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This article presents updates on the field of criminal law and criminology in the U.S. as of July 1931. The University of North Carolina School of Law in conjunction with the Commission on Interracial Cooperation will be studying the problems confronting the law as a result of the prevalence of lynching, while as the National Probation Association, announces that the 1930 Year Book of the Association is ready for distribution. A variety of interesting topics is treated in the yearbook including the Status of Federal Probation, Probation Service Today,- Progress or Retrogression, The, Training and Recruiting of Probation Officers, and Trends of Probation. On the other hand, the School in Crime Detection conducted by the Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory of Northwestern University came to a successful close with a series of examinations including a test murder case involving a bullet-plugged dummy. The subjects studies included ballistics, toxicology, truth serum, lie detectors, firearm identification, psychology and chemistry in crime detection, handwriting, codes, serology, errors of eyewitnesses, medical fakes, fingers prints, microscopic work, riles of evidence and other phases of crime detection. Furthermore, two members of the Staff of the Crime Detection Laboratory are conducting extensive experiments with twilight sleep, induced by morphine and scopolamine, in an effort to detect deception.

The article discusses recent criminal decisions rendered by the U.S. courts. In a case on admissibility of expert testimony on ballistics, the defendant was indicted for first degree murder and upon a plea of not guilty was placed on trial and convicted of murder in the second degree. Testimony was admitted, over the objection of the defendant, of a witness who had made guns his "hobby'' and who identified the gun, admittedly used previously by defendant. The identification was made by comparison of the rifling of the revolver barrel with certain markings found on the fatal bullet. Held, on appeal, that the judgment be affirmed. A number of cases can now be cited in which there has been a decisive recognition of the admissibility of evidence based on the science of ballistics. A high degree of care in the determination of the qualifications of a proffered expert in this field is without doubt necessary. In certain cases, facts tending to identify the weapon used by the defendant have been testified to by so-called gun experts.