Suicide in the Ukraine

The suicide rates of the 24 provinces (oblasts) of the Ukraine were found to be strongly associated with indices of social disintegration (such as divorce and illegitimacy rates), with the Western provinces incorporated in the USSR later than other Ukrainian territories having lower suicide rates and lower levels of social disintegration.     

Injury pattern in fatal automobile accident passengers due to rear-end collisions

The article reports on the injury pattern seen in fatally wounded car passengers after rear-end collisions on motorways. The study material included 5 rear-end collisions, in which 9 car occupants (5 drivers and 4 front-seat passengers) were killed. The change in velocity (delta v) was above 60 km/h in all the reported cases. The injury pattern showed the following characteristics: extensive soft-tissue traumatization (subcutaneous haematomas, blood-filled pockets, "décollements") not discernible from outside on the back of the trunk, mostly in the lumbosacral region; dorsal serial rib fractures, often combined with fractures of the spine (including the sacrum and the coccyx) and/or the pelvis; ruptures of the aorta at the typical sites of predisposition; ruptures of the liver and spleen (particularly at the visceral surfaces).     

Fatal inhalation of butane-propane gas

Fatal intoxications with butane and/or propane are rare although the inhalation of such liquid gases in order to induce hallucinations is not uncommon amongst youngsters, the number of which is difficult to evaluate. Thus the possibility of gas intoxication should be taken into consideration in all cases of unclear death of youngsters, in which case the macroscopic and histological findings will be unspecific whereas the chemical-toxicological analyses, especially of the native brain, lung and liver tissue, lead to definite conclusions.     

Estimation of the quantity of a drug in a consignment from measurements on a sample

A consignment of individual packages is thought to contain illegal material, such as drugs, in some or all of the packages. A sample from the consignment is inspected and the quantity of drugs in each package of the sample is measured. It is desired to estimate the total quantity of drugs in the consignment. Sampling variation is present in the original measurements and it is not sufficient just to adjust the sample mean pro rata. An analysis is described which takes account of the uncertainty concerning the proportion of the packages that contain drugs and provides a probabilistic summary of the quantity of drugs in the consignment. In particular, a probabilistic lower bound for the quantity of drugs in the consignment is given, which is dependent on the required standard of proof. This is in contrast to the approach based on confidence intervals which assumes that in the long run, the interval will contain the correct quantity the appropriate proportion of the time, but gives no measure of uncertainty associated with the particular consignment under consideration.     

Suicide on death row

The suicide rate on death row for the period 1976 through 1999 was found to be high (113 per 100,000 per year), some five times higher than the suicide rate for the male population of the United States. The death row suicide rate was predicted by features of the death row population (negatively with the population on death row) and by social indicators of the society as a whole (negatively with birth and divorce rates and positively with marriage rates).     

Adolescent Development and the Measurement of Juvenile Psychopathy

Researchers are currently seeking antecedents of psychopathy among children and adolescents. Instruments developed for this purpose are likely to be used in the future in ways that may have serious implications for youths in delinquency and criminal cases. In this regard, and because the concept and measurement of psychopathy have been developed in reference to adults, there is reason to be concerned about potential developmental sources of false positives when measuring psychopathic traits in juvenile offenders. We provide the basis for our concern, as well as standards regarding the types of research evidence that should be provided before psychopathy measures are accepted for use in juvenile forensic assessments.