Monica Bennett
Founding member
Bio
I am a retired high school and college teacher. I have taught forensics, biology, chemistry, ecology, and Earth science.. Long Island has been my home for 60 years.
Stories (63/0)
Craigslist Crimes
Craigslist, the place where you can sell anything, even yourself. It's the place where you can buy anything, including sex. It's also the root of a lot of evil. The crime that ensues for many people begins with a simple post, whether you are buying or selling. Most have heard of Philip Markoff, the Craigslist killer, but he is really A Craigslist killer. There have been 129 of them, with 2017 being the last year for which information is available. That does not reflect the huge numbers of other crimes that have been recorded, but not tallied. Craigslist's answer to the criminality users are subjected to is a cavalier, “With billions of human interactions, the incidence of violent crime related to Craigslist is extremely low.” What they don't do but could do is hire more people to work in the safety division or in ad inspection. There are only 40 people running this show. Backpage was recently shut down for prostitution ads, and for the human trafficking of children for sex. Craigslist needs to take a stand on "Safe Trade" spots. There are many of them, and you can find them at Safe Spots. These safe trade spots are usually set up at police stations, to assure buyers and sellers can exchange money for goods in safety.
By Monica Bennett6 years ago in Criminal
Economic Terrorism
If you thought your business only had to worry about gangs of criminals in darkened basements printing funny money that an astute employee would find, think again. Most have heard about North Korea's foray into counterfeit $100 bills which had quieted down in recent years, but like Mac Arthur, they have returned. It took a full team of scientists to determine that a new supernote, as they are called, has turned up in South Korea. Then there are the Peruvian beauties causing disasters for business owners. In the old days, you could hit a suspect bill with a detector pen, but those days are done.
By Monica Bennett6 years ago in Criminal
Counterfeit Goods
The list of goods being counterfeited today is both staggering and alarming. In the picture above, the Viagra on the left is the real deal, on the right, a fake. Now, you might not be put-off by a counterfeit drug that just makes a better Saturday night, but how about your heart medications, or your diabetes pills? CBP agents (Customs and Border Protection)confiscated nearly $80 million worth of bogus medications, hygiene, makeup, and hair products last year. The CBP has aggressively pursued counterfeit drug movements and shut down internet sites selling fake drugs online. More than $18 million worth of counterfeit prescription drugs and hygiene items originated in India, contributing 88 percent of the imitations that country produced. China contributed an additional $47 million of the same products.
By Monica Bennett6 years ago in Criminal
Arson
All violent crime is about power, and arson is no exception. When you imagine the devastating fury of uncontrolled flames, you are imagining an exercise of power that boggles the mind. Whether the arsonist is professional or an amateur, he follows the pattern of obtaining power; demonstrating it, maintaining it, and acquiring lost power. Statistics for arson fires are alarming. From 2010 until 2014, the latest years for which this information is available, there were 261,330 arson fires in the United States. Fatalities number 440, 1,300 injured, and one billion dollars in property damage. There are 20 offenders per 100,000 people. Most of these fires, a full 50 percent, occur at night. Motives include; thrill-seeking, vandalism, concealment of another crime, profit, revenge, attention seeking, hero complex, politics, terrorism, and mental illness.
By Monica Bennett6 years ago in Criminal
Evolution Without Darwin
Darwin suspected it, but he would roll over in his grave if he knew how his dogma on adaptation and natural selection is changing. His original teachings are still not accepted by fundamentalist religious people. The new thinking would make them both apoplectic! Evolutionary thinking is finally beginning to mature past Darwin's explosion onto the science scene, after 159 years of stagnation. Forty years ago, there was another explosion in the science world. Stephen Jay Gould published a paper called The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian Paradigm: A Critique of the Adaptationist Programme. What it proclaimed was heresy in biology. Simply put, Gould said that not all adaptations are adaptations, some things are by-products that an organism can put to use, but they were not naturally selected. He likened these abilities to the spandrels in the church of San Marco. A spandrel is a triangular shape created when a dome is added to a rectangular room with arches between the arch and the wall. Artists used these spaces for artwork. Gould saw traits that were like spandrels—the body is a restricted form (the rectangle), and the dome was an adaptive trait. In between were usable by-products—the spandrels.
By Monica Bennett6 years ago in Futurism
Autopsy
There is so much misinformation about autopsies in fictional TV, movies, and books, that it is time to set the record right. The parts of an autopsy are an external examination, Y-incision, removal of organs, stomach content analysis, collection of tissue samples, head and brain assessment, and the conclusions of the examiner. During all of this, the medical examiner is responsible for identifying the victim and estimating the time of death.
By Monica Bennett6 years ago in Criminal
Old School Fingerprints Just Don't Cut It Anymore
Fingerprints may seem old school to people today. After all, we've been using them in this country to catch the bad guys for over 100 years. Now there is an all-you-can-read smorgasbord of new and exciting discoveries in fingerprinting that will amaze you! It is no longer a world of loops, whirls, and arches, but one of chemistry, nanoparticles, and physics.
By Monica Bennett6 years ago in Criminal
New Data on DNA
DNA Methylation You do not need a degree in biochemistry to get the gist of forensic DNA. Everyone gets the fact that DNA is unique to each human being, and can be used to connect a perpetrator to a crime. The first crime solved by the analysis of DNA was in 1988 in England when Colin Pitchfork was convicted of murder, thanks to the efforts of Alec Jeffreys. We've come a long way, baby. New developments in DNA forensics are both remarkable and frightening. We'll start with what is remarkable.
By Monica Bennett6 years ago in Criminal
Basic Ballistics
Ballistics is a science that encompasses more than you think it does. There are several disciplines including internal ballistics which deals with the actual propulsion of a bullet through a gun, while external ballistics is the analyzing of the bullet's path through the air. There are several things that can influence a bullet's flight path, such as wind, weather, and air drag. Impact of a bullet is categorized as terminal ballistics. This leads to analyzing the angle and depth of wounds and impacts into walls or ceilings and various objects which have been struck. In April of 1925, Calvin Goddard established the Bureau of Forensic Ballistics in New York City with C. E. Waite, Philip O. Gravelle, and John H. Fisher. The biggest advance in ballistics was the invention, by Gravelle, of the comparison microscope. This device enabled scientists to see a crime scene bullet at the same time as a bullet test-fired from a suspect's gun.
By Monica Bennett6 years ago in Criminal
Bloodstain Patterns
Blood is a substance with characteristics you probably don't think about. Tap a blood drop and it's sticky, walk through a blood stain and it's slippery. It is a non-Newtonian fluid and behaves much like ketchup. During a violent encounter, blood will stick to surfaces in patterns called blood spatter. The correct term is spatter, not splatter. These patterns can be read by someone who has been trained to do so, and they may discern the story of a violent crime as easily as you read this. Blood spatter occurs when blood is impacted by a violent attack. Droplets fly through the air and deposit on surfaces. The shape of a droplet changes depending on the type of surface it hits. Drops on glass will be very different from drops that land on wood. The angle of impact changes the shape of blood drops as do the velocity and distance traveled. Stains will either be round or elliptical depending on the angle of impact. If you measure the width and length of a droplet, you can determine the angle of impact. From this information, the location of the victim and perpetrator during the attack may be determined.
By Monica Bennett6 years ago in Criminal