ASSESSING NEIGHBORHOOD AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGICAL INFLUENCES ON CHILDHOOD VIOLENCE IN AN AFRICAN‐AMERICAN SAMPLE*

The present study examines the extent to which neighborhood and social psychological influences predict childhood violence among 867 African‐American youth. The results showed that neighborhood affluence was the only neighborhood‐level variable to exert a significant influence on childhood violence. Furthermore, childhood violence was significantly related to social psychological influences, such as adopting a street code, associating with violent peers, parental use of violence, and quality parenting. Overall, the findings suggested that simply living in a violent neighborhood does not produce violent children, but that family, peer, and individual characteristics play a large role in predicting violence in childhood.     

Toxicological findings in a death involving dextromethorphan and terfenadine.

A case of fatal self-poisoning with dextromethorphan, an antitussive, and terfanadine, an antihistamine H1, is reported. Both drugs were quantified in several postmortem tissues and fluids using capillary gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. Results are discussed in the light of the existing literature.