Quantifying Sexual Dimorphism in the Human Cranium: A Preliminary Analysis of a Novel Method

In forensic anthropology, sexually dimorphic cranial features are traditionally visually assessed and scored using an ordinal scale, which is highly subjective. This study quantifies six cranial features using original three‐dimensional coordinate measurements to provide greater accuracy in sex estimation. Cranial features include supraorbital ridges, glabella, external occipital protuberance, nuchal protuberances, mastoid processes, and frontal bosses. Measurements were taken using coordinate calipers from 158 White and Black male and female crania from the Maxwell Documented Collection at University of New Mexico and Tennessee's Bass Collection. Overall, 72.2% of the crania were correctly classified. Males were correctly classified 69.9% of the time, while females were correctly classified 74.7% of the time. The overall value is similar to the results from traditional methods and suggests this method may be just as reliable as established visual sex estimation techniques.     

Sexual violence perpetrated against women in India: the role of forensic evidence

ABSTRACT

In response to the upsurge in acts of sexual violence against women in India, Parliament passed the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act of 2013, amending existing statutes and rules of evidence relating to crimes of sexual violence and the practices of forensic professionals in the country. While a step in the right direction, this law paid little attention to forensic evidence in sexual violence cases, which can provide a more objective, scientific account of events, aid in the reconstruction of crimes, and help strengthen cases against perpetrators. The objectives of this article are twofold: to raise awareness for the need for a more prominent role of forensic evidence in sexual violence cases and to recommend ways to establish uniform and comprehensive policies and procedures on the collection and preservation of forensic evidence in order to ensure that cases of sexual violence against women are heard in Indian courts.     

UN Troop Deployment and Preventing Violence Against Civilians in Darfur

ABSTRACT

Does the presence of UN peacekeeping force lower civilian fatalities at the local level? If it does, is it because of their coercive military capacity or for other reasons such as their roles in monitoring and reporting violent atrocities? To explore these questions, I study the deployment of peacekeeping units in Darfur and its impact on violence against civilians. Using original geocoded data of UN deployments before and after the intervention, I examine what aspects of such deployments impact one-sided civilian killings by government and rebel groups. Results indicate that deploying UN peacekeepers in an area restrains belligerent from targeting civilians. However, the military capacity of peacekeepers is not a significant predictor of violence against civilians. While their ability to defend themselves is extremely important for peacekeepers, these findings caution against the militarization trend in UN peacekeeping and seek to reshift focus on other substantive aspects of peacekeeping.     

The Dynamics of Mass Killings: Testing Time-Series Models of One-Sided Violence in the Bosnian Civil War

Many observers contend that wartime civilian victimization is an instrument of political leaders to achieve a particular goal. This article examines whether retaliation for similar acts by the other side, the developments on the battlefield, or the behavior of international actors accounts for the ups and downs of this so-called one-sided violence. Using information from the Konstanz One-Sided Violence Event Dataset and other sources, we evaluate the empirical relevance of these complementary models statistically. Time series analyses of the weekly number of killed and harmed Muslims (Bosniacs) and Serbs during the Bosnian civil war support the military and the massacre logic. We show that the Serbian side decreased one-sided violence following a territorial conquest, but that its one-sided violence was not a reciprocal response to the Bosniac targeting of civilians. Conversely, the Bosniac side resorted to violence during times of increasing Serbian atrocities and when the fighting was particularly intense. The analysis reveals that most international interventions did not reduce the carnage, but that the Serbs responded to Russian moves.     

Exploring the two trigger fingers thesis: racial and ethnic differences in officer involved shootings

This article provides a comparative, qualitative and quantitative, analysis of officer-involved shootings of residents who were white, black, or Latino in the City and County of Denver, Colorado from 1983 to 2012. This research project combined district attorney summaries, police shooting files, and police shooting video interviews to understand the patterns involving 213 officer-involved shootings resulting in 103 deaths. Thematically, the differences by race and ethnicity are outlined by three themes including (1) suspect characteristics, (2) officer characteristics, and (3) contextual factors. The findings highlight similarities and differences between incident narratives and compare these observations with aggregated statistics to explore whether law enforcement officers possess one trigger finger for whites and another for blacks and Latinos. This comprehensive analysis of racial and ethnic differences in officer-involved shootings indicates the intersectionality of suspect and officer characteristics along with contextual factors.     

Communicating about child sexual abuse with the public: learning the lessons from public awareness campaigns

Despite numerous public awareness campaigns child sexual abuse (CSA) remains a significant global issue affecting millions of children. This suggests that such campaigns have had minimal impact, and the paucity of good quality empirical evaluation makes it difficult to establish what has worked and what has not. This article considers how different and evolving approaches to public awareness campaigning on CSA since the 1990s have influenced (or not) attitudinal and behavioural change. The article reviews a number of key initiatives from around the world and identifies common themes that can inform campaigning and prevention efforts. Recommendations for further research efforts, social problem framing, and targeting are offered. The article concludes by arguing that more recent multi-faceted campaigns which combine a range of messaging methods are more likely to turn public awareness campaigning into public action campaigning.     

On national and cultural boundaries: a cross-cultural approach to sexual violence perpetration in Brazil and the United Kingdom

The majority of research on rape has so far neglected to examine the effects of socio-cultural beliefs and practices on sexual violence perpetration, with most authors dedicating themselves, instead, to an individualistic approach of this phenomenon. Although these approaches are certainly valid, they often ignore how these behaviours are embedded in the culture and, as a result, do not adequately explore the causes and consequences of sexual violence perpetration. Therefore, the primary goal of this review is to redress this deficiency, focusing on the connection between the phenomenon and the cultural backdrop against which it occurs. Hence, a discussion around certain factors that may serve to either legitimise or to condemn sexual violence in two different countries (Brazil and UK) is necessary. To make this possible, differences regarding each country’s culture, rape legislation and prevalence are presented, and issues regarding the current individualistic theoretical approach to the subject are explored.     

Comorbid,sequential, or different desires? Exploring the relationship between somnophilia and necrophilia

Relatively little is known of either somnophilia or necrophilia in comparison to other more commonly presented sexual paraphilias. Despite the overt similarities between the two, somnophilia being characterised as an attraction to the sleeping/unconscious, and necrophilia being characterised as a sexual attraction to the dead, there has been little examination of their concurrence or relationship in a single person. A case is presented here of their relationship with directions for clinical and law enforcement awareness.