Neighborhood structure differences between homicide victims and non-victims

While there were numerous studies documenting the neighborhood characteristics that led to increased risk of crime victimization, very little was done to compare the neighborhoods of homicide victims to non-victims. The current research used the case-control design to alleviate this gap in the research. A sample of homicide victims and non-victims collected from Prince George's County, Maryland, in 1993, was used to make these comparisons. Significant differences were noted in the macro-level measures of education, unemployment, household income, and percentage of female-headed households in the neighborhoods of victims and non-victims. Individual elements, such as age, race, gender, and arrest were also strongly associated with the risk of homicide victimization. Both macro and micro level variables needed to be included when studying factors that increased the risk of homicide victimization.     

Institutional Regimes for Sustainable Collective Housing Stocks

The influence of public policy, property rights and contracts on the sustainability of residential buildings remains largely unknown. This research will use the analytical framework of the housing institutional regime to study the sustainability over time of the housing stock. We aim to produce an inventory of the housing institutional regime in Switzerland, a comparison with the German and Catalan regimes, and policy suggestions to achieve a better sustainability of the housing stock.     

Abused parents: A hidden family problem

Within the past two decades, professionals from all persuasions have focused attention on the extent and impact of violence within the family. Most of these efforts, however, have been directed to child and spouse abuse. Abuse of elderly parents by their adult children has only recently come to the attention of lay and professional communities. Consequently much less is known about these elderly victims and their circumstances. The purpose of this paper is to explore the following: characteristics of elderly victims and their perpetrators, frequency of the act, factors that may cause abuse, intervention strategies, and policy concern that impact on this life-threatening behavior. Suggestions for future work in this area are offered.     

Restriction fragment length polymorphism DNA analysis by the FBI Laboratory protocol using a simple, convenient hardware system

Restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of human deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) using two probes, pYNH24 and CMM101, was performed on the BIOS Timeframe system following the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Laboratory protocol and some variations of it. Comparable results were obtained by the different methods used.