Via i09 comes the news that a new forensics test on DNA evidence from crime scenes may be able to predict with some accuracy the eye and hair colour of suspects.

Called Hirispex, the new forensic technology sits under the field of Forensic DNA Phenotyping (FDP) in a set of techniques that are allowing police investigators to drastically narrow down a large group of possible suspects.

Paul Rincon of the BBC explains how it works:

The test system includes the six DNA markers previously used in a test for eye colour known as Irisplex, combining them with predictive markers for hair.

In the study, the authors used Hirisplex to predict hair colour phenotypes in a sample drawn from three European populations.

On average, their prediction accuracy was 69.5% for blonde hair, 78.5% for brown, 80% for red and 87.5% for black hair colour.

Analysis on worldwide DNA samples suggested the results were similar regardless of a person's geographic ancestry.

The team was also able to determine, with a prediction accuracy of about 86%, whether a brown-eyed, black haired person was of non-European versus European origin (excluding some nearby areas such as the Middle East).

The study these reports were based on was published in FSI Genetics and can be found here.

As with psychological (or more readily, investigative psychology) profiling, these new forensic measures may well add another tool to the investigator's arsenal, but with a current discount rate of up to 20% on some hair colour predictions, looking outside of these predictions through a general suspect pool may still be advisable, until some more valid suspects are selected to match towards that DNA trace evidence.

Image: © 1999-2012 Dries Buytaert Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License.

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In this, the first of an intermittent series, I will be sharing some link love from across the web – news and articles in areas I find fascinating, particularly in criminology and forensic psychology.

• Marilyn Monroe – Published on the fiftieth anniversary of Marilyn Monroe's controversial death, Dr. Katherine Ramsland in Psychology Today introduces the psychological autopsy in “Marilyn’s Forensic Legacy”. (5th August)
• Lizzy Borden – Dr Katherine Ramsland also discusses Lizzy Borden on the 120th anniversary of Ax Lizzie's family killings, in Ax Lizzie for the Tour | Psychology Today (4th August)
• Volcanic Eruption brought pestilence on Great Britain – From the Guardian U.K. (via Dead Men Talking) – Mass grave in London reveals how volcano caused global catastrophe | UK news | The Observer – a huge volcanic eruption in the tropics caused mass deaths in the 13th century which were previously pinned on the plague.
• Genie, Feral Child – About.com Psychology Today discusses Genie, a famous feral child of the 70's in Genie: One of History's Most Famous Feral Children (7th August)
• Sherlock Holmes – Psychologist Maria Konnikova argues the point that the BBC's Sherlock Holmes may claim he is a sociopath but in actual fact this is the same as being a psychopath – which, Konnikova then suggests, Sherlock is not. The debate intrigues me because several psychologists do distinguish between psychopathy and sociopathy normally based on the levels of disorder found in certain traits. However, both terms are not recognised specifically under the DSM-IV, but this manual lists both under the more general anti-social disorder. There are several views on these disorders, and obviously the BBC writing team hold one which differentiates both. Still, while Cumberbatch's Sherlock does claim to be a sociopath rather than psychopath this would explain why he does hold the welfare of those he deems “family” as being important. Read the comments on Konnikova's post to find a link to an interview kwith Stephen Moffat who wrote the episode of Sherlock being debated here, where he simply suggests Holmes lives his monastic life by choice. All of which is nothing to do with claims found elsewhere that Sherlock Holmes is actually a high performing sufferer of a form of aspergers syndrome.
• U.S. Crime Rates – Three Strange Theories About Why America's Crime Rate Is So Low – i09 writer Annalee Newitz provides 3 random social reasonings proposed as providing lower crime rates – employment, abortion and nice windows.
• Expert Witnesses – Mental health expert witnesses slammed in court – a post by Karen Frankin, Ph.D. discusses accusations of bias against mental health experts.
• The Plague still Exists – guest poster and author Michele Drier provides some startling information on Plague…The Black Death at Manic Readers.

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If you have an interest in such topics (as I obviously do), one of my more popular Pinterest boards gathers similar infographics under the topic of Criminology.

Give it a visit from time to time.

from TotalCriminalDefense.com>

In 1998, a federal law was passed by the United States Congress, entitled The Protection of Children from Sexual Predator Act of 1998 which included a possible official definition of a serial killer as one who commits “a series of three or more killings, not less than one of which was committed within the United States, having common characteristics such as to suggest the reasonable possibility that the crimes were committed by the same actor or actors.” But in no way does that even come close to identifying the complex brain and thought patterns that define a serial killer.

Full article here.

Note that most of the subjects found in this article have been detailed in several posts here at Hunter Emkay also.

This post will archive the sentences from Blue Daisies – my Work In Progress. Blue Daisies is in revision and self-edit right now so you never know – even these sentences might be tossed.

22nd July Six Sentences

This scene is at  Syd’s family home, where he is about to introduce his new American fiancée, Maddie, to the family.

‘Are you sure you want to do this?’

Syd sneezed and cast a blaming glance at the aging tulips in the garden bed beside them. He mumbled, ‘Isn’t that what I’m meant to be saying to you?’

They stood on his parent’s doorstep, Maddie dramatically bundled up against a non-existent cold in a faux-fur coat that only a few could get away with.

Being a biologist, nobody ever questioned her over whether the coat was really a fake or not. Syd presumed otherwise.

 5th August Six Sentences

This except is from the very start of a scene called “A Gift” which finds a main character shopping for a gift she hopes to impress with.

The woman hovered around the back of Clyde’s store, in the half shadows cast by his purposely dim bulbs. He’d seen her in here before several times, always lingering there – with the porcelain busts and statues.

Not an uncommon sight at Clyde’s Emporium and Antiques – many customers took several visits to consider their purchases.

His thumbs tapped together over interlaced hands and he squinted his eyes to focus on the woman. Any worthwhile purchase should take time. But perhaps she needed a little nudge?

 26th August Six Sentences

This except is from the very start of a the book, in a chapter called “An Announcement”. It introduces the main antagonist through the eyes of her father.   Although shared through Six Sentence Sunday, the first line of this excerpt has since changed. The current version is below -

Alistair Smith watched his daughter from his vantage point behind the door into the kitchen and pondered when the knife might come at him.

Something was changing with her.

Nicola hunched at the kitchen counter of their little unit, knifing through the paper. Literally — with a knife.

Smithie’s eyes narrowed.

There were scissors somewhere around, but she’d chosen that knife.

2nd September Six Sentences

This except is from the start of a scene in the book called  “The Mortuary”. It introduces the main character of this scene, Max.

Max hated parties at the best of times. Forced socialisation with people he didn’t like, or hardly cared about — nope, he really didn’t like parties. He was a Billy-No-Mates by choice, mind. Not somebody who had difficulties socialising. He just preferred to be the loner.

But a party here — in the middle of a morgue, that was a little different.


Via MBA@UNC Online Business Degree & The YEC

For larger images, and to see the series, and poll, please head to my writing blog post – the poll will be up for a week.

What generation does your main character belong to? What constrictions and benefits might this generation give your character and her friends and colleagues?

I’ve been thinking about this lately.

In April whilst doing the A-Z Blogging Challenge, I put up a reasonably successful series on Serious Crimes – serial killers, psychology, some forensics, etc. This series was posted on my website, here. When coming to X,Y and Z of the challenge, like many people, I struggled to come up with a topic (especially since I couldn’t find a real life Xylophone Killer). I also wanted to look a little more positively into crimes in general.

So, for the series, I ended with X for the X Generation, Y for Gen Y and Z for Gen Z. I took a quick look at the crime statistics for each generation since the baby boomers, and the news was actually quite promising – Gen Z who are confusedly also called “The Millenials” (but can be born in the 1990′s), have some good news in front of them – crime overall has been dropping each decade. So saying that, Gen Y and the earlier Gen Z’s also face sky-rocketing housing prices, more unemployment, and can find it difficult to start to make a living once out of all the educational pathways nowadays available to them.

The later millenials – kids like my daughter born in the 2000′s – have both a huge world of technological and educational advances before them, and some onus on them to better the generation before them – stereotypically thought of as being “the entitlement” generation.

–> See the rest of the post here.

During the A-Z Challenge I began some extremely successful  Pinboards at : Pinterest– I plonked down all the infographics I could find on crime, in general, and on writing. Every day now my email is filled with Pinterest notifications telling me that so-and-so repinned such-and-such or is following my boards. From this, I now have companies marketing their new infographics at me. Some have a relevance to the niches I am interested in, a few don’t. Over the weekend I was sent this one – After Graduation. It tells us about the sad statistics towards the prevalence of depression for Generation Z or the Y’s also.

Take a look, and consider what generational antagonisms (and benefits) your own fictional characters might be driven by also.

Brought to you by USC: Masters in Social Work

I can’t place an opinion on this – there are many known cases where juveniles are being incarcerated for life in some countries, or treated as adults. There are debates between those Law systems that preach reform whilst others reprimand. Again, the questions are too big for this author to cover or even contemplate.

I was just sent another infographic – this site has been flagged up on somebody’s radar for infographics on the criminal theme. Below is the latest.

What I did want to question after reading the first statement on this graphic is this – we may have dropping crime rates, but is that because all the criminals are reprimanded long-term in our breaking prison system? And at what cost to society?

Created by: OnlineCriminalJusticeDegree.com