July 2017 - Page 2 of 25 - searchfortruth.info

When Silenced Voices Speak: An Exploratory Study of Prostitute Homicide

February 9, 2019July 31, 2017 by admin

ABSTRACT

The FBI’s National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC) recently cited an increase in consultations involving serial, or multiple, homicide of female prostitutes, including anecdotal evidence of distinct victimology and crime scene differences among the victims. Of particular interest to the NCAVC was whether such variables (e.g., work location, body disposal method) could classlfy a deceased prostitute case as being either “single” (i.e., the only victim of a murderer) or “serial” (i.e., one of several victims of a murderer) in nature. Because this phenomenon had not been examined empirically, this exploratory study investigated dBerences between samples of serial and single prostitute homicide victims. The NCAVC’s anecdotal data and variables excerpted fiom relevant research literatures were included in an instrument designed for the study, the Prostitute Homicide Questionnaire (PHQ; Dudek & Nezu, 2000). Psychopathy was measured retrospectively with the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R, Hare, 199 IC). Efforts were made throughout the study to control error variance. Trained raters examined 123 closed homicide files

Sexual Attraction to Corpses: A Psychiatric Review of Necrophilia

February 9, 2019July 31, 2017 by admin

Necrophilia, a sexual attraction to corpses, is a rare disorder that has been known since ancient times. According to Herodotus,' the ancient Egyptians took precautions against necrophilia by prohibiting the corpses of the wives of men of rank from being delivered immediately to the embalmers, for fear that the embalmers would violate them. According to a legend, King Herod had sex with his wife Marianne for seven years after he killed her.3.4 Similar legends exist about King Waldemar and Charle-mag~e.'.~ Necrophilia was considered by the Catholic Church to be neither whoring ("fornicatio") nor bestiality, but "pollution with a tendency to ~horing."~ In more recent times, necrophilia has been associated with cannibalism and myths of vampirism. The vampire, who has been romanticized by the Dracula tales, obtains a feeling of power from his victims, "like I had taken something powerful from them."' Cannibalistic tribal rituals are based on the notion that consumption of human flesh imparts a special power or

Crime and Violence in Central America: A Development Challenge

February 10, 2019July 31, 2017 by admin

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Crime and violence are now a key development issue for Central American countries. In three nations— El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras—crime rates are among the top five in Latin America. In the region’s other three countries—Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama—crime and violence levels are significantly lower, but a steady rise in crime rates in recent years has raised serious concern. There is reason to worry. To put the magnitude of the problem in context, the entire population of Central America is approximately the same as that of Spain, but while Spain registered 336 murders (i.e., fewer than one per day) in 2006, Central America recorded 14,257 murders (i.e., almost 40 per day) in the same year.Beyond the trauma and suffering of individual victims, crime and violence carry staggering economic costs at the national level. Indeed, some experts estimate these costs at close to eight percent of regional GDP if citizen security, law enforcement and health

Interrogations and Confessions

February 9, 2019July 31, 2017 by admin

Introduction

Interrogations

The writings of the late Professor Fred Inbau of Northwestern University continue to have a significant influence on the tactics and strategy of police interrogations. Professor Inbau argued throughout his career that detective novels, films, and television had misled the public into believing that the police solve most crimes by relying on scientific evidence or eyewitness testimony. He pointed out that in a significant number of cases, this type of evidence is unavailable and that the police are forced to rely on confessions. Professor Inbau illustrates the importance of confessions by pointing to the hypothetical example of discovering the dead body of a female who appears to have been the victim of a criminal assault. There is no indication of a forced entry into her home, and the police investigation fails to yield DNA, fingerprints, clothing fibers, or witnesses. Law enforcement officers question everyone who may have had a motive to kill

Gun Crime Risk Factors: Buyer, Seller, Firearm, and Transaction Charicteristics Associated with Gun Trafficking and Criminal Case Use

February 9, 2019July 31, 2017 by admin

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Controlling gun crime continues to be a difficult challenge for policymakers and practitioners in the United States. With an estimated 258 million guns in private hands and millions more produced each year, there are many sources and means through which offenders can obtain firearms despite legal restrictions on gun purchasing and ownership by convicted felons, juveniles, and other high-risk groups. In order to better understand the workings of illicit gun markets—and particularly the rapid diversion of guns from the retail market into criminal channels—this study utilizes a decade’s worth of data on handgun sales in the state of Maryland and subsequent recoveries of those guns by police in order to identify the characteristics of firearms, sellers, buyers, and sales transactions that predict whether a gun is used in crime subsequent to purchase. The study provides some of the most sophisticated evidence to date on crime use risks associated with high-risk buyers, problem gun dealers, preferred crime guns, purchases involving multiple guns,

Interpretation Of Post-Mortem Stimulant Laboratory Determinations

February 9, 2019July 31, 2017 by admin

Abstract

Detailed human case data is presented to illustrate the dramatic extent of the phenomenon of post-mortem drug redistribution. The data suggests that there is a post-mortem diffusion of drugs along a concentration gradient, from sites of high concentration in solid organs, into the blood with resultant artefactual elevation of drug levels in blood. Highest drug levels were found in central vessels such as pulmonary artery and vein, and lowest levels were found in peripheral vessels such as subclavian and femoral veins. In individual cases, in multiple blood samples obtained from ligated vessels, concentrations of doxepin and desmethyldoxepin ranged from 3.6 to 12.5 mg/l and 1.2 to 7.5 mg/l, respectively; amobartital, secobarbital and pentobarbital from 4.3 to 25.8 mg/l, 3.9 to 25.3 mg/l and 5.1 to 31.5 mg/l respectively; clomipramine and desmethylclomipramine from 4.0 to 21.5 mg/l and 1.7 to 8.1 mg/l, respectively and flurazepam 0.15 to 0.99 mg/l; imipramine and desipramine from

Additional Resource: Post-mortem drug redistribution--a toxicological nightmare

Signals and Rituals of Humans and Animals

February 10, 2019July 30, 2017 by admin

Ritual is a universal feature of human behavior. While rituals differ from culture to culture, the defining features that distinguish them from “ordinary” behaviors are surprisingly consistent across all human societies. Rituals tend to be formal, stereotyped, repetitive, and “traditional”. They are therefore easily distinguished from other behaviors. Rituals help pattern and predict social interactions. For example, when two people meet they have expectations about how the social interaction will proceed. In Western societies, meetings commence with a handshake and a simultaneous “How are you?” or some similar formality. While none of us invented the handshake, we all recognize it as a greeting ritual. Religious rituals are particularly easy to detect as they tend to be more elaborate than other rituals. They also generally include music, chanting, or dance, which further distinguishes them from other behaviors. Masks, icons, special settings, extraordinary garments, and even distinctive languages may be used to further demarcate religious ritual from the ordinary. While religious

The Psychiatry of Opera

February 9, 2019July 30, 2017 by admin

A Personal View

That art is an expression of man's attempts to understand himself and his environment is as important as the purely aesthetic qualities of the piece, whatever it may be. Opera, together with the other performing arts, literature and painting, cannot simply be seen as pure entertainment. It is also a reflection of the society in wHich the composer and librettist lived, and the issues and values contemporary to those people. Opera with its fusion of words, music and theatre is able to delineate those issues involved and present them with an emotional intensity possibly unequalled elsewhere in art. Musical imagery is used to portray and develop the characters in opera by inflecting the librettist's words and embedding them in a sound world. This is how we can gain access to those characters' thoughts and emotions. As psychodramas the works of the late 19th and the 20th centuries reach the greatest level of complexity

Hypnotherapy for Traumatic Grief: Janetian and Modern Approaches Integrated

February 12, 2019July 30, 2017 by admin

Traumatic grief occurs when psychological trauma obstructs mourning. Nosologically, it is related to pathological grief and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Therapeutic advances from both fields make it clear that the trauma per se must be accessed before mourning can proceed. The gamut of psychotherapies has been employed, but hypnosis appears to be the most specific. Pierre Janet provided a remarkably modern conceptual basis for diagnosis and treatment based on a dissociation model. His approach is combined with contemporary innovations to present a systematic and integrated account of hypnotherapy for traumatic grief.

Hypnosis is widely used in the treatment of pathological grief but is much underreported. It speeds and facilitates mourning and makes possible a personal reorientation to the future (Fromm & Eisen, 1982; Yager, 1988). Hypnosis is specifically indicated in the resolution of traumatic grief. Grief is traumatic when it follows objective and severe subjective trauma and when posttraumatic reactions inhibit mourning. In recent years, reports of traumatic..

Youth Gangs: An Overview

February 9, 2019July 30, 2017 by admin

Introduction

The United States has seen rapid proliferation of youth gangs since 1980. During this period, the number of cities with gang problems increased from an estimated 286 jurisdictions with more than 2,000 gangs and nearly 100,000 gang members in 1980 (Miller, 1992) to about 4,800 jurisdictions with more than 31,000 gangs and approximately 846,000 gang members in 1996 (Moore and Terrett, in press). An 11-city survey of eighth graders found that 9 percent were currently gang members, and 17 percent said they had belonged to a gang at some point in their lives (Esbensen and Osgood, 1997). Other studies reported comparable percentages and also showed that gang members were responsible for a large proportion of violent offenses. In the Rochester site of the OJJDP-funded Program of Research on the Causes and Correlates of Delinquency, gang members (30 percentof the sample) self-reported committing 68 percent of all violent offenses (Thornberry, 1998). ...

Safe Neighborhoods Act Protect Victims Stop Gangs & Thugs

February 12, 2019July 30, 2017 by admin

SECTION I. TITLE Arndt. #18

This act shall be known, and may be cited as, the "Safe Neighborhoods Act : Protect Victim s, Stop Gang and Street Crime."

SEC. 2. FINDI NGS AND DECLARATIONS

(a) The People of the State of California find and declare that state government has no higher purpose or more challenging mandate than the protection of our families and our neighborhoods from crime.
(b) Almos t every citizen has been, or knows someone who has been, victimized by crime.
(c) Altho ugh crime rates have fallen substantially since the early 1990s, there have been some disturbing increases in the last few years in seve ral categories of crime. According to the Federal Bureau or Investigation, there were 477 more homicides in California in 2006 than there were in 1999, a period during which homicides and homicide rates declined in many other states. In add ition, the California Department ofJustice has reported that there were 74,000

Reach Report | Spatial Patterns Of Serial Murder: An Analysis of Disposal Site Location Choice

February 12, 2019July 30, 2017 by admin

Abstract

Although the murders committed by serial killers may not be considered rational, there is growing evidence that the locations in which they commit their crimes may be guided by an implicit, if limited rationality.

The hypothesized logic of disposal site choice of serial killers led to predictions that (a) their criminal domains would be around their home base and relate to familiar travel distances, (b) they would have a size that was characteristic of each offender, (c) the distribution would be biased towards other non‐criminal activities, and (d) the size of the domains would increase over time.

Examination of the geographical distribution of the sites at which 126 US and 29 UK serial killers disposed of their victims' bodies supported all four hypotheses. It was found that rational choice and routine activity models of criminal behavior could explain the spatial choices of serial murderers. It was concluded that the locations at which serial killers dispose of their victims' bodies

Serial Murder: A Forensic Psychiatric Perspective

February 12, 2019July 30, 2017 by admin

When law enforcement apprehends a serial murderer, the event is consistently the focus of unswerving media coverage. For local communities, the ordeal can be particularly shocking and upsetting. Residents living in a community that is exposed to serial murder may even experience posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms for varying periods of time (Herkov and Beirnat, 1997). Over the past three decades, our society has become fascinated by the phenomenon of serial murder as evidenced by the numerous books, movies and television shows on the subject. Yet, despite the high level of interest, there is no current theory that adequately explains the etiology of serial murder (Holmes et al., 2002). This Is primarily due to the fact that serial murder is an event with an extremely low base rate and therefore is difficult to study via rigorous scientific methods (Dietz, 1986). While serial murder is a universally terrifying concept, it is an extraordinarily rare event. In a study of the frequency of serial sexual homicide

A Matched Cases Control Study of Convenience Store Robbery Risk Factors

February 12, 2019July 30, 2017 by admin

Abstract

Convenience store clerks have been shown to be at high risk for assault and homicide, mostly owing to robbery or robbery attempts. Although the literature consistently indicates that at least some environmental designs are effective deterrents of robbery, the significance of individual interventions and policies has differed across past studies. To address these issues, a matched case-control study of 400 convenience store robberies in three metropolitan areas of Virginia was conducted. Conditional logistic regression was implemented to evaluate the significance of various environmental designs and other factors possibly related to convenience store robbery. Findings indicate that numerous characteristics of the surrounding environment and population were significantly associated with convenience store robbery. Results also showed that, on a univariate level, most crime prevention factors were significantly associated with a lower risk for robbery. Using a forward selection process, a multivariate model, which included cash handling policy, bullet-resistant shielding, and numerous characteristics of the surrounding area and population, was identified. This study

Auto Erotic Hanging Brought As A Case Of Suicidal Hanging – A Case Report

December 31, 2018July 30, 2017 by admin

ABSTRACT:

A rare case of auto erotic hanging brought as a case of suicidal partial hanging is reported in this paper. Hanging is usually considered suicidal if not proved otherwise. The findings which were corroborative of auto erotic hanging decided that this was a case of accidental and not suicidal hanging.

INTRODUCTION:

Accidental hanging in the course of some abnormal sexual practice has certain characteristics which are virtually specific. The victims are exclusively males. Some are nude, some are attired in female garments and others, if normally clothed, may have opened their trousers and there is evidence of manipulation or bandaging of the genitals. Protection of the neck is by soft material, a handkerchief, vest or other cloth, interposed between the ligature and the skin of the neck [1].

CASE REPORT: One day, it was reported to the police that a constable of the 1st IRB (Indian Reserve Battalion) posted at Imphal was found hanging in the morning Inside his quarter.

Narcoanalysis and Truth Serum

February 11, 2019July 30, 2017 by admin

Much publicity has been given to the use of drugs in obtaining confessions from suspected criminals. The term "truth serum" suggests the existence of a drug with the remarkable property of eliciting the truth. The reputation enjoyed by truth se- rum is based on spectacular newspaper reports rather than on carefully documented case reports in professional medical or legal journals. The test is sometimes used by law enforcement officers, but it is doubtful whether it is as useful as popular belief would suggest. The description truth serum is misleading as the drug used is not a serum, and it does not always lead to the truth. Formerly scopalamine was used, but today a barbiturate drug, such as sodium amytal, is usually employed. The test may not be performed unless the suspect willingly gives his consent. The drug is injected slowly into a vein in order to induce a relaxed state of mind in which the suspect becomes more talkative and has less emotional control.

Additional Resource: Narcoanalysis and Truth Serum (2701 downloads )