Investigative journalism in Mexico: between ideals and realities. The case of Morelia

The aim of this paper is to analyse the state of the investigative journalism in Mexico, especially the one that is practiced at the local level in the provinces. That is, this research is based upon a case study conducted in Morelia, the capital city of the state of Michoacán. The empirical evidence will show that there is an evident divergence regarding the practice of the investigative journalism: on the one hand, journalists are aware of what this concept involves and they consider that they practice it on a regular basis; but, on the other, the content analysis prove otherwise. In other words, the account of what is actually printed significantly differs from the news workers’ perceptions, because the former shows a poorly developed journalistic investigation practice.

Positive Encounters: An Investigative Study on the Effects of Interactions between Cations and Quantum Dots

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Adult missing persons: can an investigative framework be generated using behavioral themes?

There is a limited amount of research in the area of missing persons, especially adults. The aim of this research is to expand on the understanding of missing people, by examining adults' behaviours while missing and determining if distinct behavioural themes exist. Based on previous literature it was hypothesised that three behavioural themes will be present; dysfunctional, escape, and unintentional. Thirty-six behaviours were coded from 362 missing person police reports and analysed using smallest space analysis (SSA). This produced a spatial representation of the behaviours, showing three distinct behavioural themes. Seventy percent of the adult missing person reports were classified under one dominant theme, 41% were ‘unintentional’, 18% were ‘dysfunctional’, and 11% were ‘escape’. The relationship between a missing person's dominant behavioural theme and their assigned risk level and demographic characteristics were also analysed. A significant association was found between the age, occupational status, whether they had any mental health issues, and the risk level assigned to the missing person; and their dominant behavioural theme. The findings are the first step in the development of a standardised checklist for a missing person investigation. This has implications on how practitioners prioritise missing adults, and interventions to prevent individuals from going missing. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The effect of note taking on memory for details in investigative interviews

Across 3 experiments, the effect of different styles of note taking, summary and access to notes was examined for memory for the details contained in a witness interview. In Experiment 1, participants (N = 40) were asked to either take notes or listen as they watched a witness interview. In Experiment 2, participants (N = 84) were asked to either take notes in one of three ways (i.e., conventional, linear, spidergraph) or listen as they watched a witness interview. In Experiment 3, participants (N = 112) were asked to take notes using the conventional or spidergraph method of note taking while they watched a witness interview and were subsequently given an opportunity to review their notes or sit quietly. Participants were then either granted access to their notes during testing or were not provided with their notes. Results of the first two experiments revealed that note takers outperformed listeners. Experiment 2 showed that conventional note takers outperformed those who used organizational styles of note taking, and post-hoc analyses revealed that recall performance was associated with note quality. Experiment 3 showed that participants who had access to their notes performed the best. The implications of these findings for police training programs in investigative interviewing are discussed.

Empathy in the field: towards a taxonomy of empathic communication in information gathering interviews with suspected sex offenders

Research suggests that those suspected of sexual offending might be more willing to reveal information about their crimes if interviewers display empathic behaviour. However, the literature concerning investigative empathy is in its infancy, and so as yet is not well understood. This study explores empathy in a sample of real-life interviews conducted by police officers in England with suspected sex offenders. Using qualitative methodology, the presence and type of empathic verbal behaviours displayed was examined. Resulting categories were quantitatively analysed to investigate their occurrence overall, and across interviewer gender. We identified four distinct types of empathy, some of which were used significantly more often than others. Female interviewers displayed more empathic behaviour per se by a considerable margin.

"Because she's one who listens": children discuss disclosure recipients in forensic interviews

The current study examined investigative interviews using the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Investigative Interview Protocol with 204, five- to thirteen-year-old suspected victims of child sexual abuse. The analyses focused on who children told, who they wanted (or did not want) to tell and why, their expectations about being believed, and other general motivations for disclosure. Children's spontaneous reports as well as their responses to interviewer questions about disclosure were explored. Results demonstrated that the majority of children discussed disclosure recipients in their interviews, with 78 children (38%) explaining their disclosures. Only 15 children (7%) mentioned expectations about whether recipients would believe their disclosures. There were no differences between the types of information elicited by interviewers and those provided spontaneously, suggesting that, when interviewed in an open-ended, facilitative manner, children themselves produce informative details about their disclosure histories. Results have practical implications for professionals who interview children about sexual abuse.

The NICHD protocol: a review of an internationally-used evidence-based tool for training child forensic interviewers

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to review an evidence-based tool for training child forensic interviewers called the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Protocol (NICHD Protocol), with a specific focus on how the Protocol is being adapted in various countries.
Design/methodology/approach
– The authors include international contributions from experienced trainers, practitioners, and scientists, who are already using the Protocol or whose national or regional procedures have been directly influenced by the NICHD Protocol research (Canada, Finland, Israel, Japan, Korea, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, and USA). Throughout the review, these experts comment on: how and when the Protocol was adopted in their country; who uses it; training procedures; challenges to implementation and translation; and other pertinent aspects. The authors aim to further promote good interviewing practice by sharing the experiences of these international experts.
Findings
– The NICHD Protocol can be easily incorporated into existing training programs worldwide and is available for free. It was originally developed in English and Hebrew and is available in several other languages.
Originality/value
– This paper reviews an evidence-based tool for training child forensic interviewers called the NICHD Protocol. It has been extensively studied and reviewed over the past 20 years. This paper is unique in that it brings together practitioners who are actually responsible for training forensic interviewers and conducting forensic interviews from all around the world.

A guide to clarifying evidence in Australian child forensic interviews

Purpose – Interviewing victims of child sex abuse requires considerable care in order to minimise error. Due to children’s heightened suggestibility any question asked of a child could potentially incite error that could undermine the witness’s credibility. A focus group was conducted in order to facilitate the development of guidance for interviewers around the circumstances in which it is necessary to ask children follow-up questions in an interview. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach – Seven Crown prosecutors representing every Australian state and territory (with the exception of one small state) were issued with 25 hypothetical narrative accounts of child abuse and asked to indicate what information, if any, required follow-up in the child’s narrative. Their responses and rationale for requiring following up in some cases and not others were discussed.

Findings – Thematic analysis revealed three recommendations to guide questioning: whether the case involved identification or recognition evidence; the presence of contextual features that may influence the witness’s memory, or that should trigger a particular line of questioning; and whether the information can or should be sought at a later stage by the trial prosecutor, rather than by the interviewer. Practical implications – The recommendations are discussed within the context of their implications for interviewing, that is, how each recommendation could be implemented in practice.

Originality/value – The present study extends prior literature by elucidating principles to guide decision making across interview topic areas. The need for such guidance is highlighted by research suggesting that topics such as offender identity, offence time and place, and witnesses are a source of overzealous questioning in interviews.

Improving investigative Interviews with Aboriginal children

This thesis focused on improving investigative interview protocols with Australian Aboriginal children (predominantly in cases of abuse). Current investigative interviewing procedures were evaluated, and a revised interview protocol tailored to Aboriginal children was created.

INVESTIGATIVE COMPARISON OF TANK AND RECOVERED ASPHALT SAMPLES THROUGH PHYSICAL PERFORMANCE TESTING AND CHEMICAL ANALYSIS

Despite the development of improved performance test protocols by renowned researchers, there are still road networks which experience premature cracking and failure. One area of major concern in asphalt science and technology, especially in cold regions in Canada is thermal (low temperature) cracking. Usually right after winter periods, severe cracks are seen on poorly designed road networks. Quality assurance tests based on improved asphalt performance protocols have been implemented by government agencies to ensure that roads being constructed are at the required standard but asphalt binders that pass these quality assurance tests still crack prematurely. While it would be easy to question the competence of the quality assurance test protocols, it should be noted that performance tests which are being used and were repeated in this study, namely the extended bending beam rheometer (EBBR) test, double edge-notched tension test (DENT), dynamic shear rheometer (DSR) test and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis have all been verified and proven to successfully predict asphalt pavement behaviour in the field. Hence this study looked to probe and test the quality and authenticity of the asphalt binders being used for road paving. This study covered thermal cracking and physical hardening phenomenon by comparing results from testing asphalt binder samples obtained from the storage ‘tank’ prior to paving (tank samples) and recovered samples for the same contracts with aim of explaining why asphalt binders that have passed quality assurance tests are still prone to fail prematurely. The study also attempted to find out if the short testing time and automated procedure of torsion bar experiments can replace the established but tedious procedure of the EBBR. In the end, it was discovered that significant differences in performance and composition exist between tank and recovered samples for the same contracts. Torsion bar experimental data also indicated some promise in predicting physical hardening.

Professionals' perceptions regarding the suitability of investigative interview protocols with Aboriginal children

Objective: Despite the heterogeneity of Australian Aboriginal peoples, certain styles of relating are shared and are markedly different to the communication styles of non-Aboriginal peoples. These differences may affect the suitability of current investigative interview protocols to Australian Aboriginal children. This study aimed to qualitatively evaluate the applicability of an investigative interview protocol to Australian Aboriginal children and examine how it could be modified to better suit the communication styles in many Aboriginal communities. Method: A diverse group of 28 participants who had expertise in Aboriginal language and culture, as well as an understanding of the child investigative interview process, each partook in an in-depth semi-structured interview where they were prompted to reflect on Aboriginal language and culture with reference to a current interview protocol (in the context of sexual assault investigation). Results: Thematic analysis revealed overall support for the narrative-based structure of the interview protocol when eliciting information from Aboriginal children. A number of concerns were also identified, and these largely related to the syntax and vocabulary within the protocol, as well as the methods of questioning and building rapport with the child. Conclusions: Directions for future research and potential modifications to investigative interview protocols to better suit Aboriginal children are discussed.

Combining ganglion cell topology and data of patients with glaucoma to determine a structure-function map

PURPOSE: To introduce techniques for deriving a map that relates visual field locations to optic nerve head (ONH) sectors and to use the techniques to derive a map relating Medmont perimetric data to data from the Heidelberg Retinal Tomograph. METHODS: Spearman correlation coefficients were calculated relating each visual field location (Medmont M700) to rim area and volume measures for 10 degrees ONH sectors (HRT III software) for 57 participants: 34 with glaucoma, 18 with suspected glaucoma, and 5 with ocular hypertension. Correlations were constrained to be anatomically plausible with a computational model of the axon growth of retinal ganglion cells (Algorithm GROW). GROW generated a map relating field locations to sectors of the ONH. The sector with the maximum statistically significant (P < 0.05) correlation coefficient within 40 degrees of the angle predicted by GROW for each location was computed. Before correlation, both functional and structural data were normalized by either normative data or the fellow eye in each participant. RESULTS: The model of axon growth produced a 24-2 map that is qualitatively similar to existing maps derived from empiric data. When GROW was used in conjunction with normative data, 31% of field locations exhibited a statistically significant relationship. This significance increased to 67% (z-test, z = 4.84; P < 0.001) when both field and rim area data were normalized with the fellow eye. CONCLUSIONS: A computational model of axon growth and normalizing data by the fellow eye can assist in constructing an anatomically plausible map connecting visual field data and sectoral ONH data.