A consultant forensic psychiatrist, Dr Phil Huckle, of the Caswell Clinic at Bridgend, Mid-Glamorgan, studied the case histories of nearly 300 women over the past seven years. Although the proportion convicted for violence remained relatively constant, the level of violence they used was increasingly vicious.
Presenting his findings to a Royal College of Psychiatrists’ conference in Cardiff, Dr Huckle said women were now more prepared to carry out acts of violence. “The causes of violent behaviour and offending seem to include both psychiatric illness and previous experience of personal violence with the family of origin, which is often repeated in other relationships.”. Lovelorn gerbils separated from their mates display the same symptoms as depressed divorcees, scientists have found. Researchers at Leeds University believe the rodents could provide useful models for studying the biochemistry of depression in humans. The team discovered that gerbils, especially females, became withdrawn and suffered altered sleep patterns when they lost their lifelong partners.

They became active when other gerbils were sleeping and slept when the others were active. Gerbils were “remarkably similar” to humans in that they formed lifelong partnerships, the lead researcher, Nicola Starkey, told New Scientist magazine.
By observing the chemical changes accompanying symptoms in separated gerbils it might be possible to identify new targets for human drugs.. Tens of thousands of families could be claiming child benefit for children who do not exist, who have died or who are no longer eligible, according to a report published yesterday. The report says that 76,000 blank birth certificates have been stolen and could be used in frauds. It adds that thousands of 16-to-18-year-olds could still be on the benefit list even though they have left school.

The report shows that while the DSS paid benefit to around 970,000 parents of 16-to-18-year-olds, the Department for Education and Employment had records of only 617,000 still in full-time education. Teenagers who leave school before they are 18 cease to be eligible for benefit. One committee member suggested that the fraud could be costing the taxpayer more than pounds 100m a year.
Commons Social Security Committee Second Report on Child Benefit Fraud; Stationery Office, PO Box 276, London, SW8 5DT; pounds 11.30.. Police efforts to catch burglars are often ineffectual and muddled, with fewer than 6 per cent of offenders convicted for their crimes, according to the Home Office. A study of practices in the West Midlands suggests the success rate could be dramatically improved if officers responded more quickly to 999 calls Researchers examined a sample of 704 burglaries in 1994. Only one in 10 burglars reported to the police while breaking into a house were caught. Stolen property was only recovered in 7 per cent of cases.
Of the 6 per cent caught and convicted, more than 40 per cent were arrested at the scene of the crime and a third from questioning witnesses.

A further quarter of the total was expected to be “cleared up” via confessions from convicted criminals.Solving Residential Burglary, Home Office Police Research Group, 50 Queen Anne’s Gate, London SW1H 9AT.. Childhood immunisation reached record levels in England last year, with more children under two being vaccinated than ever before, the Government announced yesterday. Uptake of diphtheria, tetanus and polio vaccine was 96 per cent, while 94 per cent of children were immunised against whooping cough and flu, and 92 per cent against measles, mumps and rubella.
The Chief Medical Officer, Sir Kenneth Calman, said: “We have reduced the incidence of childhood diseases to their lowest ever levels.” In 1995 there were fewer than 60 cases of measles confirmed, out of about 7,800 notifications of suspected cases. Before immunisation began in 1968, notifications averaged about 400,000 a year.Department of Health 1996 Immunisation Against Infectious Disease, pounds 6.95 from HMSO.. Four Scotland Yard officers are about to fly to Nigeria to investigate allegations of corruption in the visa section of the British High Commission in Lagos. Several Foreign Office officials have already been recalled to London after the inquiry was set up in December.
The allegations are understood to involve the illegal sale of documents as part of Nigeria’s thriving market in bogus identification papers..