The South African National Credit Act fails to protect homeowners against various interest rates hikes

Where a credit provider makes a proper financial assessment and finds that the low-income consumer will be able to satisfy in a timely manner all the obligations under all the credit agreements to which the consumer is a party he will in all probability conclude the credit agreement with the consumer. Obviously the affordability assessment made by the credit provider will depend on the prevailing interest rates at the time. There has been several interest rate hikes since June 2006 to December 2008 in South Africa that has had a detrimental impact on low-income home owners. Due to the various interest rate hikes and the prevailing high interest rates many consumers have lost their mortgaged homes. The South African National Credit Act of 2005 has failed to take into its purview cases such as these, and as a consequence there is no sort of consumer protection available for the low-income group who become over-indebted, because of the constant rising interest rates on their mortgage loans.     

Mutation rates at 14 STR loci in the population from Pernambuco, Northeast Brazil

Definition about mutation rates of short tandem repeats (STRs) loci used in forensic analysis are useful for the correct interpretation of resulting genetic profiles and the definition of criterions for exclusion in paternity testing. Germline mutation of 14 STR loci was studied for 54,105 parent–child allelic transfers from 2575 paternity testing cases carried out during 2000–2007 from the Pernambuco State, Northeast Brazil. The parenthood in each of these cases was highly validated (probability > 99.99%). We identified 43 mutations at 12 loci. Locus-specific mutation rate estimates varied between 2 × 10⁻⁴ and 2 × 10⁻³, and the overall mutation rate estimate was 8 × 10⁻⁴. Mutation events in the male germline were more frequent than in the female germline. The majority of the mutations could be explained by losses or gains of one repeat unit and there was no evidence for selection between insertion or deletion changes. Our data were compared with those of Portuguese and North-American populations for CSF1PO, D18S51, D21S11, D7S820, TH01, TPOX and demonstrated, despite the great difference in the size of the sample, that mutation rates of STR loci in a mixed population do not differ from that encountered in different populations.     

命案现场重建解析—“7·06”灭门惨案现场重建

2004年云南“7·06”灭门惨案得以及时告破,得益于办案人员凭借对案发现场的精勘细验和认真分析研究;是一起典型的重建案发现场,进而一举破案的成功案例。     

建国60年来中国地方行政区划和府际关系的变革与展望

地方行政区划和府际关系的重构是20世纪以来中国现代国家制度建设工程的重要内容．关系到国家的政治稳定和地方社会经济的可持续发展。建国60年来,中国地方行政区划和府际关系的调整和改革,基本上延续了传统中国的治理逻辑和治理术,即以属地管辖和行政内部发包制为特征、由职权同构和行政分权构成的多层级的地方政府结构为基本治理结构。为适应工业化、市场化和城市化的现实要求,中国地方行政区划和府际关系必须根据法治政府、责任政府和公共服务型政府的制度设计,对既有的地方治理结构进行改革和调整。以民主化和地方自治促进和改善地方治理,使地方行政区划和府际关系以及相应的产权、财税权和人事权等制度走向法治化、制度化和规范化。     

故意杀人罪量刑情节与宣告刑量关系实证研究——基于SPSS软件包所作的“相关”分析

作为联结故意杀人罪罪量与宣告刑量纽带的量刑情节与宣告刑量之间存在着紧密联系。在目前的司法实践中,各种量刑情节对宣告刑量的影响程度迥然不同,如是否共同犯罪与宣告刑量的相关系数高达0.481,危害结果变量与宣告刑量的相关系数高达0.412,被告人过错变量与宣告刑量的相关系数达到-0.279;而是否累犯变量与宣告刑量的相关系数仅为-0.145,是否残忍变量与宣告刑量的相关系数公为-0089.     

Asphyxia Homicides in Finland, 1983–2012

Finland has one of the highest homicide rates in Western Europe, and almost every tenth homicide is caused by asphyxiation. Reliable statistics, a strict legislation, and an exceptionally high medico-legal autopsy rate formed a base for a nationwide analysis of asphyxia homicides (n = 383) during 30 years. The cases were identified through multiple records, and all the forensic pathology case files were studied in detail. In more than one out of five cases, there were indications of staging, and the homicide was revealed first at autopsy in close to one in ten cases. The vast majority of the homicides took place in private locations and involved persons known to each other. Every third victim was an intimate partner, and every tenth a child. Almost half of the victims died from manual strangulation, one in three from ligature strangulation. Smothering, choking, neck compression with a firm object, and thoracic compression were more rare methods. Drownings were excluded from this study material. Of all the victims, 7% had no observable external injuries. Petechiae were recorded in approximately in 61%, laryngohyoid fractures in 47%, and vocal cord hemorrhages in 16% of the cases. Every tenth female victim had genital injuries. Toxicological analyses were performed in close to all of the cases, and almost three out of four victims tested positive for blood alcohol. The various aspects of the demographics and autopsy findings covered in this study contribute reliable and accurate data to further strengthen the spectrum of observable medico-legal characteristics of asphyxia homicides.     

论大埔县工农革命政府公安局的历史地位

1927年9月大埔县建立的工农革命政府公安局,是贯彻中共中央"八七会议"总方针,在中国共产党领导下,由人民政权建立的暴力专政和治安行政专门机构,其初具打击敌人,保护人民,维护社会安宁的人民公安机构特征,在隶属政权、组织形式和建立时间上具有首创性。大埔县工农革命政府公安局是我党早期尝试建立人民公安机构的一个范例,是人民政权公安保卫组织的发端。     

Homicide by unusual‐edged weapons: Forensic considerations of two cases

Homicide by stab wound is common worldwide. However, the use of unusual edged weapons is rarely reported in the forensic literature. Here, we report two cases of homicide involving a Japanese sword, or katana, and a sickle. Both of these weapons can create either stab or incised wounds with some particularities. In our cases, characteristics of the external wounds, internal injuries, and the depth of penetration raised the possibility of an unusual weapon. Meticulous forensic examination of these injuries (morphological characteristics, depth of penetration, trajectories, and cut marks in the bone) may allow the forensic expert to determine the type of weapon used.     

Firearm examination: Examiner judgments and computer‐based comparisons

Forensic firearm examination provides the court of law with information about the source of fired cartridge cases. We assessed the validity of source decisions of a computer‐based method and of 73 firearm examiners who compared breechface and firing pin impressions of 48 comparison sets. We also compared the computer‐based method's comparison scores with the examiners' degree‐of‐support judgments and assessed the validity of the latter. The true‐positive rate (sensitivity) and true‐negative rate (specificity) of the computer‐based method (for the comparison of both the breechface and firing pin impressions) were 94.4% and at least 91.7%, respectively. For the examiners, the true‐positive rate was at least 95.3% and the true‐negative rate was at least 86.2%. The validity of the source decisions improved when the evaluations of breechface and firing pin impressions were combined and for the examiners also when the perceived difficulty of the comparison decreased. The examiners were reluctant to provide source decisions for "difficult" comparisons even though their source decisions were mostly correct. The correlation between the computer‐based method's comparison scores and the examiners' degree‐of‐support judgments was low for the same‐source comparisons to negligible for the different‐source comparisons. Combining the outcomes of computer‐based methods with the judgments of examiners could increase the validity of firearm examinations. The examiners' numerical degree‐of‐support judgments for their source decisions were not well‐calibrated and showed clear signs of overconfidence. We suggest studying the merits of performance feedback to calibrate these judgments.     

Measures of opportunity and the calculation of the arson rate: The connection between operationalization and association

The crime of arson is complicated in part because of the motives associated with the offense and the vast assortment of combustible objects or targets deliberately burned in urban areas. This research attempts to conceptualize the crime in light of criminal law and demonstrates that arson occupies a rather unique position. Although classified as a property crime, the legislative intent appears to focus on the protection of human life. Moreover, legislative developments have brought us to the point where burning almost any property is designated arson. There is a growing concern over the incidence of arson, but there has been little discussion of how to calculate the arson rate when the targets of opportunity are not known. The exploratory research presented here addresses the structure of arson rates by using an assortment of indirect and direct measures of opportunity as denominators in the calculation of the arson rate. Factor analysis reduces a 27×27 correlation matrix to six significant factors and demonstrates that some measures share the same underlying rate structure. By using a factorbase scale (dependent variable) for each factor and a set of independent variables, regression analysis reveals that there are differences in the direction of association, the degree of association, and the types of independent variables that associate with different measures of the arson rate.