Feature Channels: Crime and Forensic Science

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With a living descendant's DNA sample, a team of researchers have identified the remains of John Gregory, engineer aboard HMS Erebus

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A study to understand the dating violence experience and perpetration of college-age women, as well as how they conceptualize violence in dating relationships, reveals normalization of unhealthy violent behaviors where sexual pressure or sexualized verbal harassment are viewed as an innate part of men, supporting the idea that “boys will be boys.” Study participants demonstrated a lack of knowledge of the forms of dating violence and its consequences. They accepted, rationalized and provided excuses for these acts of violence.

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Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted April 20 on three charges in the death of George Floyd. Collectively, people across the country breathed a sigh of relief because far too often, the story has been police killing people of color with impunity, says an expert on race and the law at Washington University in St.

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By: Bill Wellock | Published: April 20, 2021 | 5:23 pm | SHARE: Florida State University has experts available to offer context on topics related to the Derek Chauvin trial and verdict.POLICING AND POLICE REFORMEmma E. Fridel, assistant professor, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice (201) 452-0384; researches violence and aggression with a focus on homicide, including school violence, homicide-suicide, serial and mass murder and fatal officer-citizen encounters.

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A new study classifies different types of wildlife traffickers and sellers in two of Central Africa’s growing urban centers, providing new insight into the poorly understood urban illegal wildlife trade.

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A real-life forensic puzzle inspired University of Illinois at Chicago and Iowa State University researchers to explore the physics involved, and in Physics of Fluids, they present theoretical results revealing an interaction of the incoming vortex ring of propellant muzzle gases with backward blood spatter. A detailed analytical theory of such turbulent self-similar vortex rings was given by this group in earlier work and is linked mathematically to the theory of quantum oscillators.

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To search for answers about how blood droplets from a gunshot wound can reverse direction while in flight, researchers explored the influence of propellant gases on blood backspatter. In Physics of Fluids, they report using numeric modeling to capture the behavior of gun muzzle gases and predict the reversal of blood droplet flight, which was captured experimentally. Their experiments also show the breakup of blood droplets, a future extension of their modeling efforts.

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A team of researchers used geographic information systems — a collection of tools for geographic mapping and analysis of the Earth and society — and data from a government database on mafia ties during the 1960s, to examine how these networks were built, maintained and grown. The researchers said that this spatial social networks study offers a unique look at the mafia’s loosely affiliated criminal groups. Often called families, these groups were connected — internally and externally — to maintain a balance between security and effectiveness, referred to as the efficiency-security tradeoff.

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Among people with opioid use disorder (OUD), more than half have reported contact with the criminal justice system. A new study published today in Health Affairs reveals that Medicaid expansion is associated with substantial improvements in access to medications for OUD. However, the study also reveals that individuals referred for treatment by the criminal justice system were substantially less likely to receive medications for OUD as part of the treatment plan.

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Fewer than half of inmates in jails and prisons surveyed in a study by the CDC and University of Washington said they would accept a COVID-19 vaccine, while the majority either said they wanted to wait before getting the vaccine or would refuse one.

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The University of Georgia has established a new interdisciplinary center to combat human trafficking through research, programming and policy development.

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By: Kathleen Haughney | Published: March 23, 2021 | 1:13 pm | SHARE: As the nation grapples with the second mass shooting in a month, criminologists are examining the patterns behind these horrific events.Florida State University Associate Professor of Criminology Jill Turanovic is available to speak to reporters about the deadly shooting in Boulder, Colorado, and the issue of mass shootings.

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In a formal statement, the Association of American Cancer Institutes (AACI) condemned racism, discrimination, and gun violence, urging that these issues be confronted as public health crises.

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A new centre established by the University of Bristol to help protect citizens online has created a shared data science framework to help law enforcement investigate organised crime.

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On March 16, a man went on a shooting rampage at three Atlanta spas, killing eight people, including six Asian women. The killings have sparked outrage and fear in the Asian American community, but the suspect has denied that the killings were racially motivated.The suspect’s claims and subsequent claims made by the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office have set off a debate about anti-Asian racism in America.

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The shooting deaths of eight people, including six women of Asian descent, in Atlanta yesterday is a horrendous tragedy, and just the latest incident in an ever growing wave of mass violence in our country. We extend our deepest sympathy to the loved ones of the victims and to communities in Atlanta and across the United States that have been deeply affected by this senseless assault.

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Looking beyond cartels, the Mexico Violence Resource Project is an initiative from UC San Diego’s Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies launched last fall with the goal of facilitating better analysis on the nuanced drivers of violence in Mexico. The project recently formed a partnership with the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime to support new research and policy advocacy on issues surrounding violence, crime and governance in Mexico.

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For Black girls in the juvenile justice system, attention from a caregiver might amount to too much of a bad thing, a recent study suggests.

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In a new study, Case Western Reserve University researchers identified some of the primary gaps in the connective tissue of the criminal justice system—among them failures to test rape kit DNA samples to unjustified doubts of victims’ statements.

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The George Washington University Program on Extremism has continued to update a project that is tracking individuals charged with crimes related to the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

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The majority of African American men return to prison within one to three years of their first release. A study explores why re-entry programs are not as effective for them when compared to others. Researchers suggest a holistic approach that addresses psychological and historical trauma in conjunction with the environmental factors that perpetuate the stigma justice-involved African American men experience. The approach accounts for negative associations developed in the centuries of oppression and segregation that shape their current societal interactions.

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In a new study, Scott Duxbury, Assistant Professor of Sociology at UNC, considers whether racial threat drove states to adopt punitive sentencing laws. His findings reveal that punitive sentencing laws, which have been implicated in racial disparity in punishment during mass incarceration, were adopted in response to large, rather than growing, black populations.

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Irvine, Calif., Jan. 26, 2021 — The University of California, Irvine Master of Advanced Study in criminology, law & society has been named the nation’s best online criminal justice master’s program by U.S. News & World Report for the second year in a row. The 2021 rankings also mark the fourth consecutive year in which UCI has placed in the top three.

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Restricting the sale of malt liquor beer can help reduce crime in some communities, according to a new study. Malt liquor beer — high in alcohol content, low cost, and widely sold in liquor stores and convenience stores — is linked to heavy drinking, public inebriation, disorderly conduct, drug activity and other crimes. Consequently, since the 1990s, some cities have restricted its sale. In Washington state, certain urban neighborhoods were designated Alcohol Impact Areas and targeted with policies including restrictions on sales of malt liquor and similar products. Unpublished evaluations of these interventions have suggested positive social and health effects, but the research on crime impacts has been limited, with mixed findings. The study in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research found that malt liquor sales restrictions are associated with declining urban crime.

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New research published by forensic chemist Igor Lednev could soon offer law enforcement another valuable crime scene tool – a quick and accurate way to distinguish human blood from animal blood.

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Irvine, Calif., Dec. 16, 2020 — The University of California, Irvine and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation signed a memorandum of understanding for the design of the first in-prison Bachelor of Arts program offered by the University of California system. The Leveraging Inspiring Futures Through Educational Degrees project will enable incarcerated students at Richard J.

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A team of researchers, including faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York, explore ways to potentially improve the recall of eyewitnesses in a new paper in the Journal of Cognitive Psychology.

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A community or sub-culture encouraging young men's exposure and obsession with guns - as well as ready access to firearms and drugs - can make gun violence 'all too easy', with Flinders University experts promoting a new direction on managing the global problem.