The anatomy of the crime scene

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sandvik, Kjetil

simulated. The selected series range from more colourful and para-psychological based methods of investigation in series such as The Profiler and Medium to more realistic practises such as those found in series like Unit One and CSI. This analysis will be broadened by applying knowledge about how real...... scenes in order to reconstruct how the actual crime may have taken place. The profiling expert of the investigation team places herself in the role of the criminal, trying to gain insight into the criminal's psychology, way of thinking and reasoning and so on (like detective Lacour does in the Danish TV...

Forensic DNA Phenotyping: Predicting human appearance from crime scene material for investigative purposes.

Science.gov (United States)

Kayser, Manfred

2015-09-01

Forensic DNA Phenotyping refers to the prediction of appearance traits of unknown sample donors, or unknown deceased (missing) persons, directly from biological materials found at the scene. "Biological witness" outcomes of Forensic DNA Phenotyping can provide investigative leads to trace unknown persons, who are unidentifiable with current comparative DNA profiling. This intelligence application of DNA marks a substantially different forensic use of genetic material rather than that of current DNA profiling presented in the courtroom. Currently, group-specific pigmentation traits are already predictable from DNA with reasonably high accuracies, while several other externally visible characteristics are under genetic investigation. Until individual-specific appearance becomes accurately predictable from DNA, conventional DNA profiling needs to be performed subsequent to appearance DNA prediction. Notably, and where Forensic DNA Phenotyping shows great promise, this is on a (much) smaller group of potential suspects, who match the appearance characteristics DNA-predicted from the crime scene stain or from the deceased person's remains. Provided sufficient funding being made available, future research to better understand the genetic basis of human appearance will expectedly lead to a substantially more detailed description of an unknown person's appearance from DNA, delivering increased value for police investigations in criminal and missing person cases involving unknowns. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Forensic botany as a useful tool in the crime scene: Report of a case.

Science.gov (United States)

Margiotta, Gabriele; Bacaro, Giovanni; Carnevali, Eugenia; Severini, Simona; Bacci, Mauro; Gabbrielli, Mario

2015-08-01

The ubiquitous presence of plant species makes forensic botany useful for many criminal cases. Particularly, bryophytes are useful for forensic investigations because many of them are clonal and largely distributed. Bryophyte shoots can easily become attached to shoes and clothes and it is possible to be found on footwear, providing links between crime scene and individuals. We report a case of suicide of a young girl happened in Siena, Tuscany, Italia. The cause of traumatic injuries could be ascribed to suicide, to homicide, or to accident. In absence of eyewitnesses who could testify the dynamics of the event, the crime scene investigation was fundamental to clarify the accident. During the scene analysis, some fragments of Tortula muralis Hedw. and Bryum capillare Hedw were found. The fragments were analyzed by a bryologists in order to compare them with the moss present on the stairs that the victim used immediately before the death. The analysis of these bryophytes found at the crime scene allowed to reconstruct the accident. Even if this evidence, of course, is circumstantial, it can be useful in forensic cases, together with the other evidences, to reconstruct the dynamics of events. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd and Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine. All rights reserved.

A LOOK INSIDE COOPERATION BETWEEN PROSECUTORS AND LAW ENFORCEMENT DURING CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dževad Mahmutović

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The paper deals with crime scene investigation as a measure of inquiry, conceptually and substantially, subjects of investigation, as well as their mutual relations. The analysis of the existing legal framework suggests that the current Criminal Procedure Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina offers the appropriate basis for the cooperation between prosecutors and law enforcement. However, previous practice indicates certain shortcomings in the cooperation and coordination between prosecutors and law enforcement. With this paper, the authors wanted to examine the opinions of direct actors on this matter. The results show that they are satisfied with the legal regulation of their mutual relations during investigations, and they express positive opinions in terms of their cooperation. Of course, the possibility of improving that cooperation is also noted, and the methods of achieving it should be identified in further research.

Portable generator-based X RF instrument for non-destructive analysis at crime scenes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schweitzer, Jeffrey S. [University of Connecticut, Department of Physics, Unit 3046 Storrs, CT 06269-3046 (United States)]. E-mail: schweitz@phys.uconn.edu; Trombka, Jacob I. [Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 691, Greenbelt Road, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States); Floyd, Samuel [Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 691, Greenbelt Road, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States); Selavka, Carl [Massachusetts State Police Crime Laboratory, 59 Horse Pond Road, Sudbury, MA 01776 (United States); Zeosky, Gerald [Forensic Investigation Center, Crime Laboratory Building, 22 State Campus, Albany, NY 12226 (United States); Gahn, Norman [Assistant District Attorney, Milwaukee County, District Attorney' s Office, 821 West State Street, Milwaukee, WI 53233-1427 (United States); McClanahan, Timothy [Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 691, Greenbelt Road, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States); Burbine, Thomas [Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 691, Greenbelt Road, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)

2005-12-15

Unattended and remote detection systems find applications in space exploration, telemedicine, teleforensics, homeland security and nuclear non-proliferation programs. The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) have teamed up to explore the use of NASA developed technologies to help criminal justice agencies and professionals investigate crimes. The objective of the program is to produce instruments and communication networks that have application within both NASA's space program and NIJ, together with state and local forensic laboratories. A general-purpose X-ray fluorescence system has been built for non-destructive analyses of trace and invisible material at crime scenes. This portable instrument is based on a generator that can operate to 60 kV and a Schottky CdTe detector. The instrument has been shown to be successful for the analysis of gunshot residue and a number of bodily fluids at crime scenes.

Portable generator-based X RF instrument for non-destructive analysis at crime scenes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schweitzer, Jeffrey S.; Trombka, Jacob I.; Floyd, Samuel; Selavka, Carl; Zeosky, Gerald; Gahn, Norman; McClanahan, Timothy; Burbine, Thomas

2005-01-01

Unattended and remote detection systems find applications in space exploration, telemedicine, teleforensics, homeland security and nuclear non-proliferation programs. The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) have teamed up to explore the use of NASA developed technologies to help criminal justice agencies and professionals investigate crimes. The objective of the program is to produce instruments and communication networks that have application within both NASA's space program and NIJ, together with state and local forensic laboratories. A general-purpose X-ray fluorescence system has been built for non-destructive analyses of trace and invisible material at crime scenes. This portable instrument is based on a generator that can operate to 60 kV and a Schottky CdTe detector. The instrument has been shown to be successful for the analysis of gunshot residue and a number of bodily fluids at crime scenes

Using GIS to reconcile crime scenes with those indicated by serial criminals

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Cooper, Antony K

2001-12-01

Full Text Available Sometimes, when serial criminals are caught, they admit to their crimes and are willing to point out crime scenes to the police. The South African Police Service (SAPS) then sends independent police officers with the suspect to document those...

Standoff alpha radiation detection for hot cell imaging and crime scene investigation

Science.gov (United States)

Kerst, Thomas; Sand, Johan; Ihantola, Sakari; Peräjärvi, Kari; Nicholl, Adrian; Hrnecek, Erich; Toivonen, Harri; Toivonen, Juha

2018-02-01

This paper presents the remote detection of alpha contamination in a nuclear facility. Alpha-active material in a shielded nuclear radiation containment chamber has been localized by optical means. Furthermore, sources of radiation danger have been identified in a staged crime scene setting. For this purpose, an electron-multiplying charge-coupled device camera was used to capture photons generated by alpha-induced air scintillation (radioluminescence). The detected radioluminescence was superimposed with a regular photograph to reveal the origin of the light and thereby the alpha radioactive material. The experimental results show that standoff detection of alpha contamination is a viable tool in radiation threat detection. Furthermore, the radioluminescence spectrum in the air is spectrally analyzed. Possibilities of camera-based alpha threat detection under various background lighting conditions are discussed.

Wood evidence : proper collection, documentation, and storage of wood evidence from a crime scene

Science.gov (United States)

Alex Wiedenhoeft

2006-01-01

Wood can be found at crime scenes in many forms: as a murder weapon, as material used to hide a body, or as trace evidence from forced entry or vandalism. In the course of my work at the Forest Products Laboratory, Center for Wood Anatomy Research, I have been part of several forensic investigations that were adversely affected by inappropriate procedures used to...

Analysis of body fluids for forensic purposes: from laboratory testing to non-destructive rapid confirmatory identification at a crime scene.

Science.gov (United States)

Virkler, Kelly; Lednev, Igor K

2009-07-01

Body fluid traces recovered at crime scenes are among the most important types of evidence to forensic investigators. They contain valuable DNA evidence which can identify a suspect or victim as well as exonerate an innocent individual. The first step of identifying a particular body fluid is highly important since the nature of the fluid is itself very informative to the investigation, and the destructive nature of a screening test must be considered when only a small amount of material is available. The ability to characterize an unknown stain at the scene of the crime without having to wait for results from a laboratory is another very critical step in the development of forensic body fluid analysis. Driven by the importance for forensic applications, body fluid identification methods have been extensively developed in recent years. The systematic analysis of these new developments is vital for forensic investigators to be continuously educated on possible superior techniques. Significant advances in laser technology and the development of novel light detectors have dramatically improved spectroscopic methods for molecular characterization over the last decade. The application of this novel biospectroscopy for forensic purposes opens new and exciting opportunities for the development of on-field, non-destructive, confirmatory methods for body fluid identification at a crime scene. In addition, the biospectroscopy methods are universally applicable to all body fluids unlike the majority of current techniques which are valid for individual fluids only. This article analyzes the current methods being used to identify body fluid stains including blood, semen, saliva, vaginal fluid, urine, and sweat, and also focuses on new techniques that have been developed in the last 5-6 years. In addition, the potential of new biospectroscopic techniques based on Raman and fluorescence spectroscopy is evaluated for rapid, confirmatory, non-destructive identification of a body

Microbial Murders Crime Scene Investigation: An Active Team-Based Learning Project that Enhances Student Enthusiasm and Comprehension of Clinical Microbial Pathogens.

Science.gov (United States)

Steel, J Jordan

2017-01-01

Microbial disease knowledge is a critical component of microbiology courses and is beneficial for many students' future careers. Microbiology courses traditionally cover core concepts through lectures and labs, but specific instruction on microbial diseases varies greatly depending on the instructor and course. A common project involves students researching and presenting a disease to the class. This method alone is not very effective, and course evaluations have consistently indicated that students felt they lacked adequate disease knowledge; therefore, a more hands-on and interactive disease project was developed called Microbial Murders. For this team-based project, a group of students chooses a pathogen, researches the disease, creates a "mugshot" of the pathogen, and develops a corresponding "crime scene," where a hypothetical patient has died from the microbe. Each group gives a presentation introducing the microbial pathogen, signs/symptoms, treatments, and overall characteristics. The students then visit each other's crime scenes to match the pathogen with the correct crime scene by critically thinking through the clues. This project has shown remarkable success. Surveys indicate that 73% of students thought the project helped them understand the material and 84% said it was worth their time. Student participation, excitement, understanding, and application of microbial disease knowledge have increased and are evident through an increase in course evaluations and in student assessment scores. This project is easy to implement and can be used in a wide variety of biology, microbiology, or health classes for any level (middle school through college).

Human matching performance of genuine crime scene latent fingerprints.

Science.gov (United States)

Thompson, Matthew B; Tangen, Jason M; McCarthy, Duncan J

2014-02-01

There has been very little research into the nature and development of fingerprint matching expertise. Here we present the results of an experiment testing the claimed matching expertise of fingerprint examiners. Expert (n = 37), intermediate trainee (n = 8), new trainee (n = 9), and novice (n = 37) participants performed a fingerprint discrimination task involving genuine crime scene latent fingerprints, their matches, and highly similar distractors, in a signal detection paradigm. Results show that qualified, court-practicing fingerprint experts were exceedingly accurate compared with novices. Experts showed a conservative response bias, tending to err on the side of caution by making more errors of the sort that could allow a guilty person to escape detection than errors of the sort that could falsely incriminate an innocent person. The superior performance of experts was not simply a function of their ability to match prints, per se, but a result of their ability to identify the highly similar, but nonmatching fingerprints as such. Comparing these results with previous experiments, experts were even more conservative in their decision making when dealing with these genuine crime scene prints than when dealing with simulated crime scene prints, and this conservatism made them relatively less accurate overall. Intermediate trainees-despite their lack of qualification and average 3.5 years experience-performed about as accurately as qualified experts who had an average 17.5 years experience. New trainees-despite their 5-week, full-time training course or their 6 months experience-were not any better than novices at discriminating matching and similar nonmatching prints, they were just more conservative. Further research is required to determine the precise nature of fingerprint matching expertise and the factors that influence performance. The findings of this representative, lab-based experiment may have implications for the way fingerprint examiners testify in

a Low-Cost Panoramic Camera for the 3d Documentation of Contaminated Crime Scenes

Science.gov (United States)

Abate, D.; Toschi, I.; Sturdy-Colls, C.; Remondino, F.

2017-11-01

Crime scene documentation is a fundamental task which has to be undertaken in a fast, accurate and reliable way, highlighting evidence which can be further used for ensuring justice for victims and for guaranteeing the successful prosecution of perpetrators. The main focus of this paper is on the documentation of a typical crime scene and on the rapid recording of any possible contamination that could have influenced its original appearance. A 3D reconstruction of the environment is first generated by processing panoramas acquired with the low-cost Ricoh Theta 360 camera, and further analysed to highlight potentials and limits of this emerging and consumer-grade technology. Then, a methodology is proposed for the rapid recording of changes occurring between the original and the contaminated crime scene. The approach is based on an automatic 3D feature-based data registration, followed by a cloud-to-cloud distance computation, given as input the 3D point clouds generated before and after e.g. the misplacement of evidence. All the algorithms adopted for panoramas pre-processing, photogrammetric 3D reconstruction, 3D geometry registration and analysis, are presented and currently available in open-source or low-cost software solutions.

Forensic science information needs of patrol officers: The perceptions of the patrol officers, their supervisors and administrators, detectives, and crime scene technicians

Science.gov (United States)

Aydogdu, Eyup

Thanks to the rapid developments in science and technology in recent decades, especially in the past two decades, forensic sciences have been making invaluable contributions to criminal justice systems. With scientific evaluation of physical evidence, policing has become more effective in fighting crime and criminals. On the other hand, law enforcement personnel have made mistakes during the detection, protection, collection, and evaluation of physical evidence. Law enforcement personnel, especially patrol officers, have been criticized for ignoring or overlooking physical evidence at crime scenes. This study, conducted in a large American police department, was aimed to determine the perceptions of patrol officers, their supervisors and administrators, detectives, and crime scene technicians about the forensic science needs of patrol officers. The results showed no statistically significant difference among the perceptions of the said groups. More than half of the respondents perceived that 14 out of 16 areas of knowledge were important for patrol officers to have: crime scene documentation, evidence collection, interviewing techniques, firearm evidence, latent and fingerprint evidence, blood evidence, death investigation information, DNA evidence, document evidence, electronically recorded evidence, trace evidence, biological fluid evidence, arson and explosive evidence, and impression evidence. Less than half of the respondents perceived forensic entomology and plant evidence as important for patrol officers.

Integration of Trace Images in Three-dimensional Crime Scene Reconstruction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Quentin Milliet

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Forensic image analysis has greatly developed with the proliferation of photography and video recording devices. Trace images of serious incidents are increasingly captured by first responders, witnesses, bystanders, or surveillance systems. Image perception is exposed with a special emphasis on the influence of the field of view on observation. In response to the pitfalls of the mental eye, a way to systematize the integration of images as traces in three-dimensional crime scene reconstruction is proposed. The systematic approach is based on the application of photogrammetric principles to slightly modify the usual photographic documentation as well as on the early collection and review of available trace images. The integration of images as traces provides valuable contributions to contextualize what happened at a crime scene based on the information that can be obtained from images. In a wider perspective, the systematic analysis of images fosters the use and interpretation of forensic evidence to complement witness statements in the criminal justice system. This article outlines the benefits of integrating trace images into a coherent reconstruction framework in order to improve interpretation of their content. A solution is proposed to integrate perception differences between the field of view of cameras and the human eye.

Initial progress in the recording of crime scene simulations using 3D laser structured light imagery techniques for law enforcement and forensic applications

Science.gov (United States)

Altschuler, Bruce R.; Monson, Keith L.

1998-03-01

Representation of crime scenes as virtual reality 3D computer displays promises to become a useful and important tool for law enforcement evaluation and analysis, forensic identification and pathological study and archival presentation during court proceedings. Use of these methods for assessment of evidentiary materials demands complete accuracy of reproduction of the original scene, both in data collection and in its eventual virtual reality representation. The recording of spatially accurate information as soon as possible after first arrival of law enforcement personnel is advantageous for unstable or hazardous crime scenes and reduces the possibility that either inadvertent measurement error or deliberate falsification may occur or be alleged concerning processing of a scene. Detailed measurements and multimedia archiving of critical surface topographical details in a calibrated, uniform, consistent and standardized quantitative 3D coordinate method are needed. These methods would afford professional personnel in initial contact with a crime scene the means for remote, non-contacting, immediate, thorough and unequivocal documentation of the contents of the scene. Measurements of the relative and absolute global positions of object sand victims, and their dispositions within the scene before their relocation and detailed examination, could be made. Resolution must be sufficient to map both small and large objects. Equipment must be able to map regions at varied resolution as collected from different perspectives. Progress is presented in devising methods for collecting and archiving 3D spatial numerical data from crime scenes, sufficient for law enforcement needs, by remote laser structured light and video imagery. Two types of simulation studies were done. One study evaluated the potential of 3D topographic mapping and 3D telepresence using a robotic platform for explosive ordnance disassembly. The second study involved using the laser mapping system on a

Crime scenes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Waade, Anne Marit

2011-01-01

The purpose of this article is to illuminate the significance of locations in TV series, in particular in crime series. The author presents different theoretical approaches on settings and landscapes in TV series and crime stories. By analysing both the Swedish and the British versions...... of the Wallander series, the author examines the various types of location used, focusing especially on their dramaturgic and aesthetic roles and on the various ways in which locations are conceptualized in the two series. The analysis also includes extra materials on the DVDs. Finally, the author discusses some...... theoretical and methodological challenges of analysing the significance and impact of locations in TV productions....

Using VIS/NIR and IR spectral cameras for detecting and separating crime scene details

Science.gov (United States)

Kuula, Jaana; Pölönen, Ilkka; Puupponen, Hannu-Heikki; Selander, Tuomas; Reinikainen, Tapani; Kalenius, Tapani; Saari, Heikki

2012-06-01

Detecting invisible details and separating mixed evidence is critical for forensic inspection. If this can be done reliably and fast at the crime scene, irrelevant objects do not require further examination at the laboratory. This will speed up the inspection process and release resources for other critical tasks. This article reports on tests which have been carried out at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland together with the Central Finland Police Department and the National Bureau of Investigation for detecting and separating forensic details with hyperspectral technology. In the tests evidence was sought after at an assumed violent burglary scene with the use of VTT's 500-900 nm wavelength VNIR camera, Specim's 400- 1000 nm VNIR camera, and Specim's 1000-2500 nm SWIR camera. The tested details were dried blood on a ceramic plate, a stain of four types of mixed and absorbed blood, and blood which had been washed off a table. Other examined details included untreated latent fingerprints, gunshot residue, primer residue, and layered paint on small pieces of wood. All cameras could detect visible details and separate mixed paint. The SWIR camera could also separate four types of human and animal blood which were mixed in the same stain and absorbed into a fabric. None of the cameras could however detect primer residue, untreated latent fingerprints, or blood that had been washed off. The results are encouraging and indicate the need for further studies. The results also emphasize the importance of creating optimal imaging conditions into the crime scene for each kind of subjects and backgrounds.

Application of plant DNA markers in forensic botany: genetic comparison of Quercus evidence leaves to crime scene trees using microsatellites.

Science.gov (United States)

Craft, Kathleen J; Owens, Jeffrey D; Ashley, Mary V

2007-01-05

As highly polymorphic DNA markers become increasingly available for a wide range of plant and animal species, there will be increasing opportunities for applications to forensic investigations. To date, however, relatively few studies have reported using DNA profiles of non-human species to place suspects at or near crime scenes. Here we describe an investigation of a double homicide of a female and her near-term fetus. Leaf material taken from a suspect's vehicle was identified to be that of sand live oak, Quercus geminata, the same tree species that occurred near a shallow grave where the victims were found. Quercus-specific DNA microsatellites were used to genotype both dried and fresh material from trees located near the burial site and from the material taken from the suspect's car. Samples from the local population of Q. geminata were also collected and genotyped in order to demonstrate that genetic variation at four microsatellite loci was sufficient to assign leaves to an individual tree with high statistical certainty. The cumulative average probability of identity for these four loci was 2.06x10(-6). DNA was successfully obtained from the dried leaf material although PCR amplification was more difficult than amplification of DNA from fresh leaves. The DNA profiles of the dried leaves from the suspect's car did not match those of the trees near the crime scene. Although this investigation did not provide evidence that could be used against the suspect, it does demonstrate the potential for plant microsatellite markers providing physical evidence that links plant materials to live plants at or near crime scenes.

Clandestine laboratory scene investigation and processing using portable GC/MS

Science.gov (United States)

Matejczyk, Raymond J.

1997-02-01

This presentation describes the use of portable gas chromatography/mass spectrometry for on-scene investigation and processing of clandestine laboratories. Clandestine laboratory investigations present special problems to forensic investigators. These crime scenes contain many chemical hazards that must be detected, identified and collected as evidence. Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry performed on-scene with a rugged, portable unit is capable of analyzing a variety of matrices for drugs and chemicals used in the manufacture of illicit drugs, such as methamphetamine. Technologies used to detect various materials at a scene have particular applications but do not address the wide range of samples, chemicals, matrices and mixtures that exist in clan labs. Typical analyses performed by GC/MS are for the purpose of positively establishing the identity of starting materials, chemicals and end-product collected from clandestine laboratories. Concerns for the public and investigator safety and the environment are also important factors for rapid on-scene data generation. Here is described the implementation of a portable multiple-inlet GC/MS system designed for rapid deployment to a scene to perform forensic investigations of clandestine drug manufacturing laboratories. GC/MS has long been held as the 'gold standard' in performing forensic chemical analyses. With the capability of GC/MS to separate and produce a 'chemical fingerprint' of compounds, it is utilized as an essential technique for detecting and positively identifying chemical evidence. Rapid and conclusive on-scene analysis of evidence will assist the forensic investigators in collecting only pertinent evidence thereby reducing the amount of evidence to be transported, reducing chain of custody concerns, reducing costs and hazards, maintaining sample integrity and speeding the completion of the investigative process.

Quantitative assessment of similarity between randomly acquired characteristics on high quality exemplars and crime scene impressions via analysis of feature size and shape.

Science.gov (United States)

Richetelli, Nicole; Nobel, Madonna; Bodziak, William J; Speir, Jacqueline A

2017-01-01

Forensic footwear evidence can prove invaluable to the resolution of a criminal investigation. Naturally, the value of a comparison varies with the rarity of the evidence, which is a function of both manufactured as well as randomly acquired characteristics (RACs). When focused specifically on the latter of these two types of features, empirical evidence demonstrates high discriminating power for the differentiation of known match and known non-match samples when presented with exemplars of high quality and exhibiting a sufficient number of clear and complex RACs. However, given the dynamic and unpredictable nature of the media, substrate, and deposition process encountered during the commission of a crime, RACs on crime scene prints are expected to exhibit a large range of variability in terms of reproducibility, clarity, and quality. Although the pattern recognition skill of the expert examiner is adept at recognizing and evaluating this type of natural variation, there is little research to suggest that objective and numerical metrics can globally process this variation when presented with RACs from degraded crime scene quality prints. As such, the goal of this study was to mathematically compare the loss and similarity of RACs in high quality exemplars versus crime-scene-like quality impressions as a function of RAC shape, perimeter, area, and common source. Results indicate that the unpredictable conditions associated with crime scene print production promotes RAC loss that varies between 33% and 100% with an average of 85%, and that when the entire outsole is taken as a constellation of features (or a RAC map), 64% of the crime-scene-like impressions exhibited 10 or fewer RACs, resulting in a 0.72 probability of stochastic dominance. Given this, individual RAC description and correspondence were further explored using five simple, but objective, numerical metrics of similarity. Statistically significant differences in similarity scores for RAC shape and size

Acquaintance Rape: Applying Crime Scene Analysis to the Prediction of Sexual Recidivism.

Science.gov (United States)

Lehmann, Robert J B; Goodwill, Alasdair M; Hanson, R Karl; Dahle, Klaus-Peter

2016-10-01

The aim of the current study was to enhance the assessment and predictive accuracy of risk assessments for sexual offenders by utilizing detailed crime scene analysis (CSA). CSA was conducted on a sample of 247 male acquaintance rapists from Berlin (Germany) using a nonmetric, multidimensional scaling (MDS) Behavioral Thematic Analysis (BTA) approach. The age of the offenders at the time of the index offense ranged from 14 to 64 years (M = 32.3; SD = 11.4). The BTA procedure revealed three behavioral themes of hostility, criminality, and pseudo-intimacy, consistent with previous CSA research on stranger rape. The construct validity of the three themes was demonstrated through correlational analyses with known sexual offending measures and criminal histories. The themes of hostility and pseudo-intimacy were significant predictors of sexual recidivism. In addition, the pseudo-intimacy theme led to a significant increase in the incremental validity of the Static-99 actuarial risk assessment instrument for the prediction of sexual recidivism. The results indicate the potential utility and validity of crime scene behaviors in the applied risk assessment of sexual offenders. © The Author(s) 2015.

Forensic 3D Scene Reconstruction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

LITTLE, CHARLES Q.; PETERS, RALPH R.; RIGDON, J. BRIAN; SMALL, DANIEL E.

1999-01-01

Traditionally law enforcement agencies have relied on basic measurement and imaging tools, such as tape measures and cameras, in recording a crime scene. A disadvantage of these methods is that they are slow and cumbersome. The development of a portable system that can rapidly record a crime scene with current camera imaging, 3D geometric surface maps, and contribute quantitative measurements such as accurate relative positioning of crime scene objects, would be an asset to law enforcement agents in collecting and recording significant forensic data. The purpose of this project is to develop a feasible prototype of a fast, accurate, 3D measurement and imaging system that would support law enforcement agents to quickly document and accurately record a crime scene

Spherical photography and virtual tours for presenting crime scenes and forensic evidence in new zealand courtrooms.

Science.gov (United States)

Tung, Nicole D; Barr, Jason; Sheppard, Dion J; Elliot, Douglas A; Tottey, Leah S; Walsh, Kevan A J

2015-05-01

The delivery of forensic science evidence in a clear and understandable manner is an important aspect of a forensic scientist's role during expert witness delivery in a courtroom trial. This article describes an Integrated Evidence Platform (IEP) system based on spherical photography which allows the audience to view the crime scene via a virtual tour and view the forensic scientist's evidence and results in context. Equipment and software programmes used in the creation of the IEP include a Nikon DSLR camera, a Seitz Roundshot VR Drive, PTGui Pro, and Tourweaver Professional Edition. The IEP enables a clear visualization of the crime scene, with embedded information such as photographs of items of interest, complex forensic evidence, the results of laboratory analyses, and scientific opinion evidence presented in context. The IEP has resulted in significant improvements to the pretrial disclosure of forensic results, enhanced the delivery of evidence in court, and improved the jury's understanding of the spatial relationship between results. © 2015 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

"Undoing" (or Symbolic Reversal) at Homicide Crime Scenes.

Science.gov (United States)

Russell, Maria; Schlesinger, Louis B; Leon, Maria; Holdren, Samantha

2018-03-01

A closed case file review of a nonrandom national sample of 975 homicides disclosed 11 cases (1.13%) of undoing, wherein offenders engaged in crime scene behavior that has been considered an attempt to symbolically reverse the murder. The frequency of the various methods of undoing involved the use of blankets to cover the victim's body (55%), positioning the body (55%), use of a bed or couch (42%), washing the body (36%), using pillows (36%), as well as removing clothing and adding other types of adornments (27%). Ten of the 11 offenders were male, and one was female; all 12 victims were female. Ten of the 12 victims were family members or relationship intimates. These findings are consistent with prior reports which concluded that the motivation for undoing behavior is an attempt to compensate for guilt or remorse for having committed the homicide. © 2017 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Crime As Entertainment or Entertainment as A Crime?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mia Angeline

2011-10-01

Full Text Available Article presents one part of pop culture is crime portrayed as entertainment in television shows. Television has the means of information and entertainment, resulting in the shift of crime shows, initially crime was portrayed in the news but due to the high popularity, it becomes part of the entertainment as well. In terms of information, the most famous of crime drama show is Crime Scene Investigation (CSI, and this show gave effect known as the CSI effect, which is people have more appreciation to scientific evidences and DNA testing in trials. On the other hand, with so many shows involving crime resulting in cultivation impact, which is accumulation and the formation of perception of reality. People who are more exposed to this crime show will form the same perception as the one depicted by television and resulted to changes in their behavior. Several proposals to reduce this negative effects are audience learning, the use of rating system and electronic key in television set.  

Persistent lipsticks and their lip prints: new hidden evidence at the crime scene.

Science.gov (United States)

Alvarez Segui, M; Miquel Feucht, M; Castello Ponce, A; Verdu Pascual, F

2000-07-24

Latent lip print test results produced by permanent lipsticks are presented in this work. This cosmetic product, contrary to conventional lipsticks, does not leave visible prints and can thus be overlooked at the crime scene. As print vehicles the study used ceramics, glass, cotton fabric and paper. Lip prints were left to dwell for different periods and were later developed using aluminum powder, cobalt oxide powder and magnetic powder. The results show that identifiable lip prints can be obtained up to 30 days after being produced.

Optimising crime scene temperature collection for forensic entomology casework.

Science.gov (United States)

Hofer, Ines M J; Hart, Andrew J; Martín-Vega, Daniel; Hall, Martin J R

2017-01-01

The value of minimum post-mortem interval (minPMI) estimations in suspicious death investigations from insect evidence using temperature modelling is indisputable. In order to investigate the reliability of the collected temperature data used for modelling minPMI, it is necessary to study the effects of data logger location on the accuracy and precision of measurements. Digital data logging devices are the most commonly used temperature measuring devices in forensic entomology, however, the relationship between ambient temperatures (measured by loggers) and body temperatures has been little studied. The placement of loggers in this study in three locations (two outdoors, one indoors) had measurable effects when compared with actual body temperature measurements (simulated with pig heads), some more significant than others depending on season, exposure to the environment and logger location. Overall, the study demonstrated the complexity of the question of optimal logger placement at a crime scene and the potential impact of inaccurate temperature data on minPMI estimations, showing the importance of further research in this area and development of a standard protocol. Initial recommendations are provided for data logger placement (within a Stevenson Screen where practical), situations to avoid (e.g. placement of logger in front of windows when measuring indoor temperatures), and a baseline for further research into producing standard guidelines for logger placement, to increase the accuracy of minPMI estimations and, thereby, the reliability of forensic entomology evidence in court. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Environmental impact to multimedia systems on the example of fingerprint aging behavior at crime scenes

Science.gov (United States)

Merkel, Ronny; Breuhan, Andy; Hildebrandt, Mario; Vielhauer, Claus; Bräutigam, Anja

2012-06-01

In the field of crime scene forensics, current methods of evidence collection, such as the acquisition of shoe-marks, tireimpressions, palm-prints or fingerprints are in most cases still performed in an analogue way. For example, fingerprints are captured by powdering and sticky tape lifting, ninhydrine bathing or cyanoacrylate fuming and subsequent photographing. Images of the evidence are then further processed by forensic experts. With the upcoming use of new multimedia systems for the digital capturing and processing of crime scene traces in forensics, higher resolutions can be achieved, leading to a much better quality of forensic images. Furthermore, the fast and mostly automated preprocessing of such data using digital signal processing techniques is an emerging field. Also, by the optical and non-destructive lifting of forensic evidence, traces are not destroyed and therefore can be re-captured, e.g. by creating time series of a trace, to extract its aging behavior and maybe determine the time the trace was left. However, such new methods and tools face different challenges, which need to be addressed before a practical application in the field. Based on the example of fingerprint age determination, which is an unresolved research challenge to forensic experts since decades, we evaluate the influences of different environmental conditions as well as different types of sweating and their implications to the capturing sensory, preprocessing methods and feature extraction. We use a Chromatic White Light (CWL) sensor to exemplary represent such a new optical and contactless measurement device and investigate the influence of 16 different environmental conditions, 8 different sweat types and 11 different preprocessing methods on the aging behavior of 48 fingerprint time series (2592 fingerprint scans in total). We show the challenges that arise for such new multimedia systems capturing and processing forensic evidence

Profiling as a logical form of reasoning in order to solve controversial circumstances on the crime scene

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Palcu Pavel

2016-06-01

Full Text Available While conducting research on the scene or during the entire phase of criminal prosecution, especially for the identification of the authors or settlement of the controversial circumstances, criminal profiling by a forensic psychologist will reduce the circle of suspects, as well as provide assistance in determining possible connections with other crimes and offer to judicial organs sustainable strategies for the solution of the case. In addition to identifying and processing the material traces found on the scene, concern falling strictly within forensics, in the future, efforts against criminality of the third millennium will be oriented towards the interpretation of human behaviour with criminogenic finality.

Methodological approach to crime scene investigation: the dangers of technology

Science.gov (United States)

Barnett, Peter D.

1997-02-01

The visitor to any modern forensic science laboratory is confronted with equipment and processes that did not exist even 10 years ago: thermocyclers to allow genetic typing of nanogram amounts of DNA isolated from a few spermatozoa; scanning electron microscopes that can nearly automatically detect submicrometer sized particles of molten lead, barium and antimony produced by the discharge of a firearm and deposited on the hands of the shooter; and computers that can compare an image of a latent fingerprint with millions of fingerprints stored in the computer memory. Analysis of populations of physical evidence has permitted statistically minded forensic scientists to use Bayesian inference to draw conclusions based on a priori assumptions which are often poorly understood, irrelevant, or misleading. National commissions who are studying quality control in DNA analysis propose that people with barely relevant graduate degrees and little forensic science experience be placed in charge of forensic DNA laboratories. It is undeniable that high- tech has reversed some miscarriages of justice by establishing the innocence of a number of people who were imprisoned for years for crimes that they did not commit. However, this papers deals with the dangers of technology in criminal investigations.

Storyboards of crimes. Examining crime scenario creation and investigative experience

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van der Kemp, J.J.; de Gruijter, M.

2011-01-01

To solve a crime a chronological description of what went on, when, how, why and by who must be given; a crime scenario. As to avoid the risk of wrongful conviction due to tunnel vision in an investigation, Dutch investigators are obliged to create multiple scenarios and rule but one out. Although

Effective use of forensic science in volume crime investigations: identifying recurring themes in the literature.

Science.gov (United States)

Ludwig, Anika; Fraser, Jim

2014-01-01

New scientific, technological and legal developments, particularly the introduction of national databases for DNA and fingerprints, have led to increased use of forensic science in the investigation of crime. There is an assumption, and in some instances specific assertions, that such developments bring improvements either in broad criminal justice terms or more narrowly in terms of economic or practical efficiencies. The underlying presumption is that the new technological opportunities will be understood and effectively implemented. This research investigates whether such increases in activity have also been accompanied by improvements in the effective use of forensic science. A systematic review of thirty-six reports published (predominantly in England and Wales) since the 1980s, which have considered the use of forensic science in the investigation of volume crimes, was carried out. These reports have identified a number of recurrent themes that influenced how effectively forensic science was used in investigations. The themes identified included forensic knowledge and training of investigators, communication and information exchange between specialists and investigators, timeliness of forensic results, interagency relationships and deployment of crime scene examiner resources. The research findings suggest that these factors continue to hinder the effective use of forensic science despite technological advances and this paper considers their potential causes. © 2013.

Bloodstain detection and discrimination impacted by spectral shift when using an interference filter-based visible and near-infrared multispectral crime scene imaging system

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Jie; Messinger, David W.; Dube, Roger R.

2018-03-01

Bloodstain detection and discrimination from nonblood substances on various substrates are critical in forensic science as bloodstains are a critical source for confirmatory DNA tests. Conventional bloodstain detection methods often involve time-consuming sample preparation, a chance of harm to investigators, the possibility of destruction of blood samples, and acquisition of too little data at crime scenes either in the field or in the laboratory. An imaging method has the advantages of being nondestructive, noncontact, real-time, and covering a large field-of-view. The abundant spectral information provided by multispectral imaging makes it a potential presumptive bloodstain detection and discrimination method. This article proposes an interference filter (IF) based area scanning three-spectral-band crime scene imaging system used for forensic bloodstain detection and discrimination. The impact of large angle of views on the spectral shift of calibrated IFs is determined, for both detecting and discriminating bloodstains from visually similar substances on multiple substrates. Spectral features in the visible and near-infrared portion employed by the relative band depth method are used. This study shows that 1 ml bloodstain on black felt, gray felt, red felt, white cotton, white polyester, and raw wood can be detected. Bloodstains on the above substrates can be discriminated from cola, coffee, ketchup, orange juice, red wine, and green tea.

[The currently available possibilities for the application of photogrammetry in the forensic medical expertise of the blood stains at the scene of the crime].

Science.gov (United States)

Fetisov, V A; Makarov, I Yu; Gusarov, A A; Lorents, A S; Smirenin, S A; Stragis, V B

The study of blood stains retained at the scene of the crime is of crucial importance for the preliminary inquiry. The present article is focused on the analysis of the possibilities and prospects for the use of photogrammetry (PM) as exemplified by the foreign expert practice of the blood stains examination at the site of the event. It is shown that the results of the application of digital photogrammetry in addition to the traditional methods of morphological investigations enables the forensic medical experts to reconstruct a number of unique features and circumstances that accompanied the commission of a crime at the site of the event. Such PM techniques supplemented by the ballistic analysis of the blood splatter and droplet trajectories provides additional evidence that allows the forensic medical experts to reconstruct the scene of the crime including the pose and position of the victim at the moment of causing injury. Moreover, these data make it possible to determine the maximum number and the sequence of injurious impacts (blows). The authors discuss the advantages and relative disadvantages of the application of the photogrammetric technique in the routine practical expert work. It is emphasized that the published decision making algorithms provide the specialists in various disciplines and professional experts with the ready-made technological tools for obtaining the additional criteria for the objective improvement of the quality of the studies they carry out and for the enhancement of the value of expert conclusions. It is concluded that the application of the modern photogrammetric technologies can be recommended for the solution of the applied forensic medical problems and conducting the relevant expert research.

FIGHTING THE CLASSICAL CRIME-SCENE ASSUMPTIONS. CRITICAL ASPECTS IN ESTABLISHING THE CRIME-SCENE PERIMETER IN COMPUTER-BASED EVIDENCE CASES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cristina DRIGĂ

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Physical-world forensic investigation has the luxury of being tied to the sciences governing the investigated space, hence some assumptions can be made with some degree of certainty when investigating a crime. Cyberspace on the other hand, has a dual nature comprising both a physical layer susceptible of scientific analysis, and a virtual layer governed entirely by the conventions established between the various actors involved at a certain moment in time, defining the actual digital landscape and being the layer where the actual facts relevant from the legal point of view occur. This distinct nature renders unusable many of the assumptions which the legal professionals and the courts of law are used to operate with. The article intends to identify the most important features of cyberspace having immediate legal consequences, with the purpose to establish new and safe assumptions from the legal professional's perspective when cross-examining facts that occurred in cyberspace.

WHITE COLLAR CRIME - Investigations

OpenAIRE

Nyagudi, Nyagudi Musandu

2014-01-01

WHITE COLLAR CRIME - Investigations Presentation By  Dr. Nyagudi MusanduForensic Criminologist 2nd International Securityand Safety Conference and Exhibition, 16th April, 2010 a forum hosted by Events Management Solutions at the Sarit Centre, Nairobi, Kenya  

Paper-based microfluidic devices on the crime scene: A simple tool for rapid estimation of post-mortem interval using vitreous humour.

Science.gov (United States)

Garcia, Paulo T; Gabriel, Ellen F M; Pessôa, Gustavo S; Santos Júnior, Júlio C; Mollo Filho, Pedro C; Guidugli, Ruggero B F; Höehr, Nelci F; Arruda, Marco A Z; Coltro, Wendell K T

2017-06-29

This paper describes for the first time the use of paper-based analytical devices at crime scenes to estimate the post-mortem interval (PMI), based on the colorimetric determination of Fe 2+ in vitreous humour (VH) samples. Experimental parameters such as the paper substrate, the microzone diameter, the sample volume and the 1,10-phenanthroline (o-phen) concentration were optimised in order to ensure the best analytical performance. Grade 1 CHR paper, microzone with diameter of 5 mm, a sample volume of 4 μL and an o-phen concentration of 0.05 mol/L were chosen as the optimum experimental conditions. A good linear response was observed for a concentration range of Fe 2+ between 2 and 10 mg/L and the calculated values for the limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) were 0.3 and 0.9 mg/L, respectively. The specificity of the Fe 2+ colorimetric response was tested in the presence of the main interfering agents and no significant differences were found. After selecting the ideal experimental conditions, four HV samples were investigated on paper-based devices. The concentration levels of Fe 2+ achieved for samples #1, #2, #3 and #4 were 0.5 ± 0.1, 0.7 ± 0.1, 1.2 ± 0.1 and 15.1 ± 0.1 mg/L, respectively. These values are in good agreement with those calculated by ICP-MS. It important to note that the concentration levels measured using both techniques are proportional to the PMI. The limitation of the proposed analytical device is that it is restricted to a PMI greater than 1 day. The capability of providing an immediate answer about the PMI on the crime scene without any sophisticated instrumentation is a great achievement in modern instrumentation for forensic chemistry. The strategy proposed in this study could be helpful in many criminal investigations. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Mapping crime scenes and cellular telephone usage

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Schmitz, Peter MU

2000-12-01

Full Text Available This paper describes a method that uses a desktop geographical information system (GIS) to plot cellular telephone conversations made when crimes are committed, such as hijackings, hostage taking, kidnapping, rape and murder. The maps produced...

Exploring Perspectives and Identifying Potential Challenges Encountered with Crime Scene Investigations When Developing Chemistry Curricula

Science.gov (United States)

Kanu, A. Bakarr; Pajski, Megan; Hartman, Machelle; Kimaru, Irene; Marine, Susan

2015-01-01

In today's complex world, there is a continued demand for recently graduated forensic chemists (criminalists) who have some background in forensic experimental techniques. This article describes modern forensic experimental approaches designed and implemented from a unique instructional perspective to present certain facets of crime scene…

Crime event 3D reconstruction based on incomplete or fragmentary evidence material--case report.

Science.gov (United States)

Maksymowicz, Krzysztof; Tunikowski, Wojciech; Kościuk, Jacek

2014-09-01

Using our own experience in 3D analysis, the authors will demonstrate the possibilities of 3D crime scene and event reconstruction in cases where originally collected material evidence is largely insufficient. The necessity to repeat forensic evaluation is often down to the emergence of new facts in the course of case proceedings. Even in cases when a crime scene and its surroundings have undergone partial or complete transformation, with regard to elements significant to the course of the case, or when the scene was not satisfactorily secured, it is still possible to reconstruct it in a 3D environment based on the originally-collected, even incomplete, material evidence. In particular cases when no image of the crime scene is available, its partial or even full reconstruction is still potentially feasible. Credibility of evidence for such reconstruction can still satisfy the evidence requirements in court. Reconstruction of the missing elements of the crime scene is still possible with the use of information obtained from current publicly available databases. In the study, we demonstrate that these can include Google Maps(®*), Google Street View(®*) and available construction and architecture archives. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Crime Scene Soil Investigation

Science.gov (United States)

Deaton, Cynthia; Simms, Sarah

2017-01-01

Mobile learning is an incredible way to engage students in activities that encourage exploration and critical thinking. This type of learning is defined by the use of portable technology, such as laptops, tablets, and smart phones, to support learning in various environments and in various ways. Depending on the technologies and resources already…

A Forensic Experiment: The Case of the Crime at the Cinema

Science.gov (United States)

Valente Nabais, J. M.; Costa, Sara D.

2017-01-01

This paper reports an experimental activity where students have to carefully analyze the evidence collected at the crime scene, namely fibers and lipstick traces. The fibers are analyzed by infrared spectroscopy, solubility tests, and optical microscopy, while in turn the lipstick traces are investigated by thin layer chromatography. Students also…

Participatory mapping for crime prevention in South Africa - local solutions to local problems

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Liebermann, S

2004-10-01

Full Text Available . suburban parts or the central business districts in urban areas is property- related.(3) Links between land use and crime types became apparent when crime statistics were broken down by location at the local scale. Adirect link between undeveloped... step involves setting the scene and discussing crime, place and crime prevention. Many of the resident community participants have never heard of crime prevention, therefore this introductory step outlines the three factors necessary for a crime...

Investigating the Influences of Tree Coverage and Road Density on Property Crime

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chengming Ye

2018-03-01

Full Text Available With the development of Geographic Information Systems (GIS, crime mapping has become an effective approach for investigating the spatial pattern of crime in a defined area. Understanding the relationship between crime and its surrounding environment reveals possible strategies for reducing crime in a neighborhood. The relationship between vegetation density and crime has long been under debate. The convenience of a road network is another important factor that can influence a criminal’s selection of locations. This research is conducted to investigate the correlations between tree coverage and property crime, and road density and property crime in the City of Vancouver. High spatial resolution airborne LiDAR data and road network data collected in 2013 were used to extract tree covered areas for cross-sectional analysis. The independent variables were inserted into Ordinary Least-Squares (OLS regression, Spatial Lag regression, and Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR models to examine their relationships to property crime rates. The results of the cross-sectional analysis provide statistical evidence that there are negative correlations between property crime rates and both tree coverage and road density, with the stronger correlations occurring around Downtown Vancouver.

Analysis of the crime scene model using three objects from the collection of the Hans Gross Museum of Criminology of the University of Graz.

Science.gov (United States)

Elek, Lydia

2016-01-01

As part of the collection in the Hans Gross Museum of Criminology in Graz there are still three crime scene reliefs; two of which were made by Hans Gross himself. The practical purpose of these criminal landscape models is something one could speculate about, but such models may have been useful in two fields: in the criminal lab and in the courtroom. To see the reliefs in a scientific experimental context as well as under the aspects of artwork and topography is as essential as emphasizing their genuine military character.

QUIN: Providing Integrated Analysis Support to Crime Investigators

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Smit, S.; Vecht, B. van der; Wermeskerken, F.J.P. van; Streefkerk, J.W.

2016-01-01

Crime investigators heavily rely on their large knowledge of criminal behavior. When investigating a new case, applying this knowledge can lead to cognitive overload and tunnel vision. Some support systems are developed to search through historical data and knowledge more easily, but still require

Scientific Investigation with the SJCSI

Science.gov (United States)

Berbey, E.; Delpeyroux, G.; Douay, E.; Juchereau, C.; Garavet, O.

2012-04-01

Scientific Investigation with the SJCSI (Saint Jean* Crime Scene Investigation) Our work, which we have been teaching for 3 years, consists of a scientific investigation. We create a case from A to Z and then our students (15 to 16 years old) are meant to collect samples and clues from a reconstituted crime scene and then have to catch the culprit thanks to laboratory tests crossing four subjects: Physics and Chemistry, Biology, Math and English. I'm a biology teacher and I work with 3 other teachers in my school. The objectives of these activities are: • Make sciences more attractive by putting them into a context of crime investigation. • Use science techniques to find a culprit or to clear a suspect. • To acquire scientific knowledge. • Realize that the different scientific subjects complement each other to carry out a survey. • Use English language and improve it. The investigation consists of doing experiments after collecting different samples and clues on the crime scene. Examples of Biology experimentation: • Detecting the origin of the blood samples found on the crime scene. Students observe blood samples with a microscope and compare the characteristics to those of human blood found on the web. They discover that blood samples found aren't human blood because the red cells have a nucleus. By using the information given in the scenario, they discover that blood sample belongs to the parrot of a suspect. Students, also take a photo of their microscopic preparations, add title and caption and so they learn the cell's structure and the characteristics of blood cells. • In another case, students have to study the blood sample found under the victims fingernails. They observe blood preparation and compare it to the blood of a suspect who has a genetic disease: drepanocytosis. So, they discover the characteristics of blood cells by comparing them to sickle cells. • DNA electrophoresis to identify DNA found, for example, on the gun. • Blood type

Forensic Evidence and Criminal Investigations: The Impact of Ballistics Information on the Investigation of Violent Crime in Nine Cities.

Science.gov (United States)

King, William R; Campbell, Bradley A; Matusiak, Matthew C; Katz, Charles M

2017-07-01

We explore the impact of information from ballistics imaging hit reports on the investigation into violent crimes. Ballistics imaging hits link two crimes involving the same firearm by forensically matching tool marks on the fired bullets or cartridge cases. Interview data collected from detectives who received a hit report were used to explore the relationship between the presence of a hit report and outcomes in 65 gun-related violent crime investigations in nine U.S. police agencies. Findings indicate hit reports rarely contribute to identification, arrest, charging, or sentencing of suspects, because of delays in producing hit reports. On average, hit reports were completed 181.4 days after the focal crime. This delay forces investigations to proceed without the benefit of information from ballistics analysis. Additionally, hit reports rarely contained detailed information that was immediately useful to investigators. Instead, hit reports required additional research by the investigator to unlock useful information. © 2017 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Digitized forensics: retaining a link between physical and digital crime scene traces using QR-codes

Science.gov (United States)

Hildebrandt, Mario; Kiltz, Stefan; Dittmann, Jana

2013-03-01

The digitization of physical traces from crime scenes in forensic investigations in effect creates a digital chain-of-custody and entrains the challenge of creating a link between the two or more representations of the same trace. In order to be forensically sound, especially the two security aspects of integrity and authenticity need to be maintained at all times. Especially the adherence to the authenticity using technical means proves to be a challenge at the boundary between the physical object and its digital representations. In this article we propose a new method of linking physical objects with its digital counterparts using two-dimensional bar codes and additional meta-data accompanying the acquired data for integration in the conventional documentation of collection of items of evidence (bagging and tagging process). Using the exemplary chosen QR-code as particular implementation of a bar code and a model of the forensic process, we also supply a means to integrate our suggested approach into forensically sound proceedings as described by Holder et al.1 We use the example of the digital dactyloscopy as a forensic discipline, where currently progress is being made by digitizing some of the processing steps. We show an exemplary demonstrator of the suggested approach using a smartphone as a mobile device for the verification of the physical trace to extend the chain-of-custody from the physical to the digital domain. Our evaluation of the demonstrator is performed towards the readability and the verification of its contents. We can read the bar code despite its limited size of 42 x 42 mm and rather large amount of embedded data using various devices. Furthermore, the QR-code's error correction features help to recover contents of damaged codes. Subsequently, our appended digital signature allows for detecting malicious manipulations of the embedded data.

Chemistry and crime detection: application to NAA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bhadkambekar, C.A.; Swain, K.K.; Kayasth, S.; Mukherjee, T.

2006-01-01

Neutron activation analysis (NAA) is extensively used for the analysis of gun shot residues (GSR). But the analysis becomes increasingly difficult when the exhibits collected from the scene of crime are contaminated with various contaminants. During this work, systematic experiments were carried out to study the interferences from various common contaminants like soil, rust, grease, blood, etc., along with difficulties in the determination of GSR elements in presence of these contaminants. An attempt has been made to demonstrate in this paper how contaminations can mislead the investigation. In such cases careful analysis followed by proper evaluation of the analytical data of control and also exhibits can provide meaningful results

Preventive Activities of Preliminary Investigation Bodies in Respect of Crime Victims

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Svetlana A. Timko

2017-05-01

Full Text Available The article is devoted to the problems of the prevention of victimization by the investigation and inquiry divisions of the internal affairs bodies of the Russian Federation. It defines the main forms and methods of working with the victim during the investigation of a crime aimed at reducing the possibility of again becoming a victim of criminal assault. The organizational and legal directions of victimological prevention are analyzed, the necessity of developing effective mechanisms for assessing the activities of the units of internal affairs agencies in crime prevention is justified.

A juridical-practical framework for the investigation of crimes against granting of public housing services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wilson Alejandro Martínez-Sánchez

2010-03-01

Full Text Available The public service enterprises are victims of crimes and felonies which may reduce their capacity to perform their functions. These enterprises expend much money and effort in order to prevent those criminal behaviors. For this reason they ask from the authorities more efficient measures against crime; however, such enterprises may feel that they are not being given sufficient importance and/or remedies in dealing with such crime. The aim paper of this is not to study the problem from de substantive criminal law point of view. Rather, this paper’s goal is to study the Colombia’s Rules of Criminal Procedure, which regulate the investigation of this kind of crime. The article will look particularly at the competency of the relevant authorities at the investigative stages. Finally, it will make some recommendations regarding a proper route towards the investigation of these criminal behaviors.

34 CFR Appendix A to Subpart D of... - Crime Definitions in Accordance With the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reporting Program. The definitions for murder; robbery; aggravated... person through gross negligence. Criminal Homicide—Murder and Nonnegligent Manslaughter The willful...

Do Barriers to Crime Prevention Moderate the Effects of Situational Crime Prevention Policies on Violent Crime in High Schools?

Science.gov (United States)

Sevigny, Eric L.; Zhang, Gary

2018-01-01

This study investigates how barriers to school-based crime prevention programming moderate the effects of situational crime prevention (SCP) policies on levels of violent crime in U.S. public high schools. Using data from the 2008 School Survey on Crime and Safety, we estimate a series of negative binomial regression models with interactions to…

Science against Crime.

Science.gov (United States)

Cooke, Julia

2002-01-01

Describes a project involving students in forensic science and crime prevention to improve their investigative skills using a DNA fingerprinting workshop and designing burglar alarms, investigating blood splatter patterns, investigating vehicle collisions, and researching crime prevention advice on the Internet. (YDS)

Crime scene reconstruction-Sex prediction from blood stained foot sole impressions.

Science.gov (United States)

Basu, Nabanita; Bandyopadhyay, Samir Kumar

2017-09-01

It is often difficult to predict the sex of an individual based on bloody incomplete footprints. However, such prints/impressions are particularly common in a crime scene. Again variability in the texture, color of the target surface has an impact on the bloodstained impression formed. The study of bare foot, footprint, footwear (i.e. shoe, canvas etc.) within the legal context is referred to as forensic podiatry. Based on the fact that it is possible to predict the sex of an individual from footprint impressions, an automated model has been proposed in this paper for analyzing the sex of an individual from his/her broken/incomplete footprint impressions based on morphological features alone. Five male and female volunteers aged between 20 to 65 years participated in dataset development. Keeping the blood volume constant and having stepped on differently shaped porcine blood pools, the individuals were asked to walk on herbarium sheets. The footprints were recorded and documented in accordance with the guidelines in place for physical evidence documentation within the forensic domain. The morphological features that were extracted from each of the footprint impressions are footprint length, footprint breadth, angle of walking, approximated heel radius etc. Using exhaustive cross validation technique, the dataset was divided into training and test set. Non-redundant, relevant features that are particularly effective at sex prediction were marked out using the relief algorithm in coherence with the correlation metric. Supervised learning techniques were used on the dataset to predict the sex of the owner of an unknown footprint. The study concentrates on morphological features in order to deal with bloodstain footprint transfer stains formed on any non-porous/non-absorbent surfaces such as cemented floor, glass, mosaic floor space, colored and designed tiled floor spaces. Features such as the angle of walking and foot breadth were found to be particularly influential

Accident or homicide--virtual crime scene reconstruction using 3D methods.

Science.gov (United States)

Buck, Ursula; Naether, Silvio; Räss, Beat; Jackowski, Christian; Thali, Michael J

2013-02-10

The analysis and reconstruction of forensically relevant events, such as traffic accidents, criminal assaults and homicides are based on external and internal morphological findings of the injured or deceased person. For this approach high-tech methods are gaining increasing importance in forensic investigations. The non-contact optical 3D digitising system GOM ATOS is applied as a suitable tool for whole body surface and wound documentation and analysis in order to identify injury-causing instruments and to reconstruct the course of event. In addition to the surface documentation, cross-sectional imaging methods deliver medical internal findings of the body. These 3D data are fused into a whole body model of the deceased. Additional to the findings of the bodies, the injury inflicting instruments and incident scene is documented in 3D. The 3D data of the incident scene, generated by 3D laser scanning and photogrammetry, is also included into the reconstruction. Two cases illustrate the methods. In the fist case a man was shot in his bedroom and the main question was, if the offender shot the man intentionally or accidentally, as he declared. In the second case a woman was hit by a car, driving backwards into a garage. It was unclear if the driver drove backwards once or twice, which would indicate that he willingly injured and killed the woman. With this work, we demonstrate how 3D documentation, data merging and animation enable to answer reconstructive questions regarding the dynamic development of patterned injuries, and how this leads to a real data based reconstruction of the course of event. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Review of On-Scene Management of Mass-Casualty Attacks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Annelie Holgersson

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Background: The scene of a mass-casualty attack (MCA entails a crime scene, a hazardous space, and a great number of people needing medical assistance. Public transportation has been the target of such attacks and involves a high probability of generating mass casualties. The review aimed to investigate challenges for on-scene responses to MCAs and suggestions made to counter these challenges, with special attention given to attacks on public transportation and associated terminals. Methods: Articles were found through PubMed and Scopus, “relevant articles” as defined by the databases, and a manual search of references. Inclusion criteria were that the article referred to attack(s and/or a public transportation-related incident and issues concerning formal on-scene response. An appraisal of the articles’ scientific quality was conducted based on an evidence hierarchy model developed for the study. Results: One hundred and five articles were reviewed. Challenges for command and coordination on scene included establishing leadership, inter-agency collaboration, multiple incident sites, and logistics. Safety issues entailed knowledge and use of personal protective equipment, risk awareness and expectations, cordons, dynamic risk assessment, defensive versus offensive approaches, and joining forces. Communication concerns were equipment shortfalls, dialoguing, and providing information. Assessment problems were scene layout and interpreting environmental indicators as well as understanding setting-driven needs for specialist skills and resources. Triage and treatment difficulties included differing triage systems, directing casualties, uncommon injuries, field hospitals, level of care, providing psychological and pediatric care. Transportation hardships included scene access, distance to hospitals, and distribution of casualties. Conclusion: Commonly encountered challenges during unintentional incidents were added to during MCAs

Drones in (Slovene) criminal investigation

OpenAIRE

Boštjan, Slak

2016-01-01

Unmanned aircrafts, also known as drones, are increasingly used in modern society. Their versatility allows them to be used in a range of different industries, sectors, spheres and activities, including in the area of policing and criminal investigation. In policing, drones are primarily used for the control of state borders, public events and traffic, while their use in criminal investigation is related all from assisting crime scene investigation to tracking suspects or criminal gangs. The ...

Opportunities for Environmental Crime: A Test of Situational Crime Prevention Theory

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Huisman, W.; van Erp, J.

2013-01-01

Recently, Situational Crime Prevention Theory (SCPT) has been proposed as an alternative to offender-based theories of white-collar crime. This paper uses the results of a cross-case analysis of 23 criminal investigations of environmental crime in the Netherlands to explore the fruitfulness of SCPT

The concept and tasks of the basic method of investigation of crimes related to illegal trafficking narcotic drugs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chistova L.E.

2017-04-01

Full Text Available the article substantiates the need to develop a basic methodology for investigating crimes related to illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs due to the fact that these crimes are inextricably linked, interdependent and can not be carried out separately from each other in principle. The existing separate private methods develop recommendations for the investigation of specific types of crimes, for example, only smuggling of these funds or their sale and they are not connected with each other. In this regard, it is not possible to trace the whole cycle of criminal activity from the introduction of controlled means to illicit trafficking prior to their sale. Therefore, the basic methodology for investigating such crimes will allow us to trace the whole chain of criminal acts and to reveal all the circumstances that affect the full and objective investigation of such crimes.

Safer communities: investigating the international response to knife crime

OpenAIRE

Nichols-Drew, L.

2018-01-01

The Chartered Society of Forensic Sciences Annual Conference 2018 Violent crime is a frequent occurrence in the UK, predominantly due to knives, with both urban and rural areas significantly impacted. Personal casework experience of the author has involved the forensic laboratory examination of bladed weapons from including murder, sexual offences, armed robberies, aggravated burglaries, wildlife crime, cold case reviews and terrorism offences. The September 2017 Crime Survey of England...

On the application of semantic technologies to the domain of forensic investigations in financial crimes

Science.gov (United States)

Scheidat, Tobias; Merkel, Ronny; Krummel, Volker; Gerlach, Andreas; Weisensee, Michala; Zeihe, Jana; Dittmann, Jana

2017-10-01

In daily police practice, forensic investigation of criminal cases is mainly based on manual work and the experience of individual forensic experts, using basic storage and data processing technologies. However, an individual criminal case does not only consist of the actual offence, but also of a variety of different aspects involved. For example, in order to solve a financial criminal case, an investigator has to find interrelations between different case entities as well as to other cases. The required information about these different entities is often stored in various databases and mostly requires to be manually requested and processed by forensic investigators. We propose the application of semantic technologies to the domain of forensic investigations at the example of financial crimes. Such combination allows for modelling specific case entities and their interrelations within and between cases. As a result, an explorative search of connections between case entities in the scope of an investigation as well as an automated derivation of conclusions from an established fact base is enabled. The proposed model is presented in the form of a crime field ontology, based on different types of knowledge obtained from three individual sources: open source intelligence, forensic investigators and captive interviews of detained criminals. The modelled crime field ontology is illustrated at two examples using the well known crime type of explosive attack on ATM and the potentially upcoming crime type data theft by NFC crowd skimming. Of these criminal modi operandi, anonymized fictional are modelled, visualized and exploratively searched. Modelled case entities include modi operandi, events, actors, resources, exploited weaknesses as well as flows of money, data and know how. The potential exploration of interrelations between the different case entities of such examples is illustrated in the scope of a fictitious investigation, highlighting the potential of the

Investigation Procedures in Terrorist Electronic Crimes and it’s Challenges: A study in the Saudi legal system

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nehad Farouk Abbas Mohamed

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Rapid advances in information technology (IT form the backbone of the development of everyday life and a knowledge-based society. At present, there is more and more attention being paid to IT because of its extensive use in all spheres of life. Due to this massive cyber development, new type of crimes with complex and multifaceted nature have evolved. This is in contrast to traditional crimes from all angles, whether security or geographical based. Due to this, a number of challenges and dangers or threatening specialist judicial authorities and hamper their work and technical abilities in performing the tasks entrusted to them, particularly in crime investigation and prosecution. Because of the complex nature and detailed technical procedures applied at each stage of crime investigation, much greater efforts are required to reveal the hidden realities of an electronic crime. Therefore, investigation authorities, judiciary and other relevant bodies require an up to date knowledge of new technologies to be able to perform their allocated tasks precisely according to defined rules and regulations, and identify the perpetrator correctly.

Evaluations of Antigay Hate Crimes and Hate Crime Legislation: Independent and Differentially Predicted.

Science.gov (United States)

Wilkinson, Wayne W; Peters, Christopher S

2017-08-11

Minimal studies have investigated individuals' evaluations of antigay hate crimes and hate crime legislation simultaneously, with most research focusing on one or the other. In a sample of 246 heterosexual undergraduates, the present study found that evaluations of antigay hate crimes and hate crime legislation were unrelated. Higher social dominance orientation (SDO) and crime control orientation scores were associated with more positive evaluations of antigay hate crimes. Positive evaluations of hate crime legislation were associated with more positive attitudes toward gay men and lesbians. We also found that the relationship between SDO and evaluations were mediated by crime control beliefs (for hate crimes evaluations) and antigay attitudes (for hate crime legislation evaluations). The present findings have possible implications for the manner in which organizations advocate for the extension of hate crime legislation to include sexual orientation.

Towards a multi-agent system for regulated information exchange in crime investigations

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dijkstra, Pieter; Prakken, H.; Vey Mestdagh, C.N.J. de

2005-01-01

This paper outlines a multi-agent architecture for regulated information exchange of crime investigation data between police forces. Interactions between police officers about information exchange are analysed as negotiation dialogues with embedded persuasion dialogues. An architecture is then

77 FR 45378 - Guidelines for Cases Requiring On-Scene Death Investigation

Science.gov (United States)

2012-07-31

... DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE Office of Justice Programs [OJP (NIJ) Docket No. 1600] Guidelines for Cases... entitled, ``Guidelines for Cases Requiring On-Scene Death Investigation''. The opportunity to provide comments on this document is open to coroner/medical examiner office representatives, law enforcement...

ORNL`s war on crime, technically speaking

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Xiques, P.

1996-12-31

This paper describes research being carried out by the Center for Applied Science and Technology for Law Enforcement (CASTLE), at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. This program works on projects which are solvable, affordable, and outside the scope of the private sector. Examples are presented of work related to: the lifetime of childrens fingerprints compared to adults; the development of ways of providing cooler body armor; digital enhancement technology applied to security-camera images from crime scenes; victim identification by skeletal reconstruction for use by forensic anthropologists.

On-scene crisis intervention: psychological guidelines and communication strategies for first responders.

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, Laurence

2010-01-01

Effective emergency mental health intervention for victims of crime, natural disaster or terrorism begins the moment the first responders arrive. This article describes a range of on-scene crisis intervention options, including verbal communication, body language, behavioral strategies, and interpersonal style. The correct intervention in the first few moments and hours of a crisis can profoundly influence the recovery course of victims and survivors of catastrophic events.

Examination of the Suicide Characteristics Based on the Scene Investigation in Capital Budapest (2009-2011).

Science.gov (United States)

Kristóf, István; Vörös, Krisztina; Marcsa, Boglárka; Váradi-T, Aletta; Kosztya, Sándor; Törő, Klára

2015-09-01

Medicolegal evaluation of postmortem findings at the death scene represents an important part of forensic medicine. The aim of this study was to investigate the occurrence and characteristics of suicide events. Data collection was performed from the police scene investigation reports in capital Budapest between 2009 and 2011. In this study, epidemiological parameters such as age, gender, time and place of death, postmortem changes, suicidal method, seasonal and daily distribution, natural diseases, earlier psychiatric treatment, socioeconomic risks, supposed cause of death, final notes, earlier suicide attempts, and suicide ideations were analyzed. There were 892 suicide cases (619 males, 273 females) detected in the investigated period. Hanging, overdose of prescription medications, jumping, use of firearms, drowning, and electrotrauma showed statistical differences among genders (p<0.05). The most common methods of suicide among men and women were hanging (57.4%) and overdose of prescription medications (33%), respectively. Death scene characteristics represent the important factors for forensic medicine. © 2015 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Analyzing Decision Logs to Understand Decision Making in Serious Crime Investigations.

Science.gov (United States)

Dando, Coral J; Ormerod, Thomas C

2017-12-01

Objective To study decision making by detectives when investigating serious crime through the examination of decision logs to explore hypothesis generation and evidence selection. Background Decision logs are used to record and justify decisions made during serious crime investigations. The complexity of investigative decision making is well documented, as are the errors associated with miscarriages of justice and inquests. The use of decision logs has not been the subject of an empirical investigation, yet they offer an important window into the nature of investigative decision making in dynamic, time-critical environments. Method A sample of decision logs from British police forces was analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively to explore hypothesis generation and evidence selection by police detectives. Results Analyses revealed diversity in documentation of decisions that did not correlate with case type and identified significant limitations of the decision log approach to supporting investigative decision making. Differences emerged between experienced and less experienced officers' decision log records in exploration of alternative hypotheses, generation of hypotheses, and sources of evidential inquiry opened over phase of investigation. Conclusion The practical use of decision logs is highly constrained by their format and context of use. Despite this, decision log records suggest that experienced detectives display strategic decision making to avoid confirmation and satisficing, which affect less experienced detectives. Application Potential applications of this research include both training in case documentation and the development of new decision log media that encourage detectives, irrespective of experience, to generate multiple hypotheses and optimize the timely selection of evidence to test them.

The use of vapour phase ultra-violet spectroscopy for the analysis of arson accelerants in fire scene debris.

Science.gov (United States)

McCurdy, R J; Atwell, T; Cole, M D

2001-12-01

A method has been developed for the analysis of arson accelerants in fire scene debris by vapour phase ultra-violet (UV) spectroscopy. The method is rapid, inexpensive, simple to use and is sufficiently sensitive and discriminating to be of use for the analysis of crime scene samples. Application to casework samples is described. On occasion, the method offers additional information to that which can be obtained by gas chromatography-flame ionisation detection (GC-FID) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and represents a useful adjunct to these techniques. In addition, the method offers advantages where the use of GC-MS analysis of arson accelerants in fire scene debris is not a practical proposition.

Labs and slabs: television crime drama and the quest for forensic realism.

Science.gov (United States)

Jermyn, Deborah

2013-03-01

This essay examines how crime dramas produced during, and since, the 1990s became marked by the quest for 'forensic realism'. In particular, the essay traces a landmark shift in the development of forensic realism in the form of the ground-breaking British police drama Prime Suspect in 1991. It is argued that this television series not only represents a turning point in television history, but that it also constitutes a key text in the broader cultural turn towards forensic fascination. Prime Suspect vividly revealed and displayed corpses, crime scenes and post-mortem photos in an unprecedented fashion for television. This essay shows how in the process it established new standards and expectations regarding the aesthetics and thematic content of the perceived 'realism' of the crime genre. Through an analysis of the reception and impact of Prime Suspect the essay also demonstrates how crime drama's increasing fascination with forensic realism has driven debate over just what kinds of stories and images constitute acceptable or appropriate subject matter for popular entertainment, and for the medium of television itself. Copyright © 2012. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

L’Arma dei Carabinieri e le attività di prevenzione e repressione delle organizzazioni criminali /The « Arma dei Carabinieri » and the prevention and repression of organized crime / L’Arme des Carabiniers et les activités de prévention et de répression des organisations criminelles

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Parente Mario

2010-03-01

Full Text Available Organized crime now has an international face: it controls illegal international activities and all the huge profits made by drug trafficking, the illegal weapons business, money laundering and trafficking of human beings. There are new criminals in the international criminal scene: people from North Africa, Nigeria, Albania, Macedonia, Kosovo, Russia and China.Italy is the destination of much illegal migratory flow, so the “Arma dei Carabinieri” is investigating criminal organisation thanks to new investigative resources.It remains a hard obstacle to overcome. Organized crime exploits different countries’ legal systems and exploits the police’s techniques of investigation.In order to fight international organized crime and the trafficking of human beings, it’s important to increase international co-operation and to promote legal agreements.

Modular robotic system for forensic investigation support

Science.gov (United States)

Kowalski, Grzegorz; Główka, Jakub; Maciaś, Mateusz; Puchalski, Sławomir

2017-10-01

Forensic investigation on the crime scene is an activity that requires not only knowledge about the ways of searching for evidence, collecting and processing them. In some cases the area of operation might not be properly secured and poses threat to human health or life. Some devices or materials may be left intentionally or not to injure potential investigators. Besides conventional explosives, threats can be in form of CBRN materials, which have not only immediate effect on the exposed personnel, but can contaminate further people, when being transferred for example on clothes or unsecured equipment. In this case a risk evaluation should be performed, that can lead to conclusions that it is too dangerous for investigators to work. In that kind of situation remote devices, which are able to examine the crime scene and secure samples, can be used. In the course of R&D activities PIAP developed a system, which is based on small UGV capable of carrying out inspection of suspicious places and securing evidence, when needed. The system consists of remotely controlled mobile robot, its control console and a set of various inspection and support tools, that enable detection of CBRN threats as well as revelation, documentation and securing of the evidence. This paper will present main features of the system, like mission adjustment possibilities and communication aspects, and also examples of the forensic accessories.

The potential of Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (IRMS) and gas chromatography-IRMS analysis of triacetone triperoxide in forensic explosives investigations

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bezemer, K.D.B.; Koeberg, M.; Heijden, A.E.D.M. van der; Driel, C.A. va; Blaga, C.; Bruinsma, J.; Asten, A.C. van

2016-01-01

Studying links between triacetone triperoxide (TATP) samples from crime scenes and suspects can assist in criminal investigations. Isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) and gas chromatography (GC)-IRMS were used to measure the isotopic compositions of TATP and its precursors acetone and hydrogen

The material, moral, and affective worlds of dealing and crime among young men entrenched in an inner city drug scene.

Science.gov (United States)

Fast, Danya; Shoveller, Jean; Kerr, Thomas

2017-06-01

A large body of previous research has elucidated how involvement in drug dealing and crime among marginalized urban youth who use drugs is shaped by the imperatives of addiction and survival in the context of poverty. However, a growing body of research has examined how youth's involvement in these activities is shaped by more expansive desires and moralities. In this paper, we examine the material, moral, and affective worlds of loosely gang affiliated, street level dealing and crime among one group of young men in Vancouver, Canada. Drawing on longitudinal interviews with 44 young men from 2008 to 2016, and ethnographic fieldwork with a group of approximately 15 of those young men over the same time period, we argue that for these youth, dealing and crime were not solely about economic survival, or even the accrual of highly meaningful forms of "street capital" in the margins. Rather, as "regimes of living," dealing and crime also opened up new value systems, moral logics, and affects in relation to the tremendous risks, potential rewards, and crushing boredom of life in the margins. These activities were also understood as a way into deeply desired forms of social spatial belonging in the city, which had previously only been imagined. However, across time dealing and crime "embedded" young men in cycles of incarceration, destitution, addictions, and mental health crises that ultimately reinforced their exclusion-from legal employment, but also within the world of crime. The findings of this study underscore the importance of adopting a life course perspective in order to meaningfully address the harms associated with involvement in dealing and crime among youth in our setting. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Designing a Data Warehouse for Cyber Crimes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Il-Yeol Song

2006-09-01

Full Text Available One of the greatest challenges facing modern society is the rising tide of cyber crimes. These crimes, since they rarely fit the model of conventional crimes, are difficult to investigate, hard to analyze, and difficult to prosecute. Collecting data in a unified framework is a mandatory step that will assist the investigator in sorting through the mountains of data. In this paper, we explore designing a dimensional model for a data warehouse that can be used in analyzing cyber crime data. We also present some interesting queries and the types of cyber crime analyses that can be performed based on the data warehouse. We discuss several ways of utilizing the data warehouse using OLAP and data mining technologies. We finally discuss legal issues and data population issues for the data warehouse.

Crime Mapping and Geographical Information Systems in Crime Analysis

OpenAIRE

Dağlar, Murat; Argun, Uğur

2016-01-01

As essential apparatus in crime analysis, crime mapping and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are being progressively more accepted by police agencies. Development in technology and the accessibility of geographic data sources make it feasible for police departments to use GIS and crime mapping. GIS and crime mapping can be utilized as devices to discover reasons contributing to crime, and hence let law enforcement agencies proactively take action against the crime problems before they b...

Science and Criminal Investigation.

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Ronald

1997-01-01

Presents a science activity that integrates the disciplines of anatomy, physiology, genetics, and forensics in which students act as detectives unraveling evidence at a murder crime scene. This project is designed to enhance student interest by providing immediate application of these disciplines. (DKM)

Crime-prevention – an investigation of crime prevention as a practice of making worries and judgments

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brønsted, Lone Bæk

In Denmark, crime prevention is embedded in state professional practices in kindergartens, schools and youth clubs. These welfare institutions are conceived as safe places that safeguard children and young people through inclusive learning environments, warm and empathic relationships between...... students/teachers, student/student and through experiences with diversity. Yet, critical educational research challenges the idea of welfare institutions as a protective factor by demonstrating how institutional practice produces social and cultural categorizations marking what are legitimate...... and illegitimate behaviors. This project explores how state professionals such as teachers, pedagogues, social workers and police officers produce understandings of crime prone young people and their conduct and behavior in a cross-professional meeting. These state professionals are organized in a cross...

Secondary and subsequent DNA transfer during criminal investigation.

Science.gov (United States)

Fonneløp, Ane Elida; Egeland, Thore; Gill, Peter

2015-07-01

With the introduction of new multiplex PCR kits and instrumentation such as the Applied Biosystems 3500xl, there has recently been a rapid change in technology that has greatly increased sensitivity of detection so that a DNA profile can routinely be obtained from only a few cells. Research to evaluate the risks of passive transfer has not kept pace with this development; hence the risk of innocent DNA transfer at the crime-scene is currently not properly understood. The purpose of this study was to investigate the possibility of investigator-mediated transfer of DNA traces with disposable nitrile-gloves used during crime-scene examinations. We investigated the primary transfer of freshly deposited DNA from touched plastic, wood or metal substrates and secondary and tertiary transfer by a person wearing disposable nitrile-gloves and onto a third object. We show that with use of the new highly sensitive technologies available in forensic DNA analysis there is an enhanced probability to obtain a DNA-profile which has not been directly deposited on the object but is an outcome of one or more transfer events. The nitrile-gloves used by investigators during exhibit examination can act as a vector for DNA transfer from one item to another. We have shown that the amount of DNA deposited on an object affects the probability of transfer. Secondly, the type of substrate material that DNA is deposited onto has an impact on transfer rates. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Situational crime prevention and cross-border crime

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kleemans, Edward R.; Soudijn, Melvin R J; Weenink, Anton W.

2013-01-01

This chapter explores the consequences of cross-border crime for situational crime prevention. Many types of organised crime involve international smuggling activities – such as drug trafficking, money laundering, smuggling illegal immigrants, and other transnational illegal activities. Based on

Crime and Crime Management in Nigeria Tertiary Institutions

Science.gov (United States)

Adebanjo, Margaret Adewunmi

2014-01-01

This paper examines crime and its management in Nigerian tertiary institutions. Tertiary institutions today have become arenas for crime activities such as rape, cultism, murder, theft, internet fraud, drug abuse, and examination malpractices. This paper delves into what crime is, and its causes; and the positions of the law on crime management.…

Cyber-crime Science = Crime Science + Information Security

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hartel, Pieter H.; Junger, Marianne; Wieringa, Roelf J.

2010-01-01

Cyber-crime Science is an emerging area of study aiming to prevent cyber-crime by combining security protection techniques from Information Security with empirical research methods used in Crime Science. Information security research has developed techniques for protecting the confidentiality,

Crime: social disorganization and relative deprivation.

Science.gov (United States)

Kawachi, I; Kennedy, B P; Wilkinson, R G

1999-03-01

Crime is seldom considered as an outcome in public health research. Yet major theoretical and empirical developments in the field of criminology during the past 50 years suggest that the same social environmental factors which predict geographic variation in crime rates may also be relevant for explaining community variations in health and wellbeing. Understanding the causes of variability in crime across countries and across regions within a country will help us to solve one of the enduring puzzles in public health, viz. why some communities are healthier than others. The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual framework for investigating the influence of the social context on community health, using crime as the indicator of collective wellbeing. We argue that two sets of societal characteristics influence the level of crime: the degree of relative deprivation in society (for instance, measured by the extent of income inequality), and the degree of cohesiveness in social relations among citizens (measured, for instance, by indicators of 'social capital' and 'collective efficacy'). We provided a test of our conceptual framework using state-level ecologic data on violent crimes and property crimes within the USA. Violent crimes (homicide, assault, robbery) were consistently associated with relative deprivation (income inequality) and indicators of low social capital. Among property crimes, burglary was also associated with deprivation and low social capital. Areas with high crime rates tend also to exhibit higher mortality rates from all causes, suggesting that crime and population health share the same social origins. Crime is thus a mirror of the quality of the social environment.

Is the Development of Offenders Related to Crime Scene Behaviors for Burglary? Including Situational Influences in Developmental and Life-Course Theories of Crime.

Science.gov (United States)

Fox, Bryanna Hahn; Farrington, David P

2016-12-01

Developmental and life-course (DLC) theories of crime aim to identify the causes and correlates of offending over the life span, focusing on the within-individual variations that result in criminal and delinquent behavior. Although there are several notable theories in the field, few contain both developmental and situational factors related to offending, and none explain why individuals commit crimes in different ways. This study aims to address these issues by developing typologies of burglars based on developmental and situational characteristics to help identify the various criminal career paths of the offenders, and how these different criminal careers may relate to the commission of offenses. Results of this study indicate that there are five different criminal career paths among the sampled burglars and four different styles of committing the same offense, and that burglars with certain criminal career features tend to commit a specific style of burglary. Through this research, we aim to extend DLC theories to create a more practical and contextual explanation of the relationship between criminal careers and the commission of offenses, and increase the level of within-individual explained variance in criminal behavior.

The evaluation of fibre evidence in the investigation of serious crime

OpenAIRE

Palmer, Ray

2016-01-01

Les fibres textiles font l'objet d'expertises forensiques réalisées par de nombreux laboratoires servant le système judiciaire de par le monde. Si l'importance des fibres textiles pour dépister et poursuivre les auteurs de crime majeurs comme les homicides, les agressions sexuelles et le terrorisme, n'est plus à prouver, une mauvaise compréhension de la valeur probante de ce type d'indice dans l'investigation a résulté en une diminution de son utilité dans les affaires judiciaires.Les raisons...

Does Violent Crime Deter Physical Activity?

OpenAIRE

Janke, Katharina; Propper, Carol; Shields, Michael

2013-01-01

Crime has potentially important externalities. We investigate the relationship between recorded violent crime at the local area level and individuals’ participation in their local area through walking and physical activity. We use a sample of nearly 1 million people residing in over 320 local areas across England over the period 2005 to 2011. We show that concerns about personal safety co-move with police recorded violent crime. Our analysis controls for individual-level characteristics, no...

A mock juror investigation of blame attribution in the punishment of hate crime perpetrators.

Science.gov (United States)

Cramer, Robert J; Clark, John W; Kehn, Andre; Burks, Alixandra C; Wechsler, Hayley J

2014-01-01

We examined blame attribution as a moderator of perceptions of hate crimes against gay, African American, and transgender victims. Participants were 510 Texas jury panel members. Results of vignette-based crime scenarios showed that victim blame displayed significant negative, and perpetrator blame significant positive, effects on sentencing recommendations. Also as hypothesized, victim and perpetrator blame moderated the effect of support for hate crime legislation. Interaction patterns suggested that both types of blame attribution influence sentencing recommendations, but only for participants disagreeing with hate crime legislation. Three-way interactions with victim type also emerged, indicating that the effects of both types of blame attribution show particular influences when the victim is gay, as opposed to transgender or African American. Implications for attribution theory, hate crime policy, and jury selection are discussed. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Trace samples of human blood in mosquitoes as a forensic investigation tool.

Science.gov (United States)

Rabêlo, K C N; Albuquerque, C M R; Tavares, V B; Santos, S M; Souza, C A; Oliveira, T C; Oliveira, N C L; Crovella, S

2015-11-23

Investigations of any type of crime invariably starts at the crime scene by collecting evidence. Thus, the purpose of this research was to collect and analyze an entomological trace from an environment that is similar to those of indoor crime scenes. Hematophagous mosquitoes were collected from two residential units; saliva of volunteers that were residents in the units was also collected for genetic analysis as reference samples. We examined the allele frequencies of 15 short tandem repeat loci (D8S1179, D21S11, D7S820, CSF1PO, D3S1358, TH01, D13S317, D16S539, D2S1338, D19S433, vWA, TPOX, D18S51, D5S818, and FGA) and amelogenin. A total of 26 female hematophagous mosquitoes were identified as Aedes aegypti, Aedes albopictus, and Culex quinquefasciatus; we were able to obtain 11 forensically valid genetic profiles, with a minimum of 0.028203 ng/μL of human DNA. Thus, the results of this study showed that it was possible to correlate human genetic information from mosquitoes with the volunteer reference samples, which validates the use of this information as forensic evidence. Furthermore, we observed mixed genetic profiles from one mosquito. Therefore, it is clearly important to collect these insects indoors where crimes were committed, because it may be possible to find intact genetic profiles of suspects in the blood found in the digestive tract of hematophagous mosquitoes for later comparison to identify an offender and/or exclude suspects.

APPLICATION OF FORENSIC SCIENCE TECHNIQUES IN CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION

OpenAIRE

Gayathri.S*

2018-01-01

Forensic Science means the application of science to those criminal and civil laws that are enforced by the police agencies in a criminal justice system .Forensic Science plays a vital role in the criminal justice system by providing scientifically based information through the analysis of physical evidence. It involves the use of multiple disciplines such as physics, chemistry, biology, computer science and engineering for evidence analysis. In this paper I would like to analysis how...

School Starting Age and the Crime-Age Profile

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Landersø, Rasmus; Nielsen, Helena Skyt; Simonsen, Marianne

2017-01-01

This paper uses register-based data to investigate the effects of school starting age on crime. Through this, we provide insights into the determinants of crime-age profiles. We exploit that Danish children typically start first grade in the calendar year they turn seven, which gives rise...... to a discontinuity in school starting age for children born around New Year. Our analysis speaks against a simple invariant crime-age profile as is popular in criminology: we find that higher school starting age lowers the propensity to commit crime at young ages. We also find effects on the number of crimes...

The effect of wild card designations and rare alleles in forensic DNA database searches

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tvedebrink, Torben; Bright, Jo-Anne; Buckleton, John S

2015-01-01

Forensic DNA databases are powerful tools used for the identification of persons of interest in criminal investigations. Typically, they consist of two parts: (1) a database containing DNA profiles of known individuals and (2) a database of DNA profiles associated with crime scenes. The risk...... of adventitious or chance matches between crimes and innocent people increases as the number of profiles within a database grows and more data is shared between various forensic DNA databases, e.g. from different jurisdictions. The DNA profiles obtained from crime scenes are often partial because crime samples...

Physics of Non-Newtonian Fluids and Interdisciplinary Relations (Biology and Criminology)

Science.gov (United States)

Holubova, R.

2018-01-01

The aim of the paper is the presentation of an interdisciplinary topic that allows applying content knowledge in physics, mathematics and biology in real life environment. Students use to play games and view crime scenes but in common they have little knowledge about the science used during crime scene investigation. In this paper the science…

Estimation of stature from hand and handprint measurements in Iban population in Sarawak, Malaysia and its applications in forensic investigation.

Science.gov (United States)

Zulkifly, Nuranis-Raihan; Wahab, Roswanira Abd; Layang, Elizabeth; Ismail, Dzulkiflee; Desa, Wan Nur Syuhaila Mat; Hisham, Salina; Mahat, Naji A

2018-01-01

Handprints and dismembered hands are commonly found during crime scene investigations and disaster victim identifications, respectively. It has been indicated that the accuracy of handprint and hand measurements for estimating stature maybe population specific. Since Iban is the largest ethnic population in Sarawak, Malaysia and because the application of anthropometry of hand and handprint within this population as well as other populations within the Southeast Asian countries remain unreported, this present study that investigated the reliability and accuracy of these two anthropometric aspects acquires forensic significance. Upon measuring the height, 21 measurements were recorded on each hand and the corresponding handprint of 50 male and 52 female consented adult Iban subjects. Using univariate statistics as well as simple and multiple regression analyses, interpretation of the measurements examined here was attempted. Results revealed that lengths of hand and handprint are the more reliable traits for estimating stature in both the male and female Iban subjects (p Sarawak that may prove useful for crime scene investigations and disaster victim identifications in Malaysia. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd and Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine. All rights reserved.

Relating sexual sadism and psychopathy to one another, non-sexual violence, and sexual crime behaviors.

Science.gov (United States)

Robertson, Carrie A; Knight, Raymond A

2014-01-01

Sexual sadism and psychopathy have been theoretically, clinically, and empirically linked to violence. Although both constructs are linked to predatory violence, few studies have sought to explore the covariation of the two constructs, and even fewer have sought to conceptualize the similarities of violence prediction in each. The current study considered all four Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) facets and employed well-defined, validated measures of sadism to elucidate the relation between sadism and psychopathy, as well as to determine the role of each in the prediction of non-sexual violence and sexual crime behaviors. Study 1 assessed 314 adult, male sex offenders using archival ratings, as well as the self-report Multidimensional Inventory of Development, Sex, and Aggression (the MIDSA). Study 2 used archival ratings to assess 599 adult, male sex offenders. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of crime scene descriptions yielded four sexual crime behavior factors: Violence, Physical Control, Sexual Behavior, and Paraphilic. Sadism and psychopathy covaried, but were not coextensive; sadism correlated with Total PCL-R, Facet 1, and Facet 4 scores. The constructs predicted all non-sexual violence measures, but predicted different sexual crime behavior factors. The PCL-R facets collectively predicted the Violence and Paraphilic factors, whereas sadism only predicted the Violence factor. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Gun Laws and Crime: An Empirical Assessment

OpenAIRE

Matti Viren

2012-01-01

This paper deals with the effect of gun laws on crime. Several empirical analyses are carried to investigate the relationship between five different crime rates and alternative law variables. The tests are based on cross-section data from US sates. Three different law variables are used in the analysis, together with a set of control variables for income, poverty, unemployment and ethnic background of the population. Empirical analysis does not lend support to the notion that crime laws would...

Fibres, Blood and Broken Glass

Science.gov (United States)

Tomlinson, Bob; Peacock, Alan

2005-01-01

Crime Scene Investigators (CSIs) are the bridge between the police and forensic science specialists. Their job is to recover physical evidence from the scene of a crime, and try to make sense of it to interpret and explain what probably happened--which is just what scientists also do. They recover many things: objects, photographs of the crime…

International Crimes and Transitional Justice: where does organised crime fit?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Parmentier Stephan

2010-03-01

Full Text Available The last twenty years, since the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, more than 120 violent conflicts waged across the globe and hundreds of thousands of people killed, disappeared, handicapped or left in distress.Violent conflicts involve frequent human rights violations as well as many crimes. These kinds of crimes are usually very serious and tend to involve many victims, and have attracted attention from a variety of disciplines, including social and political scientists and (criminal lawyers. Therefore, the author argues that criminology as an academic discipline has until recently hardly been interested in studying international crimes.In order to understand this, the author is firstly interested in sketching the background of the concept of international crimes and comparing it with the notion of political crimes and also with that of serious human rights violations. Secondly, international crimes will be situated in their political context of transitional justice and its links with organized crime will be explored.

How Crime Spreads Through Imitation in Social Networks: A Simulation Model

Science.gov (United States)

Punzo, Valentina

In this chapter an agent-based model for investigating how crime spreads through social networks is presented. Some theoretical issues related to the sociological explanation of crime are tested through simulation. The agent-based simulation allows us to investigate the relative impact of some mechanisms of social influence on crime, within a set of controlled simulated experiments.

Convenience in white-collar crime: A resource perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Petter Gottschalk

2017-03-01

Full Text Available White-collar offenders have access to resources that make financial crime convenient. In the rare case of crime suspicion, resources are available in terms of professional attorney work, control over internal investigations, and public relations support. Hiring private investigators at an early stage of potential crime disclosure enables the organization to control the investigation mandate and influence the investigation process and the investigation output. Getting an early start on reconstruction of the past in terms of a fraud examination makes it possible for the suspect and the organization to influence what facts are relevant and how facts might be assessed in terms of possible violations of the penal code. Convenience aspects of private investigations are discussed in this article in terms of five internal investigations, two in the United States (General Motors and Lehman Brothers and three in Norway (Telenor VimpelCom, DNB Bank, and Norwegian Football Association. The aim of this research is to contribute insights into convenience associated with internal private investigations.

The investigation of crimes refering to forgery of documents and possession of forged documents

OpenAIRE

Kotovienė, Danutė

2011-01-01

THE INVESTIGATION OF CRIMES REFERING TO FORGERY OF DOCUMENTS AND POSSESSION OF FORGED DOCUMENTS Constantly improving informational technologies more and more get into our daily routine: nowadays it is widely spread internet payments, purchases, signing on-line agreements using electronic signatures. However, paper documents or other made of appropriate materials, which have material evidence, still have a very significant impact on our life. Its convey different aspects of states’ public work...

Detecting multiple DNA human profile from a mosquito blood meal.

Science.gov (United States)

Rabêlo, K C N; Albuquerque, C M R; Tavares, V B; Santos, S M; Souza, C A; Oliveira, T C; Moura, R R; Brandão, L A C; Crovella, S

2016-08-26

Criminal traces commonly found at crime scenes may present mixtures from two or more individuals. The scene of the crime is important for the collection of various types of traces in order to find the perpetrator of the crime. Thus, we propose that hematophagous mosquitoes found at crime scenes can be used to perform genetic testing of human blood and aid in suspect investigation. The aim of the study was to obtain a single Aedes aegypti mosquito profile from a human DNA mixture containing genetic materials of four individuals. We also determined the effect of blood acquisition time by setting time intervals of 24, 48, and 72 h after the blood meal. STR loci and amelogenin were analyzed, and the results showed that human DNA profiles could be obtained from hematophagous mosquitos at 24 h following the blood meal. It is possible that hematophagous mosquitoes can be used as biological remains at the scene of the crime, and can be used to detect human DNA profiles of up to four individuals.

Gender, general theory of crime and computer crime: an empirical test.

Science.gov (United States)

Moon, Byongook; McCluskey, John D; McCluskey, Cynthia P; Lee, Sangwon

2013-04-01

Regarding the gender gap in computer crime, studies consistently indicate that boys are more likely than girls to engage in various types of computer crime; however, few studies have examined the extent to which traditional criminology theories account for gender differences in computer crime and the applicability of these theories in explaining computer crime across gender. Using a panel of 2,751 Korean youths, the current study tests the applicability of the general theory of crime in explaining the gender gap in computer crime and assesses the theory's utility in explaining computer crime across gender. Analyses show that self-control theory performs well in predicting illegal use of others' resident registration number (RRN) online for both boys and girls, as predicted by the theory. However, low self-control, a dominant criminogenic factor in the theory, fails to mediate the relationship between gender and computer crime and is inadequate in explaining illegal downloading of software in both boy and girl models. Theoretical implication of the findings and the directions for future research are discussed.

Risk of Being Subjected to Crime, Including Violent Crime, After Onset of Mental Illness

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dean, Kimberlie; Laursen, Thomas M; Pedersen, Carsten B

2018-01-01

Importance: People with mental illness are more likely to have contact with the criminal justice system, but research to date has focused on risk of offense perpetration, while less is known about risk of being subjected to crime and violence. Objectives: To establish the incidence of being...... subjected to all types of criminal offenses, and by violent crimes separately, after onset of mental illness across the full diagnostic spectrum compared with those in the population without mental illness. Design, Setting, and Participants: This investigation was a longitudinal national cohort study using...... of mental illness, recorded as first contact with outpatient or inpatient mental health services. Diagnoses across the full spectrum of psychiatric diagnoses were considered separately for men and women. Main Outcomes and Measures: Incidence rate ratios (IRRs) were estimated for first subjection to crime...

Cognitive fallacies and criminal investigations.

Science.gov (United States)

Ditrich, Hans

2015-03-01

The human mind is susceptible to inherent fallacies that often hamper fully rational action. Many such misconceptions have an evolutionary background and are thus difficult to avert. Deficits in the reliability of eye-witnesses are well known to legal professionals; however, less attention has been paid to such effects in crime investigators. In order to obtain an "inside view" on the role of cognitive misconceptions in criminalistic work, a list of fallacies from the literature was adapted to criminalistic settings. The statements on this list were rated by highly experienced crime scene investigators according to the assumed likelihood of these errors to appear and their severity of effect. Among others, selective perception, expectation and confirmation bias, anchoring/"pars per toto" errors and "onus probandi"--shifting the burden of proof from the investigator to the suspect--were frequently considered to negatively affect criminal investigations. As a consequence, the following measures are proposed: alerting investigating officers in their training to cognitive fallacies and promoting the exchange of experiences in peer circles of investigators on a regular basis. Furthermore, the improvement of the organizational error culture and the establishment of a failure analysis system in order to identify and alleviate error prone processes are suggested. Copyright © 2014 Forensic Science Society. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

The relationship between psychopathy and crime-related amnesia

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Cima-Knijff, M.J.; van Oorsouw, K.

2013-01-01

The objective of this study was to investigate whether levels of psychopathy predicted claims of crime-related amnesia. Different characteristics of psychopathy were based on the factor structure of the self-report questionnaire Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI). Crime-related amnesia claims

Economic Crimes In The Period Of Nazaret

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

maryam mansoori

2015-12-01

Full Text Available In Other Words, The Victim Of Crime Or Bad Act And Contrary To The Provisions Specified In A Society. Breaking The Law In One Way Or Another In All Sections Of Society Or Culture There And Just Not Certain. Given The Importance Of Nazareth As A Crucial Moment In History, Investigate The Crime As One Of The Most Important Events Of This Period Can Reveal Its Many Ambiguities In The Fields Of Committing Economic Crimes. Accordingly, In This Study We Try Economic Crimes Testament Naseri Typology And The Role Of Various Factors In This Phenomenon, Particularly In Its Dual Role Of Government Is. Therefore, Relying On Historical Documents And Library Resources Available And The Statistical Analysis Of Crimes Of This Period, The Description Of The Economic Situation Of Naseri Age, The Type Of Economic Crime In The Period Studied And Said Some Of The Factors Contributing To The Occurrence Of This Crime, As Far As Possible From The Viewpoint Of Analytical Thought. According To The Findings Obtained From Different Types Of Economic Crimes, The Murder Of A 7/58%, The Highest Rate Of Opium Drawing 2/0% Were Allocated To The Lowest. Although The Government Of Nazareth Was The Main Cause Of Action In Dealing With Criminals However Its Way To Provide Mass Media, And In Many Cases They Are Also Added On.

Podcast: The Electronic Crimes Division

Science.gov (United States)

Sept 26, 2016. Chris Lukas, the Special Agent in Charge of the Electronic Crimes Division within the OIG's Office of Investigations talks about computer forensics, cybercrime in the EPA and his division's role in criminal investigations.

Psychological support of crime investigation with the involvement of minors in the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mikhaylova Yu.A.

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The article describes the aims, tasks and fundamental principles of psychological support of crime investigation with the involvement of minors as a one of the aspects of criminalistical support of the preliminary investigation in the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation are revealed. Discusses the following areas of psychological support of investigation of criminal cases with participation of minors: participation of a psychologist in the investigative actions, the preliminary interviews with the aim of preparing minors for investigation, the business of the investigator in the choice of tactics of investigative actions and other issues, psychological examination of the minor, the receipt of additional information from minors using methods of applied psychology, compiling a subjective portrait of the alleged offender, psychological analysis of testimonies of minors and others. Also this article discusses the basic principles end actual techniques of interview of minor sexual abuses victims are examined including NICHD Protocol developed by the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development, NICHD.

Lateralized discrimination of emotional scenes in peripheral vision.

Science.gov (United States)

Calvo, Manuel G; Rodríguez-Chinea, Sandra; Fernández-Martín, Andrés

2015-03-01

This study investigates whether there is lateralized processing of emotional scenes in the visual periphery, in the absence of eye fixations; and whether this varies with emotional valence (pleasant vs. unpleasant), specific emotional scene content (babies, erotica, human attack, mutilation, etc.), and sex of the viewer. Pairs of emotional (positive or negative) and neutral photographs were presented for 150 ms peripherally (≥6.5° away from fixation). Observers judged on which side the emotional picture was located. Low-level image properties, scene visual saliency, and eye movements were controlled. Results showed that (a) correct identification of the emotional scene exceeded the chance level; (b) performance was more accurate and faster when the emotional scene appeared in the left than in the right visual field; (c) lateralization was equivalent for females and males for pleasant scenes, but was greater for females and unpleasant scenes; and (d) lateralization occurred similarly for different emotional scene categories. These findings reveal discrimination between emotional and neutral scenes, and right brain hemisphere dominance for emotional processing, which is modulated by sex of the viewer and scene valence, and suggest that coarse affective significance can be extracted in peripheral vision.

Effects of prior interpretation on situation assessment is crime analysis

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kerstholt, J.H.; Eikelboom, A.R.

2007-01-01

Purpose - To investigate the effects of prior case knowledge on the judgement of crime analysts. Design/methodology/approach - Explains that crime analysts assist when an investigation team has converged/agreed on a probable scenario, attributes this convergence to group-think, but points out this

Comparison of polygraph data obtained from individuals involved in mock crimes and actual criminal investigations.

Science.gov (United States)

Pollina, Dean A; Dollins, Andrew B; Senter, Stuart M; Krapohl, Donald J; Ryan, Andrew H

2004-12-01

In a preliminary attempt to determine the generalizability of data from laboratory mock-crime studies, the authors examined the similarities and differences among the cardiovascular, electrodermal, and respiration responses of deceptive and nondeceptive individuals elicited to crime-relevant and crime-irrelevant questions. Participants in the laboratory group were randomly assigned to nondeceptive (n = 28) or deceptive (n = 27) treatment groups, and a mock-crime scenario was used. The field participants were confirmed nondeceptive (n = 28) or deceptive (n = 39) criminal suspects who underwent polygraph examinations between 1993 and 1997. The results indicated that there were salient differences between field and similarly obtained laboratory polygraph response measures. However, accuracy of laboratory participants' classifications using logistic regression analysis was not significantly different from field participants' classification accuracy. 2004 APA, all rights reserved

CRIME MAPS AND COMPUTER TECNOLOGY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Erdal KARAKAŞ

2004-04-01

Full Text Available Crime maps show crime density values and locations where crime have accured. For this reason it had been easy to examine the spatial distribution of crime locations with crime maps. There for crime maps have long been part of the process to crime analysis. In this study, the crime of home burglary was mapped with respect to general areal distribution by GIS (Geographic Information System in the city of Elazig The distribution of the crime was handled considering the parameters such as month, day and hour, and related to the land use. As a result, it was determined that there were differences in the distribution and concentration in the crime of theft with respect to the land use inside the city. The methods and findings in this study will provide rapid and accurate analyses for such kinds of studies. In addition, Interrelating the type of the crime with the regions or areas will contribute to preventing crime, and security in urban areas.

Crime and Partnerships

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Svarer, Michael

This paper tests whether being convicted of a crime affects marriage market outcomes. While it is relatively well documented that crime hurts in terms of reduced future income, there has been little systematic analysis on the association between crime and marriage market outcomes. This paper...

School Starting Age and the Crime-Age Profile

OpenAIRE

Landerso, Rasmus; Nielsen, Helena Skyt; Simonsen, Marianne

2015-01-01

This paper uses register-based data to investigate the effects of school starting age on crime. Through this, we provide insights into the determinants of crime-age profiles. We exploit that Danish children typically start first grade in the calendar year they turn seven, which gives rise to a discontinuity in school starting age for children born around New Year. Our analysis speaks against a simple invariant crime-age profile as is popular in criminology: we find that higher school starting...

Combating transnational environmental crime

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pisarić Milana

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Environmental crime is a serious and growing international problem, and one which takes many different forms. It is not limited to criminals polluting the air, water and land and pushing commercially valuable wildlife species closer to extinction; it can also include crimes which speed up climate change, destroy fish stocks, annihilate forests and exhaust essential natural resources. These crimes can have a harmful impact on the economies and security of multiple nations, in some cases they may even threaten the very existence of a country or people. Furthermore, a significant proportion of both wildlife crime and pollution crime cases point to the involvement of organized crime networks. This is evidenced by the detailed planning of operations, substantial financial support, the careful management of international shipments and massive profits. Still, to date, transnational environmental crime has been poorly attended to by the transnational organised crime and transnational policing discourse. National and international institutions have prioritised other forms of organised crime, giving little thought to the nuances of environmental crime and how they should be reflected in policing. Intention of this paper is to point out the importance of international cooperation and to point out the its good examples.

Status and tendencies in combating computer crime at European level

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pisarić Milana

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Without certain adjustments to specifics of computer crime, as to a phenomenon of global proportions, detection, investigation and prosecution of this type of crime is almost impossible. Therefore, the need for setting up a legal framework for combating cyber crime has been identified, in order to define which activities related to information systems are considered computer crime; to determine the specific procedural rules, which would enable the access to data, computer and networks during investigating and prosecuting computer crime and to provide continuous training of members of the institutions responsible for countering this form of crime. This legal framework should consist of substantive and procedural rules adapted to this type of crime due its aim is the improvement of international cooperation in the framework of global and regional approach to combating cyber crime. In this this paper the current situation of strategic and legal framework of countering cyber crime is presented (at the level of the Council of Europe and of the European Union as well as trends in the development of systematic approach towards countering the mentioned abuses within these regional organizations. At the European level, the legal framework to combat cyber crime is set in the Council of Europe Convention on cyber crime and the Council of EU Framework Decision on attacks against information systems. In a series of documents organs of EU confirmed the strategic support of COE Convention and the encouragement of Member States to ratify the Convention. In addition, the Convention represent the base of the said Framework Decision. These two legal instruments have the same goal - removing the differences between national legislation, the introduction of new powers in the discovery and evidence of computer crime and improvement of the international cooperation in combating cyber crime. Although their legal nature and scope vary, its objectives will be achieved

South African Crime Quarterly

African Journals Online (AJOL)

South African Crime Quarterly is an inter-disciplinary peer-reviewed journal that promotes professional discourse and the publication of research on the subjects of crime, criminal justice, crime prevention, and related matters including state and non-state responses to crime and violence. South Africa is the primary focus for ...

An Investigation on the Rate of Crime in Sokoto State Using ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

natural vegetation, location and socio-economic characteristics has .... between crime and socio-economic status in Ottawa and Saskatoon, the ..... Ibadan: Spectrum Books Limited. Exp (2008). ... Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University press,:.

The Legal Framework Of Human Rights Crime As An Extraordinary Crime

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dedy Siswadi

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract This research reviews the legal framework of human rights crime as an extraordinary crime as an approach in the settlement of criminal cases. The outcomes of the research indicate that modern human rights law developed out of customs and theories that established the rights of the individual in relation to the state. Disagreements regarding human rights violations which can only be done by the state and its agents or can also be done by non-government units still exist at the moment. As it turns out in practice however it has certain weaknesses particularly in legislation concerning serious crimes of human rights both as ius constituendum and ius constitutum still needs to be improved especially in the implementation of human rights on judiciary system. Therefore serious crimes against human rights are included as an extraordinary crime. The handling of the cases was incredible and special has become a logical consequence to be included as an extraordinary crime.

Virtual reality and 3D animation in forensic visualization.

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Minhua; Zheng, Huiru; Lallie, Harjinder

2010-09-01

Computer-generated three-dimensional (3D) animation is an ideal media to accurately visualize crime or accident scenes to the viewers and in the courtrooms. Based upon factual data, forensic animations can reproduce the scene and demonstrate the activity at various points in time. The use of computer animation techniques to reconstruct crime scenes is beginning to replace the traditional illustrations, photographs, and verbal descriptions, and is becoming popular in today's forensics. This article integrates work in the areas of 3D graphics, computer vision, motion tracking, natural language processing, and forensic computing, to investigate the state-of-the-art in forensic visualization. It identifies and reviews areas where new applications of 3D digital technologies and artificial intelligence could be used to enhance particular phases of forensic visualization to create 3D models and animations automatically and quickly. Having discussed the relationships between major crime types and level-of-detail in corresponding forensic animations, we recognized that high level-of-detail animation involving human characters, which is appropriate for many major crime types but has had limited use in courtrooms, could be useful for crime investigation. © 2010 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Comparing Species Composition of Passive Trapping of Adult Flies with Larval Collections from the Body during Scene-Based Medicolegal Death Investigations

Science.gov (United States)

Sanford, Michelle R.

2017-01-01

Collection of insects at the scene is one of the most important aspects of forensic entomology and proper collection is one of the biggest challenges for any investigator. Adult flies are highly mobile and ubiquitous at scenes, yet their link to the body and the time of colonization (TOC) and post-mortem interval (PMI) estimates is not well established. Collection of adults is widely recommended for casework but has yet to be rigorously evaluated during medicolegal death investigations for its value to the investigation. In this study, sticky card traps and immature collections were compared for 22 cases investigated by the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences, Houston, TX, USA. Cases included all manner of death classifications and a range of decomposition stages from indoor and outdoor scenes. Overall, the two methods successfully collected at least one species in common only 65% of the time, with at least one species unique to one of the methods 95% of the time. These results suggest that rearing of immature specimens collected from the body should be emphasized during training to ensure specimens directly associated with the colonization of the body can be identified using adult stages if necessary. PMID:28338605

Neighbourhood crime and smoking: the role of objective and perceived crime measures

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shareck Martine

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Smoking is a major public health problem worldwide. Research has shown that neighbourhood of residence is independently associated with the likelihood of individuals' smoking. However, a fine comprehension of which neighbourhood characteristics are involved and how remains limited. In this study we examine the relative contribution of objective (police-recorded and subjective (resident-perceived measures of neighbourhood crime on residents' smoking behaviours. Methods Data from 2,418 men and women participating in the 2007/8 sweep of the West of Scotland Twenty-07 Study were analyzed. Smoking status and perceived crime were collected through face-to-face interviews with participants. Police-recorded crime rates were obtained from the Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics website at the datazone scale. Adjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were estimated for the likelihood of current smoking using logistic regression models. Adjusted mean daily amount smoked and F statistics were calculated using general linear models. Analyses were conducted for all respondents and stratified by sex and age cohort. Results Compared to individuals living in low crime areas, those residing in an area characterized by high police-recorded crime rates or those perceiving high crime in their neighbourhood were more likely to be current smokers, after controlling for individual characteristics. The association with smoking was somewhat stronger for police-recorded crime than for perceived crime. Associations were only slightly attenuated when adjusting for either the objective or subjective crime measures, suggesting that these indicators may exert an independent influence on the risk of smoking. Stronger effects were observed for women compared to men. Police-recorded crime rates were more strongly related to smoking status among older respondents than among the younger cohort, whereas the strongest effect for perceived crime was observed

DSI--Dance Scene Investigation: Exploring a Time in Dance History as Dancer, Choreographer, Historian, and Critic

Science.gov (United States)

Spear-Jones, Gwen

2008-01-01

This article provides a brief description of a dance program at the Old Donation Center Dance Education Program in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The mission of DSI--Dance Scene Investigation--is to nurture the full development of each student's dance potential through intense involvement in every aspect of the art. The program provides differentiated…

Job Displacement and Crime

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bennett, Patrick; Ouazad, Amine

We use a detailed employer-employee data set matched with detailed crime information (timing of crime, fines, convictions, crime type) to estimate the impact of job loss on an individual's probability to commit crime. We focus on job losses due to displacement, i.e. job losses in firms losing...... a substantial share of their workers, for workers with at least three years of tenure. Displaced workers are more likely to commit offenses leading to conviction (probation, prison terms) for property crimes and for alcohol-related traffic violations in the two years following displacement. We find no evidence...... that displaced workers' propensity to commit crime is higher than non-displaced workers before the displacement event; but it is significantly higher afterwards. Displacement impacts crime over and above what is explained by earnings losses and weeks of unemployment following displacement....

Globalization theories of crime

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kostić Miomira

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The process of globalization is affecting all areas of social life, and thus no exception crime. Its effect is most evident in the development of new forms of crime that transcends national borders and states receive a supranational character. This primarily refers to the various forms of organized crime, but also in certain of its forms, which are a kind of state violence and the consequences of which are reflected in the systematic violation of human rights. Also, the process of globalization of crime has caused the formation of international organizations aimed at combating of crime which transcends national boundaries. New forms of crime are conditioned by globalization demanded a new approach to their study. Existing criminological theories have proven inadequate in explaining all the causes that lead to crime. It was necessary to create new theories and new doctrines about the causes of crime. In the continuous process of development of criminology, in constant search for new explanations of the causes of crime, within the sociological theories have emerged and globalization theories of criminality, which the authors in their work special attention. The focus of the globalization theory on crime just on its prevention, to reduce the risk of its occurrence. This is certainly a positive step because it shifts the focus of criminologists with immediate causes of crime and focus on the study of their interactions, which is largely socially conditioned, which is especially prominent in the work. The aim of this paper is to point out that globalization theories should not be viewed in isolation from other criminological theories and doctrines, but that one, although relatively new, contribute to the creation of complete systems of criminological doctrines in order to find the optimal social response to crime.

Om at blive skudt med hagl. En "Crime Scene Investigation"

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Henriksen, Jens H; Jensen, Gorm; Henriksen, Jens Henrik Sahl

2009-01-01

Rifle contra shotgun shots are considered in relation to an X-mas goose and shooting accident. Depending on the size of shots, material and velocity, the effect in the body may vary considerably. Myocardial infarction, secondary to accidental shotgun shot, may be caused by 1) thrombosis secondary...

Radiological field exercises for forensic investigators. Technical memorandum

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Larsson, C.L.; Clement, C.; Estan, D.; McDiarmid, C.; Tessier, M.

2006-06-01

A series of tabletop and field exercises were designed and executed to test traditional forensic investigation procedures in a crime scene with radioactive material present. This allowed for specific training needs of forensic identification specialists to be identified and revised procedures to be drafted. Two scenarios were exercised, first as tabletop discussions with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC), and DRDC Ottawa, and then as field exercises with the participation of the RCMP and Ottawa Police Services (OPS) forensic investigators. These exercises produced a number of lessons learned with regard to protocols for forensic investigators and led to the development of a one-page fact sheet on performing forensic identification tasks in a radiation environment. (author)

Neighborhood crime and travel behavior : an investigation of the influence of neighborhood crime rates on mode choice - phase II.

Science.gov (United States)

2012-01-01

There are considerable environmental and public health benefits if people choose to walk, bicycle, or ride transit, instead of drive. : However, little work has been done on the effects of neighborhood crimes on mode choice. Instinctively, we underst...

Neighborhood crime and travel behavior : an investigation of the influence of neighborhood crime rates on mode choice, phase II.

Science.gov (United States)

2012-01-01

There are considerable environmental and public health benefits if people choose to walk, bicycle, or ride transit, instead of drive. However, little work has been done on the effects of neighborhood crimes on mode choice. Instinctively, we understan...

Crime-prevention

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brønsted, Lone

In Denmark, crime prevention is embedded in state professional practices in kindergartens, schools and youth clubs. These welfare institutions are conceived as safe places that safeguard children and young people through inclusive learning environments, warm and empathic relationships between......-sectional cooperation called “SSP”. SSP is a locally anchored cooperation of the school (S), the social services (S) and the police (P) and its aim is to create a coordinated system of prevention, e.g., to prevent crime or school drop outs. In continuation of this, crime preventive work is understood as a practice...

Microbial soil community analyses for forensic science: Application to a blind test.

Science.gov (United States)

Demanèche, Sandrine; Schauser, Leif; Dawson, Lorna; Franqueville, Laure; Simonet, Pascal

2017-01-01

Soil complexity, heterogeneity and transferability make it valuable in forensic investigations to help obtain clues as to the origin of an unknown sample, or to compare samples from a suspect or object with samples collected at a crime scene. In a few countries, soil analysis is used in matters from site verification to estimates of time after death. However, up to date the application or use of soil information in criminal investigations has been limited. In particular, comparing bacterial communities in soil samples could be a useful tool for forensic science. To evaluate the relevance of this approach, a blind test was performed to determine the origin of two questioned samples (one from the mock crime scene and the other from a 50:50 mixture of the crime scene and the alibi site) compared to three control samples (soil samples from the crime scene, from a context site 25m away from the crime scene and from the alibi site which was the suspect's home). Two biological methods were used, Ribosomal Intergenic Spacer Analysis (RISA), and 16S rRNA gene sequencing with Illumina Miseq, to evaluate the discriminating power of soil bacterial communities. Both techniques discriminated well between soils from a single source, but a combination of both techniques was necessary to show that the origin was a mixture of soils. This study illustrates the potential of applying microbial ecology methodologies in soil as an evaluative forensic tool. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Emotional and neutral scenes in competition: orienting, efficiency, and identification.

Science.gov (United States)

Calvo, Manuel G; Nummenmaa, Lauri; Hyönä, Jukka

2007-12-01

To investigate preferential processing of emotional scenes competing for limited attentional resources with neutral scenes, prime pictures were presented briefly (450 ms), peripherally (5.2 degrees away from fixation), and simultaneously (one emotional and one neutral scene) versus singly. Primes were followed by a mask and a probe for recognition. Hit rate was higher for emotional than for neutral scenes in the dual- but not in the single-prime condition, and A' sensitivity decreased for neutral but not for emotional scenes in the dual-prime condition. This preferential processing involved both selective orienting and efficient encoding, as revealed, respectively, by a higher probability of first fixation on--and shorter saccade latencies to--emotional scenes and by shorter fixation time needed to accurately identify emotional scenes, in comparison with neutral scenes.

Dynamic simulation of crime perpetration and reporting to examine community intervention strategies.

Science.gov (United States)

Yonas, Michael A; Burke, Jessica G; Brown, Shawn T; Borrebach, Jeffrey D; Garland, Richard; Burke, Donald S; Grefenstette, John J

2013-10-01

To develop a conceptual computational agent-based model (ABM) to explore community-wide versus spatially focused crime reporting interventions to reduce community crime perpetrated by youth. Agents within the model represent individual residents and interact on a two-dimensional grid representing an abstract nonempirically grounded community setting. Juvenile agents are assigned initial random probabilities of perpetrating a crime and adults are assigned random probabilities of witnessing and reporting crimes. The agents' behavioral probabilities modify depending on the individual's experience with criminal behavior and punishment, and exposure to community crime interventions. Cost-effectiveness analyses assessed the impact of activating different percentages of adults to increase reporting and reduce community crime activity. Community-wide interventions were compared with spatially focused interventions, in which activated adults were focused in areas of highest crime prevalence. The ABM suggests that both community-wide and spatially focused interventions can be effective in reducing overall offenses, but their relative effectiveness may depend on the intensity and cost of the interventions. Although spatially focused intervention yielded localized reductions in crimes, such interventions were shown to move crime to nearby communities. Community-wide interventions can achieve larger reductions in overall community crime offenses than spatially focused interventions, as long as sufficient resources are available. The ABM demonstrates that community-wide and spatially focused crime strategies produce unique intervention dynamics influencing juvenile crime behaviors through the decisions and actions of community adults. It shows how such models might be used to investigate community-supported crime intervention programs by integrating community input and expertise and provides a simulated setting for assessing dimensions of cost comparison and intervention effect

Cognitive organization of roadway scenes : an empirical study.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gundy, C.M.

1995-01-01

This report describes six studies investigating the cognitive organization of roadway scenes. These scenes were represented by still photographs taken on a number of roads outside of built-up areas. Seventy-eight drivers, stratified by age and sex to simulate the Dutch driving population,

School Starting Age and Crime

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Landersø, Rasmus; Nielsen, Helena Skyt; Simonsen, Marianne

This paper investigates the effects of school starting age on crime while relying on variation in school starting age induced by administrative rules; we exploit that Danish children typically start first grade in the calendar year they turn seven, which gives rise to a discontinuity in children......’s school starting age. Analyses are carried out using register-based Danish data. We find that higher age at school start lowers the propensity to commit crime, but that this reduction is caused by incapacitation while human capital accumulation is unaffected. Importantly, we also find that the individuals...

Survey of Analysis of Crime Detection Techniques Using Data Mining and Machine Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Prabakaran, S.; Mitra, Shilpa

2018-04-01

Data mining is the field containing procedures for finding designs or patterns in a huge dataset, it includes strategies at the convergence of machine learning and database framework. It can be applied to various fields like future healthcare, market basket analysis, education, manufacturing engineering, crime investigation etc. Among these, crime investigation is an interesting application to process crime characteristics to help the society for a better living. This paper survey various data mining techniques used in this domain. This study may be helpful in designing new strategies for crime prediction and analysis.

Forensic botany: using plant evidence to aid in forensic death investigation.

Science.gov (United States)

Miller Coyle, Heather; Lee, Cheng-Lung; Lin, Wen-Yu; Lee, Henry C; Palmbach, Timothy M

2005-08-01

Forensic botany is still an under-utilized resource in forensic casework, although it has been used on occasion. It is an area of specialty science that could include traditional botanical classification of species, DNA, or materials evidence (trace and transfer evidence), crime mapping or geo-sourcing, all dependent on the specific case application under consideration. Critical to the evaluation of plant evidence is careful collection, documentation, and preservation for later scientific analysis. This article reviews proper procedures and recent cases where botanical evidence played a role in establishing either manner or time of death. Plant evidence can be useful for determining if a death was due to an accident, suicide, or homicide, or what time of year burial may have taken place. In addition, plant evidence can be used to determine if a crime scene is a primary or secondary scene and to locate missing bodies.

Scene incongruity and attention.

Science.gov (United States)

Mack, Arien; Clarke, Jason; Erol, Muge; Bert, John

2017-02-01

Does scene incongruity, (a mismatch between scene gist and a semantically incongruent object), capture attention and lead to conscious perception? We explored this question using 4 different procedures: Inattention (Experiment 1), Scene description (Experiment 2), Change detection (Experiment 3), and Iconic Memory (Experiment 4). We found no differences between scene incongruity and scene congruity in Experiments 1, 2, and 4, although in Experiment 3 change detection was faster for scenes containing an incongruent object. We offer an explanation for why the change detection results differ from the results of the other three experiments. In all four experiments, participants invariably failed to report the incongruity and routinely mis-described it by normalizing the incongruent object. None of the results supports the claim that semantic incongruity within a scene invariably captures attention and provide strong evidence of the dominant role of scene gist in determining what is perceived. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Actors, Scripts, Scenes and Scenarios: Key Trends in Policy and Research on the Organisation of Serious Crimes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adam Michael Edwards

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The problem of ‘transnational organised crime’ has become a prominent issue in international affairs over the past two decades. Official constructions of the problem identify threats to public safety resulting from the greater mobility of people and goods across national borders and the exploitation of this mobility by ‘organised crime groups’ (OCGs. In turn, this has led to the generation of a new genre of policy-oriented learning, the ‘threat assessment’, which informs and legitimises the cross-border co-ordination of preventive interventions against such groups. This article considers arguments over the conceptual and methodological value of these threat assessments and their central preoccupation with criminal actors. An alternative approach is advanced, concerned with the ‘scripts’ involved in the commissioning of serious crimes and their facilitating conditions or ‘scenes’. This approach can also identify future ‘scenarios’, providing less certain but more satisficing grounds for anticipating and governing the organisation of serious crimes. El problema de la "delincuencia organizada transnacional" se ha convertido en un tema importante en los asuntos internacionales durante las últimas dos décadas. Las interpretaciones oficiales del problema identifican amenazas a la seguridad pública derivadas de la mayor movilidad de personas y bienes en las fronteras nacionales y la explotación de esta movilidad por "grupos de crimen organizado". A su vez, esto ha llevado a la generación de una nueva disciplina de aprendizaje orientada a las políticas, la "evaluación de amenaza", que informa y legitima la coordinación transfronteriza de intervenciones preventivas contra esos grupos. Este artículo analiza argumentos sobre el valor conceptual y metodológico de estas evaluaciones de amenazas y su preocupación principal hacia los actores criminales. Se plantea un enfoque alternativo, relacionado con los "guiones

PC Scene Generation

Science.gov (United States)

Buford, James A., Jr.; Cosby, David; Bunfield, Dennis H.; Mayhall, Anthony J.; Trimble, Darian E.

2007-04-01

AMRDEC has successfully tested hardware and software for Real-Time Scene Generation for IR and SAL Sensors on COTS PC based hardware and video cards. AMRDEC personnel worked with nVidia and Concurrent Computer Corporation to develop a Scene Generation system capable of frame rates of at least 120Hz while frame locked to an external source (such as a missile seeker) with no dropped frames. Latency measurements and image validation were performed using COTS and in-house developed hardware and software. Software for the Scene Generation system was developed using OpenSceneGraph.

Job Displacement and Crime

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bennett, Patrick; Ouazad, Amine

theory of crime. Marital dissolution is more likely post-displacement, and we find small intra-family externalities of adult displacement on younger family members’ crime. The impact of displacement on crime is stronger in municipalities with higher capital and labor income inequalities....

Internet and computer crimes

OpenAIRE

Janýšková, Zuzana

2010-01-01

INTERNET AND COMPUTER CRIME (SUMMARY) The purpose of this thesis is to provide an introduction to the basic problems of Internet and computer crime (furthermore also "cyber crime"), which is a type of crime that is still relatively new, but fast developing in a similar pace as the information technologies. The thesis contains seven substantial chapters. First chapter is an introduction of this thesis, which focuses on its structure and summary of the content. Second chapter presents the most ...

For Whom Does Hate Crime Hurt More? A Comparison of Consequences of Victimization Across Motives and Crime Types.

Science.gov (United States)

Mellgren, Caroline; Andersson, Mika; Ivert, Anna-Karin

2017-12-01

Hate crimes have been found to have more severe consequences than other parallel crimes that were not motivated by the offenders' hostility toward someone because of their real or perceived difference. Many countries today have hate crime laws that make it possible to increase the penalties for such crimes. The main critique against hate crime laws is that they punish thoughts. Instead, proponents of hate crime laws argue that sentence enhancement is justified because hate crimes cause greater harm. This study compares consequences of victimization across groups of victims to test for whom hate crimes hurt more. We analyzed data that were collected through questionnaires distributed to almost 3,000 students at Malmö University, Sweden, during 2013. The survey focused on students' exposure to, and experiences of, hate crime. A series of separate logistic regression analyses were performed, which analyzed the likelihood for reporting consequences following a crime depending on crime type, perceived motive, repeat victimization, gender, and age. Analyzed as one victim group, victims of hate crime more often reported any of the consequences following a crime compared with victims of parallel non-hate-motivated crimes. And, overall victims of threat more often reported consequences compared with victims of sexual harassment and minor assault. However, all hate crime victim groups did not report more consequences than the non-hate crime victim group. The results provide grounds for questioning that hate crimes hurt the individual victim more. It seems that hate crimes do not hurt all more but hate crimes hurt some victims of some crimes more in some ways.

Crime and immigration

OpenAIRE

Brian Bell

2014-01-01

Immigration is one of the most important policy debates in Western countries. However, one aspect of the debate is often mischaracterized by accusations that higher levels of immigration lead to higher levels of crime. The evidence, based on empirical studies of many countries, indicates that there is no simple link between immigration and crime. Crucially, the evidence points to substantial differences in the impact on property crime, depending on the labor market opportunities of immigrant ...

Weighing up crime: the over estimation of drug-related crime

OpenAIRE

Stevens, Alex

2008-01-01

Background: It is generally accepted that harms from crime cause a very large part of the total social harm that can be attributed to drug use. For example, crime harms accounted for 70% of the weighting of the British Drug Harm Index in 2004. This paper explores the linkage of criminal harm to drug use and challenges the current overestimation of the proportion of crime that can be causally attributed to drug use. It particularly examines the use of data from arrested drug users to estimate ...

Analysis of suspected wildlife crimes submitted for forensic examinations in Scotland.

Science.gov (United States)

Millins, Caroline; Howie, Fiona; Everitt, Charles; Shand, Michael; Lamm, Catherine

2014-09-01

This study describes the occurrence of suspected wildlife crimes submitted for forensic examination in Scotland in 2010. The study aims were to determine which types of crimes were committed, which species were targeted, and the outcome of investigations, in order to assess the contribution of forensic examinations in the prosecution of wildlife crimes. Information on suspected wildlife crimes submitted between January 1 and December 31, 2010 to the SAC Consulting: Veterinary Services Disease Surveillance Centers, Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture, and to the University of Glasgow, was used. The location of suspected crimes, the species targeted, cause of death, and types of the 188 submitted wildlife crimes were summarized. More information regarding cases involving birds were submitted than cases involving mammals, and included 114 raptors, 14 waterfowl, and 22 "other bird species." Mammal cases (n = 38) included 12 badgers, 8 foxes, 7 deer, 4 hares, and 7 "other mammals." The cause of death was determined in 124 suspected crimes; malicious or accidental trauma was the most likely cause of death in 72, and 33 were poisoned. Forensic evidence supporting criminal activity was found in 53 cases, and poisoning was the most frequent crime recorded. At least five individuals were successfully prosecuted, representing 2.7 % of submissions. It was challenging to track cases from submission through to prosecution and laboratories conducting forensic investigations were often not informed of the outcome of prosecutions or court decisions.

The Perception of Small Crime

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Douhou, S.; Magnus, J.R.; van Soest, A.H.O.

2010-01-01

Violations of social norms can be costly to society and they are, in the case of large crimes, followed by prosecution. Minor misbehaviors — small crimes — do not usually result in legal proceedings. Although the economic consequences of a single small crime can be low, such crimes generate

Approaches to Scandinavian Crime Fiction

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Agger, Gunhild

2010-01-01

as the approach of genre typology and the concept of evil – seemingly disparate concepts and approaches, but all related to the complex processes in the borderlands between crime fiction and society. Using examples from Scandinavian crime fiction, I discuss whether the growing proximity to international genres......The working paper discusses some of the major approaches to Scandinavian crime fiction in the light of the dominant features of crime culture, e.g. the broad exposure of crime fiction via different platforms and media. In this connection, the concept of mediatization is considered as well......, ways of production and standards increasingly removes Scandinavian crime fiction from its original attractions or not....

Generic and crime type specific correlates of youth crime: a Finnish population-based study.

Science.gov (United States)

Elonheimo, Henrik; Sourander, Andre; Niemelä, Solja; Helenius, Hans

2011-09-01

The aim of this study was to examine the psychosocial correlates of various crime types among adolescent males born in Finland in 1981. Data on crime registered in the Finnish National Police Register between 1998 and 2001 were received for 2,866 boys, of whom 81% (n = 2,330) filled in a questionnaire at obligatory military call-up at age 18 in 1999. Crime was divided into five types: drug, violent, property, traffic, and drunk driving offences. Of the 2,866 boys, 23% had been registered for offending; 4% for drug, 7% for violent, 11% for property, 11% for traffic, and 5% for drunk driving offences during the 4-year period in late adolescence. All the crime types correlated with each other and shared many of the psychosocial problems. Small community size, parents' divorce, aggressiveness, daily smoking, and weekly drunkenness were generic correlates of crime, being independently related to various crime types. The results support general rather than specific accounts of youth crime. In particular, measures moderating the adverse effects of divorce, alleviating parental adversities and supporting parenthood, and tackling substance abuse seem relevant in social and criminal policy because they address psychosocial problems characterizing youth crime in general.

Interaction between scene-based and array-based contextual cueing.

Science.gov (United States)

Rosenbaum, Gail M; Jiang, Yuhong V

2013-07-01

Contextual cueing refers to the cueing of spatial attention by repeated spatial context. Previous studies have demonstrated distinctive properties of contextual cueing by background scenes and by an array of search items. Whereas scene-based contextual cueing reflects explicit learning of the scene-target association, array-based contextual cueing is supported primarily by implicit learning. In this study, we investigated the interaction between scene-based and array-based contextual cueing. Participants searched for a target that was predicted by both the background scene and the locations of distractor items. We tested three possible patterns of interaction: (1) The scene and the array could be learned independently, in which case cueing should be expressed even when only one cue was preserved; (2) the scene and array could be learned jointly, in which case cueing should occur only when both cues were preserved; (3) overshadowing might occur, in which case learning of the stronger cue should preclude learning of the weaker cue. In several experiments, we manipulated the nature of the contextual cues present during training and testing. We also tested explicit awareness of scenes, scene-target associations, and arrays. The results supported the overshadowing account: Specifically, scene-based contextual cueing precluded array-based contextual cueing when both were predictive of the location of a search target. We suggest that explicit, endogenous cues dominate over implicit cues in guiding spatial attention.

Semantic guidance of eye movements in real-world scenes.

Science.gov (United States)

Hwang, Alex D; Wang, Hsueh-Cheng; Pomplun, Marc

2011-05-25

The perception of objects in our visual world is influenced by not only their low-level visual features such as shape and color, but also their high-level features such as meaning and semantic relations among them. While it has been shown that low-level features in real-world scenes guide eye movements during scene inspection and search, the influence of semantic similarity among scene objects on eye movements in such situations has not been investigated. Here we study guidance of eye movements by semantic similarity among objects during real-world scene inspection and search. By selecting scenes from the LabelMe object-annotated image database and applying latent semantic analysis (LSA) to the object labels, we generated semantic saliency maps of real-world scenes based on the semantic similarity of scene objects to the currently fixated object or the search target. An ROC analysis of these maps as predictors of subjects' gaze transitions between objects during scene inspection revealed a preference for transitions to objects that were semantically similar to the currently inspected one. Furthermore, during the course of a scene search, subjects' eye movements were progressively guided toward objects that were semantically similar to the search target. These findings demonstrate substantial semantic guidance of eye movements in real-world scenes and show its importance for understanding real-world attentional control. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Socio-Ecological Exploration of Fear of Crime in Urban Green Spaces

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Maruthaveeran, Sreetheran

of crime in Malaysia and possibly also other countries. It is pertinent to further investigate the interactions of the attributes (e.g., dense vegetation, graffiti, presence of drug addicts) which evoke fear of crime in urban green spaces. Although it is important to investigate how physical...

White-Collar Crimes and Financial Corruptions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fatih ŞENTÜRK

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Crime, defined as act which is contrary to the law, creates negative influence in the society both economically and spiritually. There are various factors like professional experience as well as biological, psychological and sociological ones that make individuals turn to crime. Edwin Sutherland claim that life experiences and some facts learned from the environment account for occupational crimes in his study on the theory of crime in 1939. White-collar crime, which is perhaps the most important of types of crime in terms of havoc and committed by the superior contrary to common belief, has much more influence than conventional crime. This crime, which inflict significant financial loses and psychological collapse on states, communities, businesses and people, are committed by well-respected professionals in their business. In this study, white collar crimes are examined with conceptual view and detailed. Besides, this study explain this type of crime is so forceful, by giving remarkable examples on economic losses.

Status of nuclear forensic support in Sudan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mokhtar, Mohammedelmoez Eltayeb Abderahman

2015-08-01

The central problem investigated in this thesis is nuclear forensic support in Sudan, the thesis comprises five chapters, began with an introduction containing the art of forensic science, stated the importance of the it in criminal investigations. The forensic science was defined, and stated the principle of which it underlying, including: principle of individuality and principle of exchange, the divisions of this science has been clarified, then it discussed the crime scene and the collecting of evidence, where starting the forensic science at the crime scene, with clarifying the principle of crime scene investigation. Nuclear and other radioactive material was discussed: defining a radioactivity with the material source. It placed into 3 general categories: special nuclear materials, reactor fuel, and commercial radioactive sources, and mention each category and it characteristics. Radiation is part of our environment was clarified, and discussed what the effect on organisms and populations are. Nuclear forensics was presented,and how problem of the safeguarding of the nuclear material beginning. The emerging nature of the problem was discussed, the radiological crime scene management was explained, importance of securing the scene with an examples of equipment and instruments for on-scene radiation safety assessment and how the collection of evidence, storage forensic laboratory analysis was discussed and how set the designated nuclear forensic laboratory, also nuclear forensic interpretation, and the chain of custody was mentioned. The role of Regulating Authority in Nuclear forensic support was discussed, specifically in Sudan, International Cooperation have also been reminded, as well as memorandum of understanding was mentioned between SNRRA and the administration of forensic evidence, and one of it results is the radiological surveys unit in forensic administration, how the unit is configured, the role of the unit, finally conclusion of research was

Hate crimes and normative regulation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kovačević Milica

2011-01-01

Full Text Available This paper is primarily devoted to issues related to the normative regulation of hate crimes, with special reference to the regulations of the Republic of Serbia, which are indirectly related to this matter. This kind of crimes are characterized by prejudices that perpetrators have towards injured parties, as members of certain, mostly, minority groups, due to which many hate crimes could be also called crimes of prejudice. In comparative law there are two different basic directions when it comes to regulating hate crimes: separation of hate crimes in a separate category on the one hand, and punishment of perpetrators of criminal acts with the detriment of minority groups through the usual charges of a given criminal justice system, on the other. The author finds that, regardless of the formal response forms, real life suggests that hate crimes can be essentially suppressed only by promoting values such as equality, respect for diversity and tolerance, and by continuous education of public about the danger of hate crimes.

Crime Self-Reporting Study: Phase 1

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Buck, Kelly

2004-01-01

The PERSEREC Crime Self-Reporting Study covers criminal record checks conducted in CY00 on 14,470 subjects of DoD security clearance investigations, including uniformed military, civilian, and contractor personnel...

The time course of natural scene perception with reduced attention.

Science.gov (United States)

Groen, Iris I A; Ghebreab, Sennay; Lamme, Victor A F; Scholte, H Steven

2016-02-01

Attention is thought to impose an informational bottleneck on vision by selecting particular information from visual scenes for enhanced processing. Behavioral evidence suggests, however, that some scene information is extracted even when attention is directed elsewhere. Here, we investigated the neural correlates of this ability by examining how attention affects electrophysiological markers of scene perception. In two electro-encephalography (EEG) experiments, human subjects categorized real-world scenes as manmade or natural (full attention condition) or performed tasks on unrelated stimuli in the center or periphery of the scenes (reduced attention conditions). Scene processing was examined in two ways: traditional trial averaging was used to assess the presence of a categorical manmade/natural distinction in event-related potentials, whereas single-trial analyses assessed whether EEG activity was modulated by scene statistics that are diagnostic of naturalness of individual scenes. The results indicated that evoked activity up to 250 ms was unaffected by reduced attention, showing intact categorical differences between manmade and natural scenes and strong modulations of single-trial activity by scene statistics in all conditions. Thus initial processing of both categorical and individual scene information remained intact with reduced attention. Importantly, however, attention did have profound effects on later evoked activity; full attention on the scene resulted in prolonged manmade/natural differences, increased neural sensitivity to scene statistics, and enhanced scene memory. These results show that initial processing of real-world scene information is intact with diminished attention but that the depth of processing of this information does depend on attention. Copyright © 2016 the American Physiological Society.

The use of forensic botany and geology in war crimes investigations in NE Bosnia.

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, A G

2006-11-22

From 1997 to 2002 the United Nations International Criminal Tribune for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) undertook the exhumation of mass graves in NE Bosnia as part of the war crimes investigations aimed at providing evidence for the prosecution of war criminals in The Hague. This involved the location and exhumation of seven former mass graves (primary sites) dug following the fall of Srebrenica in July 1995. These primary mass graves were secretly and hurriedly exhumed three months later and most of the bodies or body parts transported and reburied in a large number of secondary sites many of which were subsequently exhumed by ICTY. The aim of the pollen and soil/sediment studies was to provide an 'environmental profile' of the original site of the samples and use this to match the relocated bodies to the original mass graves. This was part of completing the chain of evidence, providing evidence of the scale and organization of the original atrocities and the subsequent attempts to conceal the evidence related to them. All the primary sites were located in areas of contrasting geology, soils and vegetation, and this allowed matching of the sediment transported in intimate contact with the bodies to the original burial sites, which in some cases were also the execution sites. In all, over 24 sites were investigated, over 240 samples collected and analyzed under low power microscopy and 65 pollen sub-samples fully analyzed. The pollen and sediment descriptions were used in conjunction with the mineralogy (using XRD) of primary and secondary sites in order to provide matches. These matches were then compared with matching evidence from ballistic studies and clothing. The evidence has been used in court and is now in the public domain. It is believed this is the first time 'environmental profiling' techniques have been used in a systematic manner in a war crimes investigation.

Fluctuation scaling, Taylor's law, and crime.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Quentin S Hanley

Full Text Available Fluctuation scaling relationships have been observed in a wide range of processes ranging from internet router traffic to measles cases. Taylor's law is one such scaling relationship and has been widely applied in ecology to understand communities including trees, birds, human populations, and insects. We show that monthly crime reports in the UK show complex fluctuation scaling which can be approximated by Taylor's law relationships corresponding to local policing neighborhoods and larger regional and countrywide scales. Regression models applied to local scale data from Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire found that different categories of crime exhibited different scaling exponents with no significant difference between the two regions. On this scale, violence reports were close to a Poisson distribution (α = 1.057 ± 0.026 while burglary exhibited a greater exponent (α = 1.292 ± 0.029 indicative of temporal clustering. These two regions exhibited significantly different pre-exponential factors for the categories of anti-social behavior and burglary indicating that local variations in crime reports can be assessed using fluctuation scaling methods. At regional and countrywide scales, all categories exhibited scaling behavior indicative of temporal clustering evidenced by Taylor's law exponents from 1.43 ± 0.12 (Drugs to 2.094 ± 0081 (Other Crimes. Investigating crime behavior via fluctuation scaling gives insight beyond that of raw numbers and is unique in reporting on all processes contributing to the observed variance and is either robust to or exhibits signs of many types of data manipulation.

Fluctuation scaling, Taylor's law, and crime.

Science.gov (United States)

Hanley, Quentin S; Khatun, Suniya; Yosef, Amal; Dyer, Rachel-May

2014-01-01

Fluctuation scaling relationships have been observed in a wide range of processes ranging from internet router traffic to measles cases. Taylor's law is one such scaling relationship and has been widely applied in ecology to understand communities including trees, birds, human populations, and insects. We show that monthly crime reports in the UK show complex fluctuation scaling which can be approximated by Taylor's law relationships corresponding to local policing neighborhoods and larger regional and countrywide scales. Regression models applied to local scale data from Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire found that different categories of crime exhibited different scaling exponents with no significant difference between the two regions. On this scale, violence reports were close to a Poisson distribution (α = 1.057 ± 0.026) while burglary exhibited a greater exponent (α = 1.292 ± 0.029) indicative of temporal clustering. These two regions exhibited significantly different pre-exponential factors for the categories of anti-social behavior and burglary indicating that local variations in crime reports can be assessed using fluctuation scaling methods. At regional and countrywide scales, all categories exhibited scaling behavior indicative of temporal clustering evidenced by Taylor's law exponents from 1.43 ± 0.12 (Drugs) to 2.094 ± 0081 (Other Crimes). Investigating crime behavior via fluctuation scaling gives insight beyond that of raw numbers and is unique in reporting on all processes contributing to the observed variance and is either robust to or exhibits signs of many types of data manipulation.

Media and Crime

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Agger, Gunhild; Waade, Anne Marit

2011-01-01

Recent developments in the relationship between media and crime are analyzed, taking both fiction and journalism in account......Recent developments in the relationship between media and crime are analyzed, taking both fiction and journalism in account...

Accumulating and remembering the details of neutral and emotional natural scenes.

Science.gov (United States)

Melcher, David

2010-01-01

In contrast to our rich sensory experience with complex scenes in everyday life, the capacity of visual working memory is thought to be quite limited. Here our memory has been examined for the details of naturalistic scenes as a function of display duration, emotional valence of the scene, and delay before test. Individual differences in working memory and long-term memory for pictorial scenes were examined in experiment 1. The accumulation of memory for emotional scenes and the retention of these details in long-term memory were investigated in experiment 2. Although there were large individual differences in performance, memory for scene details generally exceeded the traditional working memory limit within a few seconds. Information about positive scenes was learned most quickly, while negative scenes showed the worst memory for details. The overall pattern of results was consistent with the idea that both short-term and long-term representations are mixed together in a medium-term 'online' memory for scenes.

Criminological problems of studying crime consequences

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sabitov R.A.

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The phenomenon of crime consequences is studied as a total social and not social, direct and indirect damage caused by crime. The quantitative and qualitative indicators of these consequences are shown. It is determined that concept of crime does not embrace its consequences and victims. The qualitative indicators of crime consequences imply the consequences’ character and structure; the quantitative indicators imply cumulative consequences of certain kinds of crime, the dynamics of certain kinds of consequences and coefficient of certain crime consequences. It is proved that not only physical and juridical persons, but also the public, authorities and associations (groups of people having no indication of juridical person must be recognized as crime sufferers. It is argued that crimes can cause property and moral damage (goodwill damage, ecological damage, considerable damage of interests protected by the law, information, managerial damage and other kinds of damage. Theoretically according to criminal law a crime sufferer is a physical, juridical person, an authority, the public, group of people who suffered from physical, property, moral or other kind of damage caused by a completed or uncompleted crime. The author proves the necessity to fix the concept of crime sufferer in criminal law. The concept of victim should include Russian criminal actualities, foreign experience and embrace not only physical but also juridical persons and groups of people suffered from crimes.

UNSOLVED AND LATENT CRIME: DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mikhail Kleymenov

2017-01-01

Full Text Available УДК 343Purpose of the article is to study the specific legal and informational nature of the unsolved crime in comparison with the phenomenon of delinquency, special study and analysis to improve the efficiency of law enforcement.Methods of research are abstract-logical, systematic, statistical, study of documents. The main results of research. Unsolved crime has specific legal, statistical and informational na-ture as the crime phenomenon, which is expressed in cumulative statistical population of unsolved crimes. An array of unsolved crimes is the sum of the number of acts, things of which is suspended and not terminated. The fault of the perpetrator in these cases is not proven, they are not considered by the court, it is not a conviction. Unsolved crime must be registered. Latent crime has a different informational nature. The main symptom of latent crimes is the uncertainty for the subjects of law enforcement, which delegated functions of identification, registration and accounting. Latent crime is not recorded. At the same time, there is a "border" area between the latent and unsolved crimes, which includes covered from the account of the crime. In modern Russia the majority of crimes covered from accounting by passing the decision about refusal in excitation of criminal case. Unsolved crime on their criminogenic consequences represents a significant danger to the public is higher compared to latent crime.It is conducted in the article a special analysis of the differences and similarities in the unsolved latent crime for the first time in criminological literature.The analysis proves the need for radical changes in the current Russian assessment of the state of crime and law enforcement to solve crimes. The article argues that an unsolved crime is a separate and, in contrast to latent crime, poorly understood phenomenon. However unsolved latent crime and have common features and areas of interaction.

Semantic guidance of eye movements in real-world scenes

OpenAIRE

Hwang, Alex D.; Wang, Hsueh-Cheng; Pomplun, Marc

2011-01-01

The perception of objects in our visual world is influenced by not only their low-level visual features such as shape and color, but also their high-level features such as meaning and semantic relations among them. While it has been shown that low-level features in real-world scenes guide eye movements during scene inspection and search, the influence of semantic similarity among scene objects on eye movements in such situations has not been investigated. Here we study guidance of eye movemen...

Mediating the distal crime-drug relationship with proximal reactive criminal thinking.

Science.gov (United States)

Walters, Glenn D

2016-02-01

This article describes the results of a study designed to test whether reactive criminal thinking (RCT) does a better job of mediating the crime → drug relationship than it does mediating the drug → crime relationship after the direct effects of crime on drug use/dependency and of drug use/dependency on crime have been rendered nonsignificant by control variables. All 1,170 male members of the Pathways to Desistance study (Mulvey, 2012) served as participants in the current investigation. As predicted, the total (unmediated) effects of crime on substance use/dependence and of substance use/dependence on crime were nonsignificant when key demographic and third variables were controlled, although the indirect (RCT-mediated) effect of crime on drug use was significant. Proactive criminal thinking (PCT), by comparison, failed to mediate either relationship. The RCT continued to mediate the crime → drug relationship and the PCT continued to not mediate either relationship when more specific forms of offending (aggressive, income) and substance use/dependence (drug use, substance-use dependency symptoms) were analyzed. This offers preliminary support for the notion that even when the total crime-drug effect is nonsignificant the indirect path from crime to reactive criminal thinking to drugs can still be significant. Based on these results, it is concluded that mediation by proximal reactive criminal thinking is a mechanism by which distal measures of crime and drug use/dependence are connected. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Sentencing Multiple Crimes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Most people assume that criminal offenders have only been convicted of a single crime. However, in reality almost half of offenders stand to be sentenced for more than one crime.The high proportion of multiple crime offenders poses a number of practical and theoretical challenges for the criminal......, and psychology offer their perspectives to the volume. A comprehensive examination of the dynamics involved with sentencing multiple offenders has the potential to be a powerful tool for legal scholars and professionals, particularly given the practical importance of the topic and the relative dearth of research...

CMIS: Crime Map Information System for Safety Environment

Science.gov (United States)

Kasim, Shahreen; Hafit, Hanayanti; Yee, Ng Peng; Hashim, Rathiah; Ruslai, Husni; Jahidin, Kamaruzzaman; Syafwan Arshad, Mohammad

2016-11-01

Crime Map is an online web based geographical information system that assists the public and users to visualize crime activities geographically. It acts as a platform for the public communities to share crime activities they encountered. Crime and violence plague the communities we are living in. As part of the community, crime prevention is everyone's responsibility. The purpose of Crime Map is to provide insights of the crimes occurring around Malaysia and raise the public's awareness on crime activities in their neighbourhood. For that, Crime Map visualizes crime activities on a geographical heat maps, generated based on geospatial data. Crime Map analyse data obtained from crime reports to generate useful information on crime trends. At the end of the development, users should be able to make use of the system to access to details of crime reported, crime analysis and report crimes activities. The development of Crime Map also enable the public to obtain insights about crime activities in their area. Thus, enabling the public to work together with the law enforcer to prevent and fight crime.

Subject description form of crime prevention (morphological analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Валерій Федорович Оболенцев

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Activities of the National Crime Prevention is a system object. Therefore, it should be improving on the basis of systems analysis techniques. The practice of systematic approach was realized in the works of  N. F. Kuznetsova, A. I. Dolgova, D. O. Li, V. M. Dryomin, O. Y. Manokha, O. G. Frolova. Crime models developed C. Y. Vitsin, Y. D. Bluvshteyn, N. V. Smetanina. We previously disclosed basic principles of system analysis system to prevent crime and its genetic and prognostic aspects, classification features, systemic factors latentyzatsiyi criminogenic factors - object protective activity, the amount of protected public relations. In order to investigate the systemic properties of the system of crime prevention in Ukraine we have defined objectives of the study - to its morphological analysis. Elements of a specialized system of crime prevention - a prosecution, Interior, Security Service, the Military Service of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, bodies of state border protection agencies revenues and fees, enforcement and penal institutions, remand centers, public financial control, fisheries, the state forest protection. We determined depth analysis of your system functions at the level of law enforcement agencies. Intercom system to prevent crime is information links between elements of the system (transfer of information on crimes and criminals current activity. External relations systems provide processes of interaction with the environment. For crime prevention system external relations are relations of elements (law enforcement society. In the system of crime prevention implemented such coordination links: 1 Departmental coordination meeting of law enforcement agencies; 2 inter-agency coordination meeting of law enforcement agencies (Prosecutor General of Ukraine, the State Border Service of Ukraine and others. 3 mutual exchange of information; 4 order the prosecution, SBU on other agencies

Sensory substitution: the spatial updating of auditory scenes ‘mimics’ the spatial updating of visual scenes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Achille ePasqualotto

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Visual-to-auditory sensory substitution is used to convey visual information through audition, and it was initially created to compensate for blindness; it consists of software converting the visual images captured by a video-camera into the equivalent auditory images, or ‘soundscapes’. Here, it was used by blindfolded sighted participants to learn the spatial position of simple shapes depicted in images arranged on the floor. Very few studies have used sensory substitution to investigate spatial representation, while it has been widely used to investigate object recognition. Additionally, with sensory substitution we could study the performance of participants actively exploring the environment through audition, rather than passively localising sound sources. Blindfolded participants egocentrically learnt the position of six images by using sensory substitution and then a judgement of relative direction task (JRD was used to determine how this scene was represented. This task consists of imagining being in a given location, oriented in a given direction, and pointing towards the required image. Before performing the JRD task, participants explored a map that provided allocentric information about the scene. Although spatial exploration was egocentric, surprisingly we found that performance in the JRD task was better for allocentric perspectives. This suggests that the egocentric representation of the scene was updated. This result is in line with previous studies using visual and somatosensory scenes, thus supporting the notion that different sensory modalities produce equivalent spatial representation(s. Moreover, our results have practical implications to improve training methods with sensory substitution devices.

No Crimes Against Humanity During the Maydan Protests in Ukraine? Or the ICC Prosecutor’s Flawed Interpretation of Crimes Against Humanity?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Marchuk, Iryna

2017-01-01

in International Criminal Law as to how the systematic requirement is applied on a stand-alone basis as well as how it interacts with the policy element. By deciding not to forward with the investigation into the situation of Ukraine, the ICC Prosecutor denied the judges an opportunity to decide whether the Maydan......The Article takes a fresh look at the definition of crimes against humanity and its applicability in the International Criminal Court (“ICC”) by analyzing the ICC Prosecutor’s decision not to proceed with the investigation of the Maydan crimes in Ukraine, based on her evaluation of the “widespread...

Alcohol-related crime in city entertainment precincts: Public perception and experience of alcohol-related crime and support for strategies to reduce such crime.

Science.gov (United States)

Tindall, Jenny; Groombridge, Daniel; Wiggers, John; Gillham, Karen; Palmer, Darren; Clinton-McHarg, Tara; Lecathelinais, Christophe; Miller, Peter

2016-05-01

Bars, pubs and taverns in cities are often concentrated in entertainment precincts that are associated with higher rates of alcohol-related crime. This study assessed public perception and experiences of such crime in two city entertainment precincts, and support for alcohol-related crime reduction strategies. A cross-sectional household telephone survey in two Australian regions assessed: perception and experiences of crime; support for crime reduction strategies; and differences in such perceptions and support. Six hundred ninety-four people completed the survey (32%). Most agreed that alcohol was a problem in their entertainment precinct (90%) with violence the most common alcohol-related problem reported (97%). Almost all crime reduction strategies were supported by more than 50% of participants, including visitors to the entertainment precincts, with the latter being slightly less likely to support earlier closing and restrictions on premises density. Participants in one region were more likely to support earlier closing and lock-out times. Those at-risk of acute alcohol harm were less likely to support more restrictive policies. High levels of community concern and support for alcohol harm-reduction strategies, including restrictive strategies, provide policy makers with a basis for implementing evidence-based strategies to reduce such harms in city entertainment precincts. [Tindall J, Groombridge D, Wiggers J, Gillham K, Palmer D, Clinton-McHarg T, Lecathelinais C, Miller P. Alcohol-related crime in city entertainment precincts: Public perception and experience of alcohol-related crime and support for strategies to reduce such crime. Drug Alcohol Rev 2016;35:263-272]. © 2015 The Authors. Drug and Alcohol Review published by Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd on behalf of Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs.

The dynamics of poverty and crime

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Haiyun Zhao

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Poverty and crime are two maladies that plague metropolitan areas.The economic theory of crime ［1］ demonstrates a direct correlation between poverty and crime.The model considered in this study seeks to examine the dynamics of the poverty-crime system through stability analysis of a system of ordinary differential equations in order to identify cost-effective strategies to combat crime in metropolises.

Failure to report a crime and its problems in Albania

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Besiana Muka (Petanaja

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Crime being a social and economic phenomenon constitutes a serious threat to democratic values, not just one country or region, but beyond. Its prevention and detection constitutes the most important challenge dealing with the criminal investigation organs, where the underlying investigative process at any time should remain the utmost respect for human rights, particularly care to crime victims. The process of crime prevention should be more efficient, first there must be a spirit of close cooperation between police officers, prosecution authorities and community in order to guarantee the rule of security for citizens. This is due to the fact that all citizens are concerned about the safety of their family and the environment where they live. Through their individual skills they react to the actions and behaviors that affect the interests, values and legal norms prescribed (Nasufi & Yzeiri, 2004, 162. Besides civic reaction, criminal legislation provides for the rights and duties to citizens to denounce criminal acts. Under the criminal code, every citizen is obliged to speak of a crime that is being committed or has been committed, the bodies of prosecution, court, law enforcement bodies, government or administration, otherwise the risk is connected with a sanction of a fine or imprisonment up to three years. 1 To better understand the problems of non testifying crime and discrepancy it is important to analyze the criminal Offense of non testifying crime and Characteristics of the Offense under the Albanian criminal code.

Neutron activation analysis - an aid to forensic science

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chattopadhyay, N.; Basu, A.K.; Tripathi, A.B.R.; Bhadkambekar, C.A.; Shukla, S.K.

2006-01-01

Forensic Science is oriented towards the examination of evidence specimens, collected from a scene of crime in order to establish the link between the criminal and the crime. This science therefore has a profound role to play in criminal justice delivery system. The importance of neutron activation analysis (NAA) as a specialised technique to aid crime investigation has emerged and has been recognised

Establishing motives for committing crimes: criminalistic possibilities and criminal procedure expediency

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kornakova S.V.

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The lack of unanimity on the motive understanding by psychologists studying the motivation of goal-oriented behavior and lawyers analyzing the crime causes and mechanisms is stated. The possibility of unconscious motives of criminal behavior is admitted. The practical problems of es-tablishing and proving the motives for specific crimes, which can be judged only presumably, by studying actus reus and perpetrator’s testimony, are shown. Establishing the motive for crime is complicated by the fact that the guilty person is often not aware of it, conceals or distorts it. The authors acknowledge that crime is impossible without a motive (talking about mentally healthy person. Consequently, they state the inevitable difficulties in establishing any motive and the lack of objective need for its establishing to find a person guilty of committing a crime. The expediency of establishing cognition limits of crime psychology by the subject of proof is argued. It’s concluded that the preliminary investigation bodies and courts must fully, comprehensively and objectively investigate the circumstances that determine the conclusion about the presence or absence of guilty motive in perpetrator’s actions. They must justify this conclusion in the indictment and sentence by bringing evidence only in case if this motive is provided by criminal law as element of crime. It’s argued that the list of circumstances to be proved in every criminal case, provided by article 73 of the RF Criminal Procedure Code, can’t be considered satisfactory, if practical possibilities of their establishing aren’t taken into account. It’s proposed to exclude the motives for crime from this list.

An enhanced feature set for pattern recognition based contrast enhancement of contact-less captured latent fingerprints in digitized crime scene forensics

Science.gov (United States)

Hildebrandt, Mario; Kiltz, Stefan; Dittmann, Jana; Vielhauer, Claus

2014-02-01

In crime scene forensics latent fingerprints are found on various substrates. Nowadays primarily physical or chemical preprocessing techniques are applied for enhancing the visibility of the fingerprint trace. In order to avoid altering the trace it has been shown that contact-less sensors offer a non-destructive acquisition approach. Here, the exploitation of fingerprint or substrate properties and the utilization of signal processing techniques are an essential requirement to enhance the fingerprint visibility. However, especially the optimal sensory is often substrate-dependent. An enhanced generic pattern recognition based contrast enhancement approach for scans of a chromatic white light sensor is introduced in Hildebrandt et al.1 using statistical, structural and Benford's law2 features for blocks of 50 micron. This approach achieves very good results for latent fingerprints on cooperative, non-textured, smooth substrates. However, on textured and structured substrates the error rates are very high and the approach thus unsuitable for forensic use cases. We propose the extension of the feature set with semantic features derived from known Gabor filter based exemplar fingerprint enhancement techniques by suggesting an Epsilon-neighborhood of each block in order to achieve an improved accuracy (called fingerprint ridge orientation semantics). Furthermore, we use rotation invariant Hu moments as an extension of the structural features and two additional preprocessing methods (separate X- and Y Sobel operators). This results in a 408-dimensional feature space. In our experiments we investigate and report the recognition accuracy for eight substrates, each with ten latent fingerprints: white furniture surface, veneered plywood, brushed stainless steel, aluminum foil, "Golden-Oak" veneer, non-metallic matte car body finish, metallic car body finish and blued metal. In comparison to Hildebrandt et al.,1 our evaluation shows a significant reduction of the error rates

The time course of natural scene perception with reduced attention

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Groen, I.I.A.; Ghebreab, S.; Lamme, V.A.F.; Scholte, H.S.

Attention is thought to impose an informational bottleneck on vision by selecting particular information from visual scenes for enhanced processing. Behavioral evidence suggests, however, that some scene information is extracted even when attention is directed elsewhere. Here, we investigated the

Dal computer crime al computer-related crime

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Antonio Apruzzese

2007-04-01

Full Text Available Nowadays, Digital Identity Theft has become one of the most lucrative illegitimate business. Also known as “phishing”, it consists in unauthorized access to an individual’s personal financial data aiming to capture information relative to on line banking and on line financial services. At the beginning people were the victims of such scams, currently the attention is directed to computer networks. “Pharming” and “keylogging” are some of the latest and utmost sophisticated data processing techniques used by computer crime fraudsters. Latest entries are the “botnets”, herds of infected machines, usually managed by one sole command centre which can determine serious damages to network systems. Botnets have made large scale identity theft much simpler to realize. Organized crime is becoming more and more involved in this new crime world that can easily assure huge profits. The Italian State Police, in order to respond more effectively to this new rising challenge, has created, with the Postal and Communication Police, an agency highly specialized in combating such new phenomenon

Una introduzione ai software per il crime mapping / Observations préliminaires sur les logiciels du mappage du crime / Some introductory notes on crime mapping software

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ummarino Alessandro

2013-03-01

servir des techniques de mappage du crime est offerte aussi bien par les logiciels SIG commerciaux que par les logiciel libres et gratuits.Ceux qui veulent approcher cette discipline pour profiter de ses applications tactiques (planification des contrôles, activités de prévention de la délinquance, enquête forensique, etc. ou bien mener des études sociologiques (sur le crime, la déviance, l’illégalité, la perception de la sécurité, etc. doivent quand même bien se préparer à utiliser le logiciel SIG avant de devenir capable d’interpréter les résultats d’un point de vue sociologique.Le mappage du crime assure un véritable support dans les domaines des activités générales de police (surtout à niveau local, de la gestion des ressources destinées à la sécurité, de la programmation des services de police et, en particulier, de la prévention et répression des délits.Crime mapping is not merely a discipline itself, but it is the application of statistical and geographic analysis techniques to the study of crime. Due to the exponential development of computer sciences and easy access to the Web, the possibility to produce quality “crime” maps is now available for all average users through GIS software (Geographic Information System. Now, the possibility to use crime mapping techniques is offered both by commercial and free, open source GIS software. Those wanting to approach this discipline to take advantage of its tactical applications (planning control activities, crime prevention, forensic investigations, etc. or to carry out sociological studies (on crime, deviance, security perception, etc. must develop a strong background on GIS program before being able to interpret the results from a social sciences point of view. Crime mapping provides real support in general police activities, especially at local level, in management of security resources, in programming police services and especially in prevention and repression of specific crimes

Categorization of natural dynamic audiovisual scenes.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Olli Rummukainen

Full Text Available This work analyzed the perceptual attributes of natural dynamic audiovisual scenes. We presented thirty participants with 19 natural scenes in a similarity categorization task, followed by a semi-structured interview. The scenes were reproduced with an immersive audiovisual display. Natural scene perception has been studied mainly with unimodal settings, which have identified motion as one of the most salient attributes related to visual scenes, and sound intensity along with pitch trajectories related to auditory scenes. However, controlled laboratory experiments with natural multimodal stimuli are still scarce. Our results show that humans pay attention to similar perceptual attributes in natural scenes, and a two-dimensional perceptual map of the stimulus scenes and perceptual attributes was obtained in this work. The exploratory results show the amount of movement, perceived noisiness, and eventfulness of the scene to be the most important perceptual attributes in naturalistically reproduced real-world urban environments. We found the scene gist properties openness and expansion to remain as important factors in scenes with no salient auditory or visual events. We propose that the study of scene perception should move forward to understand better the processes behind multimodal scene processing in real-world environments. We publish our stimulus scenes as spherical video recordings and sound field recordings in a publicly available database.

Radio Wave Propagation Scene Partitioning for High-Speed Rails

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bo Ai

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Radio wave propagation scene partitioning is necessary for wireless channel modeling. As far as we know, there are no standards of scene partitioning for high-speed rail (HSR scenarios, and therefore we propose the radio wave propagation scene partitioning scheme for HSR scenarios in this paper. Based on our measurements along the Wuhan-Guangzhou HSR, Zhengzhou-Xian passenger-dedicated line, Shijiazhuang-Taiyuan passenger-dedicated line, and Beijing-Tianjin intercity line in China, whose operation speeds are above 300 km/h, and based on the investigations on Beijing South Railway Station, Zhengzhou Railway Station, Wuhan Railway Station, Changsha Railway Station, Xian North Railway Station, Shijiazhuang North Railway Station, Taiyuan Railway Station, and Tianjin Railway Station, we obtain an overview of HSR propagation channels and record many valuable measurement data for HSR scenarios. On the basis of these measurements and investigations, we partitioned the HSR scene into twelve scenarios. Further work on theoretical analysis based on radio wave propagation mechanisms, such as reflection and diffraction, may lead us to develop the standard of radio wave propagation scene partitioning for HSR. Our work can also be used as a basis for the wireless channel modeling and the selection of some key techniques for HSR systems.

Watching the detectives: crime programming, fear of crime, and attitudes about the criminal justice system.

Science.gov (United States)

Kort-Butler, Lisa A; Sittner Hartshorn, Kelley J

2011-01-01

Research demonstrates a complex relationship between television viewing and fear of crime. Social critics assert that media depictions perpetuate the dominant cultural ideology about crime and criminal justice. This article examines whether program type differentially affects fear of crime and perceptions of the crime rate. Next, it tests whether such programming differentially affects viewers' attitudes about the criminal justice system, and if these relationships are mediated by fear. Results indicated that fear mediated the relationship between viewing nonfictional shows and lack of support for the justice system. Viewing crime dramas predicted support for the death penalty, but this relationship was not mediated by fear. News viewership was unrelated to either fear or attitudes. The results support the idea that program type matters when it comes to understanding people's fear of crime and their attitudes about criminal justice.

South African Crime Quarterly 56

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Edited by Chandré Gould and Andrew Faull

promote evidence-based crime and violence reduction policies and strategies. ... Current available crime data ... Figure 1: The ecological framework: WHO examples of multi-level risk factors. Source: ... murder are the South African Police Service's (SAPS) ..... crime: testing social disorganization theory, American Journal.

Crime and German Decadence

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Kim Toft

In Crime Stories: Criminalistic Fantasy and the Culture of Crisis in Weimar Germany, Todd Herzog – explicitly or implicitly – deals with different established myths about crime fiction, criminality and its cultural presumptions. It is generally quite seldom – as Herzog does – that the three subje...... is indeed part of this needed and remarkable wave of theoretical and historical revisions of our understanding of crime through factual and fictional representations....

Historical crime novels and meta-reflective aesthetics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Agger, Gunhild; Jacobsen, Michael Hviid

2014-01-01

layers with a contemporary setting. The second will be represented by the ‘literary’, meta-reflective novel involving crime and investigation, but in untraditional ways where various levels of reflection form a part of the plot. In various ways, both contribute to highlight the influence of fictitious...... (2009) Kerstin Ekman continued her exploration of the act of crime, inspired by, re-writing and commenting on Hjalmar Söderberg’s Doctor Glas (1905). This novel represents a peculiar way of combining a historical setting with a meta-reflective strategy, which is strongly appealing. This strategy has...

Violent crime exposure classification and adverse birth outcomes: a geographically-defined cohort study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Herring Amy

2006-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Area-level socioeconomic disparities have long been associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes. Crime is an important element of the neighborhood environment inadequately investigated in the reproductive and public health literature. When crime has been used in research, it has been variably defined, resulting in non-comparable associations across studies. Methods Using geocoded linked birth record, crime and census data in multilevel models, this paper explored the relevance of four spatial violent crime exposures: two proximal violent crime categorizations (count of violent crime within a one-half mile radius of maternal residence and distance from maternal residence to nearest violent crime and two area-level crime categorizations (count of violent crimes within a block group and block group rate of violent crimes for adverse birth events among women in living in the city of Raleigh NC crime report area in 1999–2001. Models were adjusted for maternal age and education and area-level deprivation. Results In black and white non-Hispanic race-stratified models, crime characterized as a proximal exposure was not able to distinguish between women experiencing adverse and women experiencing normal birth outcomes. Violent crime characterized as a neighborhood attribute was positively associated with preterm birth and low birth weight among non-Hispanic white and black women. No statistically significant interaction between area-deprivation and violent crime category was observed. Conclusion Crime is variably categorized in the literature, with little rationale provided for crime type or categorization employed. This research represents the first time multiple crime categorizations have been directly compared in association with health outcomes. Finding an effect of area-level violent crime suggests crime may best be characterized as a neighborhood attribute with important implication for adverse birth outcomes.

Risk of Being Subjected to Crime, Including Violent Crime, After Onset of Mental Illness: A Danish National Registry Study Using Police Data.

Science.gov (United States)

Dean, Kimberlie; Laursen, Thomas M; Pedersen, Carsten B; Webb, Roger T; Mortensen, Preben B; Agerbo, Esben

2018-05-23

People with mental illness are more likely to have contact with the criminal justice system, but research to date has focused on risk of offense perpetration, while less is known about risk of being subjected to crime and violence. To establish the incidence of being subjected to all types of criminal offenses, and by violent crimes separately, after onset of mental illness across the full diagnostic spectrum compared with those in the population without mental illness. This investigation was a longitudinal national cohort study using register data in Denmark. Participants were a cohort of more than 2 million persons born between 1965 and 1998 and followed up from 2001 or from their 15th birthday until December 31, 2013. Analysis was undertaken from November 2016 until February 2018. Cohort members were followed up for onset of mental illness, recorded as first contact with outpatient or inpatient mental health services. Diagnoses across the full spectrum of psychiatric diagnoses were considered separately for men and women. Incidence rate ratios (IRRs) were estimated for first subjection to crime event (any crime and violent crime) reported to police after onset of mental illness. The IRRs were adjusted for cohort member's own criminal offending, in addition to several sociodemographic factors. In a total cohort of 2 058 063 (48.7% male; 51.3% female), the adjusted IRRs for being subjected to crime associated with any mental disorder were 1.49 (95% CI, 1.46-1.51) for men and 1.64 (95% CI, 1.61-1.66) for women. The IRRs were higher for being subjected to violent crime at 1.76 (95% CI, 1.72-1.80) for men and 2.72 (95% CI, 2.65-2.79) for women. The strongest associations were for persons diagnosed as having substance use disorders and personality disorders, but significant risk elevations were found across almost all diagnostic groups examined. Onset of mental illness is associated with increased risk of exposure to crime, and violent crime in particular

Forensic quest for age determination of bloodstains

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bremmer, Rolf H.; de Bruin, Karla G.; van Gemert, Martin J. C.; van Leeuwen, Ton G.; Aalders, Maurice C. G.

2012-01-01

Bloodstains at crime scenes are among the most important types of evidence for forensic investigators. They can be used for DNA-profiling for verifying the suspect's identity or for pattern analysis in order to reconstruct the crime. However, until now, using bloodstains to determine the time

Scene Integration Without Awareness: No Conclusive Evidence for Processing Scene Congruency During Continuous Flash Suppression.

Science.gov (United States)

Moors, Pieter; Boelens, David; van Overwalle, Jaana; Wagemans, Johan

2016-07-01

A recent study showed that scenes with an object-background relationship that is semantically incongruent break interocular suppression faster than scenes with a semantically congruent relationship. These results implied that semantic relations between the objects and the background of a scene could be extracted in the absence of visual awareness of the stimulus. In the current study, we assessed the replicability of this finding and tried to rule out an alternative explanation dependent on low-level differences between the stimuli. Furthermore, we used a Bayesian analysis to quantify the evidence in favor of the presence or absence of a scene-congruency effect. Across three experiments, we found no convincing evidence for a scene-congruency effect or a modulation of scene congruency by scene inversion. These findings question the generalizability of previous observations and cast doubt on whether genuine semantic processing of object-background relationships in scenes can manifest during interocular suppression. © The Author(s) 2016.

Joint Utility of Event-Dependent and Environmental Crime Analysis Techniques for Violent Crime Forecasting

Science.gov (United States)

Caplan, Joel M.; Kennedy, Leslie W.; Piza, Eric L.

2013-01-01

Violent crime incidents occurring in Irvington, New Jersey, in 2007 and 2008 are used to assess the joint analytical capabilities of point pattern analysis, hotspot mapping, near-repeat analysis, and risk terrain modeling. One approach to crime analysis suggests that the best way to predict future crime occurrence is to use past behavior, such as…

Emergence of forensic podiatry--A novel sub-discipline of forensic sciences.

Science.gov (United States)

Krishan, Kewal; Kanchan, Tanuj; DiMaggio, John A

2015-10-01

"Forensic podiatry is defined as the application of sound and researched podiatric knowledge and experience in forensic investigations; to show the association of an individual with a scene of crime, or to answer any other legal question concerned with the foot or footwear that requires knowledge of the functioning foot". Forensic podiatrists can contribute to forensic identification by associating the pedal evidence with the criminal or crime scene. The most common pedal evidence collected from the crime scene is in the form of footprints, shoeprints and their tracks and trails. Forensic podiatrists can establish identity of the individuals from the footprints in many ways. The analysis of bare footprints involves the identification based on the individualistic features like flat footedness, ridges, humps, creases, an extra toe, missing toe, corns, cuts, cracks, pits, deformities, and various features of the toe and heel region. All these individualistic features can link the criminal with the crime. In addition to these, parameters of body size like stature and body weight as well as sex can also be estimated by using anthropometric methods. If a series of footprints are recovered from the crime scene, then parameters of the gait analysis such as stride/step length and general movement of the criminal can be traced. Apart from these, a newly established biometric parameter of the footprints i.e. footprint ridge density can also be evaluated for personal identification. Careful analysis of the footprint ridge density can give an idea about the sex of the criminal whose footprints are recovered at the scene which can further help to reduce the burden of the investigating officer as the investigations then may be directed toward either a male suspect or a female suspect accordingly. This paper highlights various aspects of Forensic Podiatry and discusses the different methods of personal identification related to pedal evidence. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland

Crime Prevention through Environmental Design

Science.gov (United States)

Draper, Rick; Cadzow, Emma

2004-01-01

Applying CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design) strategies to schools can significantly contribute to a safer learning environment by influencing the behaviour of students and visitors. CPTED has three overlapping primary concepts that are intended to reduce opportunities for crime as well as fear of crime: access control,…

Scene construction in schizophrenia.

Science.gov (United States)

Raffard, Stéphane; D'Argembeau, Arnaud; Bayard, Sophie; Boulenger, Jean-Philippe; Van der Linden, Martial

2010-09-01

Recent research has revealed that schizophrenia patients are impaired in remembering the past and imagining the future. In this study, we examined patients' ability to engage in scene construction (i.e., the process of mentally generating and maintaining a complex and coherent scene), which is a key part of retrieving past experiences and episodic future thinking. 24 participants with schizophrenia and 25 healthy controls were asked to imagine new fictitious experiences and described their mental representations of the scenes in as much detail as possible. Descriptions were scored according to various dimensions (e.g., sensory details, spatial reference), and participants also provided ratings of their subjective experience when imagining the scenes (e.g., their sense of presence, the perceived similarity of imagined events to past experiences). Imagined scenes contained less phenomenological details (d = 1.11) and were more fragmented (d = 2.81) in schizophrenia patients compared to controls. Furthermore, positive symptoms were positively correlated to the sense of presence (r = .43) and the perceived similarity of imagined events to past episodes (r = .47), whereas negative symptoms were negatively related to the overall richness of the imagined scenes (r = -.43). The results suggest that schizophrenic patients' impairments in remembering the past and imagining the future are, at least in part, due to deficits in the process of scene construction. The relationships between the characteristics of imagined scenes and positive and negative symptoms could be related to reality monitoring deficits and difficulties in strategic retrieval processes, respectively. Copyright 2010 APA, all rights reserved.

Cyber Forensics Ontology for Cyber Criminal Investigation

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Heum; Cho, Sunho; Kwon, Hyuk-Chul

We developed Cyber Forensics Ontology for the criminal investigation in cyber space. Cyber crime is classified into cyber terror and general cyber crime, and those two classes are connected with each other. The investigation of cyber terror requires high technology, system environment and experts, and general cyber crime is connected with general crime by evidence from digital data and cyber space. Accordingly, it is difficult to determine relational crime types and collect evidence. Therefore, we considered the classifications of cyber crime, the collection of evidence in cyber space and the application of laws to cyber crime. In order to efficiently investigate cyber crime, it is necessary to integrate those concepts for each cyber crime-case. Thus, we constructed a cyber forensics domain ontology for criminal investigation in cyber space, according to the categories of cyber crime, laws, evidence and information of criminals. This ontology can be used in the process of investigating of cyber crime-cases, and for data mining of cyber crime; classification, clustering, association and detection of crime types, crime cases, evidences and criminals.

High on Crime Fiction and Detection

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Grodal, Torben Kragh

2010-01-01

how crime fiction activates strong salience (in some respects similar to the effect of dopamine-drugs like cocaine, Ritalin, and amphetamine) and discusses the role of social intelligence in crime fiction. It further contrasts the unempathic classical detector fictions with two subtypes of crime...... fiction that blend seeking with other emotions: the hardboiled crime fiction that blends detection with action and hot emotions like anger and bonding, and the moral crime fiction that strongly evokes moral disgust and contempt, often in conjunction with detectors that perform hard to fake signals...

Scene Categorization in Alzheimer's Disease: A Saccadic Choice Task

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Quentin Lenoble

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Aims: We investigated the performance in scene categorization of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD using a saccadic choice task. Method: 24 patients with mild AD, 28 age-matched controls and 26 young people participated in the study. The participants were presented pairs of coloured photographs and were asked to make a saccadic eye movement to the picture corresponding to the target scene (natural vs. urban, indoor vs. outdoor. Results: The patients' performance did not differ from chance for natural scenes. Differences between young and older controls and patients with AD were found in accuracy but not saccadic latency. Conclusions: The results are interpreted in terms of cerebral reorganization in the prefrontal and temporo-occipital cortex of patients with AD, but also in terms of impaired processing of visual global properties of scenes.

Transnational Activities of Chinese Crime Organizations

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Curtis, Glenn E; Elan, Seth L; Hudson, Rexford A; Kollars, Nina A

2003-01-01

.... The report notes the participation of such groups in all major types of crime, including trafficking of human beings and various commodities, financial crimes, extortion, gambling, prostitution, and violent crimes...

Crime, deterrence, and democracy

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Dušek, Libor

2012-01-01

Roč. 13, č. 4 (2012), s. 447-469 ISSN 1465-6485 Institutional support: RVO:67985998 Keywords : crime under transition * deterrence * economics of crime Subject RIV: AH - Economics Impact factor: 0.736, year: 2012

Crime Prevention and Criminological Theories: Three Issues for the Current Time

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Emilio Jorge Ayos

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Any crime prevention strategy implies, explicitly or implicitly, the question about what crime is, the causes of it and how to avert it. In this paper we will focus on set, thru criminological theories, the “concepts” that have been renewal to build different answers to such questions, particularly on crime prevention’s policies in contemporary Argentina. We suggest three axes: first, the criminal positivist sociology of Enrico Ferri, particularly his idea of “ penalties equivalent,”; second, the discussion about crime prevention in the “Chicago School”, specially on Thrasher Frederich’s work; and finally, “multi-agency intervention” idea of the left realist criminology, especially Jock Young, Roger Matthews and John Lea. Such productions have in common the fact that the three have specifically discussed the issue of “crime prevention” on their work. The selection criteria and comparison axis emerges from a broader investigation, which aimed to analyze the modes of way that the association between crime and living conditions is addressed on the social crime prevention policies in Argentina, during the first decade of the new century. Three comparatives dimensions were analyzed: the way social policies appears on crime prevention strategies; the ways the target populations are delimited; and last, the ways the intervention territories are defined, building an specific idea of territory.

Residence-Based Fear of Crime: A Routine Activities Approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Lai, Yung-Lien; Ren, Ling; Greenleaf, Richard

2017-07-01

Most fear-of-crime research uses resident's neighborhood as a key reference location to measure fear, yet the location effects of one's own dwelling unit on crime-specific fear has not been explicitly studied theoretically in the literature. Drawing upon routine activities theory, this study undertakes an investigation into the levels and determinants of residence-based fear of crime across three racial/ethnic groups-Whites, African Americans, and non-White Hispanics. Data used in the analyses were collected from a random-sample telephone survey of 1,239 respondents in Houston, Texas. The results derived from factor analyses revealed that residents do distinguish between fear in the neighborhood and fear at home. Proximity to motivated offenders measured by perception of crime was found to be the most salient predictor of fear, followed by the measures of target vulnerability and capable guardianship. In addition, residence-based fear varies significantly across racial/ethnic groups. The significance of these findings and the policy implications are highlighted.

Exploratory study on classification and individualisation of earprints.

Science.gov (United States)

Meijerman, Lynn; Sholl, Sarah; De Conti, Francesca; Giacon, Marta; van der Lugt, Cor; Drusini, Andrea; Vanezis, Peter; Maat, George

2004-02-10

The FearID research project is aimed at the individualisation of earprints for the purpose of forensic research. The study presented here was carried out within the framework of this project. It intends to combine a review of what is known from literature on the classification and individualisation of earprints with results from a preliminary study of earprints. Possibilities for, and limitations to, the use of earprints in forensic investigation are addressed. Differences between eliminating a suspect, placing a suspect at a crime scene, and linking crimes by prints left at different scenes are considered.

Crime, deterrence, and democracy

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Dušek, Libor

2012-01-01

Roč. 13, č. 4 (2012), s. 447-469 ISSN 1465-6485 Institutional support: PRVOUK-P23 Keywords : crime under transition * deterrence * economics of crime Subject RIV: AH - Economics Impact factor: 0.736, year: 2012

Feature diagnosticity and task context shape activity in human scene-selective cortex.

Science.gov (United States)

Lowe, Matthew X; Gallivan, Jason P; Ferber, Susanne; Cant, Jonathan S

2016-01-15

Scenes are constructed from multiple visual features, yet previous research investigating scene processing has often focused on the contributions of single features in isolation. In the real world, features rarely exist independently of one another and likely converge to inform scene identity in unique ways. Here, we utilize fMRI and pattern classification techniques to examine the interactions between task context (i.e., attend to diagnostic global scene features; texture or layout) and high-level scene attributes (content and spatial boundary) to test the novel hypothesis that scene-selective cortex represents multiple visual features, the importance of which varies according to their diagnostic relevance across scene categories and task demands. Our results show for the first time that scene representations are driven by interactions between multiple visual features and high-level scene attributes. Specifically, univariate analysis of scene-selective cortex revealed that task context and feature diagnosticity shape activity differentially across scene categories. Examination using multivariate decoding methods revealed results consistent with univariate findings, but also evidence for an interaction between high-level scene attributes and diagnostic visual features within scene categories. Critically, these findings suggest visual feature representations are not distributed uniformly across scene categories but are shaped by task context and feature diagnosticity. Thus, we propose that scene-selective cortex constructs a flexible representation of the environment by integrating multiple diagnostically relevant visual features, the nature of which varies according to the particular scene being perceived and the goals of the observer. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Statistical physics of crime: a review.

Science.gov (United States)

D'Orsogna, Maria R; Perc, Matjaž

2015-03-01

Containing the spread of crime in urban societies remains a major challenge. Empirical evidence suggests that, if left unchecked, crimes may be recurrent and proliferate. On the other hand, eradicating a culture of crime may be difficult, especially under extreme social circumstances that impair the creation of a shared sense of social responsibility. Although our understanding of the mechanisms that drive the emergence and diffusion of crime is still incomplete, recent research highlights applied mathematics and methods of statistical physics as valuable theoretical resources that may help us better understand criminal activity. We review different approaches aimed at modeling and improving our understanding of crime, focusing on the nucleation of crime hotspots using partial differential equations, self-exciting point process and agent-based modeling, adversarial evolutionary games, and the network science behind the formation of gangs and large-scale organized crime. We emphasize that statistical physics of crime can relevantly inform the design of successful crime prevention strategies, as well as improve the accuracy of expectations about how different policing interventions should impact malicious human activity that deviates from social norms. We also outline possible directions for future research, related to the effects of social and coevolving networks and to the hierarchical growth of criminal structures due to self-organization. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

European standards in the field of combating cyber crime

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Matijašević-Obradović Jelena

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Cyber crime is a phenomenon which is often written and spoken about, ever since its inception, in theory, judicial and legislative practice of developed countries and international institutions. It had rapidly developed in the last decade of the 20th century, and in the 21st century its evolution has become even more evident. Countries have responded by introducing new measures in their criminal legislation, in an effort to reconcile traditional criminal law with the demands for perception, investigation and demonstration of new criminal acts. This paper presents and analyzes the most significant European standards adopted in order to create more effective national legislation in the field of combating cyber crime. Standards given in the Convention of the Council of Europe but also the European Union Directives have to a large extent been a guide for national legislations in order to regulate the new situations regarding the misuse of information and communication technologies in the most adequate manner. Among other things, this paper pays special attention to the most important Convention in the field of combating cyber crime, which is the Council of Europe Convention on cyber crime, whose objectives include: harmonization of national legislations with regard to substantive provisions in the field of cyber crime, introduction of adequate instruments in national legislations with regard to process provisions in order to create the necessary basis for investigation and prosecution of offenders in this field and establishment of quick and efficient institutions and procedures for international cooperation.

The crime kuznets curve

OpenAIRE

Buonanno, Paolo; Fergusson, Leopoldo; Vargas, Juan Fernando

2014-01-01

We document the existence of a Crime Kuznets Curve in US states since the 1970s. As income levels have risen, crime has followed an inverted U-shaped pattern, first increasing and then dropping. The Crime Kuznets Curve is not explained by income inequality. In fact, we show that during the sample period inequality has risen monotonically with income, ruling out the traditional Kuznets Curve. Our finding is robust to adding a large set of controls that are used in the literature to explain the...

Organized crime impact study highlights

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Porteous, S D

1998-10-01

A study was conducted to address the issue of how organized crime impacts on Canadians and their communities both socially and economically. As far as environmental crime is concerned, three main areas of concern have been identified: (1) illicit trade in ozone depleting substances, (2) illicit hazardous waste treatment, and (3) disposal of illicit trade in endangered species. To gauge the magnitude of organized crime activity, the market value of worldwide illegal trafficking in illicit drugs was estimated to be as high as $100 billion worldwide (between $1.4 to 4 billion in Canada). It is suspected that Canada supplies a substantial portion of the U.S. black market in chlorofluorocarbons with most of the rest being supplied from Mexico. Another area of concern involves the disposal of hazardous wastes. Canada produces approximately 5.9 million tonnes of hazardous waste annually. Of these, 3.2 million tonnes are sent to off-site disposal facilities for specialized treatment and recycling. The treatment of hazardous waste is a very profitable business, hence vulnerable to fraudulent practices engaged in by organized crime groups. Environmental implications of this and other environmental crimes, as well as their economic, commercial, health and safety impact were examined. Other areas of organized crime activity in Canada (drugs, economic crimes, migrant trafficking, counterfeit products, motor vehicle theft, money laundering) were also part of the study.

The Relevant Physical Trace in Criminal Investigation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Durdica Hazard

2016-01-01

Full Text Available A criminal investigation requires the forensic scientist to search and to interpret vestiges of a criminal act that happened in the past. The forensic scientist is one of the many stakeholders who take part in the information quest within the criminal justice system. She reads the investigation scene in search of physical traces that should enable her to tell the story of the offense/crime that allegedly occurred. The challenge for any investigator is to detect and recognize relevant physical traces in order to provide clues for investigation and intelligence purposes, and that will constitute sound and relevant evidence for the court. This article shows how important it is to consider the relevancy of physical traces from the beginning of the investigation and what might influence the evaluation process. The exchange and management of information between the investigation stakeholders are important. Relevancy is a dimension that needs to be understood from the standpoints of law enforcement personnel and forensic scientists with the aim of strengthening investigation and ultimately the overall judicial process.

URBAN REVITALIZATION AND SEATTLE CRIME, 1982-2000.

Science.gov (United States)

Kreager, Derek A; Lyons, Christopher J; Hays, Zachary R

2011-11-01

This study examines the relationship between crime and processes of urban revitalization, or gentrification. Drawing on recent urban demography research, we hypothesize that gentrification progressed rapidly in many American cities over the last decade of the 20 th century, and that these changes had implications for area crime rates. Criminological theories hold competing hypotheses for the connections between gentrification and crime, and quantitative studies of this link remain infrequent and limited. Using two measures of gentrification and longitudinal tract-level demographic and crime data for the city of Seattle, we find that many of Seattle's downtown tracts underwent rapid revitalization during the 1990's, and that these areas 1) saw reductions in crime relative to similar tracts that did not gentrify, and 2) were areas with higher-than-average crime at the beginning of the decade. Moreover, using a within-tract longitudinal design, we find that yearly housing investments in the 1980's showed a modest positive association with crime change, while yearly investments in the 1990's showed the opposite pattern. Our findings suggest a curvilinear gentrification-crime relationship, whereby gentrification in its earlier stages is associated with small increases in crime, but gentrification in its more consolidated form is associated with modest crime declines. Implications of these results for criminological theory, urban development, and broader crime patterns are discussed.

Crime

Data.gov (United States)

Montgomery County of Maryland — Updated daily postings on Montgomery County’s open data website, dataMontgomery, provide the public with direct access to crime statistic databases - including raw...

Underwater Scene Composition

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Nanyoung

2009-01-01

In this article, the author describes an underwater scene composition for elementary-education majors. This project deals with watercolor with crayon or oil-pastel resist (medium); the beauty of nature represented by fish in the underwater scene (theme); texture and pattern (design elements); drawing simple forms (drawing skill); and composition…

A Neglected Population: Media Consumption, Perceived Risk, and Fear of Crime Among International Students.

Science.gov (United States)

Shi, Luzi

2018-03-01

The 4.5 million international students worldwide bring in multifold benefits to the advancement of culture, economy, and national security in education host countries. Surprisingly, few prior studies have explored international students' fear of crime, which may harm their mental and physical health and undermine their educational achievements. The current study aims to fill in this research void by investigating international students' fear of crime in line with the cultivation theoretical framework, which postulates that media consumption cultivates fear of crime. The analyses draw on a sample of 398 international students attending nine different public and private universities across the United States. Using structural equation modeling (SEM), I investigate the extent and correlates of students' fear of crime. The findings reveal that international students are more fearful in the United States than in their home countries. SEM results show that controlling for students' fear in their home countries, attention paid to crime news is positively related to fear in the United States, through perceived victimization risk. The SEM results also suggest that exposure to non-U.S. social media (e.g., WeChat and Weibo) is positively related to respondents' fear of crime, whereas exposure to U.S. social media (e.g., Facebook and Twitter) is not related to fear of crime. The current study highlights the importance of studying the impact of fear of crime and social media use on international students.

Colour agnosia impairs the recognition of natural but not of non-natural scenes.

Science.gov (United States)

Nijboer, Tanja C W; Van Der Smagt, Maarten J; Van Zandvoort, Martine J E; De Haan, Edward H F

2007-03-01

Scene recognition can be enhanced by appropriate colour information, yet the level of visual processing at which colour exerts its effects is still unclear. It has been suggested that colour supports low-level sensory processing, while others have claimed that colour information aids semantic categorization and recognition of objects and scenes. We investigated the effect of colour on scene recognition in a case of colour agnosia, M.A.H. In a scene identification task, participants had to name images of natural or non-natural scenes in six different formats. Irrespective of scene format, M.A.H. was much slower on the natural than on the non-natural scenes. As expected, neither M.A.H. nor control participants showed any difference in performance for the non-natural scenes. However, for the natural scenes, appropriate colour facilitated scene recognition in control participants (i.e., shorter reaction times), whereas M.A.H.'s performance did not differ across formats. Our data thus support the hypothesis that the effect of colour occurs at the level of learned associations.

Scene-Based Contextual Cueing in Pigeons

Science.gov (United States)

Wasserman, Edward A.; Teng, Yuejia; Brooks, Daniel I.

2014-01-01

Repeated pairings of a particular visual context with a specific location of a target stimulus facilitate target search in humans. We explored an animal model of such contextual cueing. Pigeons had to peck a target which could appear in one of four locations on color photographs of real-world scenes. On half of the trials, each of four scenes was consistently paired with one of four possible target locations; on the other half of the trials, each of four different scenes was randomly paired with the same four possible target locations. In Experiments 1 and 2, pigeons exhibited robust contextual cueing when the context preceded the target by 1 s to 8 s, with reaction times to the target being shorter on predictive-scene trials than on random-scene trials. Pigeons also responded more frequently during the delay on predictive-scene trials than on random-scene trials; indeed, during the delay on predictive-scene trials, pigeons predominately pecked toward the location of the upcoming target, suggesting that attentional guidance contributes to contextual cueing. In Experiment 3, involving left-right and top-bottom scene reversals, pigeons exhibited stronger control by global than by local scene cues. These results attest to the robustness and associative basis of contextual cueing in pigeons. PMID:25546098

Effects of scene content and layout on the perceived light direction in 3D spaces.

Science.gov (United States)

Xia, Ling; Pont, Sylvia C; Heynderickx, Ingrid

2016-08-01

The lighting and furnishing of an interior space (i.e., the reflectance of its materials, the geometries of the furnishings, and their arrangement) determine the appearance of this space. Conversely, human observers infer lighting properties from the space's appearance. We conducted two psychophysical experiments to investigate how the perception of the light direction is influenced by a scene's objects and their layout using real scenes. In the first experiment, we confirmed that the shape of the objects in the scene and the scene layout influence the perceived light direction. In the second experiment, we systematically investigated how specific shape properties influenced the estimation of the light direction. The results showed that increasing the number of visible faces of an object, ultimately using globally spherical shapes in the scene, supported the veridicality of the estimated light direction. Furthermore, symmetric arrangements in the scene improved the estimation of the tilt direction. Thus, human perception of light should integrally consider materials, scene content, and layout.

Organized crime-trafficking with human being

OpenAIRE

Jelenová, Jana

2011-01-01

Organized crime - Trafficking in human beings This thesis deals with the criminal offence of trafficking in human beings under Sec. 168 of the Czech Criminal Code. A trafficking in human being is not a frequent criminal offence but with its consequences belongs to the most dangerous crimes. After the Velvet revolution the relevance of this crime has raised subsequently and therefore the regulation of this crime requires particular attention. It is important to find new ways and improve curren...

Crime Scene Intelligence. An Experiment in Forensic Entomology

Science.gov (United States)

2006-11-01

Investigation (Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 1993), 72. 23 Smith, 86. 24 G. Bianchini, “La Biologia Del Cadaver, ” Archivic Antropologia...May R. Ninety-Nine More Maggots, Mites, and Munchers. Urbana and Chi- cago: University of Illinois Press, 1985. Bianchini, G. “La Biologia Del

Cortical Representations of Speech in a Multitalker Auditory Scene.

Science.gov (United States)

Puvvada, Krishna C; Simon, Jonathan Z

2017-09-20

The ability to parse a complex auditory scene into perceptual objects is facilitated by a hierarchical auditory system. Successive stages in the hierarchy transform an auditory scene of multiple overlapping sources, from peripheral tonotopically based representations in the auditory nerve, into perceptually distinct auditory-object-based representations in the auditory cortex. Here, using magnetoencephalography recordings from men and women, we investigate how a complex acoustic scene consisting of multiple speech sources is represented in distinct hierarchical stages of the auditory cortex. Using systems-theoretic methods of stimulus reconstruction, we show that the primary-like areas in the auditory cortex contain dominantly spectrotemporal-based representations of the entire auditory scene. Here, both attended and ignored speech streams are represented with almost equal fidelity, and a global representation of the full auditory scene with all its streams is a better candidate neural representation than that of individual streams being represented separately. We also show that higher-order auditory cortical areas, by contrast, represent the attended stream separately and with significantly higher fidelity than unattended streams. Furthermore, the unattended background streams are more faithfully represented as a single unsegregated background object rather than as separated objects. Together, these findings demonstrate the progression of the representations and processing of a complex acoustic scene up through the hierarchy of the human auditory cortex. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Using magnetoencephalography recordings from human listeners in a simulated cocktail party environment, we investigate how a complex acoustic scene consisting of multiple speech sources is represented in separate hierarchical stages of the auditory cortex. We show that the primary-like areas in the auditory cortex use a dominantly spectrotemporal-based representation of the entire auditory

The Dynamics of Crime and Punishment

Science.gov (United States)

Hausken, Kjell; Moxnes, John F.

This article analyzes crime development which is one of the largest threats in today's world, frequently referred to as the war on crime. The criminal commits crimes in his free time (when not in jail) according to a non-stationary Poisson process which accounts for fluctuations. Expected values and variances for crime development are determined. The deterrent effect of imprisonment follows from the amount of time in imprisonment. Each criminal maximizes expected utility defined as expected benefit (from crime) minus expected cost (imprisonment). A first-order differential equation of the criminal's utility-maximizing response to the given punishment policy is then developed. The analysis shows that if imprisonment is absent, criminal activity grows substantially. All else being equal, any equilibrium is unstable (labile), implying growth of criminal activity, unless imprisonment increases sufficiently as a function of criminal activity. This dynamic approach or perspective is quite interesting and has to our knowledge not been presented earlier. The empirical data material for crime intensity and imprisonment for Norway, England and Wales, and the US supports the model. Future crime development is shown to depend strongly on the societally chosen imprisonment policy. The model is intended as a valuable tool for policy makers who can envision arbitrarily sophisticated imprisonment functions and foresee the impact they have on crime development.

Adaptive attunement of selective covert attention to evolutionary-relevant emotional visual scenes

OpenAIRE

Fernández-Martín, Andrés (UNIR); Gutiérrez-García, Aida; Capafons, Juan; Calvo, Manuel G

2017-01-01

We investigated selective attention to emotional scenes in peripheral vision, as a function of adaptive relevance of scene affective content for male and female observers. Pairs of emotional neutral images appeared peripherally with perceptual stimulus differences controlled while viewers were fixating on a different stimulus in central vision. Early selective orienting was assessed by the probability of directing the first fixation towards either scene, and the time until first fixation. Emo...

A Crime Analysis Decision Support System for Crime Report Classification and Visualization

Science.gov (United States)

Ku, Chih-Hao

2012-01-01

Today's Internet-based crime reporting systems make timely and anonymous crime reporting possible. However, these reports also result in a rapidly growing set of unstructured text files. Complicating the problem is that the information has not been filtered or guided in a detective-led interview resulting in much irrelevant information. To…

The Effect of Police on Recorded Crime vs. The Effect of Police on Victimisation of Crime. Evidence for England and Wales

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vollaard, B.A.; Hamed, J.

2009-01-01

Using two sources of crime data, police statistics on recorded crime and victimization data from the British Crime Survey, we provide evidence that measurement error in recorded crime statistics results in underestimation of the effect of police on violent crime. We do not find a similar estimation

Schizophrenia, substance abuse, and violent crime.

Science.gov (United States)

Fazel, Seena; Långström, Niklas; Hjern, Anders; Grann, Martin; Lichtenstein, Paul

2009-05-20

Persons with schizophrenia are thought to be at increased risk of committing violent crime 4 to 6 times the level of general population individuals without this disorder. However, risk estimates vary substantially across studies, and considerable uncertainty exists as to what mediates this elevated risk. Despite this uncertainty, current guidelines recommend that violence risk assessment should be conducted for all patients with schizophrenia. To determine the risk of violent crime among patients diagnosed as having schizophrenia and the role of substance abuse in mediating this risk. Longitudinal designs were used to link data from nationwide Swedish registers of hospital admissions and criminal convictions in 1973-2006. Risk of violent crime in patients after diagnosis of schizophrenia (n = 8003) was compared with that among general population controls (n = 80 025). Potential confounders (age, sex, income, and marital and immigrant status) and mediators (substance abuse comorbidity) were measured at baseline. To study familial confounding, we also investigated risk of violence among unaffected siblings (n = 8123) of patients with schizophrenia. Information on treatment was not available. Violent crime (any criminal conviction for homicide, assault, robbery, arson, any sexual offense, illegal threats, or intimidation). In patients with schizophrenia, 1054 (13.2%) had at least 1 violent offense compared with 4276 (5.3%) of general population controls (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 2.0; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.8-2.2). The risk was mostly confined to patients with substance abuse comorbidity (of whom 27.6% committed an offense), yielding an increased risk of violent crime among such patients (adjusted OR, 4.4; 95% CI, 3.9-5.0), whereas the risk increase was small in schizophrenia patients without substance abuse comorbidity (8.5% of whom had at least 1 violent offense; adjusted OR, 1.2; 95% CI, 1.1-1.4; Pgenetic or early environmental) confounding of the

Schools, Neighborhood Risk Factors, and Crime

Science.gov (United States)

Willits, Dale; Broidy, Lisa; Denman, Kristine

2013-01-01

Prior research has identified a link between schools (particularly high schools) and neighborhood crime rates. However, it remains unclear whether the relationship between schools and crime is a reflection of other criminogenic dynamics at the neighborhood level or whether schools influence neighborhood crime patterns independently of other…

Fear of Crime in South Korea

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ben Brown

2016-12-01

Full Text Available This study provides analyses of data on crime-associated trepidation obtained from surveys administered to college students in South Korea. The survey contained questions about, and the analyses distinguished between, offense-specific fears (fear of burglary and fear of home invasion, perceived risk of victimization (day and night, and crime avoidance behaviors (avoidance of nocturnal activity and avoidance of particular areas. Regression analyses of the data show that victimization was not consistently associated with crime-associated trepidation, while gender significantly impacted all measures of concern about crime. Women were more likely than men to report being fearful, perceiving risk, and crime avoidance behaviors. Building upon prior scholarship (for example, Madriz 1997; Stanko 1989 and considering the social context in which the data were gathered, it is herein suggested that the gendered variation in crime-associated anxiety may reflect patriarchal power relations. The methodological and policy implications of the study are also discussed.

Analysis on the crime model using dynamical approach

Science.gov (United States)

Mohammad, Fazliza; Roslan, Ummu'Atiqah Mohd

2017-08-01

A research is carried out to analyze a dynamical model of the spread crime system. A Simplified 2-Dimensional Model is used in this research. The objectives of this research are to investigate the stability of the model of the spread crime, to summarize the stability by using a bifurcation analysis and to study the relationship of basic reproduction number, R0 with the parameter in the model. Our results for stability of equilibrium points shows that we have two types of stability, which are asymptotically stable and saddle node. While the result for bifurcation analysis shows that the number of criminally active and incarcerated increases as we increase the value of a parameter in the model. The result for the relationship of R0 with the parameter shows that as the parameter increases, R0 increase too, and the rate of crime increase too.

The impact of unilateral divorce on crime

OpenAIRE

Cáceres-Delpiano, Julio; Giolito, Eugenio P.

2008-01-01

In this paper, we evaluate the impact of unilateral divorce on crime. First, using crime rates from the FBI's Uniform Crime Report program for the period 1965-1998 and differences in the timing in the introduction of the reform, we find that unilateral divorce has a positive impact on violent crime rates, with an 8% to 12% average increase for the period under consideration. Second, arrest data not only confirms the findings of a positive impact on violent crime but also shows that this impac...

CyberCrime and Punishment.

Science.gov (United States)

Drucker, Susan J.; Gumpert, Gary

2000-01-01

Surveys ways in which criminal laws are finding their way into cyberspace, the implications of such actions for communicative rights and liabilities, and the media differentials of crime and punishment. Examines crime committed using email and the Internet; computer mediated felonies, misdemeanors, and violations committed in cyberspace; forgery;…

The Prevalence of Organized Retail Crime in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

OpenAIRE

Saleh Dabil

2014-01-01

This study investigates the level of existence of organized retail crime in supermarkets of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The store managers, security managers and general employees were asked about the types of retail crimes occur in the stores. Three independent variables were related to the report of organized retail theft. The independent variables are: 1) the supermarket profile (volume, location, standard and type of the store), 2) the social physical environment of the store (maintenance, clea...

Criminalistic characteristics and detection of crimes related to prostitution

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shuvalova D.N.

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Criminalistic characteristic of crimes related to prostitution is given (Articles 240, 241 of the RF Criminal Code. Sex industry is represented by three groups of subjects: organizers, perpetrators, services consumers. However, not all these individuals are criminally liable for their actions. Bringing a criminal case is preceded by detection of elements of crime, which is often carried out by a test purchase. Underworld evolution dictates the need for active use of other crime detection actions. The role of rapid and well-coordinated work of the inquiry body, its interaction with the preliminary investigation agency at the stage of detection of these crimes is emphasized. The attributes of these crimes are: advertisements on the recruitment of women to work in the service (leisure sector and personal vehicles drivers; advertisements on the services of an intimate nature; business cards and leaflets advertising the services of an intimate nature (directly or covertly; Internet advertisements offering the services of an intimate nature; groups of girls, constantly residing in baths and saunas, headed by young men or their presence at the same locations along the main streets or busy highways; information received on the law enforcement bodies hotlines; statements and complaints of the people against girls of easy virtue living in adjacent apartments. The issue of the moment of test purchase completion (transfer of money is considered. The problem of proving guilt in cases of reporting involvement in prostitution to the police is analyzed. Information verification is proposed to be implemented by experiment in crime detection.

Review of "Overcoming the insider: reducing employee computer crime through situational crime prevention, Willison R., Siponen M."

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hartel, Pieter H.

2009-01-01

Situational crime prevention (SCP) is a criminological theory, proposed by Ronald Clarke in the 1980s and developed over the last 30 years, that focuses on the crime event rather than the criminal. A number of highly effective crime prevention techniques in the physical world have been developed

A sensitive method to extract DNA from biological traces present on ammunition for the purpose of genetic profiling.

Science.gov (United States)

Dieltjes, Patrick; Mieremet, René; Zuniga, Sofia; Kraaijenbrink, Thirsa; Pijpe, Jeroen; de Knijff, Peter

2011-07-01

Exploring technological limits is a common practice in forensic DNA research. Reliable genetic profiling based on only a few cells isolated from trace material retrieved from a crime scene is nowadays more and more the rule rather than the exception. On many crime scenes, cartridges, bullets, and casings (jointly abbreviated as CBCs) are regularly found, and even after firing, these potentially carry trace amounts of biological material. Since 2003, the Forensic Laboratory for DNA Research is routinely involved in the forensic investigation of CBCs in the Netherlands. Reliable DNA profiles were frequently obtained from CBCs and used to match suspects, victims, or other crime scene-related DNA traces. In this paper, we describe the sensitive method developed by us to extract DNA from CBCs. Using PCR-based genotyping of autosomal short tandem repeats, we were able to obtain reliable and reproducible DNA profiles in 163 out of 616 criminal cases (26.5%) and in 283 out of 4,085 individual CBC items (6.9%) during the period January 2003-December 2009. We discuss practical aspects of the method and the sometimes unexpected effects of using cell lysis buffer on the subsequent investigation of striation patterns on CBCs.

THE INVESTIGATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FINGERPRINT PATTERNS AND CRIME TYPES

OpenAIRE

DELİCE, Murat; DUMAN, Ali; ÖZEL, Şaban Ali

2014-01-01

The exclusivity of prints at the tip of each individuals fingers is known for thousands of years and these prints are used for security purposes for a long time. Recent developments have pointed out that fingerprint patterns are related to gender, heredity, diseases, blood types and even character. However, the relationship between fingerprint patterns and crime types has not been explored. In order to meet this need, this research study examines the fingerprint patterns of suspects who are i...

We need more empirical investigations and model validation for a better understanding of crime. Comment on "Statistical physics of crime: A review" by M.R. D'Orsogna and M. Perc

Science.gov (United States)

Ribeiro, Haroldo V.

2015-03-01

Since the seminal works of Wilson and Kelling [1] in 1982, the "broken windows theory" seems to have been widely accepted among the criminologists and, in fact, empirical findings actually point out that criminals tend to return to previously visited locations. Crime has always been part of the urban society's agenda and has also attracted the attention of scholars from social sciences ever since. Furthermore, over the past six decades the world has experienced a quick and notorious urbanization process: by the eighties the urban population was about 40% of total population, and today more than half (54%) of the world population is urban [2]. The urbanization has brought us many benefits such as better working opportunities and health care, but has also created several problems such as pollution and a considerable rise in the criminal activities. In this context of urban problems, crime deserves a special attention because there is a huge necessity of empirical and mathematical (modeling) investigations which, apart from the natural academic interest, may find direct implications for the organization of our society by improving political decisions and resource allocation.

Temperature and Violent Crime in Dallas, Texas: Relationships and Implications of Climate Change

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Janet L. Gamble

2012-08-01

Full Text Available Introduction: To investigate relationships between ambient temperatures and violent crimes to determine whether those relationships are consistent across different crime categories and whether they are best described as increasing linear functions, or as curvilinear functions that decrease beyond some temperature threshold. A secondary objective was to consider the implications of the observed relationships for injuries and deaths from violent crimes in the context of a warming climate. To address these questions, we examined the relationship between daily ambient temperatures and daily incidents of violent crime in Dallas, Texas from 1993–1999.Methods: We analyzed the relationships between daily fluctuations in ambient temperature, other meteorological and temporal variables, and rates of daily violent crime using time series piece-wise regression and plots of daily data. Violent crimes, including aggravated assault, homicide, and sexualassault, were analyzed.Results: We found that daily mean ambient temperature is related in a curvilinear fashion to daily rates of violent crime with a positive and increasing relationship between temperature and aggravated crime that moderates beyond temperatures of 80 F and then turns negative beyond 90 F.Conclusion: While some have characterized the relationship between temperature and violent crime as a continually increasing linear function, leaving open the possibility that aggravated crime will increase in a warmer climate, we conclude that the relationship in Dallas is not linear, but moderatesand turns negative at high ambient temperatures. We posit that higher temperatures may encourage people to seek shelter in cooler indoor spaces, and that street crime and other crimes of opportunity are subsequently decreased. This finding suggests that the higher ambient temperatures expected with climate change may result in marginal shifts in violent crime in the short term, but are not likely to be

Distribution and Correlates of Self-Reported Crimes of Trust

Science.gov (United States)

Menard, Scott; Morris, Robert G.; Gerber, Jurg; Covey, Herbert C.

2012-01-01

This study examines the distribution and correlates of a special class of property crimes, crimes of trust, using longitudinal and cross sectional self-report data from a national sample. We begin by defining crimes of trust and consider their conceptual relationship to “conventional” property crimes, which we here characterize as crimes of stealth, and to white collar crimes, which are defined in terms of the social status of the perpetrators. Crimes of trust are here defined as property crimes that typically involve deliberate contact with the victim or, where there is more than one victim, with at least one or more victims, in which there is typically more of a focus on concealing the fact that a crime has been committed than on concealing the identity of the perpetrator (as is the case in crimes of stealth), without regard to the socioeconomic status of the perpetrator (thus including but not limited to white collar crimes). The focus here is on crimes of trust committed by individuals (as opposed to corporate crime). We first examine their distribution by sociodemographic characteristics, then examine the correlation of crimes of trust with other types of illegal behavior, using data from the National Youth Survey Family Study, including (1) longitudinal self-report data from a nationally representative panel of individuals who were 11–18 years old in 1976–77 and who were followed through early middle age (ages 36–44) in 2002–2003, plus (2) cross-sectional data on these individuals plus their parents, spouses, and children age 11 and older in 2002–2003 (total age range 11–88). The results suggest that crimes of trust have a different age-crime curve from conventional crimes, and that they are not as strongly correlated with problem substance use, gender, and other socioeconomic indicators as conventional crimes. PMID:22347761

The Symbiosis of War Crime and Organized Crime in the Former Yugoslavia

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Christian Axboe

The growth of organized crime and its interconnection with European organized crime both presaged and informed the collapse of the Yugoslav state in the early 1990s.  A tight nexus emerged between state security services and militaries and organized criminal gangs who converged to enjoy parasitic...... significant challenges that these societies still confront on their road to European Union membership....

Computer-aided fiber analysis for crime scene forensics

Science.gov (United States)

Hildebrandt, Mario; Arndt, Christian; Makrushin, Andrey; Dittmann, Jana

2012-03-01

The forensic analysis of fibers is currently completely manual and therefore time consuming. The automation of analysis steps can significantly support forensic experts and reduce the time, required for the investigation. Moreover, a subjective expert belief is extended by objective machine estimation. This work proposes the pattern recognition pipeline containing the digital acquisition of a fiber media, the pre-processing for fiber segmentation, and the extraction of the distinctive characteristics of fibers. Currently, basic geometrical features like width, height, area of optically dominant fibers are investigated. In order to support the automatic classification of fibers, supervised machine learning algorithms are evaluated. The experimental setup includes a car seat and two pieces clothing of a different fabric. As preliminary work, acrylic as synthetic and sheep wool as natural fiber are chosen to be classified. While sitting on the seat, a test person leaves textile fibers. The test aims at automatic distinguishing of clothes through the fiber traces gained from the seat with the help of adhesive tape. The digitalization of fiber samples is provided by a contactless chromatic white light sensor. First test results showed, that two optically very different fibers can be properly assigned to their corresponding fiber type. The best classifier achieves an accuracy of 75 percent correctly classified samples for our suggested features.

The logic of crime fiction genre in modern person’s consciousness

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G. O. Krapivnyk

2014-08-01

Full Text Available The author provides philosophical anthropological analysis of the logic of the crime fiction genre in the modern person’s consciousness. It was shown that detective texts convey hyper-orderliness, which compensates for the lack of systematization in real life, directly influences the recipient, setting the limits of personal freedom, and indirectly structures social order. The research assumes that classical crime fiction is related to the positivist philosophy, rationalism and scientific thinking, whereas the formula of the late Modern crime fiction stories is gradually getting more sophisticated, which reflects the evolution of the philosophical thinking on the whole. The special feature of the crime fiction genre logic is in the fact that available in crime fiction texts typical formal logical elements of a hypothesis, versions, evidence and contradiction are combined by the addressers with creative inspiration, intuition, true life, which are not the characteristics of pure science. The logic in the texts of the crime fiction genre helps a modern person to virtually build a system of universal philosophical and cultural values, applied by the society as its basis for social norms, rules and laws of any modern state. In addition, the specific logic of investigation encourages person’s everyday activities, since cultural reading enables a person not only to perceive but also to transfer and use the laws of logic, inherent in the crime fiction genre, in their professional activities, including research work.

The cost of crime to society: new crime-specific estimates for policy and program evaluation.

Science.gov (United States)

McCollister, Kathryn E; French, Michael T; Fang, Hai

2010-04-01

Estimating the cost to society of individual crimes is essential to the economic evaluation of many social programs, such as substance abuse treatment and community policing. A review of the crime-costing literature reveals multiple sources, including published articles and government reports, which collectively represent the alternative approaches for estimating the economic losses associated with criminal activity. Many of these sources are based upon data that are more than 10 years old, indicating a need for updated figures. This study presents a comprehensive methodology for calculating the cost to society of various criminal acts. Tangible and intangible losses are estimated using the most current data available. The selected approach, which incorporates both the cost-of-illness and the jury compensation methods, yields cost estimates for more than a dozen major crime categories, including several categories not found in previous studies. Updated crime cost estimates can help government agencies and other organizations execute more prudent policy evaluations, particularly benefit-cost analyses of substance abuse treatment or other interventions that reduce crime. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

URBAN REVITALIZATION AND SEATTLE CRIME, 1982–2000

Science.gov (United States)

Kreager, Derek A.; Lyons, Christopher J.; Hays, Zachary R.

2014-01-01

This study examines the relationship between crime and processes of urban revitalization, or gentrification. Drawing on recent urban demography research, we hypothesize that gentrification progressed rapidly in many American cities over the last decade of the 20th century, and that these changes had implications for area crime rates. Criminological theories hold competing hypotheses for the connections between gentrification and crime, and quantitative studies of this link remain infrequent and limited. Using two measures of gentrification and longitudinal tract-level demographic and crime data for the city of Seattle, we find that many of Seattle’s downtown tracts underwent rapid revitalization during the 1990’s, and that these areas 1) saw reductions in crime relative to similar tracts that did not gentrify, and 2) were areas with higher-than-average crime at the beginning of the decade. Moreover, using a within-tract longitudinal design, we find that yearly housing investments in the 1980’s showed a modest positive association with crime change, while yearly investments in the 1990’s showed the opposite pattern. Our findings suggest a curvilinear gentrification-crime relationship, whereby gentrification in its earlier stages is associated with small increases in crime, but gentrification in its more consolidated form is associated with modest crime declines. Implications of these results for criminological theory, urban development, and broader crime patterns are discussed. PMID:25505350

Crime and memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Herman, J L

1995-01-01

The conflict between knowing and not knowing, speech and silence, remembering and forgetting, is the central dialectic of psychological trauma. This conflict is manifest in the individual disturbances of memory, the amnesias and hypermnesias, of traumatized people. It is manifest also on a social level, in persisting debates over the historical reality of atrocities that have been documented beyond any reasonable doubt. Social controversy becomes particularly acute at moments in history when perpetrators face the prospect of being publicly exposed or held legally accountable for crimes long hidden or condoned. This situation obtains in many countries emerging from dictatorship, with respect to political crimes such as murder and torture. It obtains in this country with regard to the private crimes of sexual and domestic violence. This article examines a current public controversy, regarding the credibility of adult recall of childhood abuse, as a classic example of the dialectic of trauma.

The popular crime: literature’s publicity and regeneration culture in Brazil's First Republic

OpenAIRE

Lucas Trazzi de Arruda Mendes

2013-01-01

This article is based in partial conclusions of our research about crime and delinquency in the nineteenth century Brazil. Making use of crime literature from the period as historical reference in our investigation, more specifically João do Rio’s work of fiction Memórias de um rato de hotel, this present article has the intention to comment the literature field in which this novel was published, admiring the popularity of crime as source of sensational novel and news report content. Simultan...

Factors influencing crime rates: an econometric analysis approach

Science.gov (United States)

Bothos, John M. A.; Thomopoulos, Stelios C. A.

2016-05-01

The scope of the present study is to research the dynamics that determine the commission of crimes in the US society. Our study is part of a model we are developing to understand urban crime dynamics and to enhance citizens' "perception of security" in large urban environments. The main targets of our research are to highlight dependence of crime rates on certain social and economic factors and basic elements of state anticrime policies. In conducting our research, we use as guides previous relevant studies on crime dependence, that have been performed with similar quantitative analyses in mind, regarding the dependence of crime on certain social and economic factors using statistics and econometric modelling. Our first approach consists of conceptual state space dynamic cross-sectional econometric models that incorporate a feedback loop that describes crime as a feedback process. In order to define dynamically the model variables, we use statistical analysis on crime records and on records about social and economic conditions and policing characteristics (like police force and policing results - crime arrests), to determine their influence as independent variables on crime, as the dependent variable of our model. The econometric models we apply in this first approach are an exponential log linear model and a logit model. In a second approach, we try to study the evolvement of violent crime through time in the US, independently as an autonomous social phenomenon, using autoregressive and moving average time-series econometric models. Our findings show that there are certain social and economic characteristics that affect the formation of crime rates in the US, either positively or negatively. Furthermore, the results of our time-series econometric modelling show that violent crime, viewed solely and independently as a social phenomenon, correlates with previous years crime rates and depends on the social and economic environment's conditions during previous years.

Equilibrium: An Investigative Game Based On Biomedical Evidences Of Crimes

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W. L. Santos

2009-05-01

Full Text Available Investigation and laboratory analyses are the major working areas of graduates from Biomedicine. Studying and recognizing medical symptoms, developing and interpreti ng clinical exams are some of the desired routines of these young students to their future professional lives. Recent TV series about hospitals daily work and challenges, criminal investigations and modern techniques of scientists from intelligence agencies bring out fantasies of job (impossibilities. But also, it creates a desire for more study so as to reach the characters brilliance. Based on these interests, we prepared a game based on the classic Scotland Yard®game, which is developed over the resolv ing of crimes. In our version of the game, which was called Equilibrium, the clues hidden on specific sites of the game board are not the common ones, but clinical results or objects that can be related to the medical cause of the death. One can also reach the laboratory on the board and get specific exams to help solving the mystery. The game was developed after a whole semester of Basic Biochemistry classes and was used by the professor as a method of testing students learnings.Developing this showed ho w much the ludic activities can enhance students’ experience with biochemistry and its relation to physiology, pathology and other areas. This game was presented to a Biomedicine class and a board ofbiochemistry teachers of our college. All the spectatorsacknowledged the usefulness of this tool to the teaching -learning process in medical biochemistry.

Evolution and the Prevention of Violent Crime

OpenAIRE

Roach, Jason; Pease, Ken

2011-01-01

This paper suggests how violence prevention can be better informed by embracing an evolutionary approach to understanding and preventing violent crime. Here, ethical crime control through an evolutionary lens is consid-ered and speculation is offered as to what an evolution-evidenced crime reduction programme might look like. The paper begins with an outline of the current landscape of crime prevention scholarship within criminology and presents some possible points of contact with actual or ...

Challenges of organized environmental crime

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bugarski Tatjana D.

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Environment as the totality of natural and man-made values and their relationships, is a complex problem that is not just a challenge for the law in the sense that it is protected from intrusion, but also for the negative social phenomena such as crime. Dynamic negative social phenomenon, immanent to every society, crime is constantly in the process of 'adaptation' in terms of modification of existing and creation of new forms. One of the contemporary forms of crime is an environmental crime which multiplies its concrete forms of manifestation, which is due to the extraordinary diversity of the environment in which offenders constantly find new enforcement cases. Especially significant issues regarding the environment is waste whose collection, transport, treatment and disposal is one of the priority importance for humanity. However, insufficient awareness of the significance and importance of this issue, as well as the harmful consequences of failure in connection with the waste in an appropriate manner, together with the motive of greed is enough for offenders to deal with illegal activity and exercise in relation to different types of waste. In this type of criminal activity usually occur organized criminal group that this type of criminal activity makes it even more difficult. These problems are extremely important and complex, in this paper, attention is given to the organized environmental crime in connection with smuggling of hazardous waste, as one of the forms of organized environmental crime.

Entrepreneurs' Responses to Organized Crime and Violence

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ramirez, Jacobo; Gómez, Sergio Manuel Madero; Muñiz, Carlos

This research aims to investigate the various direct and indirect impacts of organized violence and crime on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as well as entrepreneurs’ responses to violent acts. A mixed-method design based on a quantitative content analysis of 204 news stories found in ...

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jasmine Kaur Dhall

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Fingerprints are the most affirmative source of personnel identification and are also one of the most ubiquitous evidences found at the crime scenes. However, successful latent print recovery is not always possible from the crime scenes especially when the prints have been exposed to destructive conditions. Crime scenes are often despoiled due to destructive conditions such as arson, explosion, exposure to drainage water and soil or snow burial. Moreover, the offender often intends to destroy the fingerprint bearing crucial evidence, using these destructive forces. Furthermore, the fingerprints exposed to despoiled crime scenes are generally neglected due to the misconception of impossible recovery. In the present study, zinc carbonate, zinc oxide and titanium dioxide based fluorescent small particle reagents were formulated, compared and evaluated for the development of latent prints exposed to destructive conditions. Fresh latent prints and prints exposed to natural or simulated destructive crime scene conditions, namely, arson, explosion, burial in soil, immersion in drainage water and burial in snow were developed using the three compositions. Latent prints were successfully recovered even from the destructive crime scene simulations. Better quality prints were obtained from fresh prints, arson, soil burial and drainage water. Relatively poor results were obtained from explosion and snow burial conditions. Wet powder based suspensions were found suitable for development of fingerprints exposed to destructive conditions and the efficiency of the reagents was found in the order: TiO2 > ZnCO3 > ZnO.

Bilimsel Toplantı Duyuruları

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Adli Tıp Uzmanları Derneği ATUD

2000-08-01

Full Text Available 1\t9 Joint Meeting with the Forensic Science Service: - Crimes of the Millennium. 2-\t5 November 2000. Stakis Hotel, Bromsgrove, Birmingham. Convener; Mike Loveland. Details from Forensic Science Society Office. Tel: 01423 506068 2\tCrime Scene Technology Workshop 2 A Crime Scene Practicum November 6-10, 2000 Evanston, IL Contact: Registrar Northwestern University, Traffic Institute 405 Church St. Evanston, IL 60201 (800 323-4011 3\tAPIS Curriculum November 13-15, 2000 Youngsville, NC Instructors: Marty Ludas, Johnny Leonard Contact: Clara Carroll Sirchie Fingerprint Labs, Inc. 100 Hunter Place Youngsville, NC 27596 (800 356-7311 4\tCrime Scene Technology Workshop 3 Advanced Techniques November 13-17, 2000 Evanston, IL Contact: Registrar Northwestern University, Traffic Institute 405 Church St. Evanston, IL 60201 (800 323-4011 5\tInvestigative Photography Workshop I Comprehensive Photographic Techniques December 4-8, 2000 Evanston, IL Contact: Registrar Northwestern University, Traffic Institute 405 Church St. Evanston, IL 60201 (800 323-4011 6\tInvestigative Photography Workshop 2 Advanced Techniques December 11-15, 2000 Evanston, IL Contact: Registrar Northwestern University, Traffic Institute 405 Church St. Evanston, IL 60201 (800 323-4011 7\tBloodstain Evidence Workshop I The Significance of Bloodstain Evidence in Death Scene Investigations December 11-15, 2000 Evanston, IL Contact: Registrar Northwestern University, Traffic Institute 405 Church St. Evanston, IL 60201 (800 323-4011 8\tOne Hundred Years of Fingerprint Detection and Identification June 16-30, 2001 London, Great Britain Contact: Maurice Garvie or David Smith New Scotland Yard The Broadway London, SW1H0BG Great Britain 9\tInternational Assoc, for Identification Annual Conference July 22-28, 2001 Dorai Resort, Miami, FL Contact: Candy Murray 20601 Netherland St. Orlando, FL 32833 (407 568-7436 conference@theiai.org

Crime, Teenage Abortion, and Unwantedness

Science.gov (United States)

Shoesmith, Gary L.

2015-01-01

This article disaggregates Donohue and Levitt’s (DL’s) national panel-data models to the state level and shows that high concentrations of teenage abortions in a handful of states drive all of DL’s results in their 2001, 2004, and 2008 articles on crime and abortion. These findings agree with previous research showing teenage motherhood is a major maternal crime factor, whereas unwanted pregnancy is an insignificant factor. Teenage abortions accounted for more than 30% of U.S. abortions in the 1970s, but only 16% to 18% since 2001, which suggests DL’s panel-data models of crime/arrests and abortion were outdated when published. The results point to a broad range of future research involving teenage behavior. A specific means is proposed to reconcile DL with previous articles finding no relationship between crime and abortion. PMID:28943645

Does the Magnitude of the Link between Unemployment and Crime Depend on the Crime Level? A Quantile Regression Approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Horst Entorf

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Two alternative hypotheses – referred to as opportunity- and stigma-based behavior – suggest that the magnitude of the link between unemployment and crime also depends on preexisting local crime levels. In order to analyze conjectured nonlinearities between both variables, we use quantile regressions applied to German district panel data. While both conventional OLS and quantile regressions confirm the positive link between unemployment and crime for property crimes, results for assault differ with respect to the method of estimation. Whereas conventional mean regressions do not show any significant effect (which would confirm the usual result found for violent crimes in the literature, quantile regression reveals that size and importance of the relationship are conditional on the crime rate. The partial effect is significantly positive for moderately low and median quantiles of local assault rates.

Criminal Narrative Experience: Relating Emotions to Offence Narrative Roles During Crime Commission.

Science.gov (United States)

Ioannou, Maria; Canter, David; Youngs, Donna

2017-10-01

A neglected area of research within criminality has been that of the experience of the offence for the offender. The present study investigates the emotions and narrative roles that are experienced by an offender while committing a broad range of crimes and proposes a model of criminal narrative experience (CNE). Hypotheses were derived from the circumplex of emotions, Frye, narrative theory, and its link with investigative psychology. The analysis was based on 120 cases. Convicted for a variety of crimes, incarcerated criminals were interviewed and the data were subjected to smallest space analysis (SSA). Four themes of CNE were identified: Elated Hero, Calm Professional, Distressed Revenger, and Depressed Victim in line with the recent theoretical framework posited for narrative offence roles. The theoretical implications for understanding crime on the basis of the CNE as well as practical implications are discussed.

The popular crime: literature’s publicity and regeneration culture in Brazil's First Republic

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lucas Trazzi de Arruda Mendes

2013-12-01

Full Text Available This article is based in partial conclusions of our research about crime and delinquency in the nineteenth century Brazil. Making use of crime literature from the period as historical reference in our investigation, more specifically João do Rio’s work of fiction Memórias de um rato de hotel, this present article has the intention to comment the literature field in which this novel was published, admiring the popularity of crime as source of sensational novel and news report content. Simultaneously, we intend to notice some comments of the intellectual people, which influenced the republican regeneration project, about this literature and newspaper publishing logic, observing an “illness” condition that appears to be attached to this crime theme literary-newspaper works.

Associative Processing Is Inherent in Scene Perception

Science.gov (United States)

Aminoff, Elissa M.; Tarr, Michael J.

2015-01-01

How are complex visual entities such as scenes represented in the human brain? More concretely, along what visual and semantic dimensions are scenes encoded in memory? One hypothesis is that global spatial properties provide a basis for categorizing the neural response patterns arising from scenes. In contrast, non-spatial properties, such as single objects, also account for variance in neural responses. The list of critical scene dimensions has continued to grow—sometimes in a contradictory manner—coming to encompass properties such as geometric layout, big/small, crowded/sparse, and three-dimensionality. We demonstrate that these dimensions may be better understood within the more general framework of associative properties. That is, across both the perceptual and semantic domains, features of scene representations are related to one another through learned associations. Critically, the components of such associations are consistent with the dimensions that are typically invoked to account for scene understanding and its neural bases. Using fMRI, we show that non-scene stimuli displaying novel associations across identities or locations recruit putatively scene-selective regions of the human brain (the parahippocampal/lingual region, the retrosplenial complex, and the transverse occipital sulcus/occipital place area). Moreover, we find that the voxel-wise neural patterns arising from these associations are significantly correlated with the neural patterns arising from everyday scenes providing critical evidence whether the same encoding principals underlie both types of processing. These neuroimaging results provide evidence for the hypothesis that the neural representation of scenes is better understood within the broader theoretical framework of associative processing. In addition, the results demonstrate a division of labor that arises across scene-selective regions when processing associations and scenes providing better understanding of the functional

Beyond scene gist: Objects guide search more than scene background.

Science.gov (United States)

Koehler, Kathryn; Eckstein, Miguel P

2017-06-01

Although the facilitation of visual search by contextual information is well established, there is little understanding of the independent contributions of different types of contextual cues in scenes. Here we manipulated 3 types of contextual information: object co-occurrence, multiple object configurations, and background category. We isolated the benefits of each contextual cue to target detectability, its impact on decision bias, confidence, and the guidance of eye movements. We find that object-based information guides eye movements and facilitates perceptual judgments more than scene background. The degree of guidance and facilitation of each contextual cue can be related to its inherent informativeness about the target spatial location as measured by human explicit judgments about likely target locations. Our results improve the understanding of the contributions of distinct contextual scene components to search and suggest that the brain's utilization of cues to guide eye movements is linked to the cue's informativeness about the target's location. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Designing cities to minimise crime

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Saville, G

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Crime is, to a large degree, absent from the contemporary debate on sustainability. Yet it is difficult to think of sustainable cities without considering crime and safety in the design, planning and development process. Some argue that ecological...

Eye movements and attention in reading, scene perception, and visual search.

Science.gov (United States)

Rayner, Keith

2009-08-01

Eye movements are now widely used to investigate cognitive processes during reading, scene perception, and visual search. In this article, research on the following topics is reviewed with respect to reading: (a) the perceptual span (or span of effective vision), (b) preview benefit, (c) eye movement control, and (d) models of eye movements. Related issues with respect to eye movements during scene perception and visual search are also reviewed. It is argued that research on eye movements during reading has been somewhat advanced over research on eye movements in scene perception and visual search and that some of the paradigms developed to study reading should be more widely adopted in the study of scene perception and visual search. Research dealing with "real-world" tasks and research utilizing the visual-world paradigm are also briefly discussed.

Cybersickness in the presence of scene rotational movements along different axes.

Science.gov (United States)

Lo, W T; So, R H

2001-02-01

Compelling scene movements in a virtual reality (VR) system can cause symptoms of motion sickness (i.e., cybersickness). A within-subject experiment has been conducted to investigate the effects of scene oscillations along different axes on the level of cybersickness. Sixteen male participants were exposed to four 20-min VR simulation sessions. The four sessions used the same virtual environment but with scene oscillations along different axes, i.e., pitch, yaw, roll, or no oscillation (speed: 30 degrees/s, range: +/- 60 degrees). Verbal ratings of the level of nausea were taken at 5-min intervals during the sessions and sickness symptoms were also measured before and after the sessions using the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ). In the presence of scene oscillation, both nausea ratings and SSQ scores increased at significantly higher rates than with no oscillation. While individual participants exhibited different susceptibilities to nausea associated with VR simulation containing scene oscillations along different rotational axes, the overall effects of axis among our group of 16 randomly selected participants were not significant. The main effects of, and interactions among, scene oscillation, duration, and participants are discussed in the paper.

"Safe Going": the influence of crime rates and perceived crime and safety on walking in deprived neighbourhoods.

Science.gov (United States)

Mason, Phil; Kearns, Ade; Livingston, Mark

2013-08-01

Few studies have simultaneously examined the relationship of levels of recorded crime, perceptions of crime and disorder, and safety from crime with rates of physical activity. We developed a series of multilevel ordinal regression models to examine these aspects in relation to self-reported neighbourhood walking frequency in a cross-sectional sample of 3824 British adults from 29 deprived neighbourhoods in Glasgow, UK. Perceptions of several serious local antisocial behaviours (drunkenness and burglary) and feelings of personal safety (feeling safe in the home and if walking alone in the local area at night) were consistently associated, respectively, with less and more frequent walking. Conversely, perceiving drug dealing or drug use as a serious problem was associated with walking more frequently. There was a small but significant association between walking frequency in neighbourhoods with higher recorded person crime (but not property crime) rates when considered in conjunction with other aspects of disorder and crime safety, although not when additionally controlling for sociodemographic, neighbourhood and community aspects. The magnitude of these objective and perceived crime-related effects is modest and features of the psychosocial environment and social cohesion (having a sense of progress from living in the neighbourhood, group participation and positively rating social venues), as well as health and personal income deprivation, may more strongly determine levels of neighbourhood walking. Nevertheless, physical activity benefits may accrue at the population level through provision of environments that are safer from crime. Our study also shows the importance to local walking of neighbourhood management, which reduces problems of disorder, and of social regeneration, which helps strengthen sense of community. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Dynamics of scene representations in the human brain revealed by magnetoencephalography and deep neural networks

Science.gov (United States)

Cichy, Radoslaw Martin; Khosla, Aditya; Pantazis, Dimitrios; Oliva, Aude

2017-01-01

Human scene recognition is a rapid multistep process evolving over time from single scene image to spatial layout processing. We used multivariate pattern analyses on magnetoencephalography (MEG) data to unravel the time course of this cortical process. Following an early signal for lower-level visual analysis of single scenes at ~100 ms, we found a marker of real-world scene size, i.e. spatial layout processing, at ~250 ms indexing neural representations robust to changes in unrelated scene properties and viewing conditions. For a quantitative model of how scene size representations may arise in the brain, we compared MEG data to a deep neural network model trained on scene classification. Representations of scene size emerged intrinsically in the model, and resolved emerging neural scene size representation. Together our data provide a first description of an electrophysiological signal for layout processing in humans, and suggest that deep neural networks are a promising framework to investigate how spatial layout representations emerge in the human brain. PMID:27039703

Neural Correlates of Divided Attention in Natural Scenes.

Science.gov (United States)

Fagioli, Sabrina; Macaluso, Emiliano

2016-09-01

Individuals are able to split attention between separate locations, but divided spatial attention incurs the additional requirement of monitoring multiple streams of information. Here, we investigated divided attention using photos of natural scenes, where the rapid categorization of familiar objects and prior knowledge about the likely positions of objects in the real world might affect the interplay between these spatial and nonspatial factors. Sixteen participants underwent fMRI during an object detection task. They were presented with scenes containing either a person or a car, located on the left or right side of the photo. Participants monitored either one or both object categories, in one or both visual hemifields. First, we investigated the interplay between spatial and nonspatial attention by comparing conditions of divided attention between categories and/or locations. We then assessed the contribution of top-down processes versus stimulus-driven signals by separately testing the effects of divided attention in target and nontarget trials. The results revealed activation of a bilateral frontoparietal network when dividing attention between the two object categories versus attending to a single category but no main effect of dividing attention between spatial locations. Within this network, the left dorsal premotor cortex and the left intraparietal sulcus were found to combine task- and stimulus-related signals. These regions showed maximal activation when participants monitored two categories at spatially separate locations and the scene included a nontarget object. We conclude that the dorsal frontoparietal cortex integrates top-down and bottom-up signals in the presence of distractors during divided attention in real-world scenes.

Stages As Models of Scene Geometry

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nedović, V.; Smeulders, A.W.M.; Redert, A.; Geusebroek, J.M.

2010-01-01

Reconstruction of 3D scene geometry is an important element for scene understanding, autonomous vehicle and robot navigation, image retrieval, and 3D television. We propose accounting for the inherent structure of the visual world when trying to solve the scene reconstruction problem. Consequently,

When Does Repeated Search in Scenes Involve Memory? Looking at versus Looking for Objects in Scenes

Science.gov (United States)

Vo, Melissa L. -H.; Wolfe, Jeremy M.

2012-01-01

One might assume that familiarity with a scene or previous encounters with objects embedded in a scene would benefit subsequent search for those items. However, in a series of experiments we show that this is not the case: When participants were asked to subsequently search for multiple objects in the same scene, search performance remained…

Uncovering a Cover: Marketing Swedish Crime Fiction in a Transnational Context

OpenAIRE

Nilsson, Louise

2016-01-01

During the twenty-first century, Swedish crime fiction became an international phenomenon and turned into a million-dollar industry. Besides being translated all over the world, the crime novels are converted into movies and TV series in Sweden, while remakes of these films are produced abroad. This success story is closely interwoven with the international book market and publishing houses’ marketing strategies. This article investigates how domestic literature is marketed in a globalized bo...

Safe RESIDential Environments? A longitudinal analysis of the influence of crime-related safety on walking

OpenAIRE

Foster, Sarah; Hooper, Paula; Knuiman, Matthew; Christian, Hayley; Bull, Fiona; Giles-Corti, Billie

2016-01-01

Background Numerous cross-sectional studies have investigated the premise that the perception of crime will cause residents to constrain their walking; however the findings to date are inconclusive. In contrast, few longitudinal or prospective studies have examined the impact of crime-related safety on residents walking behaviours. This study used longitudinal data to test whether there is a causal relationship between crime-related safety and walking in the local neighbourhood. Methods Parti...

Identifying the structure of a narrative via an agent-based logic of preferences and beliefs: Formalizations of episodes from CSI: Crime Scene Investigation™

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Löwe, B.; Pacuit, E.; Saraf, S.

2009-01-01

Finding out what makes two stories equivalent is a daunting task for a formalization of narratives. Using a high-level language of beliefs and preferences for describing stories and a simple algorithm for analyzing them, we determine the doxastic game fragment of actual narratives from the TV crime

Age differences and schema effects in memory for crime information.

Science.gov (United States)

Overman, Amy A; Wiseman, Kimberly D; Allison, Meredith; Stephens, Joseph D W

2013-01-01

BACKGROUND/STUDY CONTEXT: This study investigated age-related differences in memory for crime information. Older adults have been found to rely more than young adults on schema- and stereotype-based processing in memory, and such age differences may have implications in the criminal justice system. Some prior research has examined schema-based processing among older adults in legal settings, but no studies have tested for schema effects on older adults' memory for specific details of a crime. Older adults (N = 56, ages 65-93) and young adults (N = 52, ages 18-22) read a passage about a criminal suspect's "bad" or "good" childhood, and then read a crime report containing incriminating, exonerating, and neutral details with regard to the suspect. Participants were subsequently tested on recognition of accurate versus altered details from the crime report. Participants also rated the suspect"s guilt, and completed a battery of neuropsychological tests. Correct and false recognition rates were analyzed with ANOVA to compare means across age group, evidence type, and background type, and guilt ratings were analyzed with linear regression using neuropsychological scores as predictors. Among older adults, an interaction was found between evidence type (incriminating/exonerating) and suspect's background (good/bad childhood) in false recognition of altered details from the crime report, supporting the hypothesis that schema-based processing influenced older adult memory from crime information. Additionally, although guilt ratings were not related to the suspect's background for either age group, they were predicted by older adults' short-delay recall (β = -.37), suggesting that cognitive decline may play a role in older adults' interpretations of evidence. The findings suggest reduced cognitive capacity in older adults increases schema-based processing in memory for crime information, and are consistent with research in other domains that has demonstrated greater schema

Problematising internal security: Crime, community and social exclusion

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kari Bruun

2016-12-01

Full Text Available This article examines the problematisation of crime, crime prevention and security in contemporary security policy programmes using three Finnish internal security programmes and theory-based content analysis. The study is based on the theory (the perspective of an analytics of government. The findings highlight the central meaning of social exclusion and community as security practices wherein social exclusion is seen as a threat to security and a risk for crime. Indeed, community-based crime prevention plays a central role in the programmes along with the worry about serious crimes and the high level of homicides. A fluid governing policy without crime and accidents is the implicit goal of these programmes.

Lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility: Consequences for juvenile crime and education

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Damm, Anna Piil; Larsen, Britt Østergaard; Nielsen, Helena Skyt

This paper exploits a Danish policy reform combined with population-wide administrative registers to investigate whether being above the minimum age of criminal responsibility deters juveniles from crime. We study young individuals’ tendency to commit crime as well as their likelihood of recidivi....... The latter results are consistent with labeling effects of processing in the criminal justice system....

Theory of digital crime

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ibraeva B. M.

2016-11-01

Full Text Available hackers seem to be the most mysterious people in the contemporary world. Where legal actions are helpless, hackers can intervene. However, not only hackers but state employees commit cyber crimes once they get power. Is it just a coincidence or authorities and hackers have lots of things in common? This article is trying to cast light on the reasons why digital crimes are committed.

Comment: Theorising Nigerian Crime Problems | Aigbovo | Mizan ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This comment presents an overview of criminological theories of crime and examines some contemporary crime problems in Nigeria against the backdrop of relevant theories. It also analyses society's response to each crime problem in the form of government policies and legislation. The paper argues that an appreciable ...

Europol’s Cybercrime Centre (EC3), its Agreements with Third Parties and the Growing Role of Law Enforcement on the European Security Scene

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vendius, Trine Thygesen

2015-01-01

The European Cyber Crime Centre, EC3, established under the umbrella of Europol, started operations on January 1 2013. It is to act as the focal point in the fight against cybercrime in the European Union. Using a “shared, cross-community approach” the EC3 is concluding partnerships with member...... states, European agencies, international partners and the private sector. This article describes the coming about of EC3 and its efforts to address cybercrime. Furthermore, the article is an attempt to assess the growing role of the European law enforcement community on the European security scene...

The relationship between mental disorders and types of crime in inmates in a Brazilian prison.

Science.gov (United States)

Pondé, Milena P; Caron, Jean; Mendonça, Milena S S; Freire, Antônio C C; Moreau, Nicolas

2014-09-01

This cross-sectional study conducted in prisons in the city of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, investigated the association between the presence of psychiatric disorders in 462 prisoners and the types of crimes committed by them. Psychiatric diagnosis was obtained by means of the Brazilian Portuguese version of the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview. A statistically significant association was found between some psychiatric disorders and specific groups of crime: lifelong substance addiction with sex crimes and homicide; antisocial personality disorder with robbery and with kidnapping and extortion; borderline personality disorder with sex crimes; and lifelong alcohol addiction with fraud and conspiracy and with armed robbery and murder. It was concluded that the mental disorders considered more severe (psychosis and bipolar disorder) were not associated with violent crimes, suggesting that the severity of the psychotic disorder may be the factor that has caused psychosis to be associated with violent crimes in previous studies. © 2014 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Technology Corner: Visualising Forensic Data: Evidence Guidelines (Part 2)

OpenAIRE

Damian Schofield; Ken Fowle

2013-01-01

Visualisation is becoming increasingly important for understanding information, such as investigative data (for example: computing, medical and crime scene evidence) and analysis (for example, network capability assessment, data file reconstruction and planning scenarios). Investigative data visualisation is used to reconstruct a scene or item and is used to assist the viewer (who may well be a member of the general public with little or no understanding of the subject matter) to understand w...

Prosecuting International Crimes at National Level: Lessons from the Argentine ‘Truth-Finding Trials’

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elena Maculan

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Truth-finding trials (juicios por la verdad constitute a novel solution devised by the Argentine judicial system to cope with crimes committed by the past military dictatorship. This mechanism uses criminal courts as well as criminal procedure in order to investigate the truth about the dictatorship's crimes; however, the trials allow judges neither to establish criminal responsibility nor to punish the perpetrators of crimes. This limitation is due to the inability, imposed by the Full Stop and Due Obedience Laws, to prosecute the perpetrators of crimes.From the perspective of criminal law, truth-finding trials present two problematic features: firstly, their creation and regulation are set by judges, which has caused the development of many non-homogeneous local solutions and, secondly, their hybrid nature, which entails a possible subversion of conventional forms and goals in the context of the criminal trial.The paper also describes the current situation, since the Argentine impunity laws were declared unconstitutional and criminal proceedings reopened. The new framework provokes questions about the relationship between the reopened criminal trials and the truth-finding investigations, not only with regard to evidentiary issues but also with respect to the reason why the truth-finding investigations are still held.Finally, the shift from a non-punitive approach to the current full criminal accountability seems to suggest that truth-finding trials were merely a temporary solution, while the notion of the full prosecution and punishment of State crimes was never really set aside.

Crime, accidents and social control

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Junger, Marianne; Terlouw, Gert-Jan; van der Heijden, Peter G.M.

1995-01-01

This paper addresses to questions. (1) Is there a demonstrable relation between accidents and crime, does this relation hold for each type of crime and each means of transport, and does it subsist after controlling for age and gender? (2) Can social control theory explain involvements in both

Scenes of the self, and trance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jan M. Broekman

2014-02-01

Full Text Available Trance shows the Self as a process involved in all sorts and forms of life. A Western perspective on a self and its reifying tendencies is only one (or one series of those variations. The process character of the self does not allow any coherent theory but shows, in particular when confronted with trance, its variability in all regards. What is more: the Self is always first on the scene of itself―a situation in which it becomes a sign for itself. That particular semiotic feature is again not a unified one but leads, as the Self in view of itself does, to series of scenes with changing colors, circumstances and environments. Our first scene “Beyond Monotheism” shows semiotic importance in that a self as determining component of a trance-phenomenon must abolish its own referent and seems not able to answer the question, what makes trance a trance. The Pizzica is an example here. Other social features of trance appear in the second scene, US post traumatic psychological treatments included. Our third scene underlines structures of an unfolding self: beginning with ‘split-ego’ conclusions, a self’s engenderment appears dependent on linguistic events and on spoken words in the first place. A fourth scene explores that theme and explains modern forms of an ego ―in particular those inherent to ‘citizenship’ or a ‘corporation’. The legal consequences are concentrated in the fifth scene, which considers a legal subject by revealing its ‘standing’. Our sixth and final scene pertains to the relation between trance and commerce. All scenes tie together and show parallels between Pizzica, rights-based behavior, RAVE music versus disco, commerce and trance; they demonstrate the meaning of trance as a multifaceted social phenomenon.

Application of pattern recognition techniques to crime analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bender, C.F.; Cox, L.A. Jr.; Chappell, G.A.

1976-08-15

The initial goal was to evaluate the capabilities of current pattern recognition techniques when applied to existing computerized crime data. Performance was to be evaluated both in terms of the system's capability to predict crimes and to optimize police manpower allocation. A relation was sought to predict the crime's susceptibility to solution, based on knowledge of the crime type, location, time, etc. The preliminary results of this work are discussed. They indicate that automatic crime analysis involving pattern recognition techniques is feasible, and that efforts to determine optimum variables and techniques are warranted. 47 figures (RWR)

Unusual contact marks: connecting the hubcap to the wheel of the car.

Science.gov (United States)

Novoselsky, Yehuda; Tsach, Tsadok; Klein, Asne; Volkov, Nikolay; Shor, Yaron; Vinokurov, Asya

2002-05-01

A case of homicide and attempted homicide is described. The comparison of tire-marks linked the suspect's vehicle to the scene of crime only with low certainty. However, the comparison of the pressure mark on the hubcap found at the scene, with the balance weight on one of the wheels of the suspect's car, connected the suspect to the scene of crime with high certainty.

[Crime-related amnesia: real or feigned?].

Science.gov (United States)

Giger, P; Merten, T; Merckelbach, H

2012-07-01

In the context of criminal forensic evaluations, experts are often confronted with the problem of offenders' claims of crime-related amnesia. Because of the far-reaching legal consequences of the expert opinion, the nature of the suspected memory disorder has to be investigated with special care and due consideration of differential diagnoses. While the diagnosis of organic amnesia is comparatively easy to make, the same is not true for dissociative amnesia. Despite existing theoretical explanations such as stress, peritraumatic dissociation or repression, to date there is no sound, scientifically based and empirically supported explanation for the occurrence of genuine, non-organic crime-related amnesia. In the criminal context of claimed amnesia, secondary gain is usually obvious; thus, possible malingering of memory loss has to be carefully investigated by the forensic expert. To test this hypothesis, the expert has to resort to methods based on a high methodological level. The diagnosis of dissociative amnesia cannot be made by mere exclusion of evidence for organic amnesia; instead, malingering has to be ruled out on an explicit basis. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

Adaptive attunement of selective covert attention to evolutionary-relevant emotional visual scenes.

Science.gov (United States)

Fernández-Martín, Andrés; Gutiérrez-García, Aída; Capafons, Juan; Calvo, Manuel G

2017-05-01

We investigated selective attention to emotional scenes in peripheral vision, as a function of adaptive relevance of scene affective content for male and female observers. Pairs of emotional-neutral images appeared peripherally-with perceptual stimulus differences controlled-while viewers were fixating on a different stimulus in central vision. Early selective orienting was assessed by the probability of directing the first fixation towards either scene, and the time until first fixation. Emotional scenes selectively captured covert attention even when they were task-irrelevant, thus revealing involuntary, automatic processing. Sex of observers and specific emotional scene content (e.g., male-to-female-aggression, families and babies, etc.) interactively modulated covert attention, depending on adaptive priorities and goals for each sex, both for pleasant and unpleasant content. The attentional system exhibits domain-specific and sex-specific biases and attunements, probably rooted in evolutionary pressures to enhance reproductive and protective success. Emotional cues selectively capture covert attention based on their bio-social significance. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

DNA in the Criminal Justice System: The DNA Success Story in Perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Mapes, Anna A; Kloosterman, Ate D; de Poot, Christianne J

2015-07-01

Current figures on the efficiency of DNA as an investigative tool in criminal investigations only tell part of the story. To get the DNA success story in the right perspective, we examined all forensic reports from serious (N = 116) and high-volume crime cases (N = 2791) over the year 2011 from one police region in the Netherlands. These data show that 38% of analyzed serious crime traces (N = 384) and 17% of analyzed high-volume crime traces (N = 386) did not result in a DNA profile. Turnaround times (from crime scene to DNA report) were 66 days for traces from serious crimes and 44 days for traces from high-volume crimes. Suspects were truly identified through a match with the Offender DNA database of the Netherlands in 3% of the serious crime cases and in 1% of the high-volume crime cases. These data are important for both the forensic laboratory and the professionals in the criminal justice system to further optimize forensic DNA testing as an investigative tool. © 2015 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

[Teaching about Crime and Punishment.

Science.gov (United States)

Ryan, John Paul, Ed.

1993-01-01

This issue of a newsletter from the American Bar Association emphasizes teaching about crime and punishment. The first article offers an overview of the diversity and common assumptions that underpin the teaching of criminology. Student interest in crime and criminology creates an opportunity for instructors interested in challenging students'…

Neighborhood crime and transit station access mode choice - phase III of neighborhood crime and travel behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

2015-08-01

This report provides the findings from the third phase of a three-part study about the influences of neighborhood crimes on travel : mode choice. While previous phases found evidence that high levels of neighborhood crime discourage people from choos...

Distinctive Characteristics of Sexual Orientation Bias Crimes

Science.gov (United States)

Stacey, Michele

2011-01-01

Despite increased attention in the area of hate crime research in the past 20 years, sexual orientation bias crimes have rarely been singled out for study. When these types of crimes are looked at, the studies are typically descriptive in nature. This article seeks to increase our knowledge of sexual orientation bias by answering the question:…

Database crime to crime match rate calculation.

Science.gov (United States)

Buckleton, John; Bright, Jo-Anne; Walsh, Simon J

2009-06-01

Guidance exists on how to count matches between samples in a crime sample database but we are unable to locate a definition of how to estimate a match rate. We propose a method that does not proceed from the match counting definition but which has a strong logic.

Infrared imaging of the crime scene: possibilities and pitfalls

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Edelman, Gerda J.; Hoveling, Richelle J. M.; Roos, Martin; van Leeuwen, Ton G.; Aalders, Maurice C. G.

2013-01-01

All objects radiate infrared energy invisible to the human eye, which can be imaged by infrared cameras, visualizing differences in temperature and/or emissivity of objects. Infrared imaging is an emerging technique for forensic investigators. The rapid, nondestructive, and noncontact features of

Teen Births Keep American Crime High

OpenAIRE

Hunt, Jennifer

2003-01-01

The United States has a teenage birth rate that is high relative to that of other developed countries, and falling more slowly. Children of teenagers may experience difficult childhoods and hence be more likely to commit crimes subsequently. I assess to what extent lagged teen birth rates can explain why the United States had the highest developed country crime rates in the 1980s, and why US rates subsequently fell so much. For this purpose, I use internationally comparable crime rates measur...

Crime, Compulsory Schooling Laws and Education

OpenAIRE

Brian Bell; Rui Costa; Stephen Machin

2015-01-01

Do compulsory schooling laws reduce crime? Previous evidence for the U.S. from the 1960s and 1970s suggests they do, primarily working through their effect on educational attainment to generate a causal impact on crime. In this paper, we consider whether more recent experience replicates this. There are two key findings. First, there is a strong and consistent negative effect on crime from stricter compulsory schooling laws. Second, there is a weaker and sometimes non-existent link between su...

Systematic review of youth crime prevention interventions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Manuel, Celie; Jørgensen, Anne-Marie Klint

produced for TrygFonden and the Danish Crime Prevention Council TrygFonden and The Danish Crime Prevention Council have entered into an ambitious collaboration. The objective of this collaboration is to reduce crime and increase the feeling of security in Denmark by engaging citizens and creating new......This review centers on evaluations of youth crime prevention interventions published between 2008 and 2012. The aim of the review is to bring forward the newest information to supplement existing knowledge about crime preventive methods targeting youth. The review lists 56 studies, all targeting 12......-17 year olds, using experimental or quasi-experimental research designs and focusing on effects in terms of disruptive or criminal behavior. The review provides detailed descriptions of all identified studies, and the characteristics and effectiveness of the interventions is analyzed. This report has been...

Childhood Victimization and Crime Victimization

Science.gov (United States)

McIntyre, Jared Kean; Widom, Cathy Spatz

2011-01-01

The purpose of this study is to determine whether abused and neglected children are at increased risk for subsequent crime victimization. We ask four basic questions: (a) Does a history of child abuse/neglect increase one's risk of physical, sexual, and property crime victimization? (b) Do lifestyle characteristics (prostitution, running away,…

Crime Forecasting System (An exploratory web-based approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yaseen Ahmed Meenai

2011-08-01

Full Text Available With the continuous rise in crimes in some big cities of the world like Karachi and the increasing complexity of these crimes, the difficulties the law enforcing agencies are facing in tracking down and taking out culprits have increased manifold. To help cut back the crime rate, a Crime Forecasting System (CFS can be used which uses historical information maintained by the local Police to help them predict crime patterns with the support of a huge and self-updating database. This system operates to prevent crime, helps in apprehending criminals, and to reduce disorder. This system is also vital in helping the law enforcers in forming a proactive approach by helping them in identifying early warning signs, take timely and necessary actions, and eventually help stop crime before it actually happens. It will also be beneficial in maintaining an up to date database of criminal suspects includes information on arrest records, communication with police department, associations with other known suspects, and membership in gangs/activist groups. After exploratory analysis of the online data acquired from the victims of these crimes, a broad picture of the scenario can be analyzed. The degree of vulnerability of an area at some particular moment can be highlighted by different colors aided by Google Maps. Some statistical diagrams have also been incorporated. The future of CFS can be seen as an information engine for the analysis, study and prediction of crimes.

HATE CRIMES DI INDONESIA DALAM PERSPEKTIF PERBANDINGAN HUKUM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Widati Wulandari

2017-06-01

Full Text Available This article discusses the deficiency of the Indonesian criminal law with regard to the criminalization of hate crimes. Taking into consideration the fact that Indonesia faces a high incidence of social conflict due to rising intolerance and discrimination targeting minority groups.  The combination of (racial-ethnic-religious discrimination and hatred against minority groups in most cases results in various forms of common crimes which generally is known as hate crimes. Using a comparative law method, by and between Indonesian criminal law and the criminal law of other countries experiencing hate crimes, the author highlights options for eradicating hate crimes. One important finding is the tendency of a number of countries to perceive hatred or prejudice which motivate the perpetrator of hate crimes as aggravating factor and not to as as separate substantive offence.

Specialization of judicial and other authorities in the fight against environmental crime

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lukić Tatjana

2012-01-01

Full Text Available The detection, investigation and prosecution of crimes against the environment has its specificity compared to other forms of crime, because of the nature of these crimes, the manner of execution (modus operandi and the characteristics of their perpetrators. Although there is no objective need for modification of the rules of criminal procedure with regard to these offenses, there is an obvious need for a specialized body of the procedure (prosecutors, judges and authorized officers of the internal affairs. This is due the fact that only specific additional, specialized knowledge about the environmental issues, which is usually multidisciplinary, can provide high-quality, professional and competent research and detection of crimes against the environment. In this paper, the authors deal with the problems of specialization of judicial and other authorities in connection with criminal proceedings for offenses against the environment, of reasonableness and necessity, given the current situation in domestic practice, as well as some comparative solutions and experiences.

Crime, perceived safety, and physical activity: A meta-analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Rees-Punia, Erika; Hathaway, Elizabeth D; Gay, Jennifer L

2018-06-01

Perceived safety from crime and objectively-measured crime rates may be associated with physical inactivity. The purpose of this meta-analysis is to estimate the odds of accumulating high levels of physical activity (PA) when the perception of safety from crime is high and when objectively-measured crime is high. Peer-reviewed studies were identified through PubMed, Web of Science, ProQuest Criminal Justice, and ScienceDirect from earliest record through 2016. Included studies measured total PA, leisure-time PA, or walking in addition to perceived safety from crime or objective measures of crime. Mean odds ratios were aggregated with random effects models, and meta-regression was used to examine effects of potential moderators: country, age, and crime/PA measure. Sixteen cross-sectional studies yielded sixteen effects for perceived safety from crime and four effects for objective crime. Those reporting feeling safe from crime had a 27% greater odds of achieving higher levels of physical activity (OR=1.27 [1.08, 1.49]), and those living in areas with higher objectively-measured crime had a 28% reduced odds of achieving higher levels of physical activity (OR=0.72 [0.61, 0.83]). Effects of perceived safety were highly heterogeneous (I 2 =94.09%), but explored moderators were not statistically significant, likely because of the small sample size. Despite the limited number of effects suitable for aggregation, the mean association between perceived safety and PA was significant. As it seems likely that perceived lack of safety from crime constrains PA behaviors, future research exploring moderators of this association may help guide public health recommendations and interventions. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Stages as models of scene geometry.

Science.gov (United States)

Nedović, Vladimir; Smeulders, Arnold W M; Redert, André; Geusebroek, Jan-Mark

2010-09-01

Reconstruction of 3D scene geometry is an important element for scene understanding, autonomous vehicle and robot navigation, image retrieval, and 3D television. We propose accounting for the inherent structure of the visual world when trying to solve the scene reconstruction problem. Consequently, we identify geometric scene categorization as the first step toward robust and efficient depth estimation from single images. We introduce 15 typical 3D scene geometries called stages, each with a unique depth profile, which roughly correspond to a large majority of broadcast video frames. Stage information serves as a first approximation of global depth, narrowing down the search space in depth estimation and object localization. We propose different sets of low-level features for depth estimation, and perform stage classification on two diverse data sets of television broadcasts. Classification results demonstrate that stages can often be efficiently learned from low-dimensional image representations.

Gender, fear of crime, and attitudes toward prisoners among social work majors in a Hong Kong University.

Science.gov (United States)

Chui, Wing Hong; Cheng, Kevin Kwok-Yin; Wong, Lok-Ping

2013-04-01

Fear of crime has been a dominant area of criminological inquiry, yet it is has been examined only recently in a Chinese context, and it is virtually unexplored in Hong Kong. Using a sample of 170 Hong Kong college students majoring in social work, the current study aimed to investigate the effects of gender on fear of crime and their relationships to attitudes toward prisoners. In general, women reported a significantly greater fear of crime than men for all offenses except for being cheated. Fear of rape/sexual assault was found to be a significant predictor of fear of serious crimes for women but a less significant predictor of their fear of minor crimes. The shadow of the sexual assault hypothesis was supported in this study. Fear of crime had little impact on attitudes toward prisoners.

Prevenção ao crime e teoria social Crime prevention and social theory

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

João Trajano Sento-Sé

2011-01-01

Full Text Available O artigo estabelece um diálogo entre a criminologia positivista e algumas correntes contemporâneas da prevenção ao crime inspiradas em teorias sociológicas. Através desse exercício, busca-se evidenciar que algumas das formulações focadas no campo da prevenção já aparecem, em estado embrionário, na agenda teórica positivista. Do mesmo modo, torna-se possível explicitar que alguns postulados empíricos e práticos do positivismo são menos estranhos às teorias contemporâneas de prevenção ao crime do que se costuma reconhecer.The article establishes a dialogue between positivist criminology and some contemporary currents on crime prevention inspired in sociological theories. Through this exercise, we seek to highlight that some of the formulations focused in the preventions field appear, in embryonic state, in the positivist theoretical agenda. Likewise, it is possible to explicit that some empirical and practical tenets of positivism are less foreign to contemporary theories of crime prevention than is usually recognized.

Hair analysis in toxicological investigation of drug-facilitated crimes in Denmark over a 8-year period

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wang, Xin; Johansen, Sys Stybe; Nielsen, Marie Katrine Klose

2018-01-01

analgesics, antipsychotics, barbiturates, and illicit drugs from DFC cases. Drug detection in hair in DFC cases following a single or few intakes of chlorprothixene, codeine, diphenhydramine, oxazepam, oxycodone, promethazine, and phenobarbital is reported for the first time in forensic toxicology......Hair can serve as a specimen for identifying past drug exposure. Segmental hair analysis may differentiate a single exposure from chronic use. Consequently, segmental hair analysis is useful for disclosing a single drug ingestion, as well as for determining repeated exposures in drug......-facilitated crimes (DFCs). This paper presents an overview of toxicological investigations that have used hair analysis in DFC cases from 2009 to 2016 in Denmark. Hair concentrations were determined for 24 DFC-related drugs and metabolites, including benzodiazepines and other hypnotics, antihistamines, opioid...

Crime: impacts of urban design and environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paula Santana

2013-07-01

Full Text Available The criminal research has confirmed that there are clear patterns of crime, with concentrations in specific places at specific times. That is to say, incidence of crime are not distributed randomly; rather, there are certain areas in cities that are relatively small, but where crimes occur much more frequently than elsewhere (the so-called “hotspots”, making them highly vulnerable and predictable. Urban design and environment may play a part in the decision of whether or not to commit a crime; for example, the lack of natural vigilance, poor lighting and other variables mean that a small area may easily be transformed into a potential crime hotspot. The relationship between specific aspects of urban design and the formation of “hotspots” is present in the theory of “Crime Prevention through Environmental Design” (CPTED. This paper examines the relationship between the “hotspots” and the characteristics of the environment, in accordance with CPTED Index, in one city from the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (Amadora. The results highlight the need to reassess specific elements of urban design. This fact has drawn attention to the study of localities and urban design.

The Impact of Legalized Casino Gambling on Crime

OpenAIRE

Mark W. Nichols; Mehmet Serkan Tosun

2013-01-01

We examine the impact of legalized casino gambling, including Indian casinos, on crime. Using county-level data between 1994 and 2009, the impact that casino legalization had on crime is examined. Our results show an increase in crime associated with casinos in some circumstances, but not others. Crime impact results are quite sensitive to data, sample periods and econometric specifications. In addition to known Part 1 offenses (assault, burglary, larceny, robbery, rape, and auto theft), we a...

Spatial Dependence of Crime in Monterrey, Mexico

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ernesto Aguayo Téllez

2014-06-01

Full Text Available This paper studies the impact that the characteristics of the environment have on crime using neighborhood aggregate data of the Monterrey Metropolitan Area for the year 2010. Data spatial autocorrelation is corroborated, i.e. neighborhoods with high crime rates have a positive impact on the crime rates of its surrounding neighborhoods. Once it was controlled through the bias caused by spatial autocorrelation and data censoring, it is evidenced that the likelihood of being a crime victim and the probability of becoming an offender is positively related to variables such as unemployment, the percentage of young men and the existence of schools, hospitals or markets in the neighborhood.

Iconic memory for the gist of natural scenes.

Science.gov (United States)

Clarke, Jason; Mack, Arien

2014-11-01

Does iconic memory contain the gist of multiple scenes? Three experiments were conducted. In the first, four scenes from different basic-level categories were briefly presented in one of two conditions: a cue or a no-cue condition. The cue condition was designed to provide an index of the contents of iconic memory of the display. Subjects were more sensitive to scene gist in the cue condition than in the no-cue condition. In the second, the scenes came from the same basic-level category. We found no difference in sensitivity between the two conditions. In the third, six scenes from different basic level categories were presented in the visual periphery. Subjects were more sensitive to scene gist in the cue condition. These results suggest that scene gist is contained in iconic memory even in the visual periphery; however, iconic representations are not sufficiently detailed to distinguish between scenes coming from the same category. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Psychoactive substance intake and gender on crime | okediji ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This study investigated the influence of psychoactive substance (alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine) intake and gender on crime. Three hundred and eighty participants (380) were randomly selected from inmates as models of prisons in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. The participants comprised 314 males (82.63%) and 66 females ...

Psychoactive substance intake and gender on crime | Okediji ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This study investigated the influence of psychoactive substance (alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine) intake and gender on crime. Three hundred and eighty participants (380) were randomly selected from inmates as models of prisons in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. The participants comprised 314 males (82.63%) and 66 females ...

ELECTRONIC FUNDS TRANSFER IN MONEY LAUNDERING CRIME: REGULATION NEEDED IN RESPONSE TO MEETING OF TECHNOLOGY AND CRIME IN INDONESIA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Go Lisanawati

2010-12-01

Full Text Available Advancements in information technology have affected modern society in numerous areas, including communication, education, commerce, and so on. These advancements have brought incredible benefits; they have also provided opportunities and motivation for various forms of crime. Information technology has also made crime highly profitable. Among the many types of criminal activities, modern technology has allowed money laundering to become an online crime. This new type of crime has raised some legal questions about the capability of national and international regulations in relation to current and upcoming issues. These include finding electronic funds transfer records after the fact, and determining money laundering activity that includes electronic funds transfer. Although Indonesia is an integral member of a community concerned with the interaction between technology and money laundering, it has not provided regulations to deal with the current and upcoming issues involving the crime of electronic money laundering. The increase in the amount of crime indicates the following series of techniques and mechanisms that had been detected in relation to money laundering activity. This research will examine current issues under the light of Indonesian regulations, and will put forward some proposals to close the legal vacuum.

Entering the Black Hole: The Taliban, Terrorism, and Organised Crime

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Matthew D. Phillips

2014-09-01

Full Text Available 'Cooperation and imitation among crime and terror groups in recent years has given rise to a crime-terror nexus. A linear conceptualisation of a crime-terror spectrum, suggests that complete convergence of crime and terror in a failed state can give rise to a ‘black hole.’ Theoretical models of the crime-terror nexus, however, do not specify the means by which a crime-terror group enters this black hole state, yet others do not. Using the Taliban movement as a case study, this article presents a theoretical extension of black hole theory, using organisation-level characteristics to merge black hole theory with the crime-terror continuum.'

Statistics of high-level scene context.

Science.gov (United States)

Greene, Michelle R

2013-01-01

CONTEXT IS CRITICAL FOR RECOGNIZING ENVIRONMENTS AND FOR SEARCHING FOR OBJECTS WITHIN THEM: contextual associations have been shown to modulate reaction time and object recognition accuracy, as well as influence the distribution of eye movements and patterns of brain activations. However, we have not yet systematically quantified the relationships between objects and their scene environments. Here I seek to fill this gap by providing descriptive statistics of object-scene relationships. A total of 48, 167 objects were hand-labeled in 3499 scenes using the LabelMe tool (Russell et al., 2008). From these data, I computed a variety of descriptive statistics at three different levels of analysis: the ensemble statistics that describe the density and spatial distribution of unnamed "things" in the scene; the bag of words level where scenes are described by the list of objects contained within them; and the structural level where the spatial distribution and relationships between the objects are measured. The utility of each level of description for scene categorization was assessed through the use of linear classifiers, and the plausibility of each level for modeling human scene categorization is discussed. Of the three levels, ensemble statistics were found to be the most informative (per feature), and also best explained human patterns of categorization errors. Although a bag of words classifier had similar performance to human observers, it had a markedly different pattern of errors. However, certain objects are more useful than others, and ceiling classification performance could be achieved using only the 64 most informative objects. As object location tends not to vary as a function of category, structural information provided little additional information. Additionally, these data provide valuable information on natural scene redundancy that can be exploited for machine vision, and can help the visual cognition community to design experiments guided by statistics

Investigating CSI: portrayals of DNA testing on a forensic crime show and their potential effects.

Science.gov (United States)

Ley, Barbara L; Jankowski, Natalie; Brewer, Paul R

2012-01-01

The popularity of forensic crime shows such as CSI has fueled debate about their potential social impact. This study considers CSI's potential effects on public understandings regarding DNA testing in the context of judicial processes, the policy debates surrounding crime laboratory procedures, and the forensic science profession, as well as an effect not discussed in previous accounts: namely, the show's potential impact on public understandings of DNA and genetics more generally. To develop a theoretical foundation for research on the "CSI effect," it draws on cultivation theory, social cognitive theory, and audience reception studies. It then uses content analysis and textual analysis to illuminate how the show depicts DNA testing. The results demonstrate that CSI tends to depict DNA testing as routine, swift, useful, and reliable and that it echoes broader discourses about genetics. At times, however, the show suggests more complex ways of thinking about DNA testing and genetics.

Semantic Reasoning for Scene Interpretation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Lars Baunegaard With; Baseski, Emre; Pugeault, Nicolas

2008-01-01

In this paper, we propose a hierarchical architecture for representing scenes, covering 2D and 3D aspects of visual scenes as well as the semantic relations between the different aspects. We argue that labeled graphs are a suitable representational framework for this representation and demonstrat...

How to become a victim of crime

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Богдан Миколайович Головкін

2017-03-01

, demonstration of plenty - 24.1 %. Most by illustration demonstrates attitudes to crime victims and their participation in decision-criminal decisions, answer questions about their victims feeling of "guilt." Just over half of respondents (56 % consider themselves guilty also. However, 44% expressed the opposite judgment. Despite the established share of citizens who every year are victims of crime, observed some increase in their activity of applicants. Previously (in 2012 to law enforcement agencies only every third approached the victim from criminal attacks, in 2015 the share of applicants has risen to 50 %. This is the general trend of more active public appeal to the law enforcement and judicial bodies for redress and compensation for damage. At the same time, in applicant activity of victims is positively affects new procedural order of registration of citizens. Given these arguments, assuming latent reduce crime in the country as a whole. Reasons not appeal to the law enforcement agencies have traditionally called the famous triad: disbelief in the effectiveness of their work (50% of respondents, minor material damage caused by crime (44 %, and lack of serious harm to the health of victims (33 %. First answer more emotional than rational. It appears the low level of trust in public authorities in general and law enforcement in particular. The passivity of applicants actually explains the reluctance to deal with bureaucracy ineffective law enforcement, lack of time to participate in the official investigation and the trial, and for fear of public censure. In our view, there are two common scenarios of victimization. The first - improper perceptions associated with known to locals criminal threats and reluctance to respond to them appropriately. The second scenario victimization associated with temporary disorientation in space and time with the reach  to new locations in unfamiliar situation, as well as a chance meeting with dangerous people. Consequently, victims of

Visualization of latent blood stains using visible reflectance hyperspectral imaging and chemometrics

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Edelman, Gerda J.; van Leeuwen, Ton G.; Aalders, Maurice C.

2015-01-01

The detection of latent traces is an important aspect of crime scene investigation. Blood stains on black backgrounds can be visualized using chemiluminescence, which is invasive and requires a darkened room, or near-infrared photography, for which investigators need to change filters manually to

Investigative psychology

OpenAIRE

Canter, David V.

2010-01-01

The domain of Investigative Psychology covers all aspects of psychology that are relevant to the conduct of criminal or civil investigations. Its focus is on the ways in which criminal activities may be examined and understood in order for the detection of crime to be effective and legal proceedings to be appropriate. As such Investigative Psychology is concerned with psychological input to the full range of issues that relate to the management, investigation and prosecution of crime

On the behavorial economics of crime

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Winden, F.; Ash, E.

2012-01-01

This paper examines the implications of the brain sciences' mechanistic model of human behavior for our understanding of crime. The standard rational-choice crime model is refined by a behavioral approach, which proposes a decision model comprising cognitive and emotional decision systems. According

On the behavioral economics of crime

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Winden, F.; Ash, E.

2009-01-01

This paper examines the implications of the brain sciences’ mechanistic model of human behavior for our understanding of crime. The rational crime model is replaced with a behavioral approach, which proposes a decision model comprising cognitive and emotional decision systems. According to the

Crime perception and Presidential evaluation in Mexico

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ricardo R. Gómez Vilchis

2013-07-01

Full Text Available How important are citizen perceptions of an increase in crime rate when they evaluate the President? This article uses Mexico as a case study to examine the relationship between perception of crime and citizen grading of the President. The research uses 11 national surveys from 1994 to 2006 to analyze the effects of perception of crime on citizen grading of the President before and after the 2000 presidential election. The main proposition is that, after the 2000 political transition, perception of crime, together with other economic variables, becomes more relevant and has stronger effects when citizens evaluate the President due to an increase of their expectations of the Executive's competence.

The scene and the unseen: manipulating photographs for experiments on change blindness and scene memory: image manipulation for change blindness.

Science.gov (United States)

Ball, Felix; Elzemann, Anne; Busch, Niko A

2014-09-01

The change blindness paradigm, in which participants often fail to notice substantial changes in a scene, is a popular tool for studying scene perception, visual memory, and the link between awareness and attention. Some of the most striking and popular examples of change blindness have been demonstrated with digital photographs of natural scenes; in most studies, however, much simpler displays, such as abstract stimuli or "free-floating" objects, are typically used. Although simple displays have undeniable advantages, natural scenes remain a very useful and attractive stimulus for change blindness research. To assist researchers interested in using natural-scene stimuli in change blindness experiments, we provide here a step-by-step tutorial on how to produce changes in natural-scene images with a freely available image-processing tool (GIMP). We explain how changes in a scene can be made by deleting objects or relocating them within the scene or by changing the color of an object, in just a few simple steps. We also explain how the physical properties of such changes can be analyzed using GIMP and MATLAB (a high-level scientific programming tool). Finally, we present an experiment confirming that scenes manipulated according to our guidelines are effective in inducing change blindness and demonstrating the relationship between change blindness and the physical properties of the change and inter-individual differences in performance measures. We expect that this tutorial will be useful for researchers interested in studying the mechanisms of change blindness, attention, or visual memory using natural scenes.

Role of importance of X-ray fluorescence analysis of forensic samples

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jha, Shailendra; Sharma, M.

2009-01-01

Full text: In the field of forensic science, it is very important to investigate the evidential samples obtained at various crime scenes. X-ray fluorescence (XRF) is used widely in forensic science [1]. Its main strength is its non-destructive nature, thus preserving evidence [2, 3]. In this paper, we report the application of XRF to examine the evidences like purity gold and silver jewelry (Indian Ornaments), remnants of glass pieces and paint chips recovered from crime scenes. The experimental measurements on these samples have been made using X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (LAB Center XRF-1800) procured from Shimazdu Scientific Inst., USA. The results are explained in terms of quantitative/ qualitative analysis of trace elements. (author)

Firearm Ownership and Violent Crime in the U.S.: An Ecologic Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Monuteaux, Michael C; Lee, Lois K; Hemenway, David; Mannix, Rebekah; Fleegler, Eric W

2015-08-01

Although some view the ownership of firearms as a deterrent to crime, the relationship between population-level firearm ownership rates and violent criminal perpetration is unclear. The purpose of this study is to test the association between state-level firearm ownership and violent crime. State-level rates of household firearm ownership and annual rates of criminal acts from 2001, 2002, and 2004 were analyzed in 2014. Firearm ownership rates were taken from a national survey and crime data were taken from the Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Reports. Rates of criminal behavior were estimated as a function of household gun ownership using negative binomial regression models, controlling for several demographic factors. Higher levels of firearm ownership were associated with higher levels of firearm assault and firearm robbery. There was also a significant association between firearm ownership and firearm homicide, as well as overall homicide. The findings do not support the hypothesis that higher population firearm ownership rates reduce firearm-associated criminal perpetration. On the contrary, evidence shows that states with higher levels of firearm ownership have an increased risk for violent crimes perpetrated with a firearm. Public health stakeholders should consider the outcomes associated with private firearm ownership. Copyright © 2015 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Childhood adversity, mental health, and violent crime.

Science.gov (United States)

Brewer-Smyth, Kathleen; Cornelius, Monica E; Pickelsimer, E Elisabeth

2015-01-01

Little is understood about childhood traumatic brain injury (TBI) and lifetime violent crime perpetration. The purpose was to evaluate TBI before the age of 15 years and other childhood environmental factors, mental health, and lifetime history of committing a violent crime. A cross-sectional study of 636 male and female offenders from a southeastern state prison population was conducted using Chi-squared tests, t tests, and logistic regression to determine factors associated with ever committing a violent crime. Committing a violent crime was associated with male gender, younger age, greater childhood sexual abuse (CSA), greater childhood emotional abuse, no TBI by the age of 15 years, and greater neighborhood adversity during childhood. Although TBI has been related to violent and nonviolent crime, this study showed that absence of TBI by the age of 15 years was associated with lifetime violent crime when adjusting for CSA, childhood emotional abuse, and neighborhood adversity during childhood. This builds upon neurobehavioral development literature suggesting that CSA and the stress of violence exposure without direct physical victimization may play a more critical role in lifetime violent criminal behavior than childhood TBI. Violence risk reduction must occur during childhood focusing on decreasing adversity, especially violence exposure as a witness as well as a direct victim.

Impact of Unemployment on Crime in Europe

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Li-Hsuan Huang

2015-09-01

Full Text Available This study discovers how unemployment rate explains the changes in the crime rate tendency in Europe by the two-stage-least square regression. The crime rate in the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU area is found evidently more sensitive to unemployment than the non-EMU countries. The adoption of a common currency also strengthens the connections of the criminal problem among the EMU countries. We found the seriousness of the endogenous bias involved using the OLS methodology, so previous findings on the small effect of unemployment on crime rate obtained by employing the OLS methodology could be unreliable. Empirically, a one-percentage-point increase in unemployment increases the property crime by nearly 9% on average. The large unemployment effect implies that the increase in the unemployment rate that occurred after the financial crisis in 2008, followed by the European sovereign-debt crisis, may account for the trending increasing tendencies of the crime rate in Europe. The high unemployment effect revealed markedly different policy implications than those that have previously been considered in the literature. These findings suggest that the key determinants for governmental authorities in the EMU area successfully mitigating crime would greatly depend on how the governments resolve their economic recession.

Bullit

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Nikolaj Friis; Hougen, Hans Petter

Purpose: To demonstrate how the crime scene photos helped in the evaluation of post mortem MSCT (Multi Slice Computer Tomography) of ”terminal ballistics” in a multiple gunshot homicide by the use of the OsiriX® DICOM Viewer and the ”Bullit” plugin. As a secondary purpose example of the possible...... in the autopsy situation. Discussion and conclusion: Mulitiple gunshot homicides is often a challenging task for forensic patholgists both at the crime scene and in the autopsy room. By the use of post mortem MSCT and subsequent use of OsiriX®, ”Bullit” and the crime scene photos in the evaluation it is possible...

Understanding recurrent crime as system-immanent collective behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Perc, Matjaž; Donnay, Karsten; Helbing, Dirk

2013-01-01

Containing the spreading of crime is a major challenge for society. Yet, since thousands of years, no effective strategy has been found to overcome crime. To the contrary, empirical evidence shows that crime is recurrent, a fact that is not captured well by rational choice theories of crime. According to these, strong enough punishment should prevent crime from happening. To gain a better understanding of the relationship between crime and punishment, we consider that the latter requires prior discovery of illicit behavior and study a spatial version of the inspection game. Simulations reveal the spontaneous emergence of cyclic dominance between "criminals", "inspectors", and "ordinary people" as a consequence of spatial interactions. Such cycles dominate the evolutionary process, in particular when the temptation to commit crime or the cost of inspection are low or moderate. Yet, there are also critical parameter values beyond which cycles cease to exist and the population is dominated either by a stable mixture of criminals and inspectors or one of these two strategies alone. Both continuous and discontinuous phase transitions to different final states are possible, indicating that successful strategies to contain crime can be very much counter-intuitive and complex. Our results demonstrate that spatial interactions are crucial for the evolutionary outcome of the inspection game, and they also reveal why criminal behavior is likely to be recurrent rather than evolving towards an equilibrium with monotonous parameter dependencies.

Understanding recurrent crime as system-immanent collective behavior.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Matjaž Perc

Full Text Available Containing the spreading of crime is a major challenge for society. Yet, since thousands of years, no effective strategy has been found to overcome crime. To the contrary, empirical evidence shows that crime is recurrent, a fact that is not captured well by rational choice theories of crime. According to these, strong enough punishment should prevent crime from happening. To gain a better understanding of the relationship between crime and punishment, we consider that the latter requires prior discovery of illicit behavior and study a spatial version of the inspection game. Simulations reveal the spontaneous emergence of cyclic dominance between "criminals", "inspectors", and "ordinary people" as a consequence of spatial interactions. Such cycles dominate the evolutionary process, in particular when the temptation to commit crime or the cost of inspection are low or moderate. Yet, there are also critical parameter values beyond which cycles cease to exist and the population is dominated either by a stable mixture of criminals and inspectors or one of these two strategies alone. Both continuous and discontinuous phase transitions to different final states are possible, indicating that successful strategies to contain crime can be very much counter-intuitive and complex. Our results demonstrate that spatial interactions are crucial for the evolutionary outcome of the inspection game, and they also reveal why criminal behavior is likely to be recurrent rather than evolving towards an equilibrium with monotonous parameter dependencies.

How to become a victim of crime

OpenAIRE

Богдан Миколайович Головкін

2017-01-01

Victimization from crime – a higher degree of social vulnerability criminal, contributing to the commission of crimes against them in certain circumstances. Victimization takes place in space and time, and includes four stages: 1) the emergence of criminal threats; 2) increasing the degree of social vulnerability to criminal assault; 3) the harm to individuals who find themselves in a vulnerable state at appropriate conditions (situations); 4) increase the number of victims of crimes as regis...

Transnational Crime Fictions and Argentina's Criminal State

OpenAIRE

Caballero, Juan

2013-01-01

My dissertation, titled "Transnational Crime Fictions and Argentina's Criminal State," proposes a new understanding of the dictatorship novels of Ricardo Piglia, Juan José Saer, and Manuel Puig grounded in their shared appropriation from popular crime fiction. Across the 1940's, 50's, and 60's, a wide range of popular crime fiction was translated, written, theorized, printed and reprinted in Argentina, and these popular genres grew steadily in readership, visibility, and cultural legitimacy....

Crimes In New York And Seoul A Comparison

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Leticia G. Patino

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Across the world highly populated urban areas are widely regarded as generators of various crimes. From petty crimes to organized crime activities cities and other urban areas provide some form of haven for criminal activities and their proponents. In this paper we look at two highly-urbanized areas New York City and Seoul South Korea. We look to compare the crime trends and activities in these two areas and see if there are points of comparison by which these two are similar or if they are separated by some factors..

Albedo estimation for scene segmentation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, C H; Rosenfeld, A

1983-03-01

Standard methods of image segmentation do not take into account the three-dimensional nature of the underlying scene. For example, histogram-based segmentation tacitly assumes that the image intensity is piecewise constant, and this is not true when the scene contains curved surfaces. This paper introduces a method of taking 3d information into account in the segmentation process. The image intensities are adjusted to compensate for the effects of estimated surface orientation; the adjusted intensities can be regarded as reflectivity estimates. When histogram-based segmentation is applied to these new values, the image is segmented into parts corresponding to surfaces of constant reflectivity in the scene. 7 references.

Pooling Objects for Recognizing Scenes without Examples

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kordumova, S.; Mensink, T.; Snoek, C.G.M.

2016-01-01

In this paper we aim to recognize scenes in images without using any scene images as training data. Different from attribute based approaches, we do not carefully select the training classes to match the unseen scene classes. Instead, we propose a pooling over ten thousand of off-the-shelf object

Philip McLaren and the Indigenous-Australian Crime Novel

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cornelis Martin Renes

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This paper locates the postcolonial crime novel as a space for disenfranchised groups to write back to the marginalisation inherent in the process of colonisation, and explores the example of Australia. From its inception in the mid-19th century, Australian crime fiction reflected upon the challenging harshness and otherness of the Australian experience for the free and convict settler, expelled from the metropole. It created a series of popular subgenres derived from the convict narrative proper, while more ‘standard’ modes of crime fiction, popularised in and through British and American crime fiction, were late to develop. Whereas Australian crime fiction has given expression to the white experience of the continent in manifold ways, up until recently it made no room for Indigenous voices – with the exception of the classic Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte series written by the prolific Arthur Upfield in the first half of the 20th century. For the longest time, this absence reflected the dispossession, dispersal and disenfranchisement of the colonised Indigenous peoples at large; there were neither Aboriginal voices nor Aboriginal authors, which made the textual space of the Australian crime novel a discursive terra nullius. This paper will look at the only Indigenous-Australian author to date with a substantial body of work in crime fiction, Philip McLaren, and elucidate how his four crime novels break new ground in Australian crime fiction by embedding themselves within a political framework of Aboriginal resilience and resistance to neo/colonialism. Written as of the 1990s, McLaren’s oeuvre is eclectic in that it does not respond to traditional formats of Australian crime fiction, shifts between generic subtypes and makes incursions into other genres. The paper concludes that McLaren’s oeuvre has not been conceived of as the work of a crime writer per se, but rather that its form and content are deeply informed by the racist violence

The potential of using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma time of flight mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-TOF-MS) in the forensic analysis of micro debris.

Science.gov (United States)

Scadding, Cameron J; Watling, R John; Thomas, Allen G

2005-08-15

The majority of crimes result in the generation of some form of physical evidence, which is available for collection by crime scene investigators or police. However, this debris is often limited in amount as modern criminals become more aware of its potential value to forensic scientists. The requirement to obtain robust evidence from increasingly smaller sized samples has required refinement and modification of old analytical techniques and the development of new ones. This paper describes a new method for the analysis of oxy-acetylene debris, left behind at a crime scene, and the establishment of its co-provenance with single particles of equivalent debris found on the clothing of persons of interest (POI). The ability to rapidly determine and match the elemental distribution patterns of debris collected from crime scenes to those recovered from persons of interest is essential in ensuring successful prosecution. Traditionally, relatively large amounts of sample (up to several milligrams) have been required to obtain a reliable elemental fingerprint of this type of material [R.J. Walting , B.F. Lynch, D. Herring, J. Anal. At. Spectrom. 12 (1997) 195]. However, this quantity of material is unlikely to be recovered from a POI. This paper describes the development and application of laser ablation inductively coupled plasma time of flight mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-TOF-MS), as an analytical protocol, which can be applied more appropriately to the analysis of micro-debris than conventional quadrupole based mass spectrometry. The resulting data, for debris as small as 70mum in diameter, was unambiguously matched between a single spherule recovered from a POI and a spherule recovered from the scene of crime, in an analytical procedure taking less than 5min.

Investigation into Seasonal Scavenging Patterns of Raccoons on Human Decomposition.

Science.gov (United States)

Jeong, Yangseung; Jantz, Lee Meadows; Smith, Jake

2016-03-01

Although raccoons are known as one of the most common scavengers in the U.S., scavenging by these animals has seldom been studied in terms of forensic significance. In this research, the seasonal pattern of raccoon scavenging and its effect on human decomposition was investigated using 178 human cadavers placed at the Anthropological Research Facility (ARF) of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) between February 2011 and December 2013. The results reveal that (i) the frequency of scavenging increases during summer, (ii) scavenging occurs relatively immediately and lasts shorter in summer months, and (iii) scavenging influences the decomposition process by hollowing limbs and by disturbing insect activities, both of which eventually increases the chance of mummification on the affected body. This information is expected to help forensic investigators identify raccoon scavenging as well as make a more precise interpretation of the effect of raccoon scavenging on bodies at crime scenes. © 2015 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Gun Theft and Crime.

Science.gov (United States)

Cook, Philip J

2018-06-01

Some law enforcement officials and other observers have asserted that theft is the primary source of guns to crime. In fact, the role of theft in supplying the guns used in robbery, assault, and murder is unknown, and current evidence provides little guidance about whether an effective program to reduce gun theft would reduce gun violence. The current article analyzes publicly available national data on gun theft together with a unique data set for Chicago. The results tend to support a conclusion that stolen guns play only a minor role in crime. First, publicly available data are used to calculate that thefts are only about 1% of all gun transactions nationwide. Second, an analysis of original data from Chicago demonstrates that less than 3% of crime guns recovered by the police have been reported stolen to the Chicago Police Department (CPD). If a gun is reported stolen, there is a 20% chance that it will be recovered, usually in conjunction with an arrest for illegal carrying. Less than half of those picked up with a stolen gun have a criminal record that includes violent offenses. Third, results from surveys of convicted criminals, both nationally and in Chicago, suggest that it is rare for respondents to have stolen the gun used in their most recent crime. The data on which these results are based have various shortcomings. A research agenda is proposed that would provide more certainty about the role of theft.

Correlated Topic Vector for Scene Classification.

Science.gov (United States)

Wei, Pengxu; Qin, Fei; Wan, Fang; Zhu, Yi; Jiao, Jianbin; Ye, Qixiang

2017-07-01

Scene images usually involve semantic correlations, particularly when considering large-scale image data sets. This paper proposes a novel generative image representation, correlated topic vector, to model such semantic correlations. Oriented from the correlated topic model, correlated topic vector intends to naturally utilize the correlations among topics, which are seldom considered in the conventional feature encoding, e.g., Fisher vector, but do exist in scene images. It is expected that the involvement of correlations can increase the discriminative capability of the learned generative model and consequently improve the recognition accuracy. Incorporated with the Fisher kernel method, correlated topic vector inherits the advantages of Fisher vector. The contributions to the topics of visual words have been further employed by incorporating the Fisher kernel framework to indicate the differences among scenes. Combined with the deep convolutional neural network (CNN) features and Gibbs sampling solution, correlated topic vector shows great potential when processing large-scale and complex scene image data sets. Experiments on two scene image data sets demonstrate that correlated topic vector improves significantly the deep CNN features, and outperforms existing Fisher kernel-based features.

the human genome project

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Enrique

have resulted in the biological diversity, both past and present, on this planet. ... Consortium. He is principal investigator on ... Leeuwenhoek was a necessary prerequisite to the vast array of high-definition .... with evidence left at crime scenes.

Penitentiary crime as an object of legal research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sergey Aleksandrovich Khokhrin

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Objective basing on statistical data and generalized empirical material to study the structure and dynamic properties of the penitentiary crime which are necessary to elaborate measures to prevent crimes involving the penitentiary system. Methods comparativelegal logicaljuridical analysis of documents survey results statistics and litigation. Results basing on the analysis of more than 1400 convictions for committing crimes by convicts while being imprisoned as well as statistical indicators of crime in penitentiary institutions since 2005 it is proposed to divide all the recorded facts of crime into categories. This will allow to define some categories of crimes committed in penitentiary institutions. Comparing the results of the analysis of judicial practice the survey of the staff and the statistical reports suggests that convicts with two or three convictions are most likely to commit crimes in the penitentiary institution. In our view an effective incentive to forgo crimes and resocialize may be a legal norm regulating sentencing for offences committed during the period of serving the sentence Article 68 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation quotSentencing for the offence during the period of serving the sentence quot. Scientific novelty the conclusion is made about the need to extinguish the risk groups by committing crimes in penitentiary institutions. The proposals are formulated to supplement the criminal law. Practical significance the materials and conclusions of the article can be used in lawmaking activity for the development of draft laws on amendments and additions to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in scientific work in the preparation of the dissertation research monographs textbooks and articles teaching the courses quotCriminal lawquot and quotCriminologyquot as well as courses for qualificationnbsp promotion. nbsp

History of Reading Struggles Linked to Enhanced Learning in Low Spatial Frequency Scenes

Science.gov (United States)

Schneps, Matthew H.; Brockmole, James R.; Sonnert, Gerhard; Pomplun, Marc

2012-01-01

People with dyslexia, who face lifelong struggles with reading, exhibit numerous associated low-level sensory deficits including deficits in focal attention. Countering this, studies have shown that struggling readers outperform typical readers in some visual tasks that integrate distributed information across an expanse. Though such abilities would be expected to facilitate scene memory, prior investigations using the contextual cueing paradigm failed to find corresponding advantages in dyslexia. We suggest that these studies were confounded by task-dependent effects exaggerating known focal attention deficits in dyslexia, and that, if natural scenes were used as the context, advantages would emerge. Here, we investigate this hypothesis by comparing college students with histories of severe lifelong reading difficulties (SR) and typical readers (TR) in contexts that vary attention load. We find no differences in contextual-cueing when spatial contexts are letter-like objects, or when contexts are natural scenes. However, the SR group significantly outperforms the TR group when contexts are low-pass filtered natural scenes [F(3, 39) = 3.15, p<.05]. These findings suggest that perception or memory for low spatial frequency components in scenes is enhanced in dyslexia. These findings are important because they suggest strengths for spatial learning in a population otherwise impaired, carrying implications for the education and support of students who face challenges in school. PMID:22558210

History of reading struggles linked to enhanced learning in low spatial frequency scenes.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Matthew H Schneps

Full Text Available People with dyslexia, who face lifelong struggles with reading, exhibit numerous associated low-level sensory deficits including deficits in focal attention. Countering this, studies have shown that struggling readers outperform typical readers in some visual tasks that integrate distributed information across an expanse. Though such abilities would be expected to facilitate scene memory, prior investigations using the contextual cueing paradigm failed to find corresponding advantages in dyslexia. We suggest that these studies were confounded by task-dependent effects exaggerating known focal attention deficits in dyslexia, and that, if natural scenes were used as the context, advantages would emerge. Here, we investigate this hypothesis by comparing college students with histories of severe lifelong reading difficulties (SR and typical readers (TR in contexts that vary attention load. We find no differences in contextual-cueing when spatial contexts are letter-like objects, or when contexts are natural scenes. However, the SR group significantly outperforms the TR group when contexts are low-pass filtered natural scenes [F(3, 39 = 3.15, p<.05]. These findings suggest that perception or memory for low spatial frequency components in scenes is enhanced in dyslexia. These findings are important because they suggest strengths for spatial learning in a population otherwise impaired, carrying implications for the education and support of students who face challenges in school.

Crime and punishment: Does it pay to punish?

Science.gov (United States)

Iglesias, J. R.; Semeshenko, V.; Schneider, E. M.; Gordon, M. B.

2012-08-01

Crime is the result of a rational distinctive balance between the benefits and costs of an illegal act. This idea was proposed by Becker more than forty years ago (Becker (1968) [1]). In this paper, we simulate a simple artificial society, in which agents earn fixed wages and can augment (or lose) wealth as a result of a successful (or not) act of crime. The probability of apprehension depends on the gravity of the crime, and the punishment takes the form of imprisonment and fines. We study the costs of the law enforcement system required for keeping crime within acceptable limits, and compare it with the harm produced by crime. A sharp phase transition is observed as a function of the probability of punishment, and this transition exhibits a clear hysteresis effect, suggesting that the cost of reversing a deteriorated situation might be much higher than that of maintaining a relatively low level of delinquency. Besides, we analyze economic consequences that arise from crimes under different scenarios of criminal activity and probabilities of apprehension.

The effect of football matches on crime patterns in Barcelona

OpenAIRE

Struse, Simon Planells; Montolio, Daniel

2014-01-01

Given the actual debate, in many European countries, about the need for public administrations to raise their revenues through taxing the crime externalities generated by some private leisure activities, this article analyzes the effect of football matches on crime focusing both on property crimes and interpersonal violent crimes. Our aim is to determine up to what extent a private leisure activity, such as football matches, induces negative crime externalities to the whole society. Using dat...

Divergent Effects of Beliefs in Heaven and Hell on National Crime Rates

Science.gov (United States)

Shariff, Azim F.; Rhemtulla, Mijke

2012-01-01

Though religion has been shown to have generally positive effects on normative ‘prosocial’ behavior, recent laboratory research suggests that these effects may be driven primarily by supernatural punishment. Supernatural benevolence, on the other hand, may actually be associated with less prosocial behavior. Here, we investigate these effects at the societal level, showing that the proportion of people who believe in hell negatively predicts national crime rates whereas belief in heaven predicts higher crime rates. These effects remain after accounting for a host of covariates, and ultimately prove stronger predictors of national crime rates than economic variables such as GDP and income inequality. Expanding on laboratory research on religious prosociality, this is the first study to tie religious beliefs to large-scale cross-national trends in pro- and anti-social behavior. PMID:22723927

Divergent effects of beliefs in heaven and hell on national crime rates.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Azim F Shariff

Full Text Available Though religion has been shown to have generally positive effects on normative 'prosocial' behavior, recent laboratory research suggests that these effects may be driven primarily by supernatural punishment. Supernatural benevolence, on the other hand, may actually be associated with less prosocial behavior. Here, we investigate these effects at the societal level, showing that the proportion of people who believe in hell negatively predicts national crime rates whereas belief in heaven predicts higher crime rates. These effects remain after accounting for a host of covariates, and ultimately prove stronger predictors of national crime rates than economic variables such as GDP and income inequality. Expanding on laboratory research on religious prosociality, this is the first study to tie religious beliefs to large-scale cross-national trends in pro- and anti-social behavior.

Individual Perceptions of Local Crime Risk

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Salm, M.; Vollaard, B.A.

2014-01-01

We provide evidence that perceptions of crime risk are severely biased for many years after a move to a new neighborhood. Based on four successive waves of a large crime survey, matched with administrative records on household relocations, we find that the longer an individual lives in a

Crime analysis using open source information

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nizamani, Sarwat; Memon, Nasrullah; Shah, Azhar Ali

2015-01-01

In this paper, we present a method of crime analysis from open source information. We employed un-supervised methods of data mining to explore the facts regarding the crimes of an area of interest. The analysis is based on well known clustering and association techniques. The results show...

Neural Scene Segmentation by Oscillatory Correlation

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Wang, DeLiang

2000-01-01

The segmentation of a visual scene into a set of coherent patterns (objects) is a fundamental aspect of perception, which underlies a variety of important tasks such as figure/ground segregation, and scene analysis...

Solving underwater crimes: development of latent prints made on submerged objects.

Science.gov (United States)

Castelló, Ana; Francés, Francesc; Verdú, Fernando

2013-09-01

Underwater crime scenes always present a challenge for forensic researchers, as the destructive effect of water considerably complicates the chances of recovering material of evidential value. The aim of this study is to tackle the problem of developing marks that have been left on submerged objects. Fingermark deposition was randomly made on two surfaces - glass and plastic whilst the material was submerged under tap water and then left for one to fifteen days before drying and development. For their later development, various reagents - Black Powder, Silver Metallic Powder, Fluorescent Powder, Sudan Black (powder and solution) and Small Particle Reagent - were used and the effectiveness of each of them on this particular type of evidence was then evaluated. The results show the possibility of obtaining good quality developed marks, even under such adverse circumstances. Further and wider research should, therefore, be undertaken in which other variables are introduced such as different substrates, other types of liquids, and environmental or time factors. Copyright © 2013 Forensic Science Society. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Improving the Interest of High-School Students toward Chemistry by Crime Scene Investigation

Science.gov (United States)

Basso, A.; Chiorri, C.; Bracco, F.; Carnasciali, M. M.; Alloisio, M.; Grotti, M.

2018-01-01

Improving the interest of high-school students towards chemistry (and science in general) is one of the goals of the Italian Ministry of Education. To this aim, we designed a context-based activity that actively involved students in six different laboratory experiences interconnected by a case study of the murder of Miss Scarlet, from the famous…

The Crime-Conflict Nexus and the Civil War in Syria

OpenAIRE

Christina Steenkamp

2017-01-01

There is a strong relationship between organised crime and civil war. This article contributes to the crime-conflict nexus literature by providing a consideration of the role of organised crime in the Syrian conflict. It provides an overview of pre- and post-war organised crime in Syria. The article then builds the argument that war provides opportunities for organised crime through the state’s diminished law enforcement ability; the economic hardship which civilians face during war; and the ...

Multimodal computational attention for scene understanding and robotics

CERN Document Server

Schauerte, Boris

2016-01-01

This book presents state-of-the-art computational attention models that have been successfully tested in diverse application areas and can build the foundation for artificial systems to efficiently explore, analyze, and understand natural scenes. It gives a comprehensive overview of the most recent computational attention models for processing visual and acoustic input. It covers the biological background of visual and auditory attention, as well as bottom-up and top-down attentional mechanisms and discusses various applications. In the first part new approaches for bottom-up visual and acoustic saliency models are presented and applied to the task of audio-visual scene exploration of a robot. In the second part the influence of top-down cues for attention modeling is investigated. .

A hierarchical inferential method for indoor scene classification

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jiang Jingzhe

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Indoor scene classification forms a basis for scene interaction for service robots. The task is challenging because the layout and decoration of a scene vary considerably. Previous studies on knowledge-based methods commonly ignore the importance of visual attributes when constructing the knowledge base. These shortcomings restrict the performance of classification. The structure of a semantic hierarchy was proposed to describe similarities of different parts of scenes in a fine-grained way. Besides the commonly used semantic features, visual attributes were also introduced to construct the knowledge base. Inspired by the processes of human cognition and the characteristics of indoor scenes, we proposed an inferential framework based on the Markov logic network. The framework is evaluated on a popular indoor scene dataset, and the experimental results demonstrate its effectiveness.

THE DETERMINATION OF CRIMES OF CORRUPTION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tamara Rubantsova

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Article is devoted to determination of starting conceptual positions of a concept and signs of corruption. In article it is noted that qualification of this type of crimes is rather difficult. To a basis of a corruption crime the illegal transaction having criminal character constitutes. The government employee, having the rights and obligations of the government employee, he sells to other persons that he by right doesn’t belong to it. The corruption crime becomes result of this transaction. It always has mercenary character and is made for the sake of receipt of benefit of property nature. Corruption in the state has system nature.

Internet Governance amp Cyber Crimes In UAE

OpenAIRE

Ayesha Al Neyadi; Alia Al Kaabi; Laila Al Kaabi; Mariam Al Ghufli; Maitha Al Shamsi; Dr. Muhammad Khan

2015-01-01

Abstract Most people in UAE dont feel safe while they are use the Internet because most internet users have been a victim for cyber crime. Cyber crime threat rate has increased which has targeted on citizen privacy property and governments also the reputation problems. There are many criminal activities such as indecent acts Copyright issues Terrorist Acts State security and Contempt of religion. Cyber crimes due to several reasons such as they have lack of social intelligence they are being ...

A Survey of Cyber Crime in Greece

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Papanikolaou

2014-11-01

Full Text Available During the past years, the Internet has evolved into the so-called “Web 2.0”. Nevertheless, the wide use of the offered Internet services has rendered individual users a potential target to cyber criminals. The paper presents a review and analysis of various cyber crimes, based on the cases that were reported to the Cyber Crime and Computer Crime Unit of the Greek Police Force and compares them to similar data of other EU countries.

The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime

OpenAIRE

John Donohue; Steven Levitt

2000-01-01

We offer evidence that legalized abortion has contributed significantly to recent crime reductions. Crime began to fall roughly 18 years after abortion legalization. The 5 states that allowed abortion in 1970 experienced declines earlier than the rest of the nation, which legalized in 1973 with Roe v. Wade. States with high abortion rates in the 1970s and 1980s experienced greater crime reductions in the 1990s. In high abortion states, only arrests of those born after abortion legaliz...

Perfil do idoso acusado de cometer crime

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sérgio Vieira Brandão

2017-06-01

Full Text Available É verdade que o idoso, muitas vezes, é vítima de diversas formas de agressões, mas também é agente da prática de delitos. Por meio de pesquisa documental realizada em 2013 com todos os boletins de ocorrência registrados na delegacia de polícia de Imbé, Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil, realizamos análise estatística e evidenciamos o perfil do idoso acusado de cometer crime e os tipos de crimes cometidos. No período pesquisado, 3,28% do total de idosos de Imbé foi acusado de cometer algum tipo de crime. Este artigo recomenda uma ação contínua e integrada da rede de saúde e de segurança pública com as demais áreas sociais para antecipar situações de risco para idosos (e comunidade em geral, de modo a promover a cidadania, gerenciar conflitos e reduzir a violência urbana. It is genuine that the elderly frequently are victims of several kinds of hostility, but the fact remains that he or she, too, is also an agent of the committal of criminal offenses. Through documentary research realized in 2013 with the total occurrences bulletins registered in police stations in Imbé, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, we realize statistical analysis and show the profile of the elderly accused of committing crime and the types of crimes committed. In the period surveyed, 3.28% of the total number of elderly of Imbé was accused of committing some type of crime. Profile of the Elderly Accused of Committing Crime recommends a continuous and integrated action of the health and public safety network with the other social areas to anticipate risk situations for the elderly (and the community in general, in order to promote citizenship, manage conflicts and reduce urban violence. Keywords: violence, seniors, aging, public health, crime

DNA typing in forensic medicine and in criminal investigations: a current survey

Science.gov (United States)

Benecke, Mark

Since 1985 DNA typing of biological material has become one of the most powerful tools for personal identification in forensic medicine and in criminal investigations [1-6]. Classical DNA "fingerprinting" is increasingly being replaced by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based technology which detects very short polymorphic stretches of DNA [7-15]. DNA loci which forensic scientists study do not code for proteins, and they are spread over the whole genome [16, 17]. These loci are neutral, and few provide any information about individuals except for their identity. Minute amounts of biological material are sufficient for DNA typing. Many European countries are beginning to establish databases to store DNA profiles of crime scenes and known offenders. A brief overview is given of past and present DNA typing and the establishment of forensic DNA databases in Europe.

Income Inequality: Impact of Inequality Measures on Crimes An Analysis of the State of New Jersey

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bertram C. Ifeanyi OKPOKWASILI

2016-05-01

Full Text Available This research used time-series data for the 50 year period of 1964 to 2014 to investigate the relationship between income inequalities and crimes in the state of New Jersey, United States of America. It found that income inequality had a significant relationship to all four types of crime measured – murder, forcible rape, aggravated assault and property crimes. Statistical significance would seem to depend on the model and inequality measure used. A log-log relationship existed between inequalities and all the crimes. Different inequality measures enabled different measures of significance. It also found that it was possible to come to different conclusions with respect to the relationships by using different inequality measures- the Gini and the 20/20 measures in our case.

Neighborhood-level LGBT hate crimes and current illicit drug use among sexual minority youth.

Science.gov (United States)

Duncan, Dustin T; Hatzenbuehler, Mark L; Johnson, Renee M

2014-02-01

To investigate whether past-30 day illicit drug use among sexual minority youth was more common in neighborhoods with a greater prevalence of hate crimes targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT, or sexual minority) individuals. We used a population-based survey of public school youth in Boston, Massachusetts, consisting of 1292 9th-12th grade students from the 2008 Boston Youth Survey Geospatial Dataset (sexual minority n=108). Data on LGBT hate crimes involving assaults or assaults and battery between 2005 and 2008 were obtained from the Boston Police Department and linked to youths' residential address. Youth reported past-30 day use of marijuana and other illicit drugs. Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney tests and corresponding p-values were computed to assess differences in substance use by neighborhood-level LGBT assault hate crime rate among sexual minority youth (n=103). The LGBT assault hate crime rate in the neighborhoods of sexual minority youth who reported current marijuana use was 23.7 per 100,000, compared to 12.9 per 100,000 for sexual minority youth who reported no marijuana use (p=0.04). No associations between LGBT assault hate crimes and marijuana use among heterosexual youth (p>0.05) or between sexual minority marijuana use and overall neighborhood-level violent and property crimes (p>0.05) were detected, providing evidence for result specificity. We found a significantly greater prevalence of marijuana use among sexual minority youth in neighborhoods with a higher prevalence of LGBT assault hate crimes. These results suggest that neighborhood context (i.e., LGBT hate crimes) may contribute to sexual orientation disparities in marijuana use. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Effect of Scene Variation on the Redundant Use of Color in Definite Reference

Science.gov (United States)

Koolen, Ruud; Goudbeek, Martijn; Krahmer, Emiel

2013-01-01

This study investigates to what extent the amount of variation in a visual scene causes speakers to mention the attribute color in their definite target descriptions, focusing on scenes in which this attribute is not needed for identification of the target. The results of our three experiments show that speakers are more likely to redundantly…

The Crime-Conflict Nexus and the Civil War in Syria

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christina Steenkamp

2017-09-01

Full Text Available There is a strong relationship between organised crime and civil war. This article contributes to the crime-conflict nexus literature by providing a consideration of the role of organised crime in the Syrian conflict. It provides an overview of pre- and post-war organised crime in Syria. The article then builds the argument that war provides opportunities for organised crime through the state’s diminished law enforcement ability; the economic hardship which civilians face during war; and the abundance of armed groups who all need to generate revenue. Secondly, the paper argues that organised crime also affects the intensity and duration of war by enabling militants to reproduce themselves materially and to build institutions amongst the communities where they are active. The relationships between armed groups and local populations emerge as a central theme in understanding the crime-conflict nexus.

THE IMPACT OF CRIME ON RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY VALUE - ON THE EXAMPLE OF SZCZECIN

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Foryś Iwona

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The decisions of buyers on the housing market are not only the sum of their subjective expectations but also of the perception of real estate through a prism of opinions and suggestions arising from the surroundings. One of the basic criteria driving households determined to meet basic housing needs is security. The aim of the study is to identify the relationship between the transaction prices of housing and the crime rate in the various districts of Szczecin. For this purpose, data from the Regional Police Headquarters in Szczecin (i.e. map of crimes and transactional data from notarial acts are analyzed in the work. Then, using statistical and econometric models, spatial relationships of the examined crimes are investigated.

Neighborhood Effects on Youth Crime

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rotger, Gabriel Pons; Galster, George Charles

We investigate the degree to which youth (ages 14-29) criminal offenses are influenced by neighbors, identifying causal effects with a natural experimental allocation of social housing in Copenhagen. We find that youth exposed to a one percentage point higher concentration of neighbors with drug...... criminal records are 6% more likely to be charged for criminal offenses (both drug and property crimes), and this impact manifests itself after six months of exposure. This neighborhood effect is stronger for previous offenders, and does not lead to criminal partnerships. Our exploration of alternative...

Temporal dimensions of vulnerability to crime in economic sectors

OpenAIRE

Klima, Noel

2011-01-01

This paper presents the results of research into vulnerability to crime in two economic sectors in Belgium. Vulnerability to crime is an integration of diverse temporal factors. We address pre-crime and post-crime aspects of vulnerability, arising before and after the criminal event in an economic context. Based on interviews with professionals, security staff, law enforcement agents and with criminals in the transport sector and the hotel and catering industry, a study of police files, and i...

15 CFR 742.7 - Crime control.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 15 Commerce and Foreign Trade 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Crime control. 742.7 Section 742.7... INDUSTRY AND SECURITY, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE EXPORT ADMINISTRATION REGULATIONS CONTROL POLICY-CCL BASED CONTROLS § 742.7 Crime control. (a) License requirements. In support of U.S. foreign policy to promote the...

Visual search for arbitrary objects in real scenes

Science.gov (United States)

Alvarez, George A.; Rosenholtz, Ruth; Kuzmova, Yoana I.; Sherman, Ashley M.

2011-01-01

How efficient is visual search in real scenes? In searches for targets among arrays of randomly placed distractors, efficiency is often indexed by the slope of the reaction time (RT) × Set Size function. However, it may be impossible to define set size for real scenes. As an approximation, we hand-labeled 100 indoor scenes and used the number of labeled regions as a surrogate for set size. In Experiment 1, observers searched for named objects (a chair, bowl, etc.). With set size defined as the number of labeled regions, search was very efficient (~5 ms/item). When we controlled for a possible guessing strategy in Experiment 2, slopes increased somewhat (~15 ms/item), but they were much shallower than search for a random object among other distinctive objects outside of a scene setting (Exp. 3: ~40 ms/item). In Experiments 4–6, observers searched repeatedly through the same scene for different objects. Increased familiarity with scenes had modest effects on RTs, while repetition of target items had large effects (>500 ms). We propose that visual search in scenes is efficient because scene-specific forms of attentional guidance can eliminate most regions from the “functional set size” of items that could possibly be the target. PMID:21671156

Visual search for arbitrary objects in real scenes.

Science.gov (United States)

Wolfe, Jeremy M; Alvarez, George A; Rosenholtz, Ruth; Kuzmova, Yoana I; Sherman, Ashley M

2011-08-01

How efficient is visual search in real scenes? In searches for targets among arrays of randomly placed distractors, efficiency is often indexed by the slope of the reaction time (RT) × Set Size function. However, it may be impossible to define set size for real scenes. As an approximation, we hand-labeled 100 indoor scenes and used the number of labeled regions as a surrogate for set size. In Experiment 1, observers searched for named objects (a chair, bowl, etc.). With set size defined as the number of labeled regions, search was very efficient (~5 ms/item). When we controlled for a possible guessing strategy in Experiment 2, slopes increased somewhat (~15 ms/item), but they were much shallower than search for a random object among other distinctive objects outside of a scene setting (Exp. 3: ~40 ms/item). In Experiments 4-6, observers searched repeatedly through the same scene for different objects. Increased familiarity with scenes had modest effects on RTs, while repetition of target items had large effects (>500 ms). We propose that visual search in scenes is efficient because scene-specific forms of attentional guidance can eliminate most regions from the "functional set size" of items that could possibly be the target.

A comparative study of urban crime between Malaysia and Nigeria

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zubairu Abubakar Ghani

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Urbanization has created numerous social problems, among which is crime that became a common phenomenon to all urban areas in both developed and developing nations. Recent unimaginable levels of the world urbanization coincides with rise in urban crimes in many parts of the world, as the rate of unemployment had been on the increase and coupled with increased poverty among the urban poor. Nature of crime is not uniform but varies from one geographical region to another. In some areas, property crime is more common while in others, crime on person (violent is prevalent. Crime is not being plagued by a singular factor anywhere it occurred, there are variant factors that influence criminal activities. However, key factors that persuade criminal behaviours of potential offenders includes: unemployment, poverty, bad governance and weaknesses in law enforcement or crime-control agencies. These four key factors were discussed in this paper with hope of bringing out nature of urban crimes that bedevilled properties and people safety for taking management and prevention measures.

Tests of Theories of Crime in Female Prisoners.

Science.gov (United States)

Lindberg, Marc A; Fugett, April; Adkins, Ashtin; Cook, Kelsey

2017-02-01

Several general theories of crime were tested with path models on 293 female prisoners in a U.S. State prison. The theories tested included Social Bond and Control, Thrill/Risk Seeking, and a new attachment-based Developmental Dynamic Systems model. A large battery of different instruments ranging from measures of risk taking, to a crime addiction scale, to Childhood Adverse Events, to attachments and clinical issues were used. The older general theories of crime did not hold up well under the rigor of path modeling. The new dynamic systems model was supported that incorporated adverse childhood events leading to (a) peer crime, (b) crime addiction, and (c) a measure derived from the Attachment and Clinical Issues Questionnaire (ACIQ) that takes individual differences in attachments and clinical issues into account. The results were discussed in terms of new approaches to Research Defined Criteria of Diagnosis (RDoC) and new approaches to intervention.

Semantic memory for contextual regularities within and across scene categories: evidence from eye movements.

Science.gov (United States)

Brockmole, James R; Le-Hoa Võ, Melissa

2010-10-01

When encountering familiar scenes, observers can use item-specific memory to facilitate the guidance of attention to objects appearing in known locations or configurations. Here, we investigated how memory for relational contingencies that emerge across different scenes can be exploited to guide attention. Participants searched for letter targets embedded in pictures of bedrooms. In a between-subjects manipulation, targets were either always on a bed pillow or randomly positioned. When targets were systematically located within scenes, search for targets became more efficient. Importantly, this learning transferred to bedrooms without pillows, ruling out learning that is based on perceptual contingencies. Learning also transferred to living room scenes, but it did not transfer to kitchen scenes, even though both scene types contained pillows. These results suggest that statistical regularities abstracted across a range of stimuli are governed by semantic expectations regarding the presence of target-predicting local landmarks. Moreover, explicit awareness of these contingencies led to a central tendency bias in recall memory for precise target positions that is similar to the spatial category effects observed in landmark memory. These results broaden the scope of conditions under which contextual cuing operates and demonstrate how semantic memory plays a causal and independent role in the learning of associations between objects in real-world scenes.

Scene analysis in the natural environment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lewicki, Michael S; Olshausen, Bruno A; Surlykke, Annemarie

2014-01-01

The problem of scene analysis has been studied in a number of different fields over the past decades. These studies have led to important insights into problems of scene analysis, but not all of these insights are widely appreciated, and there remain critical shortcomings in current approaches th...... ill-posed problems, (2) the ability to integrate and store information across time and modality, (3) efficient recovery and representation of 3D scene structure, and (4) the use of optimal motor actions for acquiring information to progress toward behavioral goals....

DNA testing in homicide investigations.

Science.gov (United States)

Prahlow, Joseph A; Cameron, Thomas; Arendt, Alexander; Cornelis, Kenneth; Bontrager, Anthony; Suth, Michael S; Black, Lisa; Tobey, Rebbecca; Pollock, Sharon; Stur, Shawn; Cotter, Kenneth; Gabrielse, Joel

2017-10-01

Objectives With the widespread use of DNA testing, police, death investigators, and attorneys need to be aware of the capabilities of this technology. This review provides an overview of scenarios where DNA evidence has played a major role in homicide investigations in order to highlight important educational issues for police, death investigators, forensic pathologists, and attorneys. Methods This was a nonrandom, observational, retrospective study. Data were obtained from the collective files of the authors from casework during a 15-year period, from 2000 through 2014. Results A series of nine scenarios, encompassing 11 deaths, is presented from the standpoint of the police and death investigation, the forensic pathology autopsy performance, the subsequent DNA testing of evidence, and, ultimately, the final adjudication of cases. Details of each case are presented, along with a discussion that focuses on important aspects of sample collection for potential DNA testing, especially at the crime scene and the autopsy. The presentation highlights the diversity of case and evidence types in which DNA testing played a valuable role in the successful prosecution of the case. Conclusions By highlighting homicides where DNA testing contributed to the successful adjudication of cases, police, death investigators, forensic pathologists, and attorneys will be better informed regarding the types of evidence and situations where such testing is of potential value.

Contextualizing Restorative Justice for Hate Crime

Science.gov (United States)

Gavrielides, Theo

2012-01-01

The application of restorative justice (RJ) with hate crime remains an underdeveloped field of research, policy, and practice. This article aims to advance the understanding of these two areas of inquiry: RJ and hate crime. It is known that while most hate incidents involve minor, punishable offenses, their impact can be long lasting and…

Less crime, more punishment.

Science.gov (United States)

Cooney, Mark; Burt, Callie Harbin

2008-09-01

Recasting Durkheim's "community of saints" thesis, the authors argue that the severity of punishment is predicted in part by the prevalence of the deviant behavior of which the deviant stands accused. Although there is some curvilinearity at low levels of prevalence, the relationship is generally negative. Thus, all else equal, where a particular crime is frequent, any punishment applied to it is likely to be mild; conversely, where a crime is infrequent, its punishment ought to be severe. Using hierarchical regression models, the authors support this hypothesis with 1988 homicide conviction and imprisonment decisions in 32 U.S. counties.

The nature of crime : Is cheating necessary for cooperation?

Science.gov (United States)

Machalek, R; Cohen, L E

1991-09-01

The classical social theorist Emile Durkheim proposed the counterintuitive thesis that crime is beneficial for society because it provokes punishment, which enhances social solidarity. His logic, however, is blemished by a reified view of society that leads to group-selectionist thinking and a teleological account of the causes of crime. Reconceptualization of the relationship between crime and punishment in terms of evolutionary game theory, however, suggests that crime (cheating) may confer benefits on cooperating individuals by promoting stability in their patterns of cooperation.

76 FR 20827 - National Crime Victims' Rights Week, 2011

Science.gov (United States)

2011-04-13

... victims of crime each year. For many citizens, a sense of security remains painfully elusive, and we must... survivors. We have shined a light on hidden crimes like cyberbullying, online child sexual exploitation, and... working to prevent and prosecute financial crimes. My Administration's Financial Fraud Enforcement Task...

Legal nature of the crimes at Paris. Terrorism or war crimes?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Raúl F. Campusano Droguett

2017-05-01

Full Text Available In this text we analyse from a legal point of view, the crimes committed in Paris on November 13th of 2015 by the criminal organization ISIS. As a general perception, these acts are understood as “acts of terrorism”, witch we think it is not the best option, not only because there is not an international definition of “acts of terrorism”, but also because the definitions domestic legislation use for such kind of acts are technically wrong and usually affect the due process of law. We think, as a second option, that these acts are actually war crimes under the Rome Statute of 1998 and the Geneva Convention with their Additional Protocols, which could become an effective option under procedure law.

Essays in Education, Crime, and Job Displacement

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bennett, Patrick

, Crime, and Job Displacement”, analyzes the determinants and social implications of these three factors. While independent, each essay within this thesis examines the impact of factors such as education, in terms of reduced crime, job loss, in terms of increased crime, and discrimination, in terms of its......With a limited budget and resources, governments must decide how to allocate funds across a variety of factors which benefit society such as education, crime deterrence, and public safety. Each increase in spending on one area comes with the knowledge that this money cannot be spent on social...... problems in another area. As such, externalities and unexpected spillover effects impact the costs and benefits of public spending to society and may have large and meaningful implications on how to most effectively allocate resources across a multitude of outcomes. For example, an increase in education...

TRANSNATIONAL ORGANISED CRIME IN INDONESIA: THE NEED FOR INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

James N Mitchell

2016-11-01

Full Text Available This article examines the growing infuence of transnational organised crime on the nations of South East Asia. Human trafficking, maritime piracy, terrorism and wildlife trafficking are major transnational crimes that cause significant harm to both individuals and national economies. This article examines the continuing domestic and international legislative, law enforcement and policy efforts of South East Asian nations to address transnational organised crime. it is concluded that to effectively counter transnational organised crime there is a need to employ international cooperation that is focused on addressing the unique factors of each crime.

Fear of crime and its relationship to self-reported health and stress among men.

Science.gov (United States)

Macassa, Gloria; Winersjö, Rocio; Wijk, Katarina; McGrath, Cormac; Ahmadi, Nader; Soares, Joaquim

2017-12-13

Fear of crime is a growing social and public health problem globally, including in developed countries such as Sweden. This study investigated the impact of fear of crime on self-reported health and stress among men living in Gävleborg County. The study used data collected from 2993 men through a cross sectional survey in the 2014 Health in Equal Terms survey. Descriptive and logistic regression analyses were carried out to study the relationship between fear of crime and self-reported health and stress. There was a statistically significant association between fear of crime and self-reported poor health and stress among men residing in Gävleborg County. In the bivariate analysis, men who reported fear of crime had odds of 1.98 (CI 1.47-2.66) and 2.23 (CI 1.45-3.41) respectively. Adjusting for demographic, social and economic variables in the multivariate analysis only reduced the odds ratio for self-reported poor health to 1.52 (CI 1.05-2.21) but not for self-reported stress with odds of 2.22 (1.27-3.86). Fear of crime among men was statistically significantly associated with self-reported poor health and stress in Gävleborg County. However, the statistically significant relationship remained even after accounting for demographic, social and economic factors, which warrants further research to better understand the role played by other variables.

Binary patterns encoded convolutional neural networks for texture recognition and remote sensing scene classification

Science.gov (United States)

Anwer, Rao Muhammad; Khan, Fahad Shahbaz; van de Weijer, Joost; Molinier, Matthieu; Laaksonen, Jorma

2018-04-01

Designing discriminative powerful texture features robust to realistic imaging conditions is a challenging computer vision problem with many applications, including material recognition and analysis of satellite or aerial imagery. In the past, most texture description approaches were based on dense orderless statistical distribution of local features. However, most recent approaches to texture recognition and remote sensing scene classification are based on Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs). The de facto practice when learning these CNN models is to use RGB patches as input with training performed on large amounts of labeled data (ImageNet). In this paper, we show that Local Binary Patterns (LBP) encoded CNN models, codenamed TEX-Nets, trained using mapped coded images with explicit LBP based texture information provide complementary information to the standard RGB deep models. Additionally, two deep architectures, namely early and late fusion, are investigated to combine the texture and color information. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to investigate Binary Patterns encoded CNNs and different deep network fusion architectures for texture recognition and remote sensing scene classification. We perform comprehensive experiments on four texture recognition datasets and four remote sensing scene classification benchmarks: UC-Merced with 21 scene categories, WHU-RS19 with 19 scene classes, RSSCN7 with 7 categories and the recently introduced large scale aerial image dataset (AID) with 30 aerial scene types. We demonstrate that TEX-Nets provide complementary information to standard RGB deep model of the same network architecture. Our late fusion TEX-Net architecture always improves the overall performance compared to the standard RGB network on both recognition problems. Furthermore, our final combination leads to consistent improvement over the state-of-the-art for remote sensing scene classification.

The need for hate crime legislation

African Journals Online (AJOL)

as hate crimes,3 undermine social cohesion4 and have been shown to have ... a bias motive'.8 A 'hate crime' is thus an act which constitutes a ... not report their experience to the police and that ... police officers appear to share such sentiments.28 ... considerable media attention. ..... opening the lodge to gay tourists. During ...

Towards simultaneous individual and tissue identification: A proof-of-principle study on parallel sequencing of STRs, amelogenin, and mRNAs with the Ion Torrent PGM

NARCIS (Netherlands)

D. Zubakov (Dmitry); I. Kokmeijer; A. Ralf (Arwin); N. Rajagopalan; L. Calandro; S. Wootton; R. Langit; C. Chang; R. Lagace; M.H. Kayser (Manfred)

2015-01-01

textabstractAbstract DNA-based individual identification and RNA-based tissue identification represent two commonly-used tools in forensic investigation, aiming to identify crime scene sample donors and helping to provide links between DNA-identified sample donors and criminal acts. Currently

Forty years of crime prevention in the Dutch Polder

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Dijk, J.J.M.; de Waard, J.; Crawford, A.

2009-01-01

For the past two decades the growth of public policies and strategies aimed at crime prevention and community safety has constituted one of the major innovations in crime control, with significant implications for the manner in which crime and safety are governed. But how has 'the preventive turn'

Superpixel-Based Feature for Aerial Image Scene Recognition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hongguang Li

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Image scene recognition is a core technology for many aerial remote sensing applications. Different landforms are inputted as different scenes in aerial imaging, and all landform information is regarded as valuable for aerial image scene recognition. However, the conventional features of the Bag-of-Words model are designed using local points or other related information and thus are unable to fully describe landform areas. This limitation cannot be ignored when the aim is to ensure accurate aerial scene recognition. A novel superpixel-based feature is proposed in this study to characterize aerial image scenes. Then, based on the proposed feature, a scene recognition method of the Bag-of-Words model for aerial imaging is designed. The proposed superpixel-based feature that utilizes landform information establishes top-task superpixel extraction of landforms to bottom-task expression of feature vectors. This characterization technique comprises the following steps: simple linear iterative clustering based superpixel segmentation, adaptive filter bank construction, Lie group-based feature quantification, and visual saliency model-based feature weighting. Experiments of image scene recognition are carried out using real image data captured by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV. The recognition accuracy of the proposed superpixel-based feature is 95.1%, which is higher than those of scene recognition algorithms based on other local features.

Trouble in paradise: The crime and health outcomes of the Surfers Paradise licensed venue lockout.

Science.gov (United States)

de Andrade, Dominique; Homel, Ross; Townsley, Michael

2016-09-01

The lockout intervention has become embedded in Australian alcohol policy with little scientific evidence of its effectiveness in reducing violence and disorder. This paper reports an evaluation of the Queensland lockout pilot in Surfers Paradise. Patrons could not enter or re-enter licensed venues after 3 am, while patrons inside at this time could stay until close. Using police and ambulance data, time series analyses examined the impact of tourism seasons and the lockout on rates of crime, violence, injury and intoxication. Additional analyses were also conducted to show spatial and temporal changes in crime over time. Both police and ambulance data showed that the lockout introduction had no statistically significant impact on rates of crime, violence, head and neck injuries, and intoxication over the 2 years following lockout. Hot spot maps indicated limited spatial shift of crime within Surfers Paradise following the lockout introduction, with evidence of a temporary intensification of crime in already established hot spots. We found a moderate statistically significant change in the 24 h distribution of crime after the lockout implementation, suggesting temporal displacement of crime. Results support the small existing body of evidence on lockouts that indicates they are largely ineffective in reducing crime and injuries in entertainment districts. As multi-pronged strategies that include a lockout gain in popularity, further investigation should focus on identifying the key drivers of successful interventions such as the Newcastle strategy, to better refine these interventions for replication and evaluation elsewhere. [De Andrade D, Homel R, Townsley M. Trouble in paradise: The crime and health outcomes of the Surfers Paradise licensed venue lockout. Drug Alcohol Rev 2016;35:564-572]. © 2016 Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs.

Multi- and hyperspectral scene modeling

Science.gov (United States)

Borel, Christoph C.; Tuttle, Ronald F.

2011-06-01

This paper shows how to use a public domain raytracer POV-Ray (Persistence Of Vision Raytracer) to render multiand hyper-spectral scenes. The scripting environment allows automatic changing of the reflectance and transmittance parameters. The radiosity rendering mode allows accurate simulation of multiple-reflections between surfaces and also allows semi-transparent surfaces such as plant leaves. We show that POV-Ray computes occlusion accurately using a test scene with two blocks under a uniform sky. A complex scene representing a plant canopy is generated using a few lines of script. With appropriate rendering settings, shadows cast by leaves are rendered in many bands. Comparing single and multiple reflection renderings, the effect of multiple reflections is clearly visible and accounts for 25% of the overall apparent canopy reflectance in the near infrared.

Ambient visual information confers a context-specific, long-term benefit on memory for haptic scenes.

Science.gov (United States)

Pasqualotto, Achille; Finucane, Ciara M; Newell, Fiona N

2013-09-01

We investigated the effects of indirect, ambient visual information on haptic spatial memory. Using touch only, participants first learned an array of objects arranged in a scene and were subsequently tested on their recognition of that scene which was always hidden from view. During haptic scene exploration, participants could either see the surrounding room or were blindfolded. We found a benefit in haptic memory performance only when ambient visual information was available in the early stages of the task but not when participants were initially blindfolded. Specifically, when ambient visual information was available a benefit on performance was found in a subsequent block of trials during which the participant was blindfolded (Experiment 1), and persisted over a delay of one week (Experiment 2). However, we found that the benefit for ambient visual information did not transfer to a novel environment (Experiment 3). In Experiment 4 we further investigated the nature of the visual information that improved haptic memory and found that geometric information about a surrounding (virtual) room rather than isolated object landmarks, facilitated haptic scene memory. Our results suggest that vision improves haptic memory for scenes by providing an environment-centred, allocentric reference frame for representing object location through touch. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Comparison of algorithms for blood stain detection applied to forensic hyperspectral imagery

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Jie; Messinger, David W.; Mathew, Jobin J.; Dube, Roger R.

2016-05-01

Blood stains are among the most important types of evidence for forensic investigation. They contain valuable DNA information, and the pattern of the stains can suggest specifics about the nature of the violence that transpired at the scene. Early detection of blood stains is particularly important since the blood reacts physically and chemically with air and materials over time. Accurate identification of blood remnants, including regions that might have been intentionally cleaned, is an important aspect of forensic investigation. Hyperspectral imaging might be a potential method to detect blood stains because it is non-contact and provides substantial spectral information that can be used to identify regions in a scene with trace amounts of blood. The potential complexity of scenes in which such vast violence occurs can be high when the range of scene material types and conditions containing blood stains at a crime scene are considered. Some stains are hard to detect by the unaided eye, especially if a conscious effort to clean the scene has occurred (we refer to these as "latent" blood stains). In this paper we present the initial results of a study of the use of hyperspectral imaging algorithms for blood detection in complex scenes. We describe a hyperspectral imaging system which generates images covering 400 nm - 700 nm visible range with a spectral resolution of 10 nm. Three image sets of 31 wavelength bands were generated using this camera for a simulated indoor crime scene in which blood stains were placed on a T-shirt and walls. To detect blood stains in the scene, Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Subspace Reed Xiaoli Detection (SRXD), and Topological Anomaly Detection (TAD) algorithms were used. Comparison of the three hyperspectral image analysis techniques shows that TAD is most suitable for detecting blood stains and discovering latent blood stains.

[The CSI effect and its impact on the perceptions of forensic science experts' work].

Science.gov (United States)

Stojer, Joanna

2011-01-01

The issue that has been analyzed in this work is the potential effect of crime films and TV series on people's perceptions of forensic medicine and science, and especially on the forming of expectations towards forensic science experts. This syndrome is being called the "CSI effect" after the popular franchise Crime Scene Investigation (CSI). Questionnaire surveys that have been conducted included "experts": 50 experts in various specialities, 77 prosecutors, 119 judges, 64 lay judges, 161 police staff and 80 members of general public. In-depth interviews have been conducted with 20 police staff, and also a focus group has been carried out with 15 law students. In the opinion of the respondents, people's perceptions and expectations of forensic science--as it can be observed during criminal trials--are largely inflated by the entertainment media. Among the surveyed persons, the category that declares watching crime series most rarely, is forensic science experts. Around half of the surveyed experts pointed out to excessive expectations towards they work instigated by TV crime series. The most common expectations towards forensic medicine experts are: immediate conclusiveness of post mortem examinations (going as far as indicating the cause of death at the crime scene), precision of death time estimation and a routine use of sophisticated methods known from TV.

Street Prostitution Zones and Crime

OpenAIRE

Bisschop, Paul; Kastoryano, Stephen; van der Klaauw, Bas

2015-01-01

This paper studies the effects of introducing legal street prostitution zones on both registered and perceived crime. We exploit a unique setting in the Netherlands where legal street prostitution zones were opened in nine cities under different regulation systems. We provide evidence that the opening of these zones was not in response to changes in crime. Our difference-in-difference analysis using data on the largest 25 Dutch cities between 1994 and 2011 shows that opening a legal street pr...

Forensic DNA phenotyping in criminal investigations and criminal courts: assessing and mitigating the dilemmas inherent in the science.

Science.gov (United States)

MacLean, Charles E; Lamparello, Adam

2014-01-01

Forensic DNA Phenotyping ("FDP"), estimating the externally visible characteristics ("EVCs") of the source of human DNA left at a crime scene, is evolving from science fiction toward science fact. FDP can already identify a source's gender with 100% accuracy, and likely hair color, iris color, adult height, and a number of other EVCs with accuracy rates approaching 70%. Patent applications have been filed for approaches to generating 3D likenesses of DNA sources based on the DNA alone. Nonetheless, criminal investigators, particularly in the United States, have been reticent to apply FDP in their casework. The reticence is likely related to a number of perceived and real dilemmas associated with FDP: is FDP racial profiling, should we test unknown and unseen physical conditions, does testing for behavioral characteristics impermissibly violate the source's privacy, ought testing be permitted for samples from known sources or DNA databases, and should FDP be limited to use in investigations only or is FDP appropriate for use in a criminal court. As this article explains, although those dilemmas are substantive, they are not insurmountable, and can be quite easily managed with appropriate regulation and protocols. As FDP continues to develop, there will be less need for criminal investigators to shy away from FDP. Cold cases, missing persons, and victims in crimes without other evidence will one day soon all be well served by FDP.

Primal scene derivatives in the work of Yukio Mishima: the primal scene fantasy.

Science.gov (United States)

Turco, Ronald N

2002-01-01

This article discusses the preoccupation with fire, revenge, crucifixion, and other fantasies as they relate to the primal scene. The manifestations of these fantasies are demonstrated in a work of fiction by Yukio Mishima. The Temple of the Golden Pavillion. As is the case in other writings of Mishima there is a fusion of aggressive and libidinal drives and a preoccupation with death. The primal scene is directly connected with pyromania and destructive "acting out" of fantasies. This article is timely with regard to understanding contemporary events of cultural and national destruction.

Poverty and crime: Uncovering the hidden face of sexual crimes in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Agribotix GCS 077

Key words: gender; poverty; sexual crimes; urban low-income communities; Ghana. 1Charlotte .... juvenile offences, and child delinquency cases. ... In effect, vulnerability has now become an integral aspect of poverty analysis and is looked.

Preventing Financial Crime

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Boll, Karen

This paper investigates the Swedish tax authority’s (Skatteverkets) compliance initiative called Preventing Financial Crime. In Sweden tax evasion related to organised moon-lighting is defined as a major risk to the revenue collection and to the legitimacy of Skatteverket. The traditional approach...... on this, the paper shows that the Swedish tax officials seek to motivate large construction contractors and municipalities to take preventive measures in relation to their sub-contractors to avoid and abate tax evasion. The paper shows the challenges in engaging and involving these external stakeholders...... has implications for how tax authorities (and other state authorities) reform their coercive regulation. If they decide to pursue a voluntary based approach where the actions of external partners play a central role, then the analysis helps to show some of the implied challenges and potentials....

Effectiveness of Crime Prevention through Environmental Design ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This study examined crime prevention strategies vis-a-vis perceived residents. feeling of safety in Osogbo Nigeria. The survey was conducted using systematic sampling. Four (4) crime prevention approaches were identified in the study area. Residents. perception of effectiveness of these safety strategies measured ...

Lessons Learned from Crime Caught on Camera

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lindegaard, Marie Rosenkrantz; Bernasco, Wim

2018-01-01

Objectives: The widespread use of camera surveillance in public places offers criminologists the opportunity to systematically and unobtrusively observe crime, their main subject matter. The purpose of this essay is to inform the reader of current developments in research on crimes caught on came...

Contemporary Organized Crime. : Developments, Challenges and Responses.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nelen, Hans; Siegel, Dina

2017-01-01

This is the third publication (after Siegel et al. (eds.) (2003) Global Organized Crime. Trends and Developments; and Siegel and Nelen (eds.) (2008). Organized Crime: Culture, Markets and Policies) in which the most relevant papers that were presented during seminars of the Centre for Information

Ethics in Crimes and Misdemeanors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Róbert Haraldsson

2014-03-01

Full Text Available In this paper I employ Goodenough´s distinction between films that illustrate, are about and do philosophy to answer the question how we can identify the ethical content of movies. Crimes and Misdemeanors by Woody Allen is taken as an example but Mary L. Litch has argued that this movie illustrates ethical problems and is about ethics. On Litch´s reading the film reveals inherent flaws in utilitarianism and illustrates a Kantian insight as well as other ethical and religious theses. I argue, however, that Litch has relied on a too narrow method when identifying the ethics of Crimes and Misdemeanors. She focuses almost exclusively on dialogue and the general storyline. If we broaden our method to include sensitivity to filming, editing, camera angulation etc., we will not only realize a rather different ethical content in Crimes and Misdemeanors but also see how the movie stirkes close to home for most viewers of Hollywood movies.

Eye Movement Control in Scene Viewing and Reading: Evidence from the Stimulus Onset Delay Paradigm

Science.gov (United States)

Luke, Steven G.; Nuthmann, Antje; Henderson, John M.

2013-01-01

The present study used the stimulus onset delay paradigm to investigate eye movement control in reading and in scene viewing in a within-participants design. Short onset delays (0, 25, 50, 200, and 350 ms) were chosen to simulate the type of natural processing difficulty encountered in reading and scene viewing. Fixation duration increased…

Restorative justice and the relationship of perpetrator and victim of crime

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bulatović Aleksandra

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Restorative justice as the theoretical foundation of social reaction to crime is one of the key themes of contemporary criminological discourse. The idea of crime as a conflict between perpetrator and victim of crime is included in the core ideas related to the concept of restorative justice, which differs from traditional understanding of crime as a relationship between the state and the individual. This change in perspective on crime points towards social reaction to crime that differs from traditional criminal justice system. As the restoration process of relationship damaged by crime is directly related to possibilities of participation in the very process, institutionalisation of that participation sets the scope of restorative process. In this article, the author points towards the traditional criminal justice and restorative justice processes, focusing the relationship of perpetrator and victim of crime and the process of conflict resolution. The aim of the article is to highlight the conflict perspective as a defining element of the relationship between offender and victim, and to underline the effectiveness of restorative justice as social reaction to crime, which contributes to optimisation of the relationship between the offender and the community.

Crime-social risk in contemporary society

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vilić Dragana

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Crime, as a form of violation of law (A. Giddens, is one of the social risks. One of the negative consequences of the development of a modern, global society is the globalization of criminality (M. Kostić & F. Mirić. Criminality can only be discussed with the development and elaboration of the legal system in the modern sense of the word (including criminal law, but in societies there have always been certain types of norms and beliefs that have influenced human behavior and against which (in correctness (M. Ivanović. Unlike a positive right that cannot fully follow the dynamics of change in society that influence the definition of a crime, sociology should constantly seek new elements that extend this notion (new, unpredictable, unlimited. The paper analyzes the causes of criminality, its distribution, types (violent, property, etc., relation to other notions (deviance, delinquency and crime and its consequences in contemporary society, in order to look at the risk of crime, to seek an adequate social response to This negative phenomenon, and provides an analysis of the penal policy and the role of a prison institution for the offender's conversion (M. Foucault.

Antiterrorism in the context of the war against organised crime

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Saša Šegvić

2009-01-01

Full Text Available The phenomenological picture of crime is constantly changing. In modern times an increase in criminal behaviour as a whole and in the number of new forms of crimes, in particular grave criminal offences, has been noted. New and especially dangerous forms of crime are considered to be: organised crime, terrorism, business crime, corruption, illegal trafficking of drugs, weapons and people, and grave forms of violence. Recently, the particular attention of all democratic world powers and their special services has been seized by the ever increasing and more intensive collusion of organised crime and terrorism. This is a symbiosis which, apart from the need to create new and specialised services, could even result in some changes to criminal legal theory and practice. In this paper, within the analysis of the collusion between terrorism and organised crime, only one aspect is problematised. This aspect deals with financing terrorism and the measures which the international community and national legislation undertake in the fight against terrorism. The intention of the measures is to prevent not only the collusion of terrorist groups and organised crime in the commission of criminal offences but also the disposal of funds acquired by such means as financial transactions and ‘money laundering’. These measures do not only have a direct effect on the survival and activity of future terrorist groups. They also have a direct influence on the comprehensive fight against organised crime which poses fundamental threats to contemporary civilisation.

Testing the Perturbation Sensitivity of Abortion-Crime Regressions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michał Brzeziński

2012-06-01

Full Text Available The hypothesis that the legalisation of abortion contributed significantly to the reduction of crime in the United States in 1990s is one of the most prominent ideas from the recent “economics-made-fun” movement sparked by the book Freakonomics. This paper expands on the existing literature about the computational stability of abortion-crime regressions by testing the sensitivity of coefficients’ estimates to small amounts of data perturbation. In contrast to previous studies, we use a new data set on crime correlates for each of the US states, the original model specifica-tion and estimation methodology, and an improved data perturbation algorithm. We find that the coefficients’ estimates in abortion-crime regressions are not computationally stable and, therefore, are unreliable.

Scene Integration for Online VR Advertising Clouds

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michael Kalochristianakis

2014-12-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a scene composition approach that allows the combinational use of standard three dimensional objects, called models, in order to create X3D scenes. The module is an integral part of a broader design aiming to construct large scale online advertising infrastructures that rely on virtual reality technologies. The architecture addresses a number of problems regarding remote rendering for low end devices and last but not least, the provision of scene composition and integration. Since viewers do not keep information regarding individual input models or scenes, composition requires the consideration of mechanisms that add state to viewing technologies. In terms of this work we extended a well-known, open source X3D authoring tool.

Crime and punishment: the economic burden of impunity

Science.gov (United States)

Gordon, M. B.; Iglesias, J. R.; Semeshenko, V.; Nadal, J. P.

2009-03-01

Crime is an economically relevant activity. It may represent a mechanism of wealth distribution but also a social and economic burden because of the interference with regular legal activities and the cost of the law enforcement system. Sometimes it may be less costly for the society to allow for some level of criminality. However, a drawback of such a policy is that it may lead to a high increase of criminal activity, that may become hard to reduce later on. Here we investigate the level of law enforcement required to keep crime within acceptable limits. A sharp phase transition is observed as a function of the probability of punishment. We also analyze other consequences of criminality as the growth of the economy, the inequality in the wealth distribution (the Gini coefficient) and other relevant quantities under different scenarios of criminal activity and probabilities of apprehension.

Advanced radiometric and interferometric milimeter-wave scene simulations

Science.gov (United States)

Hauss, B. I.; Moffa, P. J.; Steele, W. G.; Agravante, H.; Davidheiser, R.; Samec, T.; Young, S. K.

1993-01-01

Smart munitions and weapons utilize various imaging sensors (including passive IR, active and passive millimeter-wave, and visible wavebands) to detect/identify targets at short standoff ranges and in varied terrain backgrounds. In order to design and evaluate these sensors under a variety of conditions, a high-fidelity scene simulation capability is necessary. Such a capability for passive millimeter-wave scene simulation exists at TRW. TRW's Advanced Radiometric Millimeter-Wave Scene Simulation (ARMSS) code is a rigorous, benchmarked, end-to-end passive millimeter-wave scene simulation code for interpreting millimeter-wave data, establishing scene signatures and evaluating sensor performance. In passive millimeter-wave imaging, resolution is limited due to wavelength and aperture size. Where high resolution is required, the utility of passive millimeter-wave imaging is confined to short ranges. Recent developments in interferometry have made possible high resolution applications on military platforms. Interferometry or synthetic aperture radiometry allows the creation of a high resolution image with a sparsely filled aperture. Borrowing from research work in radio astronomy, we have developed and tested at TRW scene reconstruction algorithms that allow the recovery of the scene from a relatively small number of spatial frequency components. In this paper, the TRW modeling capability is described and numerical results are presented.

Chemistry and Crime: From Sherlock Holmes to Today's Courtroom.

Science.gov (United States)

Gerber, Samuel M., Ed.

The application of the principles of chemistry both for committing crimes and for tracking down criminals interests audiences of all ages and walks of life. This interest is the reason for the long-standing popularity of fictional works that describe crimes made possible by the criminal's knowledge of chemistry and crimes solved by the sleuth's…

Violent video games and attitudes towards victims of crime: an empirical study among youth

OpenAIRE

McLean, L; Griffiths, MD

2013-01-01

Previous research has indicated that playing violent video games may be associated with an increase in acceptance of violence and positive attitudes towards perpetrators of crime. This study is the first to investigate the relationship between playing violent video games and attitudes towards victims of crime. A total of 206 young people (aged 12-24 years) completed measures of attitudes towards victims and violent video game exposure. The results suggest that exposure to violent video games ...

Crime, Inequality and Unemployment in England and Wales

OpenAIRE

Dongxu Wu; Zhongmin Wu

2011-01-01

Abstract A model of crime is developed based on principles from the existing literature with some original insight. The implications of the model are that income inequality and unemployment are important explanatory variables for crimes motivated by economic gain, but do not offer much explanatory power for other types of crime. A panel data of UK regions over the years from 2002 to 2007 is then used to test these predictions. The empirical results strongly support the hypothesis t...

'Organized Crime, Corruption and Growth: Theory and Evidence'

OpenAIRE

Keith Blackburn; Kyriakos C. Neanidis; Maria Paola Rana

2015-01-01

We develop a framework for studying the interactions between organized crime and corruption, together with the individual and combined effects of these phenomena on economic growth. Criminal organizations co-exist with law-abiding productive agents and potentially corrupt law enforcers. The crime syndicate obstructs the economic activities of agents through extortion, and may pay bribes to law enforcers in return for their compliance in this. We show how organized crime has a negative e¤ect o...

Aggression in children and youth towards crime.

OpenAIRE

ŠTEFFLOVÁ, Eva

2013-01-01

This thesis deals with aggressive children and youth, which leads to crime. It deals with the causes of aggression, factors that influence aggression, but also the type of aggression. The practical part contains specific case studies of individuals whose aggression was one of the causes of crime.

Bilateral Cooperation Between Indonesia and Malaysia in Combating Transnational Crime

OpenAIRE

Mustofa, Prof. Muhammad

2008-01-01

This paper us discuss that bilateral cooperation between Indonesia and Malaysia in combating transnational crime or trans-border crime. First of all, it should be based on understanding the root of the problem in trans-border crime problems. Furthermore, the effective bilateral cooperation can occur when notice the same aspects in the definition of the crime, the existence of law, the recognition of the evidence, extradition agreement, and the network information between the states.

The roles of scene gist and spatial dependency among objects in the semantic guidance of attention in real-world scenes.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Chia-Chien; Wang, Hsueh-Cheng; Pomplun, Marc

2014-12-01

A previous study (Vision Research 51 (2011) 1192-1205) found evidence for semantic guidance of visual attention during the inspection of real-world scenes, i.e., an influence of semantic relationships among scene objects on overt shifts of attention. In particular, the results revealed an observer bias toward gaze transitions between semantically similar objects. However, this effect is not necessarily indicative of semantic processing of individual objects but may be mediated by knowledge of the scene gist, which does not require object recognition, or by known spatial dependency among objects. To examine the mechanisms underlying semantic guidance, in the present study, participants were asked to view a series of displays with the scene gist excluded and spatial dependency varied. Our results show that spatial dependency among objects seems to be sufficient to induce semantic guidance. Scene gist, on the other hand, does not seem to affect how observers use semantic information to guide attention while viewing natural scenes. Extracting semantic information mainly based on spatial dependency may be an efficient strategy of the visual system that only adds little cognitive load to the viewing task. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Substance use pattern, self-control and social network are associated with crime in a substance-using population.

Science.gov (United States)

Skjaervø, Ingeborg; Skurtveit, Svetlana; Clausen, Thomas; Bukten, Anne

2017-03-01

Crime rates are high in substance-using populations; therefore, investigation of factors associated with crime in these populations is highly relevant. We describe crime prevalence and associations between crime, pattern of substance use and psychosocial factors, such as self-control and social network. This is a cross-sectional study including substance users (n = 549; mean age 34 years; 27% women) entering treatment at 21 treatment centres across Norway (December 2012 to April 2015). Data on demographics, substance use, psychosocial variables and crime in the 6 months prior to treatment were obtained through interviews. Adjusted odds ratios (aOR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated through logistic regression. Sixty-four percent of participants had committed crime in the 6 months prior to treatment. Of these, 93% committed income-generating crime. Several factors were associated with increased likelihood of having committed crime: use of stimulants (aOR = 1.82, 95% CI 1.04-3.17), use of a higher number of different substances (aOR = 1.16, 95% CI 1.04-1.31) and spending most of their time with family or friends using addictive substances (aOR = 2.38, 95% CI 1.10-5.16 and aOR = 2.22, 95% CI 1.32-3.73). Protective factors associated with decreased likelihood of committing crime were being older (aOR = 0.95, 95% CI 0.92-0.97) and having higher self-control (aOR = 0.94, 95% CI 0.91-0.97). Stimulant use, higher number of different substances used, lower self-control, primarily a substance-using social network and being younger were associated with crime in this substance-using population. Treatment clinics should consider these risk factors for crime, and suitable interventions should be implemented and evaluated. [Skjaervø I, Skurtveit S, Clausen T, Bukten A. Substance use pattern, self-control and social network are associated with crime in a substance-using population. Drug Alcohol Rev 2017;36:245-252]. © 2016

The Role of Binocular Disparity in Rapid Scene and Pattern Recognition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Matteo Valsecchi

2013-04-01

Full Text Available We investigated the contribution of binocular disparity to the rapid recognition of scenes and simpler spatial patterns using a paradigm combining backward masked stimulus presentation and short-term match-to-sample recognition. First, we showed that binocular disparity did not contribute significantly to the recognition of briefly presented natural and artificial scenes, even when the availability of monocular cues was reduced. Subsequently, using dense random dot stereograms as stimuli, we showed that observers were in principle able to extract spatial patterns defined only by disparity under brief, masked presentations. Comparing our results with the predictions from a cue-summation model, we showed that combining disparity with luminance did not per se disrupt the processing of disparity. Our results suggest that the rapid recognition of scenes is mediated mostly by a monocular comparison of the images, although we can rely on stereo in fast pattern recognition.

Combined Influence of Visual Scene and Body Tilt on Arm Pointing Movements: Gravity Matters!

Science.gov (United States)

Scotto Di Cesare, Cécile; Sarlegna, Fabrice R.; Bourdin, Christophe; Mestre, Daniel R.; Bringoux, Lionel

2014-01-01

Performing accurate actions such as goal-directed arm movements requires taking into account visual and body orientation cues to localize the target in space and produce appropriate reaching motor commands. We experimentally tilted the body and/or the visual scene to investigate how visual and body orientation cues are combined for the control of unseen arm movements. Subjects were asked to point toward a visual target using an upward movement during slow body and/or visual scene tilts. When the scene was tilted, final pointing errors varied as a function of the direction of the scene tilt (forward or backward). Actual forward body tilt resulted in systematic target undershoots, suggesting that the brain may have overcompensated for the biomechanical movement facilitation arising from body tilt. Combined body and visual scene tilts also affected final pointing errors according to the orientation of the visual scene. The data were further analysed using either a body-centered or a gravity-centered reference frame to encode visual scene orientation with simple additive models (i.e., ‘combined’ tilts equal to the sum of ‘single’ tilts). We found that the body-centered model could account only for some of the data regarding kinematic parameters and final errors. In contrast, the gravity-centered modeling in which the body and visual scene orientations were referred to vertical could explain all of these data. Therefore, our findings suggest that the brain uses gravity, thanks to its invariant properties, as a reference for the combination of visual and non-visual cues. PMID:24925371

Moving through a multiplex holographic scene