A new method for detecting diatoms in human organs

A new method for diatom detection is described. It includes an ultrasonic irradiation procedure with the use of a tissue solubilizer. The method is easy to carry out and is less time-consuming than previous techniques.     

A re-examination of the MMPI-2 aggressiveness and immaturity indices in law enforcement screening

This study reports an analysis of Bartol's (1991) Immaturity Index and Hargrave and associates' (1988) Aggressiveness Index as a measure of police conduct. The correlations between the supervisory ratings and the Immaturity and Aggressiveness indices were examined for 1020 law enforcement officers. The results showed that Immaturity Index was related to termination for failure to complete training and insubordination. The Aggressiveness Index was related to a termination for failure to complete training and several other problematic police behaviors, but was not found to be specifically linked with acts of aggression. Implications for using these two indices in law enforcement selection are discussed. Authors' Note: Cary Rostow, Ph.D. is president of Matrix, Inc., Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and is in private practice in Baton Rouge. Robert Davis, Ph.D., is executive vice-president and director of science, research, and development for Matrix, Inc., and has a private practice in Baton Rouge. James B. Pinston, Ph.D., is a clinical neuropsychologist within the department of neurology at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center and School of Medicine in Shreveport, Louisiana. Dennis R. Combs, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Tulsa. Dennis R. Dixon, M.A., is currently a doctoral student at Louisiana State University.     

Clinical forensic medicine and its main fields of activity from the foundation of the German Society of Legal Medicine until today

The fields mainly covered by clinical forensic medicine are subject to time-related changes which are described on the basis of the German literature of the 20th century. Some fields of forensic sexual medicine (diagnosis of virginity, proof of criminal abortion, potentia coeundi, potentia generandi, potentia concipiendi) have become less important in the daily work of medicolegal institutes, whereas victims of rape and sexual abuse continue to form a major part of the forensic examination material in the German-speaking countries. The evaluation of suspected physical child abuse has grown in importance since the 60s, and it is essentially the merit of Elisabeth Trube-Becker that this problem is now dealt with also in scientific medicine. More recently, medicolegal experts are increasingly confronted with further groups of persons: victims of domestic violence, abused/neglected seniors, refugees from countries where torture is used. A new special field, which established itself only in the 90s, is the estimation of age with regard to the criminal responsibility of suspects who have no identity papers or pretend to have none. A phenomenon frequently observed in the last two decades is the non-accidental self-infliction of injuries. Whereas in the first half of the 20th century the motive for self-mutilation was typically to evade military service, this category of injury was later mainly seen in the context of insurance fraud; more recently most forensically relevant self-inflicted injuries refer to simulated offenses (fictitious sexual offenses and robbery, attacks allegedly having a political background). One of the traditional fields of clinical forensic medicine continues to be the evaluation of victims and suspects following bodily harm and attempted homicides. In the field of civil law medicolegal experts are particularly often concerned with controversial consequences of traffic accidents (e.g. alleged whiplash injuries after rear-end collisions at low velocities).     

Y-chromosomal STR haplotypes in a population sample from continental Greece, and the islands of Crete and Chios

Eight Y chromosome short tandem repeat (STR) polymorphisms (DYS19, DYS385, DYS389I, DYS389II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, and DYS393) were analyzed in the sample of 117 unrelated Albanian males living in Kosovo. A general STR allelic frequency pattern in the Albanian population from Kosovo corresponds to other European populations. Fourty six haplotypes were observed in single copy. The most frequent haplotypes were (DYS19-DYS385-DYS389I-DYS389II-DYS390-DYS391-DYS392-DYS393) 14-11/11-13-29-24-11-13-13 (10.26%), 14-14/17-12-28-24-10-11-12 (9.40%), 13-16/18-13-30-24-10-11-13 (9.40%), and 14-17/17-13-31-24-10-11-13 (9.40%).     

Digital Realism and the Governance of Spam as Cybercrime

Spamming is a major threat to the formation of public trust in the Internet and discourages broader civil participation in the emerging information society. To the individual, spams are usually little more than a nuisance, but collectively they expose Internet users to a panoply of new risks while threatening the communications and commercial infrastructure. Spamming also raises important questions of criminological interest. On the one hand it is an example of a pure cybercrime – a harmful behaviour mediated by the Internet that is the subject of criminal law, while on the other hand, it is a behaviour that has in practice been most effectively contained technologically by the manipulation of ‘code’ – but at what cost? Because there is not an agreed meaning as to what constitutes ‘online order’ that renders it simply and uncritically reducible to a set of formulae and algorithms that can be subsequently imposed (surreptitiously) by technological processes. The imposition of order online, as it is offline, needs to be subject to critical discussion and also checks and balances that have their origins in the authority of law. This article deconstructs and analyses spamming behaviour, before exploring the boundaries between law and code (technology) as governance in order to inform and stimulate the debate over the embedding of cybercrime prevention policy within the code itself.