Collection of Wet‐Origin Footwear Impressions on Various Surfaces Using an Electrostatic Dust Print Lifter

Electrostatic dust print lift method is known to be able to recover only dry‐origin footwear impression. However, the wet‐origin footwear impression could also be recovered using this method. As the amount of dust accumulated before deposition of the wet‐origin footwear impression increased, the intensity of the footwear impression lifted with this method became stronger. If the footwear impression is not affected by moisture after it is made, the 28‐h old wet‐origin footwear impression could be recovered using this method. The intensity of the lifted footwear impression did not decrease significantly even when the number of sequential steps increased as long as the shoe sole is wet. However, when the moisture on the shoe sole depleted, the intensity of the footwear impression decreased sharply. This method has the advantage of being able to enhance the footwear impression without being affected by the footwear impressions deposited in the past.     

Carbon and Nitrogen Stable Isotope Analyses of Ephedra Plant and Ephedrine Samples and Their Application For Methamphetamine Profiling

In this study, stable isotope ratio analysis was used to track the precursor information of methamphetamine. The δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N values of 30 nature ephedra plants, 12 synthetic ephedrine/pseudoephedrine (ephedrine), 14 natural ephedrine, and 987 seized methamphetamine samples were measured and compared. Due to different weather and earth conditions, the δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N values of ephedra plants grown in the east and the west of Inner Mongolia showed great difference. The δ¹⁵N values of ephedra plants were consistent with related ephedrine extracted from them. Moreover, the criteria to infer the synthetic origin of ephedrine were set up after the analysis of natural and synthetic ephedrine samples. Finally, the precursor origins of 949 seized methamphetamine samples synthesized by Emde and Nagai method were tentatively inferred. Influenced by different preprecursors, the δ¹³C values of seized methamphetamine samples that synthesized from P2P also showed great difference, and this result is consistent with the reported data.     

Accuracy and Reliability of Total Body Mass Estimation Techniques from Stature and Bi‐iliac Breadth in Non‐Hispanic U.S. Whites from the Bass Donated Skeletal Collection

This paper tests the fidelity of a recent method that used the NHANES III dataset as a proxy to estimate total body mass from stature and bi‐iliac breadth in U.S. White males and females. The bi‐iliac breadths of 230 males and 152 females identified as non‐Hispanic U.S. White from the Bass Donated Skeletal Collection were measured, and along with stature from predonor paperwork, total body mass estimates were calculated and then compared to body masses recorded on predonor paperwork. Male and female samples were subdivided by body mass index (BMI [kg/m²]) categories established by the World Health Organization. Our results suggest that total body mass estimates can be accurately assessed provided that the individual is within 18.50 ≤ BMI ≤ 29.99 for White males and 18.50 ≤ BMI ≤ 24.99 for White females. Recommendations on how to report total body mass estimates are also presented.     

Effectiveness of a risk–need–responsivity‐based treatment program for violent and sexual offenders: Results of a retrospective,quasi‐experimental study

Purpose

Relapse prevention is an important goal in correctional settings. Although there is strong evidence for the effectiveness of certain treatment programs for juvenile offenders, those for adults lack such evidence. This study evaluated the effectiveness of a risk–need–responsivity (RNR)‐based intervention.

Methods

A quasi‐experimental, observational study design and cox regression analysis were used to compare treated violent and sexual offenders (n = 171) with untreated offenders (n = 241).

Results

Both groups were observed for an average of 7.9 years. Recidivism rates of treated offenders (11.7%, n = 20) were similar to those of control offenders (15.8%, n = 38; p = .25). When controlling for confounding variables, the hazard of recidivism in the treatment group was 5.2% lower than that in the control group. Subdividing the treatment group resulted in lower hazard ratios for offenders still in therapy when released and offenders cancelling therapy. However, none of the group differences was statistically significant.

Conclusion

Our results show that control and RNR‐based treatment groups had comparable recidivism rates with a trend towards a positive treatment effect, especially for people in outpatient treatment. However, criminal history, age at the start of follow‐up, and actuarial risk of recidivism were significantly associated with recidivism. Future research needs to apply elaborate methodological approaches to detect robust treatment effects and consider different criteria of treatment effectiveness. Furthermore, the influence of prison climate, motivational factors, intervention quality, and factors supporting the success of outpatient treatment should be considered in future studies of larger offender samples.     

新时期代表人民根本利益的现实思考

做人民根本利益的忠实代表是中国共产党人的历史使命。在新时期,尤其是党的十六大以后,完成这一使命的标准更高、难度更大。针对变化了的情况,代表人民的根本利益,必须与时俱进,要有新的思路,新的要求。     

新格式起诉意见书修改与制作例谈

起诉意见书是公安机关刑事法律文书中重要的文书之一。2002年版新《公安机关刑事法律文书格式》对其进行了修改、完善和补充,使其与检察文书、裁判文书趋于一致,更加符合法律法规。使用新格式起诉意见书应认识到这样几点并自觉将其制作得规范合法。     

DOES DROPPING OUT OF SCHOOL MEAN DROPPING INTO DELINQUENCY?*

Approximately one third of U.S. high‐school freshmen do not earn their high‐school diploma on time. For African‐American and Hispanic students, this figure nearly reaches one half. The long‐term economic consequences of dropping out of school for both the student and the larger community have been well documented. It has also been argued that school dropouts put themselves at a higher risk for delinquent and criminal behavior when they leave school. Although it seems plausible that dropping out might increase the potential for delinquent conduct, another view states that dropping out is simply the final event in a long, gradual process of disenchantment and disengagement from school. Dropouts show evidence of school failure and developmental problems years in advance. It has been argued, therefore, that the actual event of finally leaving school has no causal effect on criminal or delinquent behavior because it has been so long in coming. In this article, we examine the effect of leaving school early, and the reason for dropping out, on delinquent behavior with the use of panel data models from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 Cohort (NLSY97). Through an appeal to identity theory, we hypothesize that the effect of dropping out is not uniform but varies by the reason for leaving school, gender, and time. This conjecture receives only partial empirical support. Implications for future work in the area are discussed.     

CO‐OFFENDING AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE DELINQUENT CAREER*

This article examines the role of co‐offending in the development of the delinquent career. Hypotheses derived from Reiss's (1986, 1988) taxonomic theory of co‐offending are tested, using police‐reported data on the delinquent careers and co‐offending of 55,336 Canadian offenders. Support is found for a taxonomic theory and for age‐related and functional theories of co‐offending. The taxonomy consists of two types of offenders—high activity (3 percent) and low activity (97 percent)—whose co‐offending patterns differ during the teenage years but not during childhood. For low‐activity offenders as teenagers, the proportion of co‐offenses decreases with criminal experience. The rate of co‐offending by high‐activity offenders as teenagers is lower at onset than for low‐activity offenders, and it varies little with criminal experience. For both offender types, the proportion of co‐offenses decreases with age, is slightly less in males, and varies with the type of offense. For both offender types, the proportion of co‐offenses in childhood offending is greater than in the teenage years and is unrelated to the offender's age or criminal experience.     

RACIAL ANIMOSITY AND INTERRACIAL CRIME*

The primary objective of this study is to determine the effect of a victim's race on the likelihood of him or her being seriously injured during the commission of an interracial crime. We also assess the probability of a homicide occurring during an interracial crime. A multilevel city analysis shows that black offenders are no more apt than white offenders to injure their victims seriously during an interracial robbery or rape. A black offender also does not have a greater proclivity to kill his or her victim during the commission of an interracial crime. Some evidence suggests that white victims are more likely than black victims to suffer serious physical harm during an aggravated assault. Results also reveal that contextual factors related to racial animosity, such as residential segregation, white‐to‐black economic inequality, and black‐to‐white unemployment, fail to have any moderating effect on either the severity of victim injury or the likelihood of a homicide occurring during an interracial crime. Overall, the results generated in this study tend to cast doubt on the validity of racial animosity theory. Our findings also lead us to question the veracity of the oftenmade claim that black‐on‐white crimes are punished more severely because these types of offenses are somehow more heinous in circumstance. At least in regard to serious victim injury and victim death, black‐on‐white crime is no more violent than white‐on‐black crime.     

Classification of Glass Fragments Based on Elemental Composition and Refractive Index*

Abstract: The aim of this study was to assess the efficiency of likelihood ratio (LR)‐based measures when they are applied to solving various classification problems for glass objects which are described by elemental composition, and refractive index (RI) values, and compare LR‐based methods to other classification methods such as support vector machines (SVM) and naïve Bayes classifiers (NBC). One hundred and fifty‐three glass objects (23 building windows, 25 bulbs, 32 car windows, 57 containers, and 16 headlamps) were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy coupled with an energy dispersive X‐ray spectrometer. Refractive indices for building and car windows were measured before (RI_b), and after (RI_a) an annealing process. The proposed scheme for glass fragment(s) classification demonstrates some efficiency, although the classification of car windows (c) and building windows (w) must be treated carefully. This is because of their very similar elemental content. However, a combination of elemental content and information on the change in RI during annealing (ΔRI = RI_a?RI_b) gave very promising results. A LR model for the classification of glass fragments into use‐type categories for forensic purposes gives slightly higher misclassification rates than SVM and NBC. However, the observed differences between results obtained by all three approaches were very similar, especially when applied to the car window and building window classification problem. Therefore, the LR model can be recommended because of the ease of interpretation of LR‐based measures of certainty.