocarbon values at the time of juvenile formation. Most other human tissues do remodel but at differing rates and therefore collectively offer key information relative to the estimation of the death date.