犯罪剖绘:科学还是艺术?

犯罪剖绘(criminal profiling)为分析(连续)犯罪行为型态的技术,藉由统计技术分析潜在犯罪者、被害者与犯罪现场迹证等三者之间相互联结可能性。然犯罪剖绘技术应用至案件连结分析,可根据犯罪现场所遗留迹证(含心理迹证),预测/推论犯罪者之人口背景特征,并将这些案件之犯罪现场迹证系统化处理,建构成数据库,有助警察侦办连续型犯罪。经由案件连结分析所得证据,能否成为法庭上论罪之依据,在英美国家必须通过Frye法则与Daubert测试法则检验,即是否已经通过科学性检验,或同一学术领域同侪认可验证过程。因此,后续研究可朝更精确统计分析方法迈进,以提升案件连结分析数据库对于预测未发现犯罪者之准确率及其法庭证据力。     

On terror, drugs and racial profiling

We show that for racial profiling (defined as policy rules that employ statistical discrimination based on racial attributes) to be efficient in fighting ordinary crime, it needs to focus on the racial composition of marginal offenders. Efficiency thus may counter-intuitively call for targeting the group with the lower offending rates. In the context of terror, however, it has to be based primarily on differences in offending rates across racial population groups (group-wise averages). We demonstrate that, assuming correlation between race and crime, racial profiling would nearly always be efficient. Finally, we discuss equity considerations and suggest that if awarding compensation is perceived to be a viable policy option, it should be paid on an ex ante basis.     

浅析犯罪心理画像的基本方法

犯罪心理画像在一些案件的侦破过程中，在描绘、刻画犯罪行为人特征，缩小嫌疑范围方面起着意想不到的作用。犯罪心理画像的方法主要有归纳式和演绎式两种，两种方法各有所长，应共同发挥作用，以达到描绘、刻画犯罪行为人相关特征更加准确的目的。     

UPHOLDING STUDENTS’ DUE PROCESS RIGHTS: WHY STUDENTS ARE IN NEED OF BETTER REPRESENTATION AT,AND ALTERNATIVES TO,SCHOOL SUSPENSION HEARINGS

Suspension is the most common form of discipline in our schools. In some cases students facing suspension are removed from school for an extended period of time or referred for expulsion based on the findings made at the student's suspension hearing. Nevertheless, students have no legal right to have counsel participate in, or advocate at, suspension hearings. Additionally, schools for the most part do not offer students alternatives to suspension, such as mediation sessions or other programs designed to allow students to complete school or community work while on suspension. This Note discusses the problems associated with school suspension and suspension hearings. It also explains why providing students with legal advocates at suspension hearings will help promote due process and facilitate better decision making on the part of the student. Finally, it advocates for mediation as an alternative to suspension and suspension hearings, as research suggests that mediation would reduce suspension rates and the costs associated therewith.     

Branding the Image of a Fox: The Psychological Profile of EU President Herman Van Rompuy

This article presents the branding case of EU president Herman Van Rompuy. The branding of the political image is at the heart of being “in control.” Political candidates, even those with a damaged reputation, are therefore challenged to produce an image that projects nothing but the positive side of their characters or the traits that fit the position they desire. Which are the personality traits required, in the given context, from a chief executive of the European Union? And which are the traits projected by Van Rompuy? This article introduces the psychological profiling technique by Immelman (2004 Immelman, A. (2004). Millon inventory of diagnostic criteria manual (2nd ed.). (Available from Aubrey Immelman, Dept. of Psychology, St. John's University, Collegeville, MN 56321, USA). [Google Scholar]) as a political marketing technique. Thanks to this personality assessment that refers to the public image, it becomes possible to brand the profile of the current EU president and to compare the personal profile with the desired one.     

‘Whiteness,’ criminality,and the double standards of deviance/social control

White criminality is increasingly defined and controlled via the medical model. This is made possible by the white racial frame, which constructs ‘whiteness’ as normative and white deviance as individual aberration or mental illness. Conversely, the white racial frame constructs Blackness as synonymous with criminality. Media depictions of crime and criminals play a central role in furthering this framing, which provides the underlying legitimation for disparities in social control. The result is double standards of definition and control which medicalize whiteness and criminalize Blackness. This differential framing of whiteness and Blackness provides the foundation for the expansion of both the medical and prison industrial complexes, which are characterized by real racial differences despite comparable patterns of deviance across racial lines.     

A more efficient extraction method of human bone resulting in improved DNA profiling

Eight human bone samples, from a forensic case, were extracted in parallel using our standard protocol with and without PTB in the buffer. Both methods were sometimes inadequate for (complete) STR profiling, while the presence of PTB even decreases the DNA yield.The complete decalcification of the bone extraction residues in an EDTA-solution with SDS recovered sufficient amounts of DNA, which resulted in complete STR profiling for all samples. Complete decalcification without SDS yielded even higher amounts of DNA and also complete STR profiling for all samples.Similar results were obtained for the DNA extraction from a human tooth.