Doubling the estimated value of life: Results using new occupational fatality data

Using a new series of data on occupational fatalities compiled by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the authors reassess value-of-life calculations based on labor market tradeoffs between fatality risks and wages. The new data are less subject to the problems of measurement error that plague previously used measures of risk. They indicate higher risk levels than previously believed and a significantly different composition of risk levels within industries. The more comprehensive risk data yield value-of-life estimates of $5 million or more—at least twice as large as estimates obtained using the Bureau of Labor Statistics risk data employed in previous studies.     

An Early Community-Based Intervention for the Prevention of Substance Abuse and Other Delinquent Behavior

This paper presents the results of an evaluation of an early intervention, risk-reduction strategy versus a standard intervention approach in the treatment of inner-city youth at high risk of adopting a deviant lifestyle. It examines baseline and 1-year follow-up information provided by 408 youth admitted to 2 community-based Baltimore City Youth Bureaus offering counseling services for neighborhood youth referred for delinquent and other problematic behavior. In the study, one of these bureaus served as the experimental intervention clinic and the other as the control, or standard intervention, clinic. Outcome measures involved substance abuse; sexual activity; contact with juvenile authorities; and delinquent activity, including violence-related activity. Regression analyses of outcome measures revealed significant differential results for delinquent activity, which favored the experimental intervention. Relationships between risk/protective factors and outcome are discussed.     

What Role Does the "Federalism Bonus" Play in Presidential Selection?

The conflicting outcome of the electoral and popular votes inthe 2000 presidential election provoked calls to abolish oralter the electoral college. One prominent criticism is thatthe institution distorts election outcomes by providing disproportionateinfluence to small states. If each state receives a number ofpresidential electors equal to that states' number of membersin the U.S. House of Representatives plus the two senators,then the "federalism bonus" represents the two electoral collegevotes that correspond to the position of each state as an equalentity in the Senate. This research examines how the "federalismbonus" influences presidential selection by addressing threequestions. First, why did the framers include a federal componentin the electoral college? Second, under what circumstances hasthe "federalism bonus" played a role in presidential selection?Third, how would the various alternatives for reform affectthe federal component of the electoral college, and what isthe likelihood of adoption for each?     

Newborn kidnapping by cesarean section

A study of 30 cases of violence from a total sample of 199 cases of infant abductions between the years 1983 and 2000 included a subsample of six (or 20%) where the kidnapping was by cesarean section. The six cases are classified by type of crime. Four cases were classified as personal cause homicide, subtype cesarean section homicide; one case classified as personal cause, subtype domestic homicide, and one case classified as a criminal enterprise homicide. The behavioral profiles of the abductors included a confidence style approach to the victim mother, deception, and planning of the cesarean section. The forensic psychodynamics suggest a dual motive to cement a failing partner relationship and to fulfill a childbearing and delivery fantasy. Cesarean section murder suggests a new category of personal cause homicide.     

Diagnostic problems associated with cadaveric trauma from animal activity

Analysis of a series of deaths between 1986 and 2001 resulting from natural disease, accidents, suicides, and homicide, where postmortem animal activity had traumatized bodies, was undertaken at the Forensic Science Center in Adelaide to demonstrate the range of lesions that may occur and problems in interpretation that result. Tissue damage had been caused by a variety of animals, including fly larvae, ants, birds, dogs, rodents, sea lice, and sharks. Postmortem animal activity had disguised injuries, modified wounds, and created the appearances of inflicted injury. Problems with identification occurred after postmortem facial trauma, and loss of organ parenchyma had interfered with, or precluded, the precise determination of the manner of death in some cases. Specific kinds of tissue and organ damage may occur after death, necessitating careful assessment of lesions in a search for characteristic features of animal activity. The pattern of lesions may enable identification of the particular species of animal involved.