Tag: crime

Unfinished business: Breuning fraud case left articles unretracted

Jan 25, 2022Russell T. WarneAlisha Robinson, controversies, crime, intellectual disabilities, Jennifer Harbster, National Institute for Mental Health, psychopharmacology, Robert Sprague, scientific fraud, scientific scandals, Stephen Breuning, Vicky Davis

The Panel unanimously concludes, on the basis of all the facts, that Dr. Stephen E. Breuning has engaged in serious scientific misconduct.

Book review: Victoria F. Nourse’s IN RECKLESS HANDS

Jan 14, 2021Russell T. Warnebehavioral genetics, books, Buck v. Bell, crime, David Hume, Eleanor Roosevelt, eugenics, genome-wide association studies, Harlan F. Stone, History of Psychology, human rights, In Reckless Hands: Skinner v. Oklahoma and the near triumph of American eugenics, legal issues, Nazi Germany, philosophy of science, presentism, Skinner v. Oklahoma, Stephen Jay Gould, The Mismeasure of Man, Victoria F. Nourse

Skinner v. Oklahoma (1942) was a U.S. Supreme Court case that ruled unanimously that Oklahoma’s law permitting the compulsory sterilization of “habitual offenders” in prisons was unconstitutional. This ruling came just 15 years after the infamous Buck v. Bell (1927), in which the court 8-1 ruled the exact opposite in regards to a woman who was supposedly “feeble-minded” (to use the terminology of the time).

DNA phenotyping for appearance: A forensic dead end

Oct 26, 2020Russell T. WarneAdam Antonio Spencer Durborow, crime, genetics, Parabon NanoLabs, Sherry Black, Steve Hsu

One of my guilty pleasures is true crime television shows. I’m fascinated by the twists and turns that go into identifying, accusing, and convicting a criminal and the mystery surrounding those who have (so far) gotten away with their crimes. Several years ago, a new forensic technique called DNA phenotyping caught my eye. DNA phenotyping…