An epidemiological assessment of problematic contacts to members of Congress

In order to assess the nature of threat assessment activity pertaining to members of Congress, 4387 cases involving threatening and other problematic contact were analyzed. The cases were studied regarding subject characteristics, articulated motives, as well as several aspects of contact behavior in relation to approach behavior. Approachers were significantly less likely to have articulated threat language prior to or during their contacts and were also less likely to have stated a policy grievance (foreign or domestic) as the source of their concern. Further, approachers were substantially more likely to have expressed help seeking requests as part of their prior and approach-related contacts and were less likely to have had racial or sexualized content within their contacts. Approachers were also significantly more likely to have had a criminal record as well as displayed symptoms suggestive of major mental illness. Subjects engaging in approach behavior were also less likely to have used an alias, were less likely to be a direct constituent of the target and were more likely to have contacted multiple congressional targets. The implications for threat assessment activity are discussed.     

Will physician unions improve health system performance?

In the public debate over the extension of collective bargaining rights to independent physicians, union proponents' primary argument has been that patients would benefit from allowing physicians to bargain collectively with health plans. This article examines the likely effects of physician unions on the U.S. health care system. Specifically considered are likely effects on economic efficiency, quality, access, and cost. Under none of these criteria are physician unions likely to improve health system performance, particularly when compared with available alternative strategies for dealing with problems identified by union proponents.     

The scope of anthropological contributions to human rights investigations

This paper examines the participation of anthropologists in international human rights investigations between 1990 and 1999 by surveying four of the most active organizations, including the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation, Physicians for Human Rights and the U.N.-sponsored International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. The education level, sex, nationality and primary role of the anthropological members of each team are quantified, as are the types of projects in which they contributed. The results show that 134 anthropologists from 22 nations investigated nearly 1300 sites in 33 countries during the study period. While involvement is not limited to those with advanced degrees and few obstacles are placed before anthropologists who wish to participate, full-time service within these organizations is rare and those interested in a career in forensic anthropology and human rights should understand the employment limitations.     

Canada as a Semiotic Society: Harold Innis,Roberta Kevelson,and the Bias of Legal Communications

The great Canadian economist/philospher Harold Innis, Marshall McLuhan’s teacher, was also especially interested in the way preserving the common law and multiple interpretive legal perspectives were essential to the preservation of human freedom. He greatly feared the rise of administratively made law as detrimental to the lively political life of free communities. Much of his work on legal theory, in which he urges Canadians to tenaciously protect their complicated legal system, anticipates the legal semiotic of Roberta Kevelson, although they had no knowledge of each other’s work and Innis may only have known of Charles Peirce indirectly. Additional support was provided by the National Science Foundation     

Toward a Victimology of State Crime

State crimes have been studied by criminologists for nearly three decades. While far from stagnant, research and theory in this area of criminology have not developed at the pace one may have expected a decade ago. In an attempt to rejuvenate the study of state crime, we first identify and review the various types of victims and victimizers of state crime identified in the criminological literature. By employing a previously created typology of state crime, we discuss how individuals and groups of individuals can be identified as state crime victims in both domestic and international contexts. We then highlight the common themes involved in the victimizations, and offer six inductively generated propositions intended to facilitate future developments in the victimology of state crime. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Political Scandal: A Theory

We study a model that characterizes the conditions under which past misbehavior becomes the subject of present scandal, with consequences for both the implicated politician and the parties that work with him. In the model, both authentic and fake scandals arise endogenously within a political framework involving two parties that trade off benefits of continued collaboration with a suspect politician against the possibility of reputational fallout. Rising polarization between the two parties, we show, increases the likelihood of scandal while decreasing its informational value. Scandals that are triggered by only the opposing party, we also find, are reputationally damaging to both parties and, in some instances, reputationally enhancing to the politician. The model also reveals that jurisdictions with lots of scandals are not necessarily beset by more misbehavior. Under well‐defined conditions, in fact, scandals can be a sign of political piety.     

A Hydrologic Retention System and Water Quality Monitoring Program for a Human Decomposition Research Facility: Concept and Design

Forensic taphonomy is an essential research field; however, the decomposition of human cadavers at forensic science facilities may lead to nutrient loading and the introduction of unique biological compounds to adjacent areas. The infrastructure of a water retention system may provide a mechanism for the biogeochemical processing and retention of nutrients and compounds, ensuring the control of runoff from forensic facilities. This work provides a proof of concept for a hydrologic retention system and an autonomous water quality monitoring program designed to mitigate runoff from The Southeast Texas Applied Forensic Science (STAFS) Facility. Water samples collected along a sample transect were analyzed for total phosphorous, total nitrogen, , , NH₄, F^?, and Cl^?. Preliminary water quality analyses confirm the overall effectiveness of the water retention system. These results are discussed with relation to how this infrastructure can be expanded upon to monitor additional, more novel, byproducts of forensic science research facilities.