Correction to: Asian American Candidate Preferences: Evidence from California

Political Behavior - Using the 2012–2018 California State Assembly races, Sadhwani finds that Asian Americans who live in places that are 15–30% have higher voter turnout. Turnout in...     

Multiple homicides--forensic and criminologic aspects

The interpretation of medicolegal findings in homicide is an important tool of case profiling (so-called "operative case analysis"). In 17 cases of "multiple homicides" involving 22 offenders (21 males, 1 female; mean age 33 years) and 45 victims (21 males, 24 females; mean age 35 years; 41 fatalities, 4 survivors), the autopsy reports and the prosecution authorities' files were retrospectively analysed with regard to individual characteristics of perpetrators and victims, circumstances, and mode of commitment in order to comprehensively characterise relevant forensic and criminologic aspects. 31 victims were found to belong to the close social environment of the perpetrator, and 32 killings were committed in the victim's, perpetrator's or the joint flat. The main motives included greed (n = 7), personal conflicts (n = 5) and concealing of a crime (n = 9). The relevant injuries were attributable to gunshot wounds (n = 13), sharp force (n = 11), blunt force (n = 3), ligature strangulation (n = 3), smothering (n = 6), fire/carbon monoxide (n = 2) and combined impacts (n = 7). In 12 victims, defense injuries were found. The blood alcohol concentration exceeded 1.5 g/l in 5 victims. In 5 offenders, a psychiatric impairment of juridical responsibility was assessed (and 20 German criminal code, n = 1, psychosis; and 21 German criminal code, n = 4; acute alcohol intoxication). As far as data were available, 16 crimes were judged as murder, 12 as manslaughter and one as physical injury with fatal outcome.     

Roentgenologic heart volume determination for the diagnosis of fatal heart failure

In order to investigate the connection between the cardiac volume and the cardiac shadow plane, 385 anterior-posterior radiographs of the thorax have been selected comparing their cardiac shadow plane with the corresponding cardiac volumes determined by the autopsy of the cadavers. The comparison showed a connection of both magnitudes by means of the formula Hvol = 0.49 x Fa x square root of Fa (Hvol = cardiac volume in cm3, Fa = cardiac shadow plane of the anterior-posterior radiograph in cm2, corrections were made from the radiation divergence). A verification of the formula showed a very high correlation (r = 0.984) in 25 cadavers to be dissected. The comparing volume of the cardiac shadow plane has been investigated by means of the water displacement method, in which the cardiac vessels were ligated and the heart taken out of the cadaver. The cardiac volume, evaluated from the cardiac shadow plane showed a significant correlation at the cardiac death by internal natural cause. The comparison of the mathematical evaluated cardiac blood volumes of the symptoms causing death showed that the cardiac blood volumes in the group of poisonings and the group of drowning, suffocations and hanging with 231 ml and 211 ml in the men collective were at the same level as the cardiac death (246 ml). About the same applied to the women collective.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Expenditure effects of metropolitan tax base sharing: A public choice analysis

This research explores probable budgetary consequences from the introduction of an institutional change which requires communities in metropolitan areas to pool any growth in the commercial-industrial tax base so that all cities benefit from new development irrespective of where the development occurs. Sharing of the tax base has been suggested as a means to overcome fiscal disparities among local governments in metropolitan areas and to reduce competition for new industrial development, thus, promoting ‘orderly development’ of the urban area. An alternative view of the institutional change focuses on the consequences of removing the tax base from the control of the local unit of government and suggests that based upon existing studies of government size and the cost of public services, government managers will be less responsive to the wishes of the citizen/taxpayer after the introduction of tax base sharing. The efficiency aspects of local government finance are examined and based upon data for the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area, the expenditure effects are estimated. The empirical evidence suggests that while revenue flows are altered in the metropolitan areas, the primary impact of tax base sharing has been to expand the level of government expenditures, not equalize interjurisdictional tax rates.     

Historical perspectives on crime in England

A.B., DePauw University 1949; A.M., University of Pennsylvania 1950; Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania 1953.     

Neighbourhood Governance: Contested Rationales within a Multi-Level Setting – A Study of Manchester

‘Neighbourhood’ is a long standing concept in local governance which was re-energised as part of the post-1997 New Labour policy paradigm. This paper builds on the work of Lowndes and Sullivan which identified four distinct rationales for neighbourhood working – civic, social, political and economic. The utility of the framework is explored through primary research in Manchester, UK. The research shows that different rationales are held by actors at different locations within the complex system of multi-level governance within which neighbourhood policy is made and implemented. Neighbourhood approaches to urban regeneration exist within a congested governance environment. In Manchester, regeneration has been strongly driven by the self-styled ‘Team Manchester’ who have provided an urban entrepreneurial vision for change in the city. Significantly, however, interventions at the neighbourhood level have shown potential for creating opportunities for citizen and community dissent and empowerment not subsumed with the narrative of the entrepreneurial city. Lowndes and Sullivan's framework provides important analytical building blocks and illuminating tools for understanding neighbourhood approaches. This research points to the merit of a dynamic approach recognising competing perspectives and contested agendas.