The effectiveness of DNA databases in relation to their purpose and content : a systematic review

Different stakeholders use forensic DNA databases for different purposes; for example, law enforcement agencies use them as an investigative tool to identify suspects, and criminologists use them to study the offending patterns of unidentified suspects. A number of researchers have already studied their effectiveness, but none has performed an overview of the relevant literature. Such an overview could help future researchers and policymakers by evaluating their creation, use and expansion. Using a systematic review, this article synthesizes the most relevant research into the effectiveness of forensic DNA databases published between January 1985 and March 2018. We report the results of the selected studies and look deeper into the evidence by evaluating the relationship between the purpose, content, and effectiveness of DNA databases, three inseparable elements in this type of research. We classify the studies by purposes: (i) detection and clearance; (ii) deterrence; and (iii) criminological scientific knowledge. Each category uses different measurements to evaluate effectiveness. The majority of these studies report positive results, supporting the assumption that DNA databases are an effective tool for the police, society, and criminologists. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

From advanced omni-users to sporadic media users: a five-way segmentation of new media usage in Flanders' rapidly changing media environment

Media technology is becoming an ever more ubiquitous part of human life. To support the growing amount of research into new media and ICT, it is important to have some benchmarks regarding adoption and use diffusion of technologies and features regarding media consumption. This kind of research allows to fully grasp and understand the results of other studies and to put them into perspective. The current rapidly changing ICT and media environment makes it even more important to have the most recent understandings regarding current trends, habits and practices. To this end, a yearly survey, called Digimeter, is held amongst a representative sample (age, sex and province) of Flemish people age 16 and older. The segmentation presented in this paper is based on the latest Digimeter-data, collected in the period August 2012 - September 2012. In total 1.891 Flemish were surveyed ‘offline’ with CAPI-interviews and 785 respondents filled out the survey online. The total dataset consists of 2.676 respondents. The dimensions on which the K-means segmentation is based, are the intensity of use on the one hand and the amount of functionalities a media technology is used for on the other hand. This typology of use diffusion is based on the framework put forwards by Shih & Venkatesh (2004). The results of the segmentation distinguish between five different types of media users. The most advanced media usage is found in a smaller group of early birds with a high frequency and a high variety of media usage, the advanced omni-users. A second group of so called curious pleasure seekers also adopted a wide variety of media functionalities, but have a lower willingness to pay for the newest technologies. A large part of the Flemish population can be described as regular media users, but the largest part still consists of so called traditional media users. This group of people prefers to stick to the ‘traditional media’ and is not that much into new media at all. Finally, we distinguish the sporadic media users, a group with a very low media usage, knowledge and interest. Together with this segmentation, we will provide some general trends and tendencies with regards to current media technology adoption and usage. This way, this paper will provide a state-of-the-art insight into (new) media and ICT adoption and diffusion in Flanders

Drug use: overview of general population surveys in Europe

In many European countries, one or more general population surveys have been carried out to get an impression of the characteristics of illicit drug use at national level. Despite valuable efforts to standardise national drug surveys among the general populations in European Member States and to enhance cross-national comparability, national drug surveys still use different instruments, reporting formats and methodologies. To facilitate the comparison of survey practices in EU countries and to provide a tool for everyone planning, organising or executing a survey about drug use among the general population, a meta-analysis of 25 population surveys on drug use in Europe was carried out, including intrinsic and methodological discussions and a description of financial sources, timetables and accessibility of the fieldwork and data documentation. The analysis presented here is part of a larger feasibility study of a repetitive drug survey among the general population in Belgium