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Purpose Law enforcement may require police officers to inhibit intuitive responses to high threat and thereby affect their emotional reaction and operational effectiveness. Upon this premise, the current study reports two experiments which compare the impact of two relevant shot execution strategies on police officers' shooting performance under high threat, including (1) fire at an armed assailant and then step away from the assailant's line of fire ('fire-step') or (2) step away from the assailant's line of fire and then fire ('step-fire'). Method In Experiment 1, 15 experienced police officers performed both shot execution strategies against a stationary assailant who occasionally shot back with coloured soap cartridges (high threat), while we measured their state anxiety, movement times and shot accuracy. In Experiment 2, the same 15 officers remained stationary and fired at the assailant who now performed both shot execution strategies in random order, thereby providing an indication of the risk (i.e., chance to get hit) associated with performing either strategy. Results Experiment 1 showed that officers preferred using the step-fire strategy and that using this strategy resulted in lower levels of anxiety, increased time for aiming and more accurate shooting than the fire-step strategy. Experiment 2, however, indicated that the step-fire strategy also increases one's chance of getting hit. Conclusions Findings suggest that inhibition of preferred responses under high threat (as in the fire-step strategy) may increase state anxiety and negatively affect shooting performance in police officers. Future work is needed to reveal underlying mechanisms and explore implications for practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite moral prohibitions on hurting other humans, some social contexts allow for harmful actions such as killing of others. One example is warfare, where killing enemy soldiers is seen as morally justified. Yet, the neural underpinnings distinguishing between justified and unjustified killing are largely unknown. To improve understanding of the neural processes involved in justified and unjustified killing, participants had to imagine being the perpetrator whilst watching 'first-person perspective' animated videos where they shot enemy soldiers ('justified violence') and innocent civilians ('unjustified violence'). When participants imagined themselves shooting civilians compared with soldiers, greater activation was found in the lateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). Regression analysis revealed that the more guilt participants felt about shooting civilians, the greater the response in the lateral OFC. Effective connectivity analyses further revealed an increased coupling between lateral OFC and the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) when shooting civilians. The results show that the neural mechanisms typically implicated with harming others, such as the OFC, become less active when the violence against a particular group is seen as justified. This study therefore provides unique insight into how normal individuals can become aggressors in specific situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The identification of gunshot residues (GSRs) on human body in firearm related fatalities may be essential for the evaluation of gunshot wounds and for the analysis of the shooting distance. The present study introduces the elemental analysis of the GSRs by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometer analysis (ICP-AES) performed on skin samples. ICP-AES was used to increase the accuracy of the analysis in gunshots fired from long and medium distance. In this experimental study, a series of 50 test shots have been performed in an open space with lateral wind protection. As target we used pig skin cut into 20 cm × 20 cm squares. The firing distances were 0.2, 5, 50, 100 and 150 cm. To exclude environmental contamination, each skin sample was carefully washed with deionized water and dried at room temperature in a closed box before the shooting test. We choose 9 × 21 and the 7.65 mm calibers handguns, loaded with different ammunitions. At ICP-AES analysis a clearly decreasing trend in the quantity and the concentration of the different elements of GSR by increasing the firing distance for both the guns used in the test was evident for every portion of skin samples analyzed. The analytical results obtained by ICP-AES confirmed very high concentrations of Pb, Sb, and Ba in the close-range shots and low concentrations of these particles in the intermediate and distant shots. In particular, the concentration of Sb, Ba, and Pb was significantly different from loose values when the firing distance was 100-150 cm for both the 9 × 21 and the 7.65 mm calibers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gunshot residues (GSR) are valuable evidence which provide the forensic analyst with useful information about a crime scene when proper analytical methods are used. Nowadays, the method of choice for analyzing GSR is scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive X-ray analysis (SEM/EDX). However, SEM/EDX presents limitations when the GSR identification of ''non-toxic'' ammunition types is performed. To overcome this drawback, Raman spectroscopy has been recently proposed as a complementary technique to SEM/EDX. However, for the time being, it can only be used in a limited number of casework (e.g. examining the macroscopic GSR produced at short distance over victim's clothes) and further research to know when this technique could support SEM-EDX results is required. In the present work, the memory effect of the weapon, which plays an important role to link the GSR found and the ammunition fired, is studied. Twenty shots were fired at close distance ( ∼30 cm) at paper targets using the same weapon with two different types of ammunition. The first, third, ninth, and twentieth shots were fired with the first ammunition and the shots among them using the second ammunition. The macroscopic GSR produced by the first ammunition were analyzed using Raman spectroscopy. First, the spectra obtained were visually differentiated by taking into account the band at about 1342 cm -1. This first approach shown that in the first shot were no GSR particles from the second ammunition, but 1.5-7.5% of analyzed particles corresponded to the second ammunition in the third, ninth, and twentieth shots. Additionally, the same differentiation was then performed by discriminant analysis using the spectral range from 1800 to 800 cm -1. Although using this second approach only one GSR was identified as the second ammunition, was remarkable that after the shots with different ammunition the GSR obtained shows greater variability. The results obtained suggest that the memory effect of the weapon has not a significant influence when the organic analysis of macroscopic GSR on targets by Raman spectroscopy is performed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the political review of Papua and West Papua provinces of Indonesia. It notes that the region and the provinces witnessed events which maintained the conflict between the Indonesian government and the Papuans. It points out that the secessionists demand to mass media, with shootings in the Freeport Mining Co., and the political opposition of highlanders. Its proposed political dialogue is expected to include Papuan pro-independence groups and central government delegates.

The frequency and characteristics of suicide by cop cases (SBC) among a large ( n = 707) nonrandom sample of North American officer-involved shootings (OIS) were investigated. “Suicide by cop” is when a subject engages in behavior which poses an apparent risk of serious injury or death, with the intent to precipitate the use of deadly force by law enforcement against the subject. Thirty-six percent of the OIS in this sample were found to be SBC with high interrater agreement (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.93) for category classification. SBC cases were more likely to result in the death or injury of the subjects than regular OIS cases. Most SBC cases were spontaneous, but had clear verbal and behavioral indicators that occurred prior to, and during the event. Findings confirm the trend detected in earlier research that there was a growing incidence of SBC among OIS. SBC individuals had a high likelihood of possessing a weapon (80%), which was a firearm 60% of the time. Half of those with a firearm discharged it at the police during the encounter. Nineteen percent simulated weapon possession to accomplish their suicidal intent. Other findings highlight the histories and commonalities in this high risk group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Until a change in the law in 1967 felons might be shot in order to prevent escape from lawful custody; their death counted as justifiable homicide. Shooting escaping felons came to be particularly associated with Dartmoor Prison, where outside working parties were accompanied by armed guards until the 1950s. But many years before this, administrative action had been directed towards ensuring that fatal shootings should not occur; the last such incident took place in the nineteenth century. This article traces the history of the relationship between formal law and administrative practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on topics related to military ethics including the use of torture in extreme situations, the kill decision of soldiers, and the decision issues faced by high-level officers.

The article reports the shooting of Priest Raphael Moussa who was a bishop at Saint George Church in El-Arish, Egypt and mentions that this and some other attacks were claimed by Islamic State (ISIS).

The article focuses on the claim of Azerbaijan as the one responsible for the shooting down an Armenian helicopter over Nagorno-Karabakh for self defense on November 12, 2014. It notes the quick reaction of the presidents of both countries on the incident and cancelled the supposed meeting of their foreign ministers in Basel although dialogue between them is necessary for the peace process.

The article discusses killing of Abdelmalek Gouri, the leader of Jund al-Khilafa militant group by the Algerian Army, who was also responsible for the killing of French tourist Herve Gourdel in retaliation to France's attack on militant group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

The article reports on the violent incidents in Somalia in July 2013 including the shooting of journalist Liban Qaran, the bombing of Al Shabaab at the Bakara market in Mogadishu, and the roadside explosion in Kismayo.