An Assessment of the Quality of Homicide Data in the Supplementary Homicide Reports: A Research Note

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)’s Supplementary Homicide Reports (SHR) is a national-level incident-based data clearinghouse for homicide events in the USA used in countless research studies to track homicide trends, test theory, and analyze policy. Despite its wide use, the SHR has well-known limitations. This research note examines the accuracy of the information in the SHR by comparing homicide cases in Newark, New Jersey with their respective data to determine the level of disagreement between the data sources, which variables exhibit the greatest disagreement, and the case-related variables related to the disagreement. Uniquely, we do this for cases where offenders are known in the SHR. Our findings suggest that variables such as victim-offender relationship and circumstance have high disagreement even when the SHR reports an offender, and that the most important covariate of this is time to close the homicide investigation with an arrest. Research implications of the results are discussed.     

隐私权视野下的网上公开裁判文书之限

裁判文书的上网是落实审判公开的一项有力措施,但其对隐私权的威胁亦不容忽视。裁判文书的全文上网原则上应预先获得当事人的同意,当然,若裁判文书涉及公共利益,则隐私权也应受到限制。但因公共利益的需要而将裁判文书上网时,仍应对具有可识别性的个人信息和其他重要信息予以保密。被害人、证人、未成年人的隐私权应予特殊保护。调解书原则上不应通过网络公开。     

Comparison of feature selection and data fusion of Fourier transform infrared and Raman spectroscopy for identifying watercolor ink

The identification of different kinds of watercolor inks is an important work in the field of forensic science. Four different kinds of watercolor ink Spectroscopy data fusion strategies (Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy) combined with a non-linear classification model (Extreme Learning Machine) were used to identify the brand of watercolor inks. The study chose Competitive Adaptive Reweighted Sampling (CARS), Random Frog (RF), Variable Combination Population Analysis-Genetic Algorithm (VCPA-GA), and Variable Combination Population Analysis-Iteratively Retains Informative Variables (VCPA-IRIV) to extract characteristic variables for mid-level data fusion. The Cuckoo Search (CS) algorithm is used to optimize the extreme learning machine classification model. The results showed that the classification capacity of the mid-level fusion spectra model was more satisfactory than that of single Infrared spectroscopy or Raman spectroscopy. The CS-ELM models based on infrared spectroscopy used to recognize the watercolor ink according to brands (ZHENCAI, DELI, CHENGUANG, and STAEDTLER) obtained an accuracy of 66.67% in the test set using all spectral datasets. The accuracy of CS-ELM models based on Raman spectroscopy was 67.39%. The characteristic wavelength selection algorithms effectively improved the accuracy of the CS-ELM models. The classification accuracy of the mid-level spectroscopy fusion model combined with the VCPA-IRIV algorithm was 100%. The data fusion method increased effectively spectral information. The method could satisfactorily identify different brands of watercolor inks and support the preservation of artifacts, paintings, and forensic document examination.     

Digital humanities and the history of working women: a cascade

In this introduction to the special issue on ‘Women's work in changing labour markets’, we argue that a combination of digital advances, notably the digitization of individual- and contextual-level data, the creation of internationally comparable occupation-based classifications, and the development of statistical models allowing for contextually informed analysis, has brought us to the brink of new developments in the field of women's work. Census and vital registration data contain more information on occupations of women than previously thought, and when used in combination with other digitized sources they allow one to assess the possible under-registration of women's work, as illustrated by some of the contributions to this special issue. Other contributions show how standardizing occupation-based classifications allows for temporal and regional comparisons of women's work and makes it feasible to study how community or regional characteristics influence that work. None of these developments – large-scale digitization of individual-level data, standardization of occupational titles and measures of stratification, and contextually informed analyses – is completely new; in some cases they are actually rooted in a venerable research tradition. However, in combination they might well constitute a cascade in the history of working women.     

Using EHRs to design drug repositioning trials: A devolved approach to data protection

One area where the application of data protection law has proven complex is in relation to the secondary usage of health data in EHRs for medical research. Here the tension between the privacy interests of patients and the risk of harm if such sensitive data are compromised, and on the other side, the potential societal value of utilizing the data for the benefit of medical science, is especially striking. In this paper, we consider the applicable provisions of the EU Data Protection Directive, and outline a general approach to patient data handling for research, which we believe to be compatible with relevant legal and ethical requirements. We then illustrate and apply this by reference to a specific EU FP7 project, involving EHR data processing to select patients for clinical pharmaceutical trials. After introducing the project (PONTE), we explain the ‘devolved’ data protection architecture it employs and provide a legal evaluation.     

Exploring the non-absolute nature of the right to data protection

In two recent judgements, the Court of Justice of the European Union stated that ‘The right to the protection of personal data is not, however, an absolute right, but must be considered in relation to its function in society’ (Eifert, para 48). This paper considers the ‘non-absolute’ nature of the right to data protection. Being a relatively new right, the boundaries of this right in the Charter are still somewhat unexplored. This paper considers five aspects that can be seen as setting boundaries to the otherwise absolute nature of the right to data protection: (a) consideration of the function of the right to data protection in society; (b) positive delimitations of the right that come from the formulation of the right (Article 8) in the Charter; (c) limitations on the right provided for in Article 52 of the Charter; (d) close connections with Article 7 of the Charter and Article 8 ECHR; and (e) the detailed provisions in current data protection secondary legislation and the future data protection regulation framework. Based on the reflections on each of these boundary-setting aspects, the paper argues that in spite of occasional vagueness and conflicting approaches of each of the aspects, understanding of the right to data protection has evolved since its first formulation in the Charter. There is a subtle and gradual distancing from the initial understanding of the close relationship with the right to private and family life. This gradual distancing is a positive development as the two have different foundations, scope and purposes. Yet it is only when both are taken together that the shared common objective of providing effective protection to citizens' personal and family life can be achieved.     

The 2013 CLSR-LSPI seminar on electronic identity: The global challenge – Presented at the 8th International Conference on Legal,Security and Privacy issues in IT Law (LSPI) November 11–15, 2013, Tilleke & Gibbins International Ltd., Bangkok,Thailand

We are the middle of a global identity crisis. New notions of identity are made possible in the online world where people eagerly share their personal data and leave ‘digital footprints’. Multiple, partial identities emerge distributed across cyberspace divorced from the physical person. The representation of personal characteristics in data sets, together with developing technologies and systems for identity management, in turn change how we are identified. Trustworthy means of electronic identification is now a key issue for business, governments and individuals in the fight against online identity crime. Yet, along with the increasing economic value of digital identity, there are also risks of identity misuse by organisations that mine large data sets for commercial purposes and in some cases by governments. Data proliferation and the non-transparency of processing practices make it impossible for the individual to track and police their use. Potential risks encompass not only threats to our privacy, but also knowledge-engineering that can falsify digital profiles attributed to us with harmful consequences. This panel session will address some of the big challenges around identity in the digital age and what they mean for policy and law (its regulation and protection). Questions for discussion include: What does identity mean today? What types of legal solutions are fit for purpose to protect modern identity interests? What rights, obligations and responsibilities should be associated with our digital identities? Should identity management be regulated and who should be held liable and for what? What should be the role of private and public sectors in identity assurance schemes? What are the global drivers of identity policies? How can due process be ensured where automated technologies affect the rights and concerns of citizens? How can individuals be more empowered to control their identity data and give informed consent to its use? How are biometrics and location-tracking devices used in body surveillance changing the identity landscape?     

Offending and Early Death in the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development

Criminal offending has many negative outcomes. Researchers have recently begun to consider the impact offending has on offenders' health, with a few studies focusing on differential mortality risk. Yet, prior research has been limited due to selective samples, restricted range of follow-up time period, limited set of explanatory variables, and lack of theoretical guidance. This paper examines the risk of early death among 411 South London males in the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development followed into their late 50s. Attention is paid not only to differential risk of death between nonoffenders and offenders, but also to the risk within the population of offenders and through consideration of theoretical frameworks and associated predictor variables. Results show that high-rate chronic offenders evince the highest risk of death, an effect that continues even after controlling for childhood individual and environmental risk factors as well as participation in a range of analogous behaviors.     

The future of crime data

Criminology lacks sufficient data for many types of crime that are of great concern to society. This lack of data poses significant problems for determining whether resources are adequate for responding to these crimes or whether programmatic, legislative, or target-hardening efforts to prevent or reduce their occurrence are effective. Inadequate data about crime also produces a selective and incomplete narrative about crime that makes it easier for political and vested interests to exploit public concerns about crime for their own ends. In this address, I discuss what is needed to resolve these gaps and the ways in which criminologists can support a significant expansion of the crime data infrastructure. Such work is necessary to help ensure the future relevance of criminological research.     

商业数据权:数字时代的新型工业产权--工业产权的归入与权属界定三原则

商业数据界权包括确定其权利的性质和权利的归属。个人信息保护和数据安全法律体系的建成,为数据界权提供了新的逻辑起点和法律前提。数据界权首先应基于个人信息与数据、商业数据与公共数据等基本范畴的厘清。基于商业数据的固有性质以及工业产权的历史逻辑和制度内涵,商业数据与信息保护类工业产权具有深度的契合性,有必要将商业数据纳入工业产权序列,作为数字时代具有标志意义的一种新型工业产权,并可以成为与商业秘密相对称的商业数据权。商业数据界权需要确定商业数据的适格性--可保护条件。商业数据的适格性包括受保护数据的合法性、集合性、管理性、可公开性和商业价值性,即以合法形成的规模性数据集合为客体,并采取管理措施的可公开性技术数据和经营数据等信息。商业数据具有单一性、复合性和动态性,商业数据权暗含着所涉权利的分层性,其权属界定应当透过现象看本质,将复杂或者貌似复杂的问题简单化,遵循投入原则、分层原则和责任原则等三原则。