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Why do civilians take the law into their own hands? Using Mexico as an example, ETH researcher Enzo Nussio shows how it's a combination of a weak state and strong local communities. In late March 2024, an eight-year-old girl went missing in Taxco, a small Mexican town two-and-a-half hours' drive south of Mexico City.

Researchers at the University of Bern have investigated the process of decomposition on pig carcasses left in nature. The researchers discovered that the previous standard method for assessing decomposition in Switzerland needs to be adapted - with an impact on forensic analysis. The method presented by the researchers aims to better determine the post-mortem interval.

First empirical validation of a new diagnostic framework for laboratory identification of super-recognizers and their value to law enforcement . Professor Meike Ramon and Dr. Maren Mayer, researchers at the University of Lausanne and the Leibniz Institute for Media Research, respectively, have published their findings in the journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences).

Why do some young men turn to crime, while others don-t? An international study shows that preferences such as risk tolerance, impatience and altruism as well as self-control can predict who will commit crime. Risk-tolerant, impatient young men are more likely to commit property crime, while people with low self-control tend to commit violent, drug and sexual offenses.

The way people move around in cities gives us clues as to when many crimes are committed and in which hotspots, as ETH researchers have demonstrated using anonymised data from  location technology plattforms. When and where does crime arise in cities? To answer this question, criminologists have previously relied on rather static models.

Researchers supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation analysed how sadistic sexual murderers assaulting child victims commit their crimes and discovered a number of specific patterns. A better understanding of these crimes may help police in their investigations. Sexual homicides involving children are often highly publicised.