4 Erich Wulffen and the case of the criminal Birgit Lang In 1927, the leading illustrated weekly Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung (BIZ) introduced its readers to the twenty-one most influential German criminologists of the day. Each was represented by a portrait photograph and a caption. The result was an iconography of experts in the burgeoning fields of studying, solving and writing about crime and criminals. Among the select group was Dr Erich Wulffen (1862–1936), Head of Department in the Saxon Ministry of Justice.1 The photo essay describes Wulffen as the
5 Crime, criminal networks and the survival strategies of the poor in early eighteenth-century London Heather Shore The poor in England Crime, criminal networks, survival strategies Introduction This morning one Rebecca Hart, a poor Woman belonging to the Parish of St. James’s, was committed to Prison for stealing several Quantities of Coals, the Property of Mr. Nathan Robley. It was sworn against her that she had declared, ‘It was no Sin in the Poor to rob the Rich; and that if it was, J— C— had died to procure the Pardon of all such Sinners.’ The Prisoner
, in which suffering is the fault of those suffering and the responsibility of no-one, and in which their efforts to help people in distress become evidence of criminal activity. The Case of the MV Aquarius It Begins On 13 December 2016, a humanitarian adviser at MSF in Brussels received a call from the correspondent of the Financial Times . He wanted to know if MSF had any comment on a report he had received
This article focuses on the judicial consideration of the scientific analysis of the Tomašica mass grave, in the Prijedor municipality of Republika Srpska in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Often referred to as the largest mass grave in Europe since the Second World War, this grave was fully discovered in September 2013 and the scientific evidence gathered was included in the prosecution of Ratko Mladić before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. Based on the exhaustive analysis of all the publicly available trial transcripts, this article presents how the Tomašica evidence proved symptomatic of the way in which forensic sciences and international criminal justice intertwine and of the impact of the former over the latter on the admissibility of evidence, the conduct of proceedings and the qualification of the crimes perpetrated.
In this article we explore the relational materiality of fragments of human cadavers used to produce DNA profiles of the unidentified dead at a forensic genetics police laboratory in Rio de Janeiro. Our point of departure is an apparently simple problem: how to discard already tested materials in order to open up physical space for incoming tissue samples. However, during our study we found that transforming human tissues and bone fragments into disposable trash requires a tremendous institutional investment of energy, involving negotiations with public health authorities, criminal courts and public burial grounds. The dilemma confronted by the forensic genetic lab suggests not only how some fragments are endowed with more personhood than others, but also how the very distinction between human remains and trash depends on a patchwork of multiple logics that does not necessarily perform according to well-established or predictable scripts.
Exhumation may be defined as the legally sanctioned excavation and recovery of the remains of lawfully buried or – occasionally – cremated individuals, as distinct from forensic excavations of clandestinely buried remains conducted as part of a criminal investigation and from unlawful disinterment of human remains, commonly referred to as bodysnatching. The aim of this article is to review the role of exhumation – so defined – in the activities of CEMEL, the Medico-Legal Centre of the Ribeirão Preto Medical School-University of São Paulo, in international, regional and local collaborations. Exhumations form part of routine forensic anthropology casework; scientific research in physical and forensic anthropology; and forensic casework conducted in collaboration with the Brazilian Federal Police; and are carried out as part of humanitarian investigations into deaths associated with the civil–military dictatorship of 1964 to 1985. This article aims to offer a non-technical summary – with reference to international comparative information – of the role of exhumation in investigative and scientific work and to discuss developments in their historical and political context.
The military coup of March 1976 in Argentina ruptured the prevailing institutional order, with the greater part of its repressive strategy built on clandestine practices and tactics (death, torture and disappearance) that sowed fear across large swathes of Argentine society. Simultaneously, the terrorist state established a parallel, de facto legal order through which it endeavoured to legitimise its actions. Among other social forces, the judicial branch played a pivotal role in this project of legitimisation. While conscious of the fact that many of those inside the justice system were also targets of oppression, I would like to argue that the dictatorship‘s approach was not to establish a new judicial authority but, rather, to build upon the existing institutional structure, remodelling it to suit its own interests and objectives. Based on an analysis of the criminal and administrative proceedings that together were known as the Case of the judicial morgue, this article aims to examine the ways in which the bodies of the detained-disappeared that entered the morgue during the dictatorship were handled, as well as the rationales and practices of the doctors and other employees who played a part in this process. Finally, it aims to reflect upon the traces left by judicial and administrative bureaucratic structures in relation to the crimes committed by the dictatorship, and on the legal strategies adopted by lawyers and the families of the victims.
that appears in the media, which may describe the horrendous conditions in which the hostages are being held and the payment of ransom to criminal and political networks ( Callimachi, 2014a , 2014b ; Kiser, 2013 ). In the end, vital information about the abductions remains the monopoly of the political and criminal networks carrying them out, the aid-organisation crisis units handling them, the private security firms advising them and the intelligence services
the round, I could see that whatever they may have been like as individuals, they were prepared to step forward and put themselves at risk to deliver humanitarian aid. There is a limit to this of course and it is clear that some people dreadfully abuse their position, but in the events that I described and have experienced, I was not witness to anything that was extreme and certainly not criminal. This might mean that I didn’t look for it or wilfully didn’t see it, but I do not believe that to be the case. One of the advantages, if you like, of deploying from and
authoritative source for explaining the 1994 genocide of the Tutsi and to a lesser extent violence perpetrated by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). The book also became the basis for numerous prosecutions of accused genocide perpetrators. Even before publication of the text, Des Forges worked closely with prosecutors at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), and after its publication, the book became the basis for numerous cases in Arusha. Leave None to Tell also has served as the basis for prosecutions in Canada, Belgium, France, Sweden, Finland and the