Risk for Revictimization of Intimate Partner Violence by Multiple Partners: a Systematic Review

Are victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) by multiple partners (MP) different from victims of IPV by one partner? Are there different victim-related risk factors for IPV by MP? This systematic literature review identified seven empirical studies that related to these issues. The review findings indicated that (1) empirical research on IPV by MP appears to be scarce, with only limited recent development; (2) there were significant differences between women who had been subjected to IPV in a single relationship and women with IPV by MP; (3) IPV by MP was significantly associated with childhood domestic trauma, drug abuse, IPV characteristics, and attachment style; (4) regarding PTSD and personality disorders, the results were mixed and inconclusive; and (5) depression did not appear as a salient risk factor for IPV by MP. Interpretations must be made cautiously because of the wide diversity in measurement approaches. It is important that service personnel and researchers attend with increased awareness to women with IPV by MP.     

Pathologic features of fatal falls from height

Deaths due to falls from height are common in urban settings. At the time the body is found, it is often unclear whether the mode of death is accident, suicide, or homicide. To assess the injury pattern in fatal falls from height with special regard to criteria that might be helpful in discrimination between accident, suicide, and homicide, respectively, we reviewed 68 medicolegal autopsy cases (22 females, 46 males, age range 13-89 years) of fatal falls from height regarding demographic data, findings at the death scene, results of the postmortem examination, psychiatric history, and toxicologic findings. Among the 68 cases, there were 34 suicides, 23 accidents, and 11 unclarified cases, in 3 of which homicide was suspected. In general, suicides were from greater heights than accidents (mean height 22.7 m for suicides and 10.8 m for accidents, respectively; 79% of suicides from more than 16 m). Strikingly, severe head injuries predominantly occurred in falls from heights below 10 m (84%) and above 25 m (90%), whereas in the group of falls from 10 to 25 m, these lesions were seen less frequently (28%). Neck injuries like muscle bleeds and fractures of the hyoid bone were found in 33% of falls from more than 10 m and did not occur from less than 10 m. Our data stress that the evaluation of pathologic features alone is not sufficient to assess the mode of death in fatal falls from height. Instead, postmortem findings have to be considered within the framework of the subject's social, medical, and psychiatric history in conjunction with findings at the death scene and toxicology results to obtain the clearest possible picture of the circumstances of death.     

Mallory-Weiss syndrome as the cause of sudden, unexpected death

The Mallory-Weiss-syndrome is an upper gastrointestinal haemorrhage due to longitudinal mucosal lacerations in the oesophagogastric junction. The mucosal lacerations occur as a sequel of vomiting or any other increase in intraabdominal pressure and account for up to 15% of all upper gastrointestinal bleedings. If death is due to a bleeding Mallory-Weiss-tear, however, massive blood stains on the corpse and around it frequently give rise to the suspicion of an unnatural cause of death. For this reason, autopsy is usually indispensable to elucidate the circumstances in which death occurred. The authors carried out a retrospective analysis of 5958 autopsies performed between 1997 and 2001 at the Institute of Legal Medicine, University of Hamburg, in order to identify all cases of Mallory-Weiss-syndrome as cause of sudden, unexpected death. The results (9 cases, amounting to 0.15% of all autopsies) suggest that Mallory-Weiss-syndrome is probably much more common as a cause of sudden death than previously described. Regarding epidemiological aspects, men clearly predominate; the average age was 48 years. It should also be stressed that in 8 of the 9 cases there was a previous history of chronic alcohol abuse.     

Representative bureaucracy,tokenism and the glass ceiling: the case of women in Quebec municipal administration

Abstract: There is an assumption running through the literature on women and politics that the local level has particular relevance for women. After all, this level of government provides many of the services that relate most directly to women's everyday lives and well-being. Theories of representative bureaucracy assume that responsiveness to women's needs and concerns will be enhanced to the extent that the bureaucracy is representative of women. It is worth asking, then, how representative local government bureaucracies actually are. Our analysis is based on data drawn from all 259 of Quebec's urban municipalities, between the period of 1985 and 1995. Over the past decade, the number of women heading municipal departments in Quebec's cities has more than doubled. It is hard to avoid the conclusion, however, that the glass ceiling is still very much in place. Close to forty per cent of cities do not even have one department headed by a woman, and a further thirty per cent of cities have only one department headed by a woman. Much of the growth that has occurred appears to be token growth. All too often the appointment of one woman to head a department fails to open the way for similar appointments for other women. And city administrations that do not have departments headed by a woman continue to outnumber those with more than one woman department-head. Moreover, women are most likely to have advanced beyond a token presence in those cities where the top municipal jobs are the least desirable. Agency stereotyping helps perpetuate the glass ceiling. Much of women's advance has occurred in stereotypically “female” functions. The stereotypically “male” departments remain overwhelmingly the preserves of men. There is no support for the supply or socialization theses as alternative explanations for these findings. Finally, the glass ceiling seems to be stubbornly resistant to government actions to dislodge it. Sommaire: Les divers ouvrages parus sur les femmes et la politique prennent pour acquis que le gouvernement au niveau local revêt me importance toute particulière pour les femmes. Après tout, c'est ce palier du gouvernement qui fournit bon nombre des services les plus directement liés à la vie quotidienne et au bien-être des femmes. Les théories sur la bureaucratie représentative prennent pour hypothèse qu'on pourra mieux répondre aux besoins et aux intérês des femmes dans la mesure où la bureaucratie est représentative en ce qui les concerne. Cela mérite donc de vérifier à quel point les gouvemements locaux sont vraiment représentatifs. Notre analyse se fonde sur des données provenant de chacune des 259 municipalités urbaines du Québe centre 1985 et 1995. Au cours de la demière décennie, le nombre de femmes à la tête de services municipaux dans les villes du Québec a plus que double. On a du mal à ne pas conclure, cependant, que les entraves à la promotion sont toujours là. Près de 40 % des villes n'ont même pas une seule femme chef de service, tandis qu'un autre 30 % des villes ont un seul service dont le chef est une femme. Une bonne partie de la croissance qui s'est produite semble avoir été purement symbolique. Très souvent, la nomination d'une femme à la tête d'un service n'entraîne pas d'autres nominations de femmes. Les administrations de ville qui n'ont pas de chef de service férninin continuent à surpasser le nombre de celles qui en ont plus d'une. De plus, la probabilité que les femmes aient avancé au-delà d'une simple presence symbolique est particulièrement élevée dans les villes où les emplois municipaux supérieurs sont les moins désirables. L'image stéréotypée de certaines fonctions perpétue elle aussi les entraves à la promotion. Une bonne partie de I'avancement des femmes s'est produite dans les fonctions stérétypiquement féminines, tandis que les services stéréotypiquement masculins demeurent largement la chasse gardée des hommes. Pour expliquer ces constatations, on ne peut pas faire appel aux thèses de l'offre réduite ou de la socialisation. Enfin, les entraves à la promotion des femmes semblent résister avec opiniAtretéà l'intervention gouvemementale visant à les éliminer.     

Time-of-voting decision and susceptibility to campaign effects

There is mounting evidence that election campaigns matter. There are also reasons to expect interpersonal heterogeneity in the susceptibility to campaign influence. Time-of-voting decision has been suggested as a key mediating variable for campaign effects. However, there is no persuasive empirical evidence to substantiate the claim that people who decide during campaigns actually respond to campaign events or campaign-specific information.This study incorporates time of decision into dynamic models of campaign effects in order to test whether there is a significant interaction effect between time of decision and campaign persuasion. In sum, the vote intentions of campaign deciders are indeed more volatile because they respond to actual campaign events and coverage, not because they fluctuate haphazardly. People who say they decided before the campaign are, reassuringly, not influenced by campaigns.     

Development Ballot Measures, Interest Group Endorsements, and the Political Geography of Growth Preferences

In response to rapid population and economic growth, many communities have turned to voter initiatives to resolve their land use disputes. We find that despite strong public concern about growth, voters often support measures that allow or encourage new development. We consider the sources of this support by analyzing patterns of voting on a range of prodevelopment ballot initiatives. These initiatives provide a valuable opportunity to understand how economic self-interest, geography, interest group endorsements, and public goods affect citizen support for development policies. We find that interest group endorsements significantly increase public support for new development. These endorsements help voters evaluate the personal impact of complex development proposals and allow voters to behave in ways that reflect a high degree of sophistication .     

Campaign competition and policy responsiveness in direct legislation elections

Many scholars, pundits, and reform advocates argue that more competitive elections are needed to produce policy outcomes that better reflect voter interests. We challenge this argument. Using a model of direct legislation elections, we prove that greater electoral competition is neither necessary nor sufficient for more responsive postelection policy outcomes. Instead, we find that more competition increases responsivenessonly if the additional competitors are both sympathetic to voter interests and sufficiently credible to affect voter behavior. If either condition fails to hold, then increasing competition will make votersworse off, if it affects them at all. We conclude that enhanced voter competence, and not more competition, is the key to greater responsiveness.     

Measuring Party Identification: Britain, Canada, and the United States

The article proposes an empirically based reflection on how to measure party identification cross nationally, using data from the 1997 Canadian Election Study, the 1997 British Election Study, and the 1996 American National Election Study. These studies included both traditional national questions and a new common one, which allows for an assessment of the effects of question wording on the distribution and correlates of party identification. We show that the distribution of party identification is strongly affected by question wording and that the relationship between party identification and variables such as party and leader ratings, and voting behavior does not quite conform to theoretical expectations. We point out problems in the wording of party identification questions and propose an alternative formulation.     

The formation of party preferences: Testing the proximity and directional models

We review the methodological debate between defenders of the proximity and directional models. We propose what we believe to be a rigorous and fair test of the two models, using the 1997 Canadian Election Study. The analysis is based on responses to questions in which the various issue positions are explicitly spelled out. We rely on individual perceptions of party positions because it is individual perceptions that matter in the formation of party preferences but we control for projection effects through a multivariate model that incorporates, in addition to indicators of distance and direction, socio–demographic characteristics, party identification, and leader ratings. We also take into account whether a party is perceived to be extreme. The empirical evidence vindicates the proximity model.     

A novel platform for the modular integration of forensic assay setup and medium- to high-throughput purification of nucleic acids

With its extraction and assay setup modules, the QIAsymphony^® provides a highly flexible solution for processing forensic samples in a medium- to high-throughput scale. We tested the sensitivity of extraction, precision of sample processing, and accuracy of automated assay setup of this integrated system. Results attest to QIAsymphony's ability to isolate DNA from a spectrum of common forensic samples and process these samples without cross-contamination. Furthermore, accurate assay setup for downstream applications, like PCR, make this system highly suited for enhancing laboratory workflow.