Race relations in police operations: A legal and ethical perspective for officers

This presentation looks beyond the contemporary controversy over the use of race in drug courier profiling and examines the broad spectrum of rare relations affecting police operations. Racial controversy is not new to law enforcement, nor is it a recent phenomenon in American society. American police do not get enough credit for the enormous amount of positive daily interaction within minority communities. Police are pervasively present within minority communities around the clock successfully solving disputes, responding to calls for service, and addressing community concerns. It is against this backdrop that many in law enforcement are becoming increasingly frustrated by the perception, if not the reality of deteriorating race relations between police and minorities. One thing is certain: police cannot withdraw from racial conflict. Police will continue to operate within minority communities, regardless of the racial composition of either the community or the law enforcement agency. Therefore, officer and supervisory training should not only focus on how to avoid racial conflict, but also on how to ethically and legally perform in an environment where treatment of minorities is critically examined.     

Registration: The Cornerstone of REACH

The EC Regulation on Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) came into force on 1 June 2007, marking the end of three years of intense negotiations between the Council and the European Parliament. One of the most hotly debated topics was the registration of substances, where the original Commission proposal sparked an extensive debate about the volume-based structure proposed. Risk-based prioritization was a concept proposed by both industry and academia to replace this, but due to its own fundamental lack of workability, its inclusion was rejected. However, a lightening of the low tonnage levels was agreed, along with the practical implementation of the 'one substance, one registration' principle. Overall, it can be seen that despite the many changes proposed, analyzed, discussed and accepted during the three years of intense negotiations, the basic architecture that the Commission proposed remains and registration will provide an enforceable framework for companies and will ensure a level playing field for chemicals across Europe.     

United Nations peacekeeping and terrorism: short-term risks and long-term benefits

ABSTRACT

Does the introduction of UN forces impact terrorism? We argue that at least initially, UN peacekeeping missions may significantly shift the local conflict bargaining process, creating incentives for terrorist and insurgent groups to increase their attacks against civilians. UN missions create a symbolic endpoint to initial negotiations, alter the balance of power between combatants, and may change the relationship between local combatants and the civilian population they rely on for support. We test this argument using monthly data from 12 African countries, analyzing the risk of terrorism at the local level. We find that the introduction of UN forces in an area significantly increases the short-term risk of terrorism, but longer missions in the country reduce this risk.     

“How Do I Bring Diversity?” Race and Class in the College Admissions Essay

In the first systematic study of what college applicants invoke when required to submit a diversity essay, we revisit many settled assumptions on both the left and the right about how such an essay would operate after Grutter and Gratz as well as after the passage of anti–affirmative action ballot initiatives. Our data are a sample of 176 diversity essays submitted to the University of Michigan in the immediate aftermath of the University's Supreme Court win, analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively with special attention to the differences that the essay writer's race and class position make. We find that in many respects the essays are similar when written by applicants from similar backgrounds but different races, and that conservative critics were wrong to assume the essay would function simply as a way of announcing oneself as an under‐the‐table affirmative action candidate. Rather than suggesting a straightforward lineup of advantage and disadvantage, we suggest rather that the essay is a vehicle for the youngest generation of citizens to both receive and send back a new conception of difference that has some essentializing elements but overall is turning in a postracial, cosmopolitan direction.     

A rapid and sensitive method for the identification of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol in oral fluid by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

This paper proposes a new approach for automatic classification of counterfeit Viagra(?) and Cialis(?) tablets using image processing and statistical analysis. A high resolution VSC 5000 is used for image acquisition in a controlled environment, and the combination of a thresholding technique with morphological operators is used to segment the tablet from the background. A statistical model based on the RGB color components of original samples is built, and the detection of counterfeit tablets was performed by checking the adherence of a test sample to the obtained distribution using the Bhattacharyya distance. Our experimental results indicated that counterfeit tablets can be effective detected using the proposed approach.     

Parental problem-solving skills and child behavior problems: A comparison of physically abusive,neglectful, clinic,and community families

Failure to solve problems related to parenting and other aspects of daily living is hypothesized to result in frustration or inability to cope, and lead to deviant parental behavior such as aggression or neglect. The present investigation provided support for a procedure for measuring parental problem-solving skill and compared the problem-solving abilities and child behavior problems of maltreating and nonmaltreating parents. Subjects were 40 parents with at least one child between the ages of three and twelve. Subjects were assigned to one of four groups: (a) physically abusive parents (n = 9); (b) neglectful parents (n = 9); (c) nonmaltreating clinic parents seeking help for child behavior problems (n = 11); and (d) nonmaltreating, non-help-seeking community parents (n = 11). Abusive and neglectful parents were deficient in problem-solving skill as compared to clinic and community parents, yet there were many similarities in parental reports of child behavior problems for maltreating and nonmaltreating parents. Parental problem-solving skill did not correlate significantly with parental ratings of child behavior problems.