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.     

Physical restraint in a therapeutic setting; a necessary evil?

Physical restraint of people experiencing mental health problems is a coercive and traumatic procedure which is only legally permitted if it is proportionate to the risk presented. This study sought to examine the decision-making processes used by mental health staff involved in a series of restraint episodes in an acute care setting. Thirty nurses were interviewed either individually or in focus groups to elicit their views on restraint and experience in specific incidents. Four factors which influenced the decision to restrain were identified: contextual demands; lack of alternatives; the escalatory effects of restraint itself; and perceptions of risk. While some of these factors are amenable to change through improvements in practice, training and organisational culture, nurses viewed restraint as a necessary evil, justified on the basis of the unpredictable nature of mental illness and the environment in which they worked.     

“This case is about you and your future”: Towards Judgments for Children

A handful of ‘child-friendly’ judgments have emerged in the UK in recent years, attempting to adopt a child-centred approach to the decision-making stage of the legal process. Most notable is Sir Peter Jackson's judgment in Re A: Letter to a Young Person which, in taking the form of a letter to the child, has been applauded as a model of how to achieve ‘child friendly justice’. This article examines how and why the form and presentation of judicial decisions is an important aspect of children's access to justice, considering not just the potential but the duty of judges to enhance children's status and capacities as legal citizens through judgment writing. We identify four potential functions of judgments written for children (communicative, developmental, instructive and legally transformative), and call for a radical reappraisal of the way in which judgments are constructed and conveyed with a view to promoting children's access to justice.     

Welfare Nationalism and Popular Support for Raising the Child Allowance: Evidence from a Norwegian Survey Experiment

Refugee and labour immigration have placed the issue of immigrants’ access to welfare benefits high on the political agenda. This article explores how voter preferences for increases in the child benefit change when respondents are reminded about immigrants’ access to benefits. The survey experiment shows that information about newly arrived immigrants’ access to child benefit has only a small impact on support for increasing the child allowance. By contrast, information about labour migrants’ access to benefits for children living in another European Union country has a strong impact, and the observed sensitivity to this cue is not to the same extent confined to respondents who otherwise support welfare dualism.     

Petechial Hemorrhages and Ethanol in Deaths from Intoxication

Petechiae in conjunctivae and in the palpebrae/skin of the eyelids are of particular interest for the forensic pathologist, because of their association with pressure on the neck. They have been described in the eyelids of intoxicated persons both in case reports and in text books of forensic pathology. We studied 590 deaths caused by intoxication, and 75 had petechiae either in the conjunctivae, the eyelids, or in both locations. We examined the influence of drugs and ethanol on the location of the petechial hemorrhages in these deaths. Deaths with ethanol in blood and in urine/vitreous humor more often had petechiae in both locations than those without. This association was statistically significant, independent of body position and livor mortis. No association between the location of petechiae, medicinal drugs, or narcotics was found. These results suggest that ethanol may contribute to the development of petechial hemorrhages in deaths from intoxication.     

Fluorescence Imaging of Posterior Spiracles from Second and Third Instars of Forensically Important Chrysomya rufifacies (Diptera: Calliphoridae),

Entomological protocols for aging blowfly (Diptera: Calliphoridae) larvae to estimate the time of colonization (TOC) are commonly used to assist in death investigations. While the methodologies for analyzing fly larvae differ, most rely on light microscopy, genetic analysis, or, more rarely, electron microscopy. This pilot study sought to improve resolution of larval stage in the forensically important blowfly Chrysomya rufifacies using high‐content fluorescence microscopy and biochemical measures of developmental marker proteins. We established fixation and mounting protocols, defined a set of measurable morphometric criteria and captured developmental transitions of 2nd instar to 3rd instar using both fluorescence microscopy and anti‐ecdysone receptor Western blot analysis. The data show that these instars can be distinguished on the basis of robust, nonbleaching, autofluorescence of larval posterior spiracles. High‐content imaging techniques using confocal microscopy, combined with morphometric and biochemical techniques, may therefore aid forensic entomologists in estimating TOC.     

'Your personality is the intervention': a grounded theory of mental health nurses’ beliefs about hope and experiences of fostering hope within a secure setting

Hope is an important factor in psychological resilience and change, and recovery from mental health difficulties. Recently, there has been an increased focus on recovery-oriented practice within forensic mental health settings. Several policies include calls for mental health practitioners to inspire hope for recovery in the individuals they work with. However, there is little suggestion of how to implement such recommendations in practice or research exploring how staff foster hope in forensic settings. This study used grounded theory to explore nurses’ perspectives and experiences of hope within a medium secure setting. A model was developed from the data that integrated nurses’ beliefs about hope, practices to develop service users’ hope and the emotional impact of this work. The nurses’ values played a significant role in their work to develop hope. Recommendations are made to help manage the emotional impact and address challenges unique to fostering hope within forensic settings.     

Actuarial risk assessment: Reflections on an emerging social-scientific tool

The purpose of this paper is to highlight recent developments in the practice of empirical social research, paying particular attention to the relationship between social-science practice, social-control strategies, and the role of interpretive frame-works. The essay describes how the social-scientific emphasis on quantification within a value-neutral framework corresponds to an overall reluctance within the social sciences to evaluate the phenomena of social life within an historical and moral context. Within this framework, it is argued that actuarial risk assessment, as a social science practice, meets the managerial needs of advanced industrial societies by legitimating interpretive frameworks which focus primarily on prediction as the main criterion in understanding social processes and by producing concrete technologies which facilitate the management effort. This essay calls upon quantitative social scientists to reflect upon the ways in which our practices and products may inadvertently project value positions that ought not be promoted without critical evaluation. This essay won first place in the 1998 American Society of Criminology Graduate Student Paper Competition sponsored by the Division on Critical Criminology. I wish to thank Drs. Patrick Akard, Henry J. Steadman, and John Monahan for commenting on an earlier draft of this essay.