The effects of marital status on adult female homicides in the United States

With data from the 1992 Mortality Detail File, we examine the effects of marital status on female homicide victimization in the United States. Multivariate logistic regression was fitted to all female homicide deaths occuring in 1992. Results indicate that, controlling for race, education, nativity, city size, region of the country, occupation, age, day of the week, and month of the year, divorced females were 55.3% more likely to be homicide victims than married females. Notably, single women did not differ from married women with respect to homicide risk. Finally, widowed women were significantly less likely to be homicide victims than married women. The results suggest a complicated relationship between marital status and female homicide victimization.     

Personal budgets in adult social care: the fact and the fiction of the Care Act 2014

ABSTRACT

Personal budgets have been heavily promoted in government policy in England as a means of increasing the personalisation of public services, particularly in the field of adult social care. The Care Act 2014 for the first time creates a statutory requirement for personal budgets to be allocated to all individuals using state funded social care. This article examines how a particular rhetoric has developed in social care policy around personal budgets, which draws freely on the language of the disabled people’s movement and suggests that grassroots ideas are the central purpose for the introduction of personal budgets into policy. It considers whether the promises made in policy are embedded in the 2014 Act and finds that there is a mismatch between claims in social care policy on the one hand and the model of personal budgets created by the 2014 Act on the other. It concludes that the policy rhetoric around personal budgets directly appropriates the language and ideas of the disabled people’s movement while promoting a wholly distinct agenda of public sector marketisation.     

The effects of adult and peer social initiations on the social behavior of withdrawn and aggressive maltreated preschool children

The effects of programmed peer- and adult-mediated play initiations were compared for socially dysfunctional, maltreated preschool children. An N = 1, alternating treatments design was used to compare these strategies. Two withdrawn nonmaltreated (control), two withdrawn maltreated, and three aggressive maltreated children served as subjects. Dyadic play sessions were videotaped and rated at the completion of the study by naive raters according to an 18-category observation system. Overall, the control children showed no difference in levels of interaction between peer and adult conditions. The withdrawn maltreated children showed a clear preference for interaction with the peer over the adult. The aggressive maltreated children showed a clear preference for interaction with the peer over the adult. The aggressive maltreated children showed a clear preference for interaction with the adult. They also demonstrated a decrease of positive behavior and increase in negative behavior in response to the programmed initiations. Implications of these differential responses were discussed.     

The unexpected effect of social status on reproduction: a case study in Joseon Korea from the nineteenth to the twentieth centuries

We examine how parents have made decisions about the number of children they have, given their social status in accordance with residential location (either urban or rural areas) and time (either the pre-modern or modern periods). We use two sets of microdata – Jokbo and Jejeokbu – spanning the early nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries in Korea. Combining the two data-sets, we use multiple imputation to fill the missing entries of some observations and apply a Poisson regression model on the augmented data. Our empirical results reveal statistically significant evidence that higher socioeconomic status is related to having more children. Additionally, our findings indicate that: (1) all else being constant, among high-status people, rural residents had more children than urban families; (2) for people born between 1800 and 1945, those born closer to the 1940s tended to have fewer children; and (3) during modernization, there was still a significant trend for high-status families to have more children.     

Partner killing by men in cohabiting and marital relationships: a comparative, cross-national analysis of data from Australia and the United States

Using a national-level U.S. database, T. K. Shackelford (2001) calculated rates of uxoricide (the murder of a woman by her romantic partner) by relationship type (cohabiting or marital), by ages of the partners, and by the age difference between partners. Women in cohabiting relationships were 9 times more likely to be killed by their partner than were married women. Within marriages, the risk of uxoricide decreases with a woman's age. Within cohabiting relationships, middle-aged women were at greatest risk of uxoricide. The risk of uxoricide increased with greater age difference between partners. We sought to replicate the findings of Shackelford (2001) using a national-level database that includes information on more than 4,400 homicides that occurred in Australia between 1989 and 2002. Despite the higher rate of partner killing in the United States, and despite other cultural differences between the two countries, we replicated key patterns with the Australian data.     

National Styles of Worker Protection in the United States and Japan: The Case of the Automotive Industry

This paper compares and contrasts the national styles or approaches to the regulation and management of occupational safety and health distinctive of the United States and Japan within the context of the automotive industries of these two countries. Referring to comparative workplace injury and illness experience and data on safety and health regulatory activities, strengths and weaknesses of the two approaches are considered. It is suggested that an optimal strategy would contain elements of both approaches. Elements of the two approaches that might be adapted cross-nationally are identified and discussed.     

The Evolving Structure of the Environmental Justice Movement in the United States: New Models for Democratic Decision-Making

Over the last two decades in the United States, mainstream environmental organizations have reduced, rather than increased, democratic participation by citizens in environmental problem-solving. The environmental justice movement, on the other hand, has served to enlarge the constituency of the environmental movement by incorporating poorer communities and oppressed people of color into environmental decision making process; build community capacity by developing campaigns and projects that address the common links between various social and environmental problems; and facilitate community empowerment by emphasizing grassroots organizing over advocacy. This paper outlines the different components in the environmental justice movement. It is our contention that if researchers and policymakers continue to conceive of the ecological crisis as a collection of unrelated problems, then it is possible that some combination of regulations, incentives, and technical innovations can keep pollution and resource destruction at tolerable levels for more affluent socioeconomic populations. However, poor working class communities and people of color which lack the political–economic resources to defend themselves will continue to suffer the worst abuses. However, if the interdependency of issues is emphasized as advocated by the environmental justice movement, then a transformative environmental politics can be invented.     

北京市某区社会资本举办医疗机构现状及管理对策

本文首先对社会资本举办医疗机构的设置现状进行描述,进而分析其存在的问题,提出针对性的管理对策,为加强卫生法制建设,依法管理社会资本举办医疗机构提供建议。     

In the eye of the beholder: Meaning and structure of informal status in women's and men's prisons*

Applying an abductive mixed‐methods approach, we investigate the informal status systems in three women's prison units (across two prisons) and one men's prison unit. Qualitative analyses suggest “old head” narratives—where age, time in prison, sociability, and prison wisdom confer unit status—are prevalent across all four contexts. Perceptions of maternal “caregivers” and manipulative “bullies,” however, are found only in the three women's units. The qualitative findings inform formal network analyses by differentiating “positive,” “neutral,” and “negative” status nominations, with “negative” ties primarily absent from the men's unit. Within the women's units, network analyses find that high‐status women are likely to receive both positive and negative peer nominations, such that evaluations depend on who is doing the evaluating. Comparing the women's and men's networks, the correlates of positive and neutral ties are generally the same and center on covariates of age, getting along with others, race, and religion. Overall, the study points to important similarities and differences in status across the gendered prison contexts, while demonstrating how a sequential mixed‐methods design can illuminate both the meaning and the structure of prison informal organization.     

北京市社会治理效能评价研究:基于主客观的视角

本文综合运用客观评价方法和主观问卷调查研究方法相结合的优点,构建了北京市社会治理效能评估的六个维度,即社会保障与就业、社会服务、社会参与、社会公正、公共安全、公众满意度。主观评价数据通过实地调研有效问卷获得,客观评价数据通过统计年鉴和各类网站获得。通过主客观指标的数据收集和实地调研,最终测算出北京市社会治理的整体水平以及北京市16个区县社会治理的排名情况,并从治理手段、治理体制、治理机制以及透明化等方面提出了进一步完善的相关建议。     

Offending behaviour programmes in the community: The effects on reconviction of three programmes with adult male offenders

Purpose . This study presents the findings of an evaluation of the effect on reconviction of three general offending behaviour programmes in the English and Welsh Probation Service with adult male offenders. Method . The study employed a quasi‐experimental design comparing the reconviction rates of three groups: offenders who were allocated to and completed a programme, offenders allocated to a programme but failed to complete, and a comparison group. Results . The main finding from the analyses indicated that, controlling for salient population factors, the offenders who had completed a programme had a lower rate of reconviction as compared with non‐completers and comparison groups. Additionally, the non‐completers had a higher rate of reconviction than the comparison group. Conclusions . The findings are discussed in light of the extant literature and a range of explanations is presented.     

Forensic Evidence and Criminal Investigations: The Impact of Ballistics Information on the Investigation of Violent Crime in Nine Cities,

We explore the impact of information from ballistics imaging hit reports on the investigation into violent crimes. Ballistics imaging hits link two crimes involving the same firearm by forensically matching tool marks on the fired bullets or cartridge cases. Interview data collected from detectives who received a hit report were used to explore the relationship between the presence of a hit report and outcomes in 65 gun‐related violent crime investigations in nine U.S. police agencies. Findings indicate hit reports rarely contribute to identification, arrest, charging, or sentencing of suspects, because of delays in producing hit reports. On average, hit reports were completed 181.4 days after the focal crime. This delay forces investigations to proceed without the benefit of information from ballistics analysis. Additionally, hit reports rarely contained detailed information that was immediately useful to investigators. Instead, hit reports required additional research by the investigator to unlock useful information.     

The effects of the (fentanyl-fueled) drug overdose epidemic on medicolegal death investigation in the United States

The evolving opioid epidemic in the United States, fueled by illicit fentanyl, has greatly increased deaths from illicit drug use. These nonnatural deaths require formal death investigation. The National Association of Medical Examiners states in its Forensic Autopsy Performance Standards that autopsy remains a necessary component for proper investigation of suspected acute overdose deaths. If a death investigation office lacks adequate resources to investigate all deaths under its jurisdiction while meeting expected standards, then that office may be forced to consider altering its protocols for investigation by changing the types of deaths investigated or the extent of its investigations. Drug death investigations take longer to complete because novel illicit drugs and mixtures of drugs complicate toxicological analyses, prolonging a family's wait for completion of a death certificate and autopsy report. Public health agencies must also wait for results, but some agencies have developed mechanisms for rapid notification of preliminary results to allow timely deployment of public health resources. The increased deaths have strained the resources of medicolegal death investigation systems throughout the United States. Given the significant workforce shortage of forensic pathologists, newly trained forensic pathologists are too few to meet the demand. Nevertheless, forensic pathologists (and all pathologists) must make time to present their work and themselves to medical students and pathology trainees to encourage an understanding of the importance of quality medicolegal death investigation and autopsy pathology and to provide a model that can encourage interest in a career in forensic pathology.     

The impact of human rights principles on extradition from Canada and the United States: The role of national courts

Conclusion Throughout this article, the primary emphasis has been on how the courts in Canada and the United States have decided to apply international human rights standards, many of which have been incorporated into national constitutions, in extradition cases. The emphasis on national courts reflects the particular North American experience, where only limited jurisdiction in these matters exists in the relevant international forum, the UN Human Rights Committee. Accordingly, resort must be made to domestic constitutional rights.In order to give practical effect to international human rights obligations in Canada and the United States, courts can play a useful role, in addition to the role exercised by the executive branch of government. The ambit of this role depends upon the point at which judicial interference is viewed as necessary to protect fundamental rights and override considerations of international cooperation. In Canada the point has been located where there is a risk of treatment that is simply unacceptable178 or that would shock the conscience. In the United States, courts have in the past demonstrated a degree of willingness to probe into potential violations that would be expected if extradition were to be granted and that would offend a federal court's sense of decency.¹⁸⁰ However, there is dispute about the propriety of this encroachment on the rule of noninquiry. Recently, the pendulum has begun to swing toward applying the rule of noninquiry more stringently and, at present, U.S. courts play a very limited role in examining the motives behind an extradition request and the procedures or punishment that likely await an individual upon return to the requesting state.While there are many differences between the constitutional regimes of protection in Canada and the United States as compared with the multilateral treaty protection of the European Convention, there appear to be a number of parallels in interpretation and application. Continued scrutiny of the jurisprudence from both sides of the Atlantic could benefit each jurisdiction.This article was originally prepared for an international workshop on Principles and Procedures for a New Transnational Criminal Law, organized jointly by the Society for the Reform of Criminal Law and the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law, Freiburg, Germany, May 21–25, 1991. The views expressed herein are those of the authors themselves and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Canadian Department of Justice.B.A., University of Winnipeg 1975; LL.B., University of Manitoba 1978; LL.M., University of Toronto 1980.LL.B., University of Manitoba 1980; B.A., University of Manitoba 1986; Dip. Soc. Sci., University of Stockholm 1988; M.A., University of Toronto 1989.     

乡村基督教的实践形态:嵌入与疏离——以关中地区南村基督教会历史变迁为例

从对关中地区南村基督教会的历史变迁过程的观察可以看出，农民参加基督教会，其原因还在于当前农村中的正式制度和组织难以满足农民的复杂而多样化的需求。乡村基督教信徒由最初认同的“基督教会”转变为“家庭教会”，基本不再受基层国家权力的直接约束和管制．因而具有一定的“自治”和“自组织”色彩。在社会功能方面，南村基督教与国家乡村治理作用呈现嵌入关系，而在社会整合和规范方面，则与国家呈现出疏离关系。嵌入与疏离混合构成了当前乡村基督教的实践形态。基于此，国家需要以制度的完善去容纳、培育和引导乡村基督教与现代社会的良性发展相一致。     

The effect of social status on women's age at first childbirth in the late seventeenth- to early eighteenth-century Korea

While records on historical population are available and do exist, the fact that they are so limited in nature is a critical problem. We applied the method of family reconstitution to a Korean household register to deal with these limitations. Based on family reconstitution from five successive registers, we calculated women's age at first childbirth for each social status in two ways: “observed woman's age” at first childbirth = woman's current age–age of her first child, and “estimated woman's age” at first childbirth, which uses linear regression analysis on the basis of positive association between women's age and the age of their firstborn. Our results shed light on the effects of social status and cultural factors on the age at which women in pre-industrial Korea bore their first child.     

Correlates of law enforcement suicide in the United States: a comparison with Army and Firefighter suicides using data from the National Violent Death Reporting System

Law Enforcement (LE) officers are considered to be at elevated risk of suicide. This study explored variables associated with LE suicide and the extent they differentiated LE suicides from those within similar occupations considered at risk – Army and Firefighters. Using a public health database of violent deaths, the US National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS), the prevalence of and association between seven suicide variables (treatment for a mental health condition, Post Traumatic Stress disorder diagnosis, alcohol and substance abuse, job problems, intimate partner problems) and suicide within LE, Army and Firefighters was computed. Method of suicide and demographic characteristics were also identified. All of the suicide variables were associated with suicide in the three occupation groups. LE suicides were differentiated from Army and Firefighter suicides by being more strongly associated with job problems and suicide by females was more common. Implications for suicide prevention strategies within LE are discussed.