Journal of Forensic Research

The risks of traveling by motorcycle are well recognized, both in terms of excess speed and relative lack of physical protection. Legislation since 1903 has been on-going to try to reduce the carnage on the roads and to recognize the financial problems that such a death leaves behind for the families of the victim. An overview of speed cameras currently in use is given with the more frequent use of ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) cameras for surveillance of known and suspected criminals, valid car insurance verification, current Ministry of Transport mechanical certificates and, increasingly, for with average speed calculation between camera sites. The latter resulting in the surprising and unexpected penalty notice in the post often many days after the incident, though to be legal in England and Wales, it must be served with 14 days of the infraction. Discussed in this case, and of considerable interest, is the hypothesis that a full-face helmet for a motorcyclist may be potentially more dangerous in a crash, due the increased weight, inertia and pendulum effect result in an increased risk of fatal basal skull ring fractures.

DETECHIP ® is a novel, highly selective and sensitive molecular sensor array producing color and fluorescence changes in the presence of many small molecules or analytes. This technology utilizes an array of eight sensors in two types of buffers that are dispensed in a 96-well plate. Color and fluorescent changes in the presence of analytes are recorded as a 32 digit binary code that is able to discriminate many substances. The current application is dedicated to testing narcotics such as cocaine, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) from marijuana, as well as date- rape and club drugs such as flunitrazepam, gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB), and methamphetamine, to name a few. Shown to be a contactless, portable, and inexpensive optical detection system, DETECHIP ® can detect many substances and therefore can be used where a high degree of preliminary diagnostics is needed.Besides narcotics, DETECHIP ® is able to detect and discriminate over-the-counter medications, trinitrotoluene (TNT), pesticides, food spoilage metabolites, and narcotics laced with cutting agents. DETECHIP ® offers possibilities for a simple, sensitive, selective, and affordable alternative to costly immunoassays.

The present work describes empirical underpinning of the contribution of genes and environmental factors in minor (petty) crimes such as theft, pick pocketing, shop lifting, mugging, fraud, embezzlement, bootlegging etc. This work considers the factors that influence motivation to commit petty crime. Fifty subjects of varied ages were interviewed determining the external influences that they were subject to and whether members of their immediate family had committed crimes similar or otherwise. Results suggest that environmental factors have more influence on participants displaying anti-social behaviour (non-serious, misdemeanour crimes) or committing minor crimes than genetic predisposition. In this article petty crime committed within varied age groups and the possible aetiology of reported crimes has also been investigated.

The incident of drug related medico legal cases are increasing day by day. In Forensic Medicine there is a need of frequent requirement of estimation of dose size administered or ingested by deceased, based on either postmortem blood level or concentration of drug in urine. In an ideal situation creatinine clearance should be evaluated than it is corrected according to age, sex and body surface area. Postmortem changes begin at cellular level with the onset of ischaemia. Depending on duration of ischaemia structure and function of organs and tissue gradually deteriorate which influence the distribution of drugs in the body fluids and tissues. For estimation of drug concentration of deceased, there is need to consider the postmortem redistribution phenomenon. De ceased drug concentration may not reflect the actual concentration at the time of death, similarly there is possibility that miss calculation from deceased blood level if it is not judiciously used to simulate the dose versus toxicity relationship. In this article authors have emphasis on various aspect of co-relation of drugs level following death and different factors that influence while predicting actual drug concentration for medico legal drugs related cases.