Safety in Intimate Partnerships: The Role of Appraisals and Threat

For most intimate partners, safety is an important goal and basic need. How a partner perceives safety has an impact on what happens in the relationship, and this will in turn affect the responses from the other partner. Lack of safety can provoke negative emotions and actions which can lead to relationship deterioration and violence. However, little is known about this process from the insider’s perspective. In this study, constructivist grounded theory methods were used to analyze interviews from individuals (n = 37) to better understand individual appraisals of relational safety. The results include a theory that illustrates the process of relational safety and threat. This model articulates how certain relational conditions precede a perception of safety or threat, which then leads to corresponding actions. Implications of the model include a focus on interaction and context when assessing for safety and abuse, as well as the importance of self regulation.     

AMBER Alerts: Are School-Type Photographs the Best Choice for Identifying Missing Children?

We investigated how well adults could recognize the faces of children when they differed in appearance from photographs shown in an alert. College students in three studies saw a mock AMBER Alert while watching a television show. The children appeared either well-groomed with positive affect (as in a school photograph) or disheveled with poor affect (as abducted children might appear). Recognition accuracy and confidence were significantly lower when the faces differed in appearance from the alert displayed during the television show. Thus, AMBER Alerts may be more effective if they are accompanied by more than one type of photograph of a missing child, particularly if a photograph is shown in which the child does not appear well-groomed and happy.     

STR melting curve analysis as a genetic screening tool for crime scene samples

In this proof-of-concept study, high-resolution melt curve (HRMC) analysis was investigated as a postquantification screening tool to discriminate human CSF1PO and THO1 genotypes amplified with mini-STR primers in the presence of SYBR Green or LCGreen Plus dyes. A total of 12 CSF1PO and 11 HUMTHO1 genotypes were analyzed on the LightScanner HR96 and LS-32 systems and were correctly differentiated based upon their respective melt profiles. Short STR amplicon melt curves were affected by repeat number, and single-source and mixed DNA samples were additionally differentiated by the formation of heteroduplexes. Melting curves were shown to be unique and reproducible from DNA quantities ranging from 20 to 0.4 ng and distinguished identical from nonidentical genotypes from DNA derived from different biological fluids and compromised samples. Thus, a method is described which can assess both the quantity and the possible probative value of samples without full genotyping.     

Quantification of the subpubic angle in South Africans

Due to the high crime rate in South Africa, forensic anthropologists are increasingly approached to aid in the identification of skeletonized remains, with sex and population affinity assignment being some of the most critical tasks they face. For over a century, the pelvis has been known to be one of the most sexually dimorphic bones of the human body and the subpubic angle is one of the most accurate, albeit scarcely quantified, features thereof. Hence, the aim of this study was to quantify the size of the subpubic angle and compare it between male and female South Africans of African (black) and European (white) descent. One hundred and forty five (145) pelves were selected, consisting of 68 white (43 male and 25 female) and 77 black South Africans (44 male and 33 female), from the Raymond A. Dart Collection of Human Skeletons housed at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. Each of the pelves were articulated and placed into a custom built stand for photographing. Measures of the subpubic angle from these digital images were subjected to numerous statistical analyses. Results indicated that significant differences exist between the sexes, as well as between the two population groups. For black individuals it was found that males generally possessed a subpubic angle of 74.9° or less, with larger values being indicative of the female sex. For white individuals, subpubic angles of 81.4° and less indicated males whilst larger values indicated females, with an average accuracy of 86% for both population groups. These results illustrate the advantages of using the subpubic angle to assist in the estimation of sex and population affinity and also reinforce the need for population specific parameters to be applied.     

透视中国商标法

因为忽视中国现存商标的巨大价值和商标侵权对于中国企业的损害，并且商标权保护的客体不包含创造性工作的这一特点，对中国知识产权保护进行研究的美国学错误地认为，中国政府没有保护商标权的需要。在不同的经济、化、政府结构和历史因素的共同作用下，中国和美国的商标保护体系在商标权的客体、对于商标产品的质量要求、商标登记和侵权的救济等多方面存在差异。这些差异有些反映了中国商标保护的不足之处，有些却是由中国现状所决定的。根据经济发展和消费的需要，中国商标保护制度将会越来越完善。     

The meaning of anger for Australian Indigenous offenders: the significance of context

The problem of overrepresentation of Indigenous offenders in Australian prisons highlights the need for effective tertiary intervention programs within correctional settings as a way of reducing Indigenous reincarceration. This study seeks to explore meanings of anger within an Indigenous context that might inform the development of more acceptable and potentially more effective rehabilitation programs. A methodology that acknowledges the importance of narrative, context, and culture was devised to explore how anger as an emotion is understood and experienced by a group of Indigenous men in a South Australian prison. Although some of the major themes reflected experiences of anger common to many offenders, it was evident that for these Indigenous men, anger was experienced within a broad social and political context that imbued the experience of anger with layers of culturally specific meaning. It is suggested that these layers of meaning constitute sufficient difference to warrant further exploration.