Identification of the unidentified deceased: turnaround times, methods, and demographics in Fulton County, Georgia

CONTEXT: Multiple methods may be employed in an attempt to identify deceased individuals who are unidentified when reported to the medical examiner or coroner. The success and turnaround times of various methods differ. OBJECTIVE: To determine the number of deaths initially involving unidentified individuals, their demographics, the methods used and turnaround times for cases in which identification was successful and the portion of cases that remain unidentified for significant periods of time. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Retrospective case review of all decedents who were initially unidentified when death was reported to the Fulton County Medical Examiner in Atlanta, Georgia, during a 1-year period between May 2003 and May 2004. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Rate per 1000 deaths which involved an unidentified decedent, tabulation of methods used to make identifications, and rate of cases remaining unidentified. RESULTS: Of 2279 deaths reported to the office, 100 were originally unidentified, resulting in a rate of 44 unidentified decedents per 1000 deaths reported. Those who remained unidentified involved 6 cases, resulting in a "cold case" rate of 2.6 per 1000 deaths. Seventy-eight percent were identified within 2 days, and the most common successful methods were visual identification (52%) and fingerprints (31%). Dental (10%), x-ray (4%), and other methods (6%) were least commonly used. Of the 94 persons identified, all identifications occurred within 29 days. DNA procedures were not needed in most cases, and in the few cases where such tests were needed, results were either unavailable or failed to show a match with known samples. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of unidentified deceased individuals were identified within 2 days, with visual verification or fingerprints accounting for about 83% of methods successfully employed. The medical examiner noted a rate of 44 unidentified deceased persons per 1000 death reports, with an ultimate "cold case" (long-term unidentified) rate of about 2.6 cases per 1000 death reports. These data may be useful in developing office policy and procedure regarding the procedural and temporal aspects of investigations centered on achieving identification and making dispositions of unidentified deceased bodies.     

Speaking the Unspeakable,Naming the Unnameable: The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

ABSTRACT

The establishment of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse followed years of lobbying by survivor groups, damning findings from previous inquiries, and increasing societal recognition of the often lifelong and intergenerational damage caused by child sexual abuse. Through extensive media coverage, the Royal Commission brought into public view the reality that the sexual abuse of children was widespread, and its recommendations are prompting organisational, policy, and legislative reform. This article explores the background to the Royal Commission, situating it within the history of previous inquiries and growing community outrage at the failure of institutions to adequately protect children and respond appropriately when abuse occurs. The article explores the ways in which the Royal Commission, more so than previous inquiries, brought child sexual abuse into public discourse. It also serves as an introduction to this special issue of the Journal of Australian Studies, which illustrates how the Royal Commission has fostered new scholarship across a range of disciplines as researchers engage with complex issues related to institutional child sexual abuse, its history, causes, impacts, and the important role of inquiries in confronting it.     

Environmental migration and conflict dynamics: focus on developing regions

The world's population is increasing by 90-100 million every year, and it may double during the next half-century, with most of the added population coming from developing countries. 700 million people are malnourished and 40,000 die of hunger and hunger-related diseases each day. Most of the developing countries are extremely dependent on their renewable resource base to sustain their economic activities. Therefore, environmental changes and the loss of resources has dire implications for developing countries. This includes loss of arable land and lack of water, which lead to decreased food production. An area of about 1.2 billion hectares (almost the size of China and India taken together) has endured modest to severe soil degradation since World War II because of human activity. Air pollution can also directly affect crop production, lowering crop, wheat, soybean, and peanut harvests in the US. Rapid climate change triggered by the greenhouse effect would also inflict disproportionately more suffering on developing countries. The rise in sea levels caused by climatic change may severely affect densely populated coastal areas in China, Egypt, and Bangladesh. The loss of living space and livelihood could lead to the migration of people as it has happened throughout human history. The definition of environmental migrants is controversial and the other terms used include environmental refugees, ecological refugees, and resource refugees. Economic migrants are those who move to economically affluent regions responding to both the push and pull factors. In contrast, environmental migrants are forced to move--as a result of the loss of livelihood and space--to the nearest possible location. The scarcity induced by environmental migration may lead to acute conflict at three levels in the developing society: state vs. state (large-scale trans-border migration may trigger armed conflicts); state vs. group (rapid urbanization); and group vs. group (nativism).     

C: Reviews and notes: Bibliographies and works of reference

FIHRIS MAKHTUTAT MAKTABAT MAKKA AL‐MUKARRAMA: QISM AL‐QUR'AN WA‐'ULUMIH; QISM AL‐TARIKH = HANDLIST OF MANUSCRIPTS IN THE LIBRARY OF MAKKA AL‐MUKARRAMA: QUR'AN AND QUR'ANIC SCIENCES; HISTORY SECTION. Prepared by MUHAMMAD AL‐HABIB al‐HILA. London, Al‐Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation, 1994. 2 vols. Each 145 pp. Col. facsims. £18 each.

FIHRIS MAKHTUTAT BA'D AL‐MAKTABAT AL‐KHASSA FI AL‐YAMAN. Compiled by ‘ABD ALLAH MUHAMMAD AL‐HABSHI. Edited by CHULYAN YUHASIN (JULIAN JOHANSEN). London, Al‐Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation, 1994. 8, 506pp. £24.

DIE PERSISCHE HANDSCHRIFTEN DER UNIVERSITÄTSBIBLIOTHEK HEIDELBERG. By SEYFEDDIN NAJMABADI. (Heidelberger Bibliotheksschriften, 46.) Heidelberg: Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg, 1990. [iii], ix, 126pp. 5 facsim. plates.

CHRESTOMATHIE DE PAPYROLOGIE ARABE. DOCUMENTS RELATIFS A LA VIE PRIVEE, SOCIALE ET ADMINISTRATIVE DANS LES PREMIERS SIECLES ISLAMIQUES. Préparée par ADOLF GROHMANN. Retravaillée et élargie par RAIF GEORGES KHOURY. (Handbuch der Orientalistik. Erste Abteilung. Der Nahe und der Mittlere Osten. Ergänzungsband II, zweiter Halbband.) Leiden, Brill, 1993. x, 260pp. 34 plates. Hf1. 220.‐

ARABISCHE BRIEFE AUS DEM 7.‐10. JAHRHUNDERT. By WERNER DIEM. (Corpus Papyrorum Raineri Archeducis Austriae, herausgegeben von der Generaldirektion der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek, Band XVI.) Vienna, Hollinek, 1993. Textband, 109 pp., Tafelband, 35 plates.

A WORLD WITHIN: JEWISH LIFE AS REFLECTED IN MUSLIM COURT DOCUMENTS FROM THE SIJILL OF JERUSALEM (XVIth CENTURY). By AMNON COHEN. 2 vols. Philadelphia, PA, University of Pennsylvania, Center for Judaic Studies, 1994 [Jewish Quarterly Review, Supplement 1994]. Vol. 1, 212pp.; Vol. 2, 375pp. (facsimiles).

A GLOSSARY OF SUFI TECHNICAL TERMS. Compiled by ‘ABD AL‐RAZZAQ al‐QASHANI. Trans, from the Arabic by NABIL SAFWAT; revised and edited by DAVID PENDLEBURY. London, The Octagon Press, 1991. xvii (English text); 167pp. (Arabic text). £20.

ARABIC‐ENGLISH AND ENGLISH‐ARABIC DICTIONARIES IN THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. Compiled by GEORGE DIMITRI SELIM. (Near East Series, 5.) Washington, Library of Congress, 1992. 213pp. US$6.50

CHRISTIAN ARABIC OF BAGHDAD. By FARIDA ABU‐HAIDAR. (Semitica Viva, Band 7.) Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz, 1991. IX, 203pp. DM 78.‐

ARABIC LOANWORDS IN ETHIOPIAN SEMITIC. By WOLF LESLAU. Wiesbaden, Harrossowitz, 1990. xvii, 373pp. DM98.‐

THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA 1995. London, Europa Publications, 1994. xx, 1022pp. £160.

UMWELTPROBLEME IM VORDEREN ORIENT: EINE AUSWAHL‐BIBLIOGRAPHIE = ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES IN THE NEAR AND MIDDLE EAST: A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY. By GERDA HANSEN. (Dokumentationsdienst Vorderer Orient, Reihe A, 21.) Hamburg, Deutsches Ubersee‐Institut, Übersee‐Dokumentation, Referat Vorderer Orient, 1993. ix, 62pp. DM 13.‐

DER GOLFKRIEG (1990/91): EINE AUSWAHLBIBLIOGRAPHIE = THE GULF WAR (1990/91): A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY. By INGEBORG OTTO, MARIANNE SCHMIDT‐DUMONT, with an introduction by HANS KRECH. (Dokumentationsdienst Vorderer Orient, Reihe A, 20.) Hamburg, Deutsches Ubersee‐Institut, Übersee‐Dokumentation, Referat Vorderer Orient, 1992. xviii, 314pp. DM38.‐

HISTORICAL DICTIONARY OF LIBYA. Second edition. By RONALD BRUCE ST. JOHN. (African Historical Dictionaries, 33.) Metuchen, The Scarecrow Press, 1991. 192pp. Maps. £18.75.

ETHNIC GROUPS IN THE REPUBLIC OF TURKEY. Edited by PETER ALFORD ANDREWS. (Beihefte zum Tübinger Altas des Vorderen Orients, Reihe B (Geisteswissenschaften) Nr. 60.) Wiesbaden, Reichert, 1989. 659pp.

ARMENIA. Compiled by VREJ NERSES NERSESSIAN. (World Bibliographical Series, 163.) Oxford, Clio Press, 1993. 304pp. Map. £49.50.

WOMEN IN ISLAMIC BIOGRAPHICAL COLLECTIONS: FROM IBN SA'D TO WHO'S WHO. By RUTH RODED. Boulder, Lynne Rienner Publications, 1994. x, 157pp. £28.95

BIBLIOGRAPHY ON WOMEN IN YEMEN. By JOKE BURINGA. Edited by MARTA COLBURN. (Yemen Development Series, no.2.) Westbury, American Institute for Yemeni Studies, 1992. 158pp. US$10.‐     

Reviews

Raymond H. Garthoff, The Great Transition: American‐Soviet Relations and the End of the Cold War. Washington, DC: Brookings Books, 1994, 834 pp., $44.95 h/b, $19.95 p/b.

Nicholas Barr (ed.), Labor Markets and Social Policy in Central and Eastern Europe. New York: Oxford University Press/World Bank, 1994, xviii + 387 pp., $19.95 p/b.

E. A. Rees, Stalinism and Soviet Rail Transport, 1928–41. London and Basingstoke: Macmillan Press, 1995, xiii + 307 pp., £45.00.

William J. Tompson, Khrushchev: A Political Life. Macmillan in association with St Antony's College, Oxford, 1994, ix + 341 pp., £25.00.

David Holloway, Stalin and the Bomb: The Soviet Union and Atomic Energy 1939–1956. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994, xvi + 464 pp., £19.95.

Joseph L. Wieczynski (ed.), Operation Barbarossa: The German Attack on the Soviet Union, June 22, 1941. Salt Lake City: Charles Schlacks, Jr. Publisher, 1993, v + 339 pp.

Keith Sword, Deportation and Exile: Poles in the Soviet Union, 1939–48. London and Basingstoke: Macmillan Press, 1994, xiii + 269 pp., £45.00.

Andrew Baruch Wachtel, An Obsession with History. Russian Writers Confront the Past. Stanford: Stanford University Press (available, outside North America, from Cambridge University Press), 1994, viii + 276 pp.

Beatrice Glatzer Rosenthal (ed.), Nietzsche and Soviet Culture: Ally and Adversary, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1994, xvi + 421 pp.

Max Weber, The Russian Revolutions, trans, and ed. Gordon C. Wells & Peter Baehr, Cambridge, Polity, 1994, viii + 287 pp., £39.50.     

The Martin Presence: Jean Martin and the Making of the Social Sciences in Australia

The Martin Presence: Jean Martin and the Making of the Social Sciences in Australia. By Peter Beilharz, Trevor Hogan and Sheila Shaver (Sydney: NewSouth Publishing, 2015), pp.xiv + 293. AU$39.99 (pb).     

An Implicit Contract Theory of Intergovernmental Grants

A central puzzle in the economic analysis of intergovernmentalgrants in a federal polity is the conflict between the predictionsof the standard theory and empirical observation. Standard theoryhas no explanation for the widely observed fact that "moneysticks where it hits," that is, for the "flypaper effect" fromspecific, non-matching grants. This effect is observed whengrants that apparently are the economic equivalents of generalrevenue grants have the consequences to be expected from matchingspecific grants. We propose a resolution. Most grants are accompaniedby an implicit as well as an explicit contract between grantorand recipient. The purpose of these contracts is to influencethe behavior of the recipient, by making the size of the streamof grants conditional upon the recipient's responses to thewishes of the donor.     

Reviews

Nigel Swain, Hungary—The Rise and Fall of Feasible Socialism. London and New York: Verso, 1992, vii + 264 pp., £13.95 p/b.

Ágnes Horváth & Árpád Szakolczai, The Dissolution of Communist Power: The Case of Hungary. London and New York: Routledge, 1992, xviii + 254 pp., £40.00.

Lewis H. Siegelbaum, Soviet State and Society between Revolutions, 1918–1929. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, xiii + 284 pp., £40.00 h/b, £13.95 p/b.

Gerald Segal‐ et al., Openness and Foreign Policy Reform in Communist Slates. London and New York: Routledge for The Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1992, x + 248 pp., £40.00.

Joan Barth Urban, ed., Moscow and the Global Left in the Gorbachev Era. New York: Cornell University Press, 1992, xii + 204 pp., $32.95 h/b, $14.25 p/b.

Donald Filtzer, Soviet Workers and De‐Stalinization: The Consolidation of the Modern System of Soviet Production Relations, 1953–1964. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, xv+ 318 pp.

Stefan Hedlund, Private Agriculture in the Soviet Union, London: Routledge, 1990, xiv + 208, pp. £30.00.

Bruno Dallago. The Irregular Economy, Aldershot: Dartmouth Publishing Company, 1991, xxi + 202 pp., £29.50

Marie Lavigne, L'Europe de l'est: du plan au marché. Paris: Editions Libris, 1992, 191 pp., 89 francs.

Paul Calloway, Soviet and Western Psychiatry—a Comparative Study. Keighley, The Moor Press, 1992, xv + 266 pp., £22.95 h/b, £9.95 p/b.

David Wedgwood Benn, From Glasnost to Freedom of Speech. London: Pinter Publishers, 1992, vi + 106 pp., £22.50 h/b, £8.95 p/b.

Gail W. Lapidus & Victor Zaslavsky, eds, From Union to Commonwealth: Nationalism and Separatism in the Soviet Republics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, vii + 127 pp., £25.00 h/b, £9.95 p/b.

Robert F. Miller, ed., The Development of Civil Society in Communist Systems. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1982, iv+ 188 pp., £10.95.

Geoffrey A. Hosking, ed., Church, Nation and State in Russia and Ukraine. London: Macmillan/School of Slavonic and East European Studies, 1991, xv + 357 pp., £45.00.

Richard Taylor & Ian Christie, eds, Inside the Film Factory: New Approaches to Russian and Soviet Cinema. London and New York: Routledge, 1991, xvii + 256 pp., £40.00.

Linda Edmundson, ed.. Women and Society in Russia and the Soviet Union, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, ix + 233 pp., 35.00 h/b.

Chris Corrin, ed., Superwomen and the Double Burden. Women's Experience of Change in Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union. London: Scarlet Press, 1992, 297 pp., no price.

Mary. Buckley, ed., Perestroika and Soviet Women. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, xiii+ 183 pp., £30.00 h/b, £10.95 p/b.

Rajendra K. Jain, Germany, the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, 1949–1991. London: Sangam Books Limited, 1993, xv + 368 pp., £25.95.

Philip J. Bryson & Manfred Melzer, The End of the East German Economy: From Honecker to Reunification. London: Macmillan, 1991, xiii+ 148 pp. £40.00.

Liliana Saiu. The Great Powers and Rumania 1944–1946. A Study of the Early Cold War Era. East European Monographs, Boulder, CO: 1992, xiii + 290 pp., $42.00.     

Birth and death in a new land attitudes to infant death in colonial Australia

The goldrush colony of Victoria, Australia, was a favoured destination for aspirational emigrants from nineteenth-century Britain. Yet the persistence of high rates of infant mortality blighted the happiness of many first and second generation immigrant families alone in a new land. Drawing on birth, death and inquest records this paper interrogates the experience of infant death amongst the poorest families in the capital city popularly known as ‘Marvellous Melbourne’ during the second half of the nineteenth century. Although few infants died alone, the familial and community networks in which they were enmeshed were not always committed to their survival. While the paper argues that there was a hierarchy of value which determined the degree to which the death of a child would be welcomed or mourned, it also contests popular notions that evil baby farmers and unfeeling mothers were a major cause of infant death.