Never a final design: interviewing Norwegian alcohol smugglers

This paper presents a typology of respondents that have been encountered in interview-based research on the illegal alcohol market in Norway. Six distinct types (“the social talker”, “the expert witness”, “the flasher”, “the manipulator” and “the paranoid”) are distinguished and their relative value discussed from a scientific perspective. Students of organized crime must learn how to handle these characters both socially and analytically, and how to avoid certain pitfalls. Challenges a researcher may meet while studying organized crime will also be discussed, like “going nervous,” “going naïve”, “going native” and “going nonchalant”. Traditional Scandinavian literature on research methods has not been very helpful in this sense.     

Making borders and identities in South Sudan

In newly independent South Sudan, the state's not yet fully demarcated territory plays an intriguing and in certain aspects contradictory role in shaping and defining personal and group identities. While neighbouring states’ armies and their proxies interfere with South Sudan's international sovereignty, Juba is itself active beyond its borders by supporting Sudanese rebels. Nonetheless, the ruling elite hold onto the model of the unified and centralised territorial nation-state with clearly demarcated borders. Alas, the state's failure to territorialise its authority creates hybridity with regard to territorial control, which impacts negatively on the state's domestic legitimacy but also weakens attempts to propagate a national identity that transcends ethnic ties. Instead, the current civil war and calls for a decentralised federal structure are evidence of the continued salience of subnational loyalties while those non-state actors, like localised militias, that fill the areas void of government presence are generally themselves sources of insecurity.     

Distinct age-related differences among victims in cases of suspected child abuse

Evidence describing age-related differences among children with suspected physical and sexual child abuse is lacking. We describe findings in severe cases of suspected abuse. Cases with 756 children <15 years old were included during 2001–2013 at the Department of Forensic Medicine, Aarhus University, using forensic evaluation documents, medical records, and court proceedings. Eight percent of children <4 years old died from child abuse, 36% through violence resulting in death, and 64% by manslaughter, whereas 1% > 4 years old died, solely by manslaughter. External injuries were mainly located to head and torso in children <4 years old, changing to the upper and lower extremities in older children. Child sexual abuse was suspected in 52% of cases with living children <4 years old, 83% of children 4–7 years of age, 88% of children 8–11 years of age, and 93% of children >12 years old. Anogenital findings were mainly caused by other medical conditions in children <4 years old, hymenal clefts in the superior half of the hymenal rim were almost exclusively found in children between 8 and 11 years of age, whereas both superficial and complete hymenal clefts in the inferior half of the hymenal rim were found in children >12 years old. The present study describes age-related differences in victims of suspected child abuse. Fatal versus nonfatal child physical abuse and the significance of hymenal findings in child sexual abuse could be studied further.     

Omnivorous Cultural Policy: The Case of Concerts Norway

This article uses the case of Concerts Norway to analyze how the agency of esthetics is changing and expanding within a cultural policy institution. Concerts Norway has provided concerts to all age groups and all parts of the country for nearly fifty?years. The ambition of the institution has been to ensure that all Norwegian citizens have had access to quality music. The article describes how these cultural policy ambitions entail a general esthetic agency, and how different kinds of musical genres have been given agency through the work of the institution, thereby representing a seemingly omnipotent and increasingly omnivorous cultural policy.     

Forensic Case Reports Presenting Immersion Pulmonary Edema as a Differential Diagnosis in Fatal Diving Accidents

Immersion Pulmonary Edema (IPE) reduces the transport of gases over the respiratory membrane due to edema in the interstitium and respiratory zones. IPE has previously been described in both swimmers and divers, with a few known fatal cases. We have reviewed 42 SCUBA and snorkeling‐related drowning deaths, and through a thorough analysis of each case, including both diving physiology and forensic pathology, we present IPE as a differential diagnosis to drowning in four cases. Our findings propose that; absence of watery content in the stomach and conducting airways, and liquid filled lungs without hyperexpansion, may be compatible with IPE. We suggest that IPE should be considered in cases where witness testimony reveals; no obvious signs of aspiration and rapid respiratory deterioration despite continuous breathing through an appropriate air source. The diagnosis should be based on the overall impression, including both the autopsy findings and the circumstances regarding the accident.     

Tax Structure and Public Spending - Or How the Electorate Is Deceived into Paying for Bigger Public Spending than It Really Wants

It is a classical proposition that tax structure may influence public spending. Two such propositions concerning the visibility and the elasticity of the tax system are tested. Visibility is not important while highly elastic tax systems are correlated with big public spending in times of economic boom. In times of economic decline and recession, high spending countries turn to deficit financing. In both cases big spenders seem to rely more upon a dose of fiscal illusion than moderate spenders.     

Public sector reform in a poor,aid‐dependent country,Tanzania

African public sectors went through many changes during the 1960s and 1970s in response to political, economic and social pressures. They expanded in size but remained, at least in design, hierarchical and centralized. Their formal relations to society did not undergo any significant changes either. Generally, the reforms now under way are significantly different from earlier ones. Most are inspired by the new public management (NPM) paradigm. They are also much more radical in their aims, among which are: to reduce the core functions of the state; redraw the boundaries between political and administrative responsibilities; emphasize efficiency; redefine relations between public and private sectors; strengthen accountability; reduce corruption; reorganize organizations and staff; change values and attitudes; and exploit new technologies. This article focuses on a paradox of reform in Tanzania: multiple changes are pursued in the public sector despite fragile domestic political support to the reform package as a whole and despite few service delivery improvements on the ground. It is argued that this is the result of substantial external influences, fragmented domestic policy making, weak links between policy making and implementation, and questionable assumptions about some of the key NPM‐inspired reform measures. Moreover, the analyses highlight a number of differences with some of the recent reform literature. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.