The Dutch Engagement with the Project of International Criminal Justice

Netherlands International Law Review -     

Parental Motivational Perseverance Predicts Adolescents’ Depressive Symptoms: An Intergenerational Analysis with Actor-Partner Interdependence Model

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Adolescents’ depressive symptoms are affected by a number of factors including life stress, gender, socio-economic status, and parental depression symptoms....     

Changing the Debate About “Success” in Conflict Resolution Efforts

This essay outlines a conceptual framework for discussing success in interactive conflict resolution and in conflict resolution efforts more generally. It first proposes reasons why evaluation is crucial for improving practice. An overview of the new framework and its development are then presented. This gives the reader a window into its construction and some of the challenges of evaluation in conflict intervention processes. Next, the uses of the framework are explained as well as how its use helps to change the debate about successful processes. Finally, this article discusses how the theoretician, practitioner, and researcher-evaluator can use this framework for their own purposes, and how evaluating processes based upon their goals helps to improve the theory, practice, and research of the field.     

Single-stranded DNA as an immunohistochemical marker of neuronal damage in human brain: an analysis of autopsy material with regard to the cause of death

Single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) is a marker of apoptosis and programmed cell death, which appears prior to DNA fragmentation during delayed neuronal death. The present study investigated the immunohistochemical distribution of ssDNA in the brain to investigate apoptotic neuronal damage with regard to the cause of death in medicolegal autopsy cases (n=305). Neuronal immunopositivity for ssDNA was globally detected in the brain, independent of the age, gender of subjects and postmortem interval, and depended on the cause of death. Higher positivity was typically found in the pallidum for delayed brain injury death and fatal carbon monoxide intoxication, and in the cerebral cortex, pallidum and substantia nigra for drug intoxication. For mechanical asphyxiation, a high positivity was detected in the cerebral cortex and pallidum, while the positivity was low in the substantia nigra. The neuronal ssDNA increased during the survival period within about 24h at each site, depending on the type of brain injury, and in the substantia nigra for other blunt injuries. The neuronal positivity was usually lower for drowning and acute ischemic disease. Topographical analysis of ssDNA-positive neurons may contribute to investigating the cause of brain damage and survival period after a fatal insult.     

Shells and Bones: A Forensic Medicine Study of the Association of Terrestrial Snail Allopeas micra with Buried Human Remains in Brazil

Little is known regarding the scavenger fauna associated with buried human corpses, particularly in clandestine burials. We report the presence of 20 shells of the terrestrial snail Allopeas micra, within hollow bones of human remains buried for 5 years, during the process of collecting DNA material. The fact that a large number of shells of A. micra had been found in the corpse and in the crime scene supports the assumption that there was no attempt to remove the corpse from the area where the crime occurred. Despite this, our observations cannot be used to estimate the postmortem interval because there is no precise knowledge about the development of this species. This is the first record of a terrestrial snail associated with a human corpse and its role in this forensic medicine case.