Suicidal or Homicidal Sharp Force Injuries? A Review and Critical Analysis of the Heterogeneity in the Forensic Literature

The differential diagnosis between self-inflicted and nonself-inflicted, suicidal and homicidal, injuries is difficult or impossible in many cases and, above all, cannot be made on the basis of information obtained solely from the autopsy or the medicolegal clinical examination. The purpose of this study is to analyze the literature on suicidal and homicidal sharp force injuries and identify the relevant parameters that may help differentiate between suicidal and homicidal deaths. To achieve this goal, a review of 595 potentially relevant articles was performed. After excluding the nonrelevant papers by screening the titles, all abstracts were reviewed, and articles meeting the inclusion criteria underwent a full-text review. The following parameters were compiled into a table: number of cases, localization of the injuries, and number of injuries. The data were statistically analyzed and compared with those available in the forensic literature. On the basis of the heterogeneity of data revealed by the present review, a simple and short checklist of the parameters that should be included when reporting suicides and homicides by sharp force has been proposed.     

Racial Differences in Public Support for the Death Penalty: Can Racist sentiment and Core Values Explain the Racial Divide?

Prior research has established a strong and enduring “racial divide” in support for capital punishment, but little research has explored the processes that explain the racial divide. Following the lead of Unnever and Cullen (Social Forces 85:1281–1301, 2007a), this research explores whether racist sentiment and core values (individualism, egalitarianism, symbolic patriotism, and authoritarianism) can partially explain the racial divide in public support for capital punishment. The findings suggest that racist sentiment by Whites and belief in core values by Whites partially explains the racial divide in support for capital punishment.     

Indian migrants in Britain

This article discusses the social linkages between Gujarati migrants in Britain and their family members in India. It considers the home and the migrant community in the same unit of analysis rather than as separate communities. It is based on fieldwork conducted in 1998 among members of the Patidar community in rural central Gujarat and among their relatives in London in 1999.This article is based on the data collected for our research project titled `Long-Distance Familism; Social Linkages between West India and Britain; The Case of the Patidars from Central Gujarat', sponsored by the Indo-Dutch Programme on Alternatives in Development (IDPAD). An earlier version of the paper was presented at the conference on Asia in Europe, Europe in Asia, 7-8 December 2001, Singapore, organised by the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS).     

Illegal finance and usurers behaviour

This paper deals with a stochastic dynamic optimization problem in the context of illegal company financing. Our analysis of the usury phenomenon is conducted by searching for the best interest rate which an illegal financier should apply to a company in order to bring about the firm??s bankruptcy whilst still securing the maximum wealth for the firm??s guarantee. In this case, the company itself can be taken over and used by the financier for illegal activities. Because of the highly complex nature of the problem, the analysis will be performed via simulation studies.     

Unexpected double lethal oleander poisoning

Nerium oleander is a very popular urban ornamental plant in Europe, but it is also extremely dangerous because it contains several types of glycosides, accidental ingestion of which can cause cardiac arrhythmias and even deaths. The rarity of such cases makes it difficult to think of oleander poisoning without evidences that suggest this possibility as the cause of the unexpected death. This report concerns the discovery of the bodies of 2 young people, a man and a woman, in a forest in conditions of extreme malnutrition. Medicolegal investigations showed neither pathologic nor traumatic causes of death, but the presence of vegetal remains in the stomach was noticed. A common toxicological analysis resulted negative, but the implementation of more detailed investigations showed the presence of digoxin in the blood of both cadavers, excluding the possibility of a pharmaceutical provenience of digoxin, this laboratory result was interpreted as evidence of ingestion of oleander, which contains oleandrine, the cross reaction of which with digoxin is widely described in the literature. Identification of the 2 subjects, which occurred after 4 years, strengthened the hypothesis of accidental poisoning by oleander because it was ascertained that the 2 young people were vegans--extreme vegetarians who reject the ingestion of foods of animal origin and live by eating only what they find in nature.