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.     

Applying a forensic actuarial assessment (the Violence Risk Appraisal Guide) to nonforensic patients

The actuarial Violence Risk Appraisal Guide (VRAG) was developed for male offenders where it has shown excellent replicability in many new forensic samples using officially recorded outcomes. Clinicians also make decisions, however, about the risk of interpersonal violence posed by nonforensic psychiatric patients of both sexes. Could an actuarial risk assessment developed for male forensic populations be used for a broader clientele? We modified the VRAG to permit evaluation using data from the MacArthur Violence Risk Assessment Study that included nonforensic male and female patients and primarily self-reported violence. The modified VRAG yielded a large effect size in the prediction of dichotomous postdischarge severe violence over 20 and 50 weeks. Accuracy of VRAG predictions was unrelated to sex. The results provide evidence about the robustness of comprehensive actuarial risk assessments and the generality of the personal factors that underlie violent behavior.     

Discriminating deliberate self-harm (DSH) in young prison inmates through personality disorder

This study investigated deliberate self-harm (DSH) in young inmates. The objectives are twofold: first, to identify the social and clinical characteristics of inmates who commit DSH; and secondly, to ascertain the types of personality who are vulnerable in order to be able to predict future inmates who may harm themselves. A cross-sectional design was used to study psychosocial correctional personality characteristics and clinical pictures in inmates with DSH versus a control group without DSH. The measures used to evaluate different variables were a standard protocol and a self-report questionnaire (MCMI-II). Although the two groups compared are homogeneous and similar in terms of different psychosocial variables, inmates with DSH presented a significant background of maltreatment. Borderline, passive-aggressive, and antisocial personality disorders best discriminated both groups. The detection of borderline, negativistic, and antisocial disorders may help the medical services of penitentiary centers to predict youths with a possible risk of DSH. Despite the results obtained, longitudinal studies are needed to help clarify other risk factors, as well as other risk factors leading to self-harm behavior.     

Eight short tandem repeats (STR) frequencies for descendants from Terena indigenous Brazilian group

POPULATION: descendants from Terenas an indigenous group.     

Relationships between the deinstitutionalization of healthcare for patients with mental disorder, substance abuse, and isolated death

Isolated death (ID) (i.e., dying alone without anyone noticing for several days) has been suggested to be related to social isolation, mental disorder, and alcohol and/or drug abuse. A major transfer of patients with a mental disorder and/or alcohol and/or drug abuse from institutionalized care to treatment as outpatients has been enacted in Sweden during the past decade. On the basis of the assumption that such deinstitutionalization is likely to result in increased social isolation, our working hypothesis was that the incidence of ID among patients belonging to these categories has increased in Sweden. The present study involved all deaths subjected to a medicolegal examination in Stockholm County (with a population of approximately 1.9 million people) during the period 1992-2000. The pattern of ID (defined as cases involving a postmortem delay between death and discovery of at least 1 week), as well as the incidence of fatalities subjected to medicolegal examination with a record of mental disorder and/or alcohol and/or drug abuse was evaluated. Throughout this period, the proportion of the deceased with a record of a mental disorder was high among all the cases examined and higher still among the cases of ID, especially among those younger than 65 years of age. There was a rather limited increase in the incidence of ID and a much more pronounced increase in the number of former psychiatric patients whose deaths were subjected to medicolegal examination, but did not satisfy the criteria for ID. A record of alcohol and/or drug abuse was more common than a diagnosis of mental disorder among both the males and females who died at an age of less than 65, with a clear difference between the cases of ID and non-ID in the case of men. There was no significant increase in incidence over the course of this study. Thus, this study reveals a slight increase in the number of IDs and a more pronounced increase in the number of medicolegal examination of non-IDs of individuals with a record of a mental disorder.     

Death by chainsaw: fatal kickback injuries to the neck

Each year over 3 million new chainsaws are sold in the United States. The operation of these newer saws combined with the millions of older chainsaws in circulation results in over 28,000 chainsaw-related injures annually. The majority of the injuries involve the hands and lower extremities with less than 10% involving injuries to the head and neck regions. Deaths while operating a chainsaw are extremely rare. The most common hazards associated with chainsaws are injuries caused by kickback, pushback, and pull-in. Kickback is the most common and poses the greatest hazard. Kickback occurs when the rotating chain is stopped suddenly by contact with a more solid area throwing the saw rapidly backward toward the operator. The cause of most injuries can be traced to improper use of the saw or poor judgment on part of the operator. We present two fatal chainsaw deaths; one with an older style saw, and the other with a modern type. In both cases the victims died from fatal injuries received to the neck region from a chainsaw kickback. The first case involved a 49-year-old white male operating an older style chainsaw with limited safety features. The second case involved a 38-year old white male who was operating a newer model chainsaw equipped with a low kickback chain in an unsafe manner.     

Genipin--a novel fingerprint reagent with colorimetric and fluorogenic activity

Genipin, the hydrolytic product of geniposide, which is extracted from gardenia fruit, shows good potential as a fingerprint reagent. It develops latent fingerprints on paper as blue impressions with good contrast and resolution. Even very faint impressions that are barely visible in ambient light will fluoresce brightly upon illumination at ca. 590 nm and are best viewed with a barrier filter above 630 nm. Potential advantages of genipin are the combination of colorimetric and fluorogenic activity in one reagent as well as its being a safe and environmentally friendly natural product.