Threatening and otherwise inappropriate letters to members of the United States Congress

The authors examine the characteristics of threatening and otherwise inappropriate communications sent to members of the U.S. Congress by a sample of 86 subjects, 20 of whom threatened assassination. We quote excerpts from these letters and provide quantitative data on such variables as the volume, duration, form, and appearance of such communications; the enclosures; the subjects' perceived relationships to the recipients; the thematic content of the communications; and the messages and threats communicated. Comparisons between 43 subjects who pursued encounters with members of Congress and 43 who did not revealed 17 factors associated with such pursuit. In this population, threateners were significantly less likely to pursue an encounter than inappropriate letter writers who did not threaten, regardless of the type of threat or the harm threatened. Inappropriate letters to members of Congress are compared with those directed to Hollywood celebrities. Mentally disordered persons writing to public figures often mention and sometimes threaten public figures other than those to whom the letters are addressed, which raises important issues regarding notification of endangered third parties and the sharing of information among protective agencies.     

国家与经济发展:关于发展问题的深层次思考

研究一个国家的经济发展问题离不开政治因素的讨论。作为政治因素的核心,国家自然应进入我们的研究视野。应建立国家经济学,把政治观念与新古典的分析方法结合起来,探讨经济发展的源泉,揭示经济发展规律,研究经济发展问题。     

Violence,fear, and development in Latin America: a critical overview

This introduction presents the core concepts that shape this special issue on the impact of violence and the processes of development in Central and South America. The understanding of development is considered in terms broader than the economic context alone, in order to assess wider social and political aspects. With a similarly expansive scope, forms of violence are addressed that range from direct physical harm and bodily attack to the often more subtle aggression of racialised abuse or the pressures on community-centred production from dominant market forces. In these contexts, violence, economic initiatives, and political allegiances form unintended and often dangerous networks of consequence for development matters. All the articles in this volume exemplify further the spatial environments of violence and diverse ‘landscapes of fear’ that shape our existence and help to define our actions, territories, and understanding of what happens around us.     

Effectiveness of Programs to Prevent School Bullying

Sixteen major evaluations of programs to prevent school bullying, conducted in 11 different countries, are reviewed in detail. Of these 16 evaluations, 8 produced desirable results, 2 produced mixed results, 4 produced small or negligible effects, and 2 produced undesirable results. These varying findings may reflect variations in programs, in implementation, in assessment methods, or in evaluation designs. It is concluded that high-quality evaluations are needed in the future, with randomized designs, theoretically grounded interventions, multiple measures of bullying, and attempts to disentangle the effectiveness of different program components.     

The age of death: Appraising public opinion of juvenile capital punishment

Despite its original purpose to protect and rehabilitate wayward children, the juvenile system has grown more punitive and has embraced the use of harsher punishments, including execution, for juvenile offenders. Relatively little is known, however, about public attitudes toward the use of capital punishment for juveniles. This research explored the determinants of death penalty opinion, identified the minimum age at which respondents were willing to allow a juvenile to be put to death and examined the willingness of respondents to support an alternative sentence of life without the possibility of parole (LWOP). The results suggested that, while one-quarter of the sample was willing to execute juveniles who were fifteen and under at the time of the crime, there was less support for the execution of juveniles than of adults. In addition, of those who supported the use of the death penalty for juveniles, almost one-half would support LWOP as an alternative to the death penalty.     

DOES CRIME JUST MOVE AROUND THE CORNER? A CONTROLLED STUDY OF SPATIAL DISPLACEMENT AND DIFFUSION OF CRIME CONTROL BENEFITS*

Recent studies point to the potential theoretical and practical benefits of focusing police resources on crime hot spots. However, many scholars have noted that such approaches risk displacing crime or disorder to other places where programs are not in place. Although much attention has been paid to the idea of displacement, methodological problems associated with measuring it have often been overlooked. We try to fill these gaps in measurement and understanding of displacement and the related phenomenon of diffusion of crime control benefits. Our main focus is on immediate spatial displacement or diffusion of crime to areas near the targeted sites of an intervention. Do focused crime prevention efforts at places simply result in a movement of offenders to areas nearby targeted sites—“do they simply move crime around the corner”? Or, conversely, will a crime prevention effort focusing on specific places lead to improvement in areas nearby—what has come to be termed a diffusion of crime control benefits? Our data are drawn from a controlled study of displacement and diffusion in Jersey City, New Jersey. Two sites with substantial street‐level crime and disorder were targeted and carefully monitored during an experimental period. Two neighboring areas were selected as “catchment areas” from which to assess immediate spatial displacement or diffusion. Intensive police interventions were applied to each target site but not to the catchment areas. More than 6,000 20‐minute social observations were conducted in the target and catchment areas. They were supplemented by interviews and ethnographic field observations. Our findings indicate that, at least for crime markets involving drugs and prostitution, crime does not simply move around the corner. Indeed, this study supports the position that the most likely outcome of such focused crime prevention efforts is a diffusion of crime control benefits to nearby areas.     

医疗损害赔偿纠纷不适用公平责任原则--兼与姚勇先生商榷

《法律与医学杂志》2005年第12卷（第4期）刊载姚勇先生大作“李某某诉某大学附属医院医疗事故人身损害赔偿案”一文,从被告是否存在侵害被告知情权和是否存在误诊过失进行了论证,结论是在这两方面被告均无过失（见原文）.     

人体冠心病心肌组织cTnI免疫组织化学研究

目的 研究cTnI免疫组织化学法诊断人体急性心肌梗死的法医病理学意义.方法 应用免疫组织化学法检测人体冠心病心肌组织cTnI的变化,进行图像分析,与HE染色法进行比较.结果 人体冠心病心肌组织急性心肌梗死区域心肌细胞内cTnI免疫组化染色缺染、分布失规律性;梗死修复区域纤维间质cTnI免疫组化染色弱阳性:陈旧性心肌梗死瘢痕区域纤维间质cTnI免疫组化染色阴性.失血性休克组近心内膜心肌细胞内cTnI免疫组化染色轻度增强,并见点灶状心肌细胞内cTnI免疫组化染色缺染.结论 cTnI免疫组织化学检测可以应用于人体急性心肌梗死的诊断.