Population affinities of 19th Century Cuban crania: implications for identification criteria in South Florida Cuban Americans

Identification criteria, specifically discriminant function formulae derived from traditional craniometrics, currently used in South Florida for Cuban Americans and other "Hispanic" groups, are unsuitable to provide adequate biological profiles due to complex biological histories as well as widely diverse geographic origins. Florida's total population is approximately 16 million (15,982,378) individuals. Of the total population 2.682,715, or 16.8%, are self-identified as "Hispanic". South Florida (herein defined as Miami-Dade, Broward and Collier Counties) is home to 60% of the total Hispanic population of Florida with 1,291,737 (48.15%) residing in Miami-Dade County. The Hispanic population of Miami-Dade County makes up 57.0% of the total population of 2,253,362. Each recognized sub-group of Hispanics (Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban) includes its own geographic point-of-origin and population history. Cuban-Americans (arriving in the late 1950's and early 1960's) make up the largest sub-population of Florida's Hispanics in any county and in Miami-Dade number 650,601 or 51% of the total Latin population. Additionally, as in other agricultural states, Florida has a very large population of undocumented workers who primarily arrive from Texas and points south of the Straits of Florida. Thus the application of the available traditional craniometric and non-metric methods are not appropriate for South Florida's Latin population. To begin to address this issue in relation to South Florida's Cuban population, we present an analysis of cranio-facial shape variation in a 19th Century Cuban sample, 17th Century Spanish sample, a Precontact Cuban sample, and Terry Blacks using geometric morphometric methods. Significant biological shape differences and patterns of variation are observed among the groups. These results provide us with a context in which to begin to understand the biological variation of Cuban Americans, which will enable the development of identification criteria specific for this U.S. hybrid Hispanic community.     

Sexual dimorphism in America: geometric morphometric analysis of the craniofacial region

One of the four pillars of the anthropological protocol is the estimation of sex. The protocol generally consists of linear metric analysis or visually assessing individual skeletal traits on the skull and pelvis based on an ordinal scale of 1-5, ranging from very masculine to very feminine. The morphologic traits are then some how averaged by the investigator to estimate sex. Some skulls may be misclassified because of apparent morphologic features that appear more or less robust due to size differences among individuals. The question of misclassification may be further exemplified in light of comparisons across populations that may differ not only in cranial robusticity but also in stature and general physique. The purpose of this study is to further examine the effect of size and sex on craniofacial shape among American populations to better understand the allometric foundation of skeletal traits currently used for sex estimation. Three-dimensional coordinates of 16 standard craniofacial landmarks were collected using a Microscribe-3DX digitizer. Data were collected for 118 American White and Black males and females from the W.M. Bass Donated Collection and the Forensic Data Bank. The MANCOVA procedure tested shape differences as a function of sex and size. Sex had a significant influence on shape for both American Whites (F = 2.90; d.f. = 19, 39; p > F = 0.0024) and Blacks (F = 2.81; d.f. = 19, 37; p > F = 0.0035), whereas size did not have a significant influence on shape in either Whites (F = 1.69; d.f. = 19, 39; p > F = 0.08) or Blacks (F = 1.09; d.f. = 19, 37; p > F = 0.40). Therefore, for each sex, individuals of various sizes were statistically the same shape. In other words, while significant differences were present between the size of males and females (males on average were larger), there was no size effect beyond that accounted for by sex differences in size. Moreover, the consistency between American groups is interesting as it suggests that population differences in sexual dimorphism may result more from human variation in size than allometric variation in craniofacial morphology.     

Police response to domestic violence: making decisions about risk and risk management

Assessing and responding to risk are key elements in how police respond to domestic violence. However, relatively little is known about the way police make judgments about the risks associated with domestic violence and how these judgments influence their actions. This study examines police decisions about risk in domestic violence incidents when using a risk assessment instrument. Based on a sample of 501 risk assessments completed by police in Australia, this study shows that a limited number of items on the risk assessment instrument are important in police officers' decisions about risk. Statistical analyses show that the victim's level of fear contributes to police officers' judgment on the level of risk and their decisions on which risk management strategy should be used. These findings suggest that research on police responses to domestic violence needs to pay greater attention to situational dynamics and the task requirements of risk-based decision making.     

Ensuring an Inventor's Patent Rights: Recent Supreme Court Case Clarifies Timing of Application

Patent law encourages the development and transfer of technology by making the information regarding new inventions public knowledge, while providing the inventor with the right to exclude others from making, using or selling the invention for 20 years. Because the exclusive rights to the invention are limited in time, and to prevent the inventor from gaining additional time, the application for a patent must be filed within a statutorily prescribed time. Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Pfaff v. Wells Electronics, Inc. clarified one aspect related to the timing of the patent application. This article specifically examines the Pfaff case and the question of when an invention subject to a contract to sell exists as it relates to the timing of patent applications.     

Cynicism and job satisfaction in policing: Muddying the waters

Since Niederhoffer’s (1969) pioneering work, police cynicism has been a staple in research on police officers and police work, various typologies of police officers and definitions of the police subculture or police personality rely to a greater or lesser degree on conceptions of cynicism and suspicion. More recent research has questioned both the validity of measures of cynicism and typologies of police officers. The present study examines the link between cynicism and job satisfaction which is implicit in the literature. Findings indicate not only that these two factors are correlated, but also that relationships reported between cynicism and other factors in policing are mirrored by correlations between those factors and a measure of job satisfaction. The question which arises is, to what degree are correlations reported in the literature spurious, resulting not from cynicism, as was thought, but from a more generic measure of job satisfaction?     

Book reviews

Edward F. Mickolus, Terrorism, 1988–1991: A Chronology of Events and Selective Annotated Bibliography, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1993, Pp.916, index. $125. ISBN 0–313–28970–0

Anna Geifman, Thou Shalt Kill: Revolutionary Terrorism in Russia, 1894–1917, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993. Pp. xii + 376, notes, 22 photos, biblio., index. $39.50/£32.50. ISBN 0–691–08778–4

Walter Laqueur, Black Hundred: The Rise of the Extreme Right in Russia, New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1993. Pp.318, photos, biblio note. $27.50. ISBN 0–06‐

Robert W. White, Provisional Irish Republicans: An Oral and Interpretive History, Westport, CT, and. London: Greenwood Press, 1993. Pp.206, biblio, index. $55. ISBN 0–313–28564–8