FUNDING JUVENILE DEPENDENCY MEDIATION THROUGH LEGISLATION

The legislative process is a dynamic but intimidating journey. For the uninitiated seeker the road through the legislative labyrinth can be fraught with hidden dangers and unexpected challenges. This article presents Los Angeles County's experience in obtaining funding for mediation of child abuse cases in juvenile dependency proceedings through legislation.     

Corrosion behaviour of four handguns in aqueous environments: Corrosion product characterization and effects on estimating the time since deposition

When a firearm has been disposed of in a body of water and becomes corroded, its appearance is altered and determining a time-since-immersion may be of import to the investigation. Therefore, in this study, the corrosion and mass loss of four handgun slides over a period of 180 days were examined. Solid-state characterization of the metals and their corrosion products via SEM/EDX and powder X-ray Diffraction (pXRD) was performed. The pXRDs were analyzed against the NIST Powder Diffraction Database to determine the crystalline phases. Filings from the SS416 standard, Llama and Ruger handgun slide predominantly consisted of iron alloys. After 180-days in solution, pXRD indicated that the adherent corrosion products consisted of 1) γ-FeOOH and 2) iron oxide (Fe₃O₄ or Fe₂O₃). Additionally, pXRD analysis indicated that the adherent corrosion products of the SS416 standard also consisted of CrO₃. Metal filings from the Raven and Jennings handgun slides were a mixture of iron–nickel–zinc and EDX and pXRD analyses of the corrosion products, when submersed in deionized water, indicated that the products consisted of: 1) γ-FeOOH, 2) iron oxide (Fe₃O₄ or Fe₂O₃), and 3) ZnFe₂O₄ or ZnO; where the Jennings adherent rust contained ZnFe₂O₄ and the Raven adherent rust contained ZnO. Further, pXRD of the corrosion products from these alloys, when submersed in 25 PSU (Practical Salinity Unit) solution, indicated that the products consisted of: 1) ZnO, 2) Zn(OH)₂, 3) α-Ni(OH)₂, and 4) NaCl.The data thus indicated that both metal composition and the presence of chloride ions had significant impacts on rates and products of corrosion and suggest that the presence of Cl^? changes not only the rate of corrosion, but also the corroding species itself. While mechanisms and rates of the chloride driven corrosion processes offer explanations as to the different oxides and hydroxides observed between immersion conditions, they do not offer an explanation for the differences observed between handguns. Therefore, utilizing a general approach where surface area coverage of corrosion products is the sole consideration is not sufficient to determine time-since-immersion. Attempts to determine a time-since-immersion would require a priori knowledge of the mechanism of corrosion for a given metal mixture within a specified environment. The results described herein give indications as to the possible corrosion mechanism driving the process in high and low Cl^? environments and show the necessity of including the metal composition, rust composition and ion concentration in any models that attempt to elucidate the time-since-immersion of handguns for forensic applications.     

Comparative partitions

Genre is often conceptualised as a product or text. Such a view, however, seems to downplay the dynamism of textual production encouraging a hermeneutics with rigid, formulaic tendencies. This is clearly evident in the contribution of many structural linguists such as Martin and Hasan to the study of genre. While semioticians, notably Kress, Threadgold and Freadman, have critiqued this position there is still considerable work to be undertaken in reconceptualising notions of genre to give emphasis to the pragmatic play of language use.

This paper uses a TV current affairs interview of the controversial author Helen Demidenko‐Darville as the basis for examining approaches to the study of genre. The analysis is framed by Deleuze and Guattari's metaphor of ‘the map’ which it is argued captures the fluidity and generative nature of the interpretation of genre espoused in this article. It is presented as an alternative to metaphors such as ‘the frame’, ‘the recipe’, ‘the game’, and ‘the template’ which form the basis of theorisations of genre that tend to focus on the stability of form and, as such, have difficulty in accounting for the rupturing of boundaries which is evident in the Demidenko interview.

What distinguishes the map from the tracing is that it is entirely oriented toward an experimentation in contact with the real ... the map is open and connectable in all of its dimensions; it is detachable, reversible, susceptible to constant modification. It can be torn, reversed, adapted to any kind of mounting, reworked by an individual, group, or social formation ... A map has multiple entryways, as opposed to the tracing, which always comes back “to the same”;. The map has to do with performance, whereas the tracing always involves an alleged ‘competence’.     

A partial assessment of South Carolina's Project Safe Neighborhoods strategy: Evidence from a sample of supervised offenders

Since 2001, the federal Project Safe Neighborhoods initiative has instituted a comprehensive effort to reduce gun crimes in local communities across the United States. In South Carolina, the United States Attorney's Office for the District of South Carolina established Project CeaseFire, a localized response to reduce the prevalence of gun crime through targeted prosecution and increased public education. One element of Project CeaseFire was carried out by the South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services. The current study utilized a quasi-experimental design to compare firearm-related incidents among a random sample of offenders under community supervision prior to and after the implementation of the SCDPPPS CeaseFire program. Although incidents involving a firearm were rare, the current results did not indicate a reduction in firearm-related incidents among offenders entering supervision after the SCDPPPS CeaseFire program was implemented. Instead, an increase in firearm incidents was observed after CeaseFire implementation. Possible explanations for the observed results are offered along with limitations to the study and policy implications.