International comparisons of income levels and growth rates

Development literature contains the hypothesis that middle income countries grow faster than other countries. This proposition has been related to a second hypothesis of stages and rates of growth, as well as to an ‘automatic mechanism’ for the reduction of international income disparities. This article examines the relevant evidence and finds the propositions unsupported by either theory or empirical data.     

The physician assistant as forensic investigator

Physician assistants are employed as forensic investigators at the Office of the Medical Examiner, Suffolk County, New York. We describe the educational qualifications of physician assistants and their valuable role in forensic medicine in Suffolk County.     

In vivo measurements of facial tissue thicknesses in American caucasoid children

Ultrasonic determinations were made of facial tissue thicknesses in 50 healthy American caucasoid children, ranging in age from 4 to 15. Twenty measurements were taken at sites along the median, right sagittal, and right lateral planes. A static scanner was used in the B-mode. Three measurements significantly increased with age, the mid-philtrum (rs = 0.43, p less than 0.01) in females, the mental sulcus (rs = 0.30, p less than 0.05) in males, and the frontal eminence (rs = 0.32, p less than 0.05) in both sexes. Moreover, 25% of the measurements, while not statistically significant, decreased with increasing age. These data provide a basis for facial reproductions in caucasoid children.     

The relationship of perceptions and emotions to behavior in the face of collective inequality

The present experiment investigated the role of emotions and perceptions in determining the overt behavior of disadvantaged group members. Three limitations to the existing psychological research are presented as a possible reason for the present inability to describe a consistent relationship between the emotions and perceptions of those faced with intergroup inequalities and their subsequent actions. The present experiment attempted to address these limitations by employing a laboratory paradigm in which subjects actually engage in overt behavior. As well, a broader array of emotions and perceptions were assessed and subjects were offered a variety of behaviors from which to choose. The findings point to a relatively strong relationship between emotions and perceptions on the one hand, and overt action on the other. Feelings of frustration and anger, the perception of one's personal treatment as satisfactory and just, and hope of future improvement of one's position combined to discriminate between subjects who accepted their disadvantaged position, those who took normative forms of action, those who reacted in an individual nonnormative way, and those who chose collective nonnormative behavior.     

The consequences of respondent attrition in panel studies: A simulation based on the Rochester youth development study

Subject attrition is a potentially serious threat to the validity of inferences drawn from panel studies of delinquency and drug use. Prior assessments of this issue produce somewhat conflicting results, with some finding that respondents who leave the panel have higher rates of delinquency and drug use than those who remain, while other studies report little or no differential attrition. Despite these findings, there has been virtually no examination of the extent to which respondent attrition can bias substantive findings in panel studies of delinquency and drug use. The present article addresses this issue by simulating higher levels of attrition in an ongoing panel study that has a low rate of attrition and little differential attrition. It finds that failure to include more elusive respondents (those who are more mobile) would bias estimates of prevalence and frequency of delinquency and drug use as well as results from basic regression analyses. Failure to include less cooperative respondents (those who require more contacts) produces similar, but somewhat smaller, differences. The methodological implications of the results are discussed.     

Do introductory criminology textbooks cite the most influential criminologists? Estimating the “match” between what journals report and what textbooks discuss

Using recent citation analyses of criminology journals and textbooks to estimate the “match” between what journals report and what textbooks discuss. Twentythree criminology textbooks published from 1989 to 1993 were ranked by how prominently they cite the 25 most-cited scholars in recent leading criminology journals. I suggest some reasons why criminology textbook authors extensively cite and discuss some influential scholars but not others, and conclude by noting several limitations to using citation analysis to estimate the match between journals and textbooks.