Chimeric governance and the extension of resource regulation

The contemporary securitisation of underdevelopment is based on the myth of mutual vulnerability—the idea that underdevelopment and state failure pose diverse threats both to the developed world and the poor in the developing world. The mutual vulnerability thesis provides the rationale for an attempt to expand the range of both military and regulatory interventions inside the developing world. The promise of these interventions is of a synthesis between security for the developed world and solidarism with the poor. The reality is a form of chimeric governance which purports to protect the rich from a range of imagined threats and which masks an unwillingness to really address the problems of the poor.

One illusion has been shattered on 11 September: that we can have the good life of the West irrespective of the state of the rest of the world…. Once chaos and strife have got a grip on a region or a country trouble will soon be exported. Out of such regions and countries come humanitarian tragedies, centres for trafficking in weapons, drugs and people, havens for criminal organisations, and sanctuaries for terrorists…. The dragon's teeth are planted in the fertile soil of wrongs unrighted, of disputes left to fester for years, of failed states, of poverty and deprivation.1 ?1. Tony Blair, Prime Minister, speech at the Lord Mayor's Banquet 13 Nov. 2001. View all notes     

Neutral heroin impurities from tetrahydrobenzylisoquinoline alkaloids

Laudanosine, reticuline, codamine, and laudanine are members of the tetrahydrobenzylisoquinoline family of natural products. These alkaloids are present in the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum, and are subsequently found as impurities in clandestinely processed morphine. Morphine is then synthesized to heroin using hot acetic anhydride. During the course of this study, it was determined that these four tetrahydrobenzylisoquinolines undergo degradation to a series of 18 neutral impurities when subjected to hot acetic anhydride. Based on the degradation pathway, these new impurities were categorized into two sets of impurities called the C1-acetates compounds and the stilbene compounds. Synthesis, isolation, and structural elucidation information is provided for the tetrahydrobenzylisoquinoline alkaloids, and the new neutral impurities have been studied. Several hundred authentic heroin samples were analyzed using an established heroin signature program method. This methodology features the detection of trace neutral impurities present in heroin samples. It was determined that all 18 new impurities were detected in various quantities in four different types of heroin samples. Analytical results featuring these new impurities are reported for South American-, Southwest Asian-, Mexican-, and Southeast Asian-type heroin samples. These new impurities, coupled with other established forensic markers, enhance the ability to classify illicit heroin samples.     

An ecological study of factors associated with rates of self-inflicted death in prisons in England and Wales

This study describes ecological associations between self-inflicted death rates and prison-level environmental indicators over the period 2000-2002 in England and Wales. The objective was to assist in the development of interventions for reducing the incidence of self-inflicted deaths in prisons in England and Wales, by identifying risk factors, including overcrowding, positive drug tests, the number of assaults, purposeful activity, offending behaviour programmes, and cost per prisoner. Poisson regression was used to estimate associations between self-inflicted death rates and these potential risk factors, controlling for different categories of prison. The annual rate of self-inflicted death during 2000-2002 was 1.14 per 1000 (95% CI 0.98 to 1.34), with no evidence for a difference in the two years. Highest rates were in the Male Local and Women's prisons at 1.86 (95% CI 1.42 to 2.26) and 2.27 (95% CI 1.35 to 3.84) per 1000 respectively. In a multivariate analysis, overcrowding, assault rate and purposeful activity were significant. In an analysis controlling also for prison category, only purposeful activity remained independently significant, as a protective factor (RR 0.57, 95% CI 0.35 to 0.92, p=0.02) with weaker evidence for a positive association with positive drug tests (RR 1.41, 95% CI 0.96 to 2.05, p=0.08). Despite concerns about the quality of routinely collected data and the interpretation of ecological associations, this study suggests that a higher level of purposeful activity is independently associated with lower rates of self-inflicted death, whatever the prison category. This adds support to other studies conducted at the level of the individual prisoner.     

Psychopathology in women arrested for domestic violence

This study examined the prevalence of psychopathology among women arrested for violence and whether the experience of intimate partner violence (IPV) was associated with Axis I psychopathology. Women who were arrested for domestic violence perpetration and court referred to violence intervention programs (N= 103) completed measures of IPV victimization, perpetration, and psychopathology. Results revealed high rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), panic disorder, substance use disorders, borderline personality disorder, and antisocial personality disorder. Violence victimization was significantly associated with symptoms of psychopathology. Logistic regression analyses showed that sexual and psychological abuse by partners were associated with the presence of PTSD, depression, and GAD diagnoses. Results highlight the potential importance of the role of violence victimization in psychopathology. Results suggest that Axis I and Axis II psychopathology should routinely be assessed as part of violence intervention programs for women and that intervention programs could be improved by offering adjunct or integrated mental health treatment.     

The effect of the burial environment on adipocere formation

Adipocere is a decomposition product comprising predominantly of saturated fatty acids which results from the hydrolysis and hydrogenation of neutral fats in the body. Adipocere formation may occur in various decomposition environments but is chiefly dependent on the surrounding conditions. In a soil burial environment these conditions may include such factors as soil pH, temperature, moisture and the oxygen content within the grave site. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of these particular burial factors on the rate and extent of adipocere formation. Controlled laboratory experiments were conducted in an attempt to form adipocere from pig adipose tissue in model burial environments. Infrared spectroscopy, inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry, and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry were employed to determine the lipid profile and fatty acid composition of the adipocere product which formed in the burial environments. The results suggest that adipocere can form under a variety of burial conditions. Several burial factors were identified as enhancing adipocere formation whilst others clearly inhibited its formation. This study acts as a preliminary investigation into the effect of the burial environment on the resultant preservation of decomposing tissue via adipocere formation.     

Child Witnesses and the International Criminal Justice System: Does the International Criminal Court Protect the Most Vulnerable?

While warfare has always caused human suffering, modern armedconflicts have been synonymous for the deliberate and systematicattacks on non-combatants, many of whom are children. As theyoften possess the best and sometimes only evidence of a particularcrime, it is likely that children will be asked to testify beforethe International Criminal Court. Given that they are the mostvulnerable of all witnesses, the Rome Statute contains variousprovisions designed to protect the interests of children. Whilethe Court's witness protection regime will help reduce the stressand trauma associated with giving evidence, various improvementscould be made to ensure that children are provided with thenecessary protection that their susceptible status requires.     

Professionalization and unionization of police: A Delphi forecast on police values

The Delphi Forecasting technique was utilized to assess the general direction and magnitude of broad future trends in the occupationally-related values of police officers. Two panels of experts were established and utilized in the Delphi Process: one composed of veteran police officers and the other consisting of law enforcement educators, top echelon police administrators, attorneys, and social ethicists.Two major trends emerged in the course of the study: a movement toward professionalization and a movement toward unionization. These two movements were found to embody generally conflicting sets of occupationally-related values.The increasing emphasis of police chiefs and their administrators on managerial efficiency was identified as the critical factor influencing the future of these trends.     

The biological concept of race and its application to public health and epidemiology

The category of race is widely used in public health. Although its significance may be clear-cut in some practical situations, an adequate theoretical construct for the concept of race does not exist. Public health appears to lag far behind the other biological sciences in the effort to grapple with the idea of race and its implications for the nature-nurture question. This paper outlines the current anthropological and social perspective on race, and applies this view to problems of disease epidemiology. It is proposed that uncritical use of the traditional biological concept of race has distorted etiological thinking in public health and has proven an obstacle in the development of effective intervention strategies. The pragmatism of medicine and its isolation from social science may account for much of this backwardness.