Characteristics of false allegation adult crimes

The purpose of this study was to identify common factors in false allegation adult crimes, by examining the dynamics involved in 30 confirmed false allegation cases. The authors conducted a comprehensive review of these adjudicated cases and then completed a collection instrument to capture offender demographics, offense characteristics, and motive. The results indicated that most false allegation crimes were committed by women (73.3%) and Caucasians (93.3%). Data indicated that more interpersonally violent allegations were primarily motivated by attention/sympathy needs (50.0%), whereas more impersonal offenses involved other motivations such as providing an alibi (16.7%) or profit (13.3%). Offenders tended to be younger, high school graduates with no higher education (43.3%). A total of 23.3% of offenders had a prior criminal history. Male offenders appeared as likely as women to be motivated by attention/sympathy; however, men tended to select more violent, nonsexual offenses (e.g., attempted murder) than women.     

Determination of an effective housekeeping gene for the quantification of mRNA for forensic applications

The potential application of mRNA for the identification of biological fluids using molecular techniques has been a recent development in forensic serology. Constitutively expressed housekeeping genes can assess the amount of mRNA recovered from a sample, establish its suitability for downstream applications, and provide a reference point to corroborate the identity of the fluid. qPCR was utilized to compare the expression levels of housekeeping genes from forensic-like body fluid stains to establish the most appropriate assessment of human mRNA quantity prior to profiling. Although variability was observed between fluids and individuals, results indicated that beta-2 microglobulin exhibited the highest expression for all body fluids examined and across donors. A one-way analysis of variance was performed for housekeeping gene variability between donors (at the α, 0.05, significance level), and the results indicated significant differences for semen, vaginal secretions, and menstrual blood.     

Gold-plating of Mylar lift films to capitalize on surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy for chemical extraction of drug residues

The method of residue extraction through electrostatic lifting provides a distinctive mode of performing ultra-trace analysis. These lifts provide a medium for analyte extraction via nanomanipulation-coupled to nanospray ionization-mass spectrometry (NSI-MS). This method of extraction can be coupled to Raman spectroscopy for supplemental verification of analytes using surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). The gold surface used for SERS provides an enhanced effect on peak signal intensity allowing ultra-trace amounts to be detected more effectively. The aim of this research is to utilize gold-coated films with electrostatic lifting in order to collect latent materials and analyze chemicals of interest contained in them via SERS.     

Picturing neuroscience research through a human rights lens: imaging first-episode schizophrenic treatment-naive individuals

In this paper we examine imaging research involving first-episode schizophrenic treatment-naive individuals (FESTNIs) through a legal human rights lens; in particular, the lens of the Additional Protocol to the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine Concerning Biomedical Research. We identify a number of ethical and legal hot spots highlighted by the Protocol, and offer a series of recommendations designed to ensure the human rights compatibility of this research. Subsequently, we argue that the lack of reporting on design elements related to ethical concerns frustrates commitments at the heart of the human rights approach, namely, transparency and openness to international scrutiny. To redress this problem, we introduce two norms for the first time: ethical transparency, and ethical reproducibility. When concluding, we offer a set of reporting guidelines designed to operationalize these norms in the context of imaging research involving FESTNIs. Though we will not make this case here, we believe that parallel reporting guidelines should be incorporated into other areas of research involving human subjects.     

Unmasking Deviance: The Visual Construction of Asylum Seekers and Refugees in English National Newspapers

This paper explores the visual representation of asylum seekers and refugees delineating how English newspaper imagery constructs such groups as deviant and dangerous. A qualitative visual analysis of nine of the major national newspapers demonstrates how mediated images of asylum seekers focus upon three distinct ‘visual scenarios’ in the discovery of deviance, which collectively demonstrate how the social portrayal of the criminal immigrant fuses the otherness of the stranger with the otherness of the deviant. First, the faceless and de-identified stranger enables the construction of a panoply of feared subjects. Second, stigma is implicitly illustrated, deviance obliquely intimated and ‘spoiled identities’ constructed. Third, the mask is removed, the asylum seeker is identified and their deviant status confirmed. Such a process is reinvented, repeated and reworked in news stories, with deviance becoming increasingly engrained and entrenched in the image of the asylum seeker. This paper details how the repetition of specific visual scenarios in newspaper reporting contribute to the construction of ‘noisy’ panics about asylum seekers and asylum seeking. Moreover, it argues that such imagery is key to the construction of asylum as an issue of security, which necessitates a policy approach that is exclusionary in nature.