Investigating perceptions of race and ethnic diversity among prospective police officers

Many have suggested police diversity will improve police-community relations, but research testing this hypothesis is inconclusive. We investigated perceptions of police race, ethnicity, and diversity in a heterogeneous sample of prospective police officers. Data are drawn from interviews with 42 criminal justice college students in the Southwestern United States, of which 15 were Hispanic, and who each wanted to become a police officer. Participants supported diversity in policing, and collectively expressed a belief that race plays a central role in policing today. Furthermore, participants expressed support for the ideals of both passive and active representative bureaucracy. Hispanics in the sample in particular anticipated they would positively affect police relations in Hispanic neighborhoods and encourage immigrants to cooperate with police.     

论委托人与辩护律师的关系——以美国律师职业行为规范为切入的分析

“委托人与辩护律师的关系”在律师职业行为规范中处于核心的地位。相较于委托人与辩护律师基于合意而成立的民事合同关系,律师职业行为规范对辩护律师提出了更多更高的要求。这些要求体现在二者交往的多个方面,包括关系的成立、权利的分配、利益冲突的解决、关系的终止等。在这些规则的背后,辩护律师的忠诚义务和维护司法正义义务是贯彻始终的二大基本理念,其中,忠诚义务是核心,维护司法正义则为律师划定了行为的边界。在律师职业伦理亟待重新构建的我国,美国律师职业行为规范对我国在诸如调整委托人与律师的关系,即强调忠诚义务、引入有效辩护等方面具有重大的启发意义。     

The effects of four different solvent vapours on the restoration of obliterated stamp markings from five different wooden surfaces

The stamp markings on wooden surfaces, which are placed on trees and products including antiques, indicate the status of trees and involve identifying data regarding the products. Such markings are obliterated either to facilitate illegal logging or to conceal product information. Despite the wide literature on the restoration of obliterated characters on metal and polymer surfaces, the recovery of defaced characters on wooden surfaces appears to be understudied. Several reference texts in the forensic marks’ examination literature suggest that water, water vapor, and alkaline solutions are useful in restoring the abraded markings on the wood. Since there does not seem to be any experimental study proving such success, this study aimed to fill this gap. This study conducted experimental research by using water, ethanol, ammonia, and chloroform to recover the scraped characters on samples obtained from walnut, beech, spruce, oak, and cedar trees. The cold-stamped characters, which were defaced at varying depths, were restored using vapor and liquid phases of four solvents. While the vapor phases of water, ethanol, and ammonia yielded good outcomes on all types of wooden surfaces, the liquid phases did not seem to be useful in the revisualization process. The response of the vapors, which varied between 62 and 220 s, depended on the type of wood. The restoration technique developed in this research offers the possibility of on-site usage, easy application, utilization of low-cost solvents, rapid recovery, and effectiveness on various wooden surfaces. Overall, the restoration methodology used in this research appears to be fruitful in retrieving identifying information on wooden samples.     

Footnotes to Guamán Poma: Transtemporal Encounters in Nacha Vollenweider's Notas al pie

The graphic memoir Notas al pie (2017) written by Argentinian Nacha Vollenweider includes an illustration which reinterprets an image from the Nueva corónica y buen gobierno, a colonial document written by Quechua nobleman Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala around 1615, when Peru was under Spanish rule. This article argues that if Guamán Poma's image portrays a critique of Western colonial power, Vollenweider's reappropriation follows its aftermath, and targets the structures of coloniality that underpin the formation of both individual and collective identity.