Introducing 3D Printed Models as Demonstrative Evidence at Criminal Trials

This case report presents one of the first reported uses of a 3D printed exhibit in an English homicide trial, in which two defendants were accused of beating their victim to death. The investigation of this crime included a micro‐CT scan of the victim's skull, which assisted the pathologist to determine the circumstances of the assault, in particular regarding the number of assault weapons and perpetrators. The scan showed two distinct injury shapes, suggesting the use of either two weapons or a single weapon with geometrically distinct surfaces. It subsequently served as the basis for a 3D print, which was shown in court in one of the first examples that 3D printed physical models have been introduced as evidence in a criminal trial in the United Kingdom. This paper presents the decision‐making process of whether to use 3D printed evidence or not.     

Parental Indifference and Children’s Digital Piracy in South Korea: Mediation Effects of Low Self-Control and Misconception

Digital piracy is a global concern for society. Although adolescents’ digital piracy in South Korea is pervasive, its cause has rarely been examined. Using data collected by the Korean Institute of Criminology (KIC) in 2009, this study conducted structural equation modeling to determine if low self-control and social learning theory accounted for digital piracy. This study found that parental indifference increased adolescents’ digital piracy through low self-control and misconception about digital piracy. However, there were no direct effects of parental indifference on the digital piracy behaviors. In particular, the mediation effect in the model combining low self-control and misconception was greater compared to other models. Overall, the combination of low self-control and social learning theory provided a more meaningful framework to explain adolescents’ digital piracy. Results of this study can offer ways to aid in the examination and remediation of this particular form of deviant behaviors on the Internet by adolescents.     

Nobody gives a #%&!: a factorial survey examining the effect of criminological evidence on opposition to sex offender residence restrictions

Objectives

This short report tests whether altering messages concerning the presentation (i.e., criminal justice actor experience vs. summary of scientific findings) or nature of criminological research findings (i.e., lack of crime control effect vs. collateral consequences) regarding the (in)efficacy of sex offender residence restrictions (SORR) would subsequently affect public support for this policy.

Methods

The experimental conditions were presented in a factorial survey delivered to a national online panel, which was subsequently matched to a sampling frame representative of US adults on the basis of gender, age, race, education, ideology, and political interest (N?=?970). Analysis of variance was used to estimate the impact of the experimental manipulations on SORR opposition.

Results

Support for SORR was high across all experimental conditions, and no manipulations were statistically associated with variation in opposition to the policy.

Conclusions

The results support limited previous research suggesting that the public would continue to support SORR even in the lack of evidence to its effectiveness. This research suggests that altering the presenter or nature of research evidence subsequently produces no opinion change, at least in the form that was executed here. Further research on the mechanisms underlying the recalcitrance of SORR support is necessary.

     

Traumatic brain injury in a forensic intellectual disability population

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) screening in forensic populations has been recommended, due to a high prevalence, links to specific offence profiles and poorer outcomes, such as higher rates of psychiatric disturbance, longer stays in prison, and reoffending. Research focusing on TBI among offenders with intellectual disability (ID) is lacking. This study therefore describes the implementation of TBI screening using the Brain Injury Screening Index (BISI©), TBI prevalence and correlates in a forensic ID service. TBI appeared under recorded in case notes, with considerably more patients self-reporting TBI. Reported causes of TBI differed somewhat to the general population, including childhood physical abuse, self-harming behaviour, and assault. Approximately one-third of injuries did not receive any treatment. Though further adaptations may be required on current screening measures for TBI in offenders with ID, screening can provide valuable information, contributing positively to individual patient therapeutic and risk formulations.     

Testing for Necessary and/or Sufficient Causation: Which Cases Are Relevant?

Previous researchers have argued that necessary and/or sufficientcauses should be tested through research designs that consideronly cases with limited combinations of scores on the independentand the dependent variables. I explore the utility for causalinference of the design proposed by these authors, as comparedto an "All Cases Design." I find that, if researchers definethe population carefully and appropriately, each case in thepopulation contributes to causal inference and is thereforeuseful. Previous authors reject this claim on the basis of aview that holds constant the marginal distribution of eitherthe dependent or the independent variable across the workingand the alternate hypotheses. I argue that this restrictionis not generally appropriate, and hence, an analysis that samplesfrom the entire population is logically defensible. I also arguethat this design is more statistically efficient. A reanalysisof two well-known studies demonstrates that sampling from allcases in the relevant population produces greater confidencein the hypothesis than sampling only from cases that experiencethe outcome.     

Congressional committees and the political economy of federal outlays

The literature on the organization of the United States Congress has been dominated by “distributive” and “informational” theory. One important source of disagreement between these two theories is their characterization of whether individual legislators can engage in pork-barrel activities. Here we provide evidence which indicates that the pork-barrel is alive and well in the contemporary United States Congress. We focus on whether members of power and constituency committees can direct disproportionate federal expenditures to their districts. Finding strong and systematic evidence of pork-barrel activities by committee members provides empirical support for distributive theories of legislative organization.     

Citizens, Knowledge, and the Information Environment

In a democracy, knowledge is power. Research explaining the determinants of knowledge focuses on unchanging demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. This study combines data on the public's knowledge of nearly 50 political issues with media coverage of those topics. In a two-part analysis, we demonstrate how education, the strongest and most consistent predictor of political knowledge, has a more nuanced connection to learning than is commonly recognized. Sometimes education is positively related to knowledge. In other instances its effect is negligible. A substantial part of the variation in the education-knowledge relationship is due to the amount of information available in the mass media. This study is among the first to distinguish the short-term, aggregate-level influences on political knowledge from the largely static individual-level predictors and to empirically demonstrate the importance of the information environment .