• Title/Summary/Keyword: Forensic

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The Trend of Inpatients in California State Hospitals and Its Implications for Mental Health Policies in Korea (캘리포니아주 주립병원 입원환자들의 변화 추세 및 한국 정신보건제도의 발전을 위한 정책적 함의)

  • Hwang, Sung-Dong
    • Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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    • v.39
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    • pp.350-373
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    • 1999
  • The patient population of U. S. state mental hospitals has changed drastically since the 1960s, when the deintstitutionalization movement began. This paper is designed to look at what happened to the number of inpatients of state hospitals in California during the last 150 years and, from this, to explore implications for the future of the mental health system in Korea, especially for the viability of mental hospitals. The data had been collected by field research(visits to state hospitals and State Department of Mental Health, and interviews with mental health administrators) and accessing statistical publications and various reports. Since the first state hospital opened in 1851 the statewide inpatient population of individuals who were mentally disabled has grown and peaked at 37,489 in 1959. The number of patients in state hospitals, however, began declining in the early 1960s and was reduced to 10,874 by 1971, and to 4,973 by 1986. As of 1997, there were only 4, 263 inpatients remaining in the state hospital system. This dramatic decrease slowed down somewhat in 1980s and 1990s, but this trend seems irreversible except for the inpatients referred by the court. Now the beds in state hospitals are filled with more and more forensic patients, which constitutes nearly 70% of the total inpatient population. Based on these findings, it is well expected that the number of inpatients of mental hospitals in Korea will also be reduced in a significant way as the community-based mental health care system is gradually replacing the traditional one. Mental hospitals need to introduce more diversified programs for the care of the mentally ill, and concurrently more vigorous aftercare programs are required in the community.

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Age Estimation by Modified Johanson Method (Johanson 방법을 응용한 연령추정)

  • Lee, Won-Joon;Kim, Byung-Gook;Kim, Jae-Hyung;Lim, Hoi-Soon;Lee, Guem-Sug;Choi, Hong-Ran
    • Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
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    • v.30 no.2
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    • pp.201-214
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    • 2005
  • Age estimation is fundamental and important in personal identification with forensic medicine and dentistry. Recently, a lot of studies using various part of the body have been done for age estimation. Age estimation with teeth is the most significant method comparing ones with other part of the body. Gustafson method and Johanson method using postmortem teeth have been authorized in accuracy and systemization and used domestically and internationally. The verification of the accuracy in above methods had been tried many times but it is still rare in Korea. Fifty-nine teeth(incisors, canine, premolars and molars) which were extracted due to periodontal diseases or orthodontic problem were collected. Present study is to 1) compare the accuracy of estimated age in applying Gustafson method and Johanson method to the teeth in Korea, 2) compare and analyze the correlation with results using Gustafson method and Johanson method by age, gender, maxilla - mandible and anterior - premolar - molar. Teeth were embedded in resin and sliced and then examined each one using Gustafson method and Johanson method. The results are as follows: 1. Actual age was a significant difference in estimated age by Johanson method. Actual age was a significant correlation in estimated age by Gustafson method and modified Johanson method. Modified Johanson method was more significant than Gustafson method. 2. In estimated age by Gustafson method, Johanson method and modified Johanson method, there was no significance with actual age by location and gender. 3. In estimated age by Gustafson method, Johanson method and modified Johanson method, there was significance with actual age by age group. Finally, Gustafson method and Johanson method can be used in Korea. To make more accurate verification, however, it needs more specimen and postmortem teeth. Johanson equation proposed by himself has to be developed by further studies.

Microsatellite Alterations of Plasma DNA in Non Small Cell Lung Cancer (비소세포폐암 환자의 혈장 DNA를 이용한 Microsatellite 분석)

  • Kim, Kyu-Sik;Kim, Eun-Jung;Kim, Soo-Ock;Oh, In-Jae;Park, Chang-Min;Jeong, Ju-Yeon;Kim, Yu-Il;Lim, Sung-Chul;Park, Jong-Tae;Kim, Young-Chul
    • Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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    • v.58 no.4
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    • pp.352-358
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    • 2005
  • Microsatellites are short tandem repeated nucleotide sequences that are present throughout the human genome. Variations in the repeat number or a loss of heterozygosity around the microsatellites have been termed a microsatellite alteration (MA). A MA reflects the genetic instability caused by an impairment in the DNA mismatch repair system and is suggested to be a novel tumorigenic mechanism. A number of studies have reported that MA in the DNA extracted from the plasma occurs at varying frequencies among patients with a non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC). The genomic DNA from 9 subjects with a non-small cell lung cancer (squamous cell cancer 6, adenocarcinoma 2, non-small cell lung cancer1) and 9 age matched non-cancer control subjects (AMC: tuberculosis 3, other inflammatory lung disease 6) and 12 normal control subjects (NC) were extracted from the peripheral blood leukocytes and plasma. Three microsatellite loci were amplified with the primers targeting the Gene Bank sequence D21S1245, D3S1300, and D3S1234. MA in the form of an allelic loss or a band shift was examined with 6% polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and silver staining. None (0/12) of the NC subjects less than 40 years of age showed a MA in any of the three markers, while 88.9%(8/9) of the AMC above 40 showed a MA in at least one of the three markers (p<0.05). Sixty percent(6/10) of the control subjects with a smoking history showed a MA in one of the three markers, while 9.1%(1/11) of the control subjects without smoking history showed a MA (p<0.05). However, not only did 66.7%(6/9) of lung cancer patients show a MA in at least one of the three markers but so did 88.9%(8/21) of the AMC patients (p>0.05). In conclusion, a MA in the D21S1245, D3S1300, and D3S1234 loci using DNA extracted from the plasma was detected in 66.7% of lung cancer while no MA was found in the young non-smoking control subjects. However, many of the non-cancer control subjects (aged smokers) also showed a MA, which compromised the specificity of the MA analysis as a screening test. Therefore, a further study with a larger sample size will be needed.

"As the Scientific Witness Is a Court Witness and Is Not a Party Witness" ("과학의 승리"는 어떻게 선언될 수 있는가? 친자 확인을 위한 혈액형 검사가 법원으로 들어갔던 과정)

  • Kim, Hyomin
    • Journal of Science and Technology Studies
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    • v.19 no.1
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    • pp.1-51
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    • 2019
  • The understanding of law and science as fundamentally different two systems, in which fact stands against justice, rapid progress against prudent process, is far too simple to be valid. Nonetheless, such account is commonly employed to explain the tension between law and science or justice and truth. Previous STS research raises fundamental doubts upon the off-the-shelf concept of "scientific truth" that can be introduced to the court for legal judgment. Delimiting the qualification of the expert, the value of the expert knowledge, or the criteria of the scientific expertise have always included social negotiation. What are the values that are affecting the boundary-making of the thing called "modern science" that is supposedly useful in solving legal conflicts? How do the value of law and the meaning of justice change as the boundaries of modern science take shapes? What is the significance of "science" when it is emphasized, particularly in relation to the legal provisions of paternity, and how does this perception of science affect unfoldings of legal disputes? In order to explore the answers to the above questions, we follow a process in which a type of "knowledge-deficient model" of a court-that is, law lags behind science and thus, under-employs its useful functions-can be closely examined. We attend to a series of discussions and subsequent changes that occurred in the US courts between 1930s and 1970s, when blood type tests began to be used to determine parental relations. In conclusion, we argue that it was neither nature nor truth in itself that was excavated by forensic scientists and legal practitioners, who regarded blood type tests as a truth machine. Rather, it was their careful practices and crafty narratives that made the roadmaps of modern science, technology, and society on which complex tensions between modern states, families, and courts were seen to be "resolved".

A Study on the Development of Assessment Index for Catastrophic Incident Warning Sign at Refinery and Pertrochemical Plants (정유 및 석유화학플랜트 중대사고 전조신호 평가지표 개발에 관한 연구)

  • Yun, Yong Jin;Park, Dal Jae
    • Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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    • v.57 no.5
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    • pp.637-651
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    • 2019
  • In the event of a major accident such as an explosion in a refinery or a petrochemical plant, it has caused a serious loss of life and property and has had a great impact on the insurance market. In the case of catastrophic incidents occurring in process industries such as refinery and petrochemical plants, only the proximate causes of loss have been drawn and studied from inspectors or claims adjustors responsible for claims of property insurers, incident cause investigators, and national forensic service workers. However, it has not been done well for conducting root cause analysis (RCA) and identifying the factors that contributed to the failure and establishing preventive measures before leading to chemical plant's catastrophic incidents. In this study, the criteria of warning signs on CCPS catastrophic incident waning sign self-assessment tool which was derived through the RCA method and the contribution factor analysis method using the swiss cheese model principle has been reviewed first. Secondly, in order to determine the major incident warning signs in an actual chemical plant, 614 recommendations which have been issued during last the 17 years by loss control engineers of global reinsurers were analyzed. Finally, in order to facilitate the assessment index for catastrophic incident warning signs, the criteria for the catastrophic incident warning sign index at chemical plants were grouped by type and classified into upper category and lower category. Then, a catastrophic incident warning sign index for a chemical plant was developed using the weighted values of each category derived by applying the analytic hierarchy process (pairwise comparison method) through a questionnaire answered by relevant experts of the chemical plant. It is expected that the final 'assessment index for catastrophic incident warning signs' can be utilized by the refinery and petrochemical plant's internal as well as external auditors to assess vulnerability levels related to incident warning signs, and identify the elements of incident warning signs that need to be tracked and managed to prevent the occurrence of serious incidents in the future.

The verdict category and legal decision: Focused on the role of representation of 'innocent' (평결범주와 일반인의 법적판단: '무죄표상'의 역할을 중심으로)

  • Han, Yuhwa
    • Korean Journal of Forensic Psychology
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    • v.13 no.1
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    • pp.1-22
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    • 2022
  • This study tested the effect of the verdict category of lay-participation trial in Korea on the legal decision of layperson and the role of representation of 'innocent' in the process. Representation of 'innocent' refers to a psychological threshold for deciding someone's innocence (no fault or sin) in a general sense. The functions as a threshold for a legal decision of 'beyond a reasonable doubt (BRD)' and the individual threshold (IT), regarded as a standard for judgment of guilt established by law and an estimate of an individual's threshold, respectively, were compared. This study used a 2×2 complete factorial design in which the verdict category (guilty/innocent vs. guilty/not guilty) and the defendant's likelihood of guilt (low vs. high) were manipulated. Data from 137 lay-people who voluntarily participated in the online experiment was analyzed. The experiment's procedure was in the order of measuring 'representation of innocent' and the likelihood of guilt of an accused, presenting one of four trial vignettes, and obtaining legal decisions (verdict confidence and estimation of the likelihood of guilt for the defendant). As a result, it was found that the verdict category did not significantly affect the legal decision of layperson. However, the guilty verdict rate of the 'guilty/innocent' condition tended to be higher than those of the 'guilty/not guilty' condition. The layperson's representation of 'innocent' and the verdict category had an interaction effect on the difference between BRD and IT (threshold change) at the significance level of .1. In the 'guilty/innocent' condition, the threshold change varying with layperson's representation of 'innocent' was larger than in the 'guilty/not guilty' condition. In comparing the function of BRD and IT, IT significantly predicted the lay person's legal decision at the significance level of .1 by interacting with the likelihood of guilt for the defendant. Therefore, it could be said that IT was a better threshold estimator than BRD. The implication of this study is that it provided experimental evidence for the effect of the verdict category of lay-participation trial in Korea, which is a problem often raised among lawyers, and suggested logical reasoning and empirical grounds for the psychological mechanism of the possible effect.

An exploration of the relationship between crime/victim characteristics and the victim's criminal damages: Variable selection based on random forest algorithm (범죄 및 피해자 특성과 범죄피해 내용의 관계 탐색: 랜덤포레스트 알고리즘에 기초한 변인선택)

  • Han, Yuhwa;Lee, Wooyeol
    • Korean Journal of Forensic Psychology
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    • v.13 no.2
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    • pp.121-145
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    • 2022
  • The current study applied the random forest algorithm to Korean crime victim survey data collected biennially between 2010 and 2018 to explore the relationship between crime/victim characteristics and the victim's criminal damages. A total of 3,080 cases including gender, age (life cycle stage), type of crime, perpetrator acquisition, repeated victimization, psychological damage (depression, isolation, extreme fear, somatic symptoms, interpersonal problems, moving out to avoid people, suicidal impulses, suicide attempts), and emotional changes after victimization (changes in self-protection confidence, self-esteem, confidence in others, confidence in legal institutions, and respect for Korean legal system/law) were analyzed. Considering the features of data that are difficult to apply traditional statistical techniques, this study implemented random forest algorithms to predict crime and victim characteristics using the victim's criminal damages (psychological damage and emotional change) and selected good predictors using VSURF function in VSURF package for R. As a result of the analysis, it was confirmed that the relationship between the type of crime and depression, extreme fear, somatic symptoms, and interpersonal problems, between perpetrator acquisition and somatic symptoms and interpersonal problems, and between repeated victimization and changes in respect for Korean legal system/law. Gender and life cycle stage (youth/adult/elderly) were found to be related to extreme fear and changes in self-protection confidence, respectively. However, more empirical evidence should be aggregated to explain the results as meaningful. The results of this study suggest that it is necessary to enhance the experts' knowledge and educate them on cases about the relationship between crime/victim characteristics and criminal damage. Strengthening their interview strategy and knowledge about law/rules were also needed to increase the effectiveness of the Korean victim assessment system.

Influence of identifiable victim effect on third-party's punishment and compensation judgments (인식 가능한 피해자 효과가 제3자의 처벌 및 보상 판단에 미치는 영향)

  • Choi, InBeom;Kim, ShinWoo;Li, Hyung-Chul O.
    • Korean Journal of Forensic Psychology
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    • v.11 no.2
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    • pp.135-153
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    • 2020
  • Identifiable victim effect refers to the tendency of greater sympathy and helping behavior to identifiable victims than to abstract, unidentifiable ones. This research tested whether this tendency also affects third-party's punishment and compensation judgments in jury context for public's legal judgments. In addition, through the Identifiable victim effect in such legal judgment, we intended to explain the effect of 'the bill named for victim', putting the victim's real name and identity at the forefront, which is aimed at strengthening the punishment of related crimes by gaining public attention and support. To do so, we conducted experiments with hypothetical traffic accident scenarios that controlled legal components while manipulating victim's identifying information. In experiment 1, each participant read a scenario of an anonymous victim (unidentifiable condition) or a nonanonymous victim that included personal information such as name and age (identifiable condition) and made judgments on the degree of punishment and compensation. The results showed no effect of identifiability on third-party's punishment and compensation judgments, but moderation effect of BJW was obtained in the identifiable condition. That is, those with higher BJW showed greater tendency of punishment and compensation for identifiable victims. In Experiment 2, we compared an anonymous victim (unidentifiable condition) against a well-conducted victim (positive condition) and ill-conducted victim (negative condition) to test the effects of victim's characteristics on punishment for offender and compensation for victims. The results showed lower compensation for an ill-conducted victim than for an anonymous one. In addition, across all conditions except for negative condition, participants made punishment and compensation judgments higher than the average judicial precedents of 10-point presented in the rating scale. This research showed that victim's characteristics other than legal components affects third-party's legal decision making. Furthermore, we interpreted third-party's tendency to impose higher punishment and compensation with effect of 'the bill named for victim' and proposed social and legal discussion for and future research.

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Effects of Social Exclusion on Displaced Aggression: the Mediatingon Effect of Stress and Conditional Direct Effect of Social Support (사회적 배제가 전위된 공격성에 미치는 영향: 스트레스의 매개효과 및 사회적지지의 조건부 직접효과)

  • Yoonjae Noh;Sangyeon Yoon
    • Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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    • v.29 no.4
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    • pp.455-476
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    • 2023
  • This study focused on the characteristics of motiveless crimes that mainly originated from interpersonal problems and were acts of revenge against innocent third parties. This study confirmed the relationship between the experience of social exclusion and displaced aggression and examined the relationship between the two variables. We sought to confirm the role of related factors such as stress and social support. For this purpose, we established and tested hypotheses about the mediatingon effect of stress and the moderated mediatingon effect of social support on the effect of social exclusion experience on displaced aggression among 353 adult males aged between 19 and 49 years. The main results are that, first, social exclusion had a positive effect on displaced aggression. Second, stress was found to partially mediate the relationship between social exclusion and displaced aggression. Third, the hypothesis that social support would moderate the mediating effect of stress was not provedvaild, but the conditional direct effect of social support was confirmed in the mediation model. In other words, social support did not affect the indirect effect mediated by stress, but appeared to moderate the direct effect between social exclusion and displaced aggression. Social exclusion's prediction of displaced aggression was significant only in the average social support group (mean) and the high group (M+1SD), and appeared to increase as the group increased. This means that in groups with high social support, displaced aggression is used as a stress control strategy, which is a different result from previous studies that found that social support plays a role in lowerings aggression. People with low levels of social support showed unexpected results in that they used displaced aggression less frequently despite their experiencinge of social exclusion. In the discussion, the social implications of these results were interpreted, and additional research ideas were proposed to specify the relationship between social exclusion and displaced aggression.

The Effects of Storage of Human Saliva on DNA Isolation and Stability (인체타액의 보관이 DNA 분리와 안정도에 미치는 영향)

  • Kim, Yong-Woo;Kim, Young-Ku
    • Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
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    • v.31 no.1
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    • pp.1-16
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    • 2006
  • The most important progress in diagnostic sciences is the increased sensitivity and specificity in diagnostic procedures due to the development of micromethodologies and increasing availability of immunological and molecular biological reagents. The technological advances led to consider the diagnostic use of saliva for an array of analytes and DNA source. The purpose of the present study was to compare DNA from saliva with those from blood and buccal swab, to evaluate diagnostic and forensic application of saliva, to investigate the changes of genomic DNA in saliva according to the storage temperature and period of saliva samples, and to evaluate the integrity of the DNA from saliva stored under various storage conditions by PCR analysis. Peripheral venous blood, unstimulated whole saliva, stimulated whole saliva, and buccal swab were obtained from healthy 10 subjects (mean age: $29.9{\pm}9.8$ years) and genomic DNA was extracted using commercial kit. For the study of effects of various storage conditions on genomic DNA from saliva, stimulated whole saliva were obtained from healthy 20 subjects (mean age: $32.3{\pm}6.6$ years). After making aliquots from fresh saliva, they were stored at room temperature, $4^{\circ}C$, $-20^{\circ}C$, and $-70^{\circ}C$. Saliva samples after lyophilization and dry-out procedure were stored at room temperature. After 1, 3, and 5 months, the same experiment was performed to investigate the changes in genomic DNA in saliva samples. In case of saliva aliquots stored at room temperature and dry-out samples, the results in 2 weeks were also included. Integrity of DNA from saliva stored under various storage conditions was also evaluated by PCR amplification analysis of $\beta$-globin gene fragments (989-bp). The results were as follows: 1. Concentration of genomic DNA extracted from saliva was lower than that from blood (p<0.05), but there were no significant differences among various types of saliva samples. Purities of genomic DNA extracted from stimulated whole saliva and lyophilized one were significantly higher than that from blood (p<0.05). Purity of genomic DNA extracted from buccal swab was lower than those from various types of saliva samples (p<0.05). 2. Concentration of genomic DNA from saliva stored at room temperature showed gradual reduction after 1 month, and decreased significantly in 3 and 5 months (p<0.05, p<0.01, respectively). Purities of DNA from saliva stored for 3 and 5 months showed significant differences with those of fresh saliva and stored saliva for 1 month (p<0.05). 3. In the case of saliva stored at $4^{\circ}C$ and $-20^{\circ}C$, there were no significant changes of concentration of genomic DNA in 3 months. Concentration of DNA decreased significantly in 5 months (p<0.05). 4. There were no significant differences of concentration of genomic DNA from saliva stored at $-70^{\circ}C$ and from lyophilized one according to storage period. Concentration of DNA showed decreasing tendency in 5 months. 5. Concentration of genomic DNA immediately extracted from saliva dried on Petri dish were 60% compared with that of fresh saliva. Concentration of DNA from saliva stored at room temperature after dry-out showed rapid reduction within 2 weeks (p<0.05). 6. Amplification of $\beta$-globin gene using PCR was successful in all lyophilized saliva stored for 5 months. At the time of 1 month, $\beta$-globin gene was successfully amplified in all saliva samples stored at $-20^{\circ}C$ and $-70^{\circ}C$, and in some saliva samples stored at $4^{\circ}C$. $\beta$-globin gene was failed to amplify in saliva stored at room temperature and dry-out saliva.