Stocktaking after two sessions of the commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice

B.A., Victoria University of Wellington 1964; LL.B., Victoria University of Wellington 1964; LL.M., Victoria University of Wellington 1967; LL.M., Columbia University 1968; J.S.D., Columbia University 1972. Professor Clark was a member of the former United Nations Committee on Crime Prevention and Control and represented New Zealand as an observer at the first two meetings of the United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice. Any views expressed here are his own.See generally Roger S. Clark,United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Program: Formulation of Standards and Efforts at Their Implementation (forthcoming 1994).     

Cardiac pathology in 470 consecutive forensic autopsies

Cardiovascular disease continues to be the single most common generic cause of sudden and unexpected deaths. Atherosclerotic coronary heart disease and acute myocardial infarction are the most prevalent forms of fatal cardiac disease observed at autopsy. Other cardiac lesions are frequently listed as causes of death, but the prevalence of such lesions as incidental findings in the general population is unknown. In this study, 470 consecutive forensic autopsies were evaluated for minor and major anomalies. The most frequently observed major congenital finding was floppy mitral valve (5%). Tunneled coronary arteries, considered minor congenital findings, were seen in 29%. Atherosclerotic coronary heart disease was the most common major acquired finding, observed in 16% of cases. Of the 470 hearts, only 8% were considered normal.     

Appropriately Upset? Emotion Norms and Perceptions of Crime Victims

Victims who express less emotion in response to a crime are perceived as less deserving, less sympathetic, and they have less punishment assigned to the offender who committed the crime. This study considers the extent to which emotion norms underlie perceptions of victims who testify. Two studies investigate the circumstances in which emotional reactions to a crime are seen as "unusual" and whether a more general emotion norm underlies responses to victim testimony. We test a "victim-role" norm against a "proportionality" norm by crossing the severity of victim's emotional response (severe or mild) with the seriousness of a crime (serious or less serious). Results across two studies lend greater support to the notion that people expect victims to match the intensity of their emotional response to the seriousness of the event (i.e., a proportionality rule), although we also find instances in which expectations of the victim are not strong. Gender of the victim exhibited small and contingent effects. We discuss the relevance of emotion norms to legal settings.     

Policy Diffusion and Program Scope: Research Directions

A major omission in diffusion research is the scope of changein program adoptions. Diffusion studies focus almost exclusivelyon the rate of change, thus ignoring possible variance in thecontent of programs selected by leaders, followers, and laggards.States may adopt new programs in one area, such as state-mandatedstudent testing. While most states now have a testing policy,these policies vary in terms of the number of students subjectto examinations. Thus, the amount of program change dependson the content of each state's policy. An interstate diffusionstudy of the pattern of program adoptions ignores this variance.It is also possible that policy scope is influenced by certainaspects of the diffusion process. One possibility is that programinnovators generally select more extensive programs than followers.Similarities or differences in policy scope among adopters mayalso be related to innovation attributes (e.g., whether a newprogram is symbolic, redistributive, or administratively complex).Finally, the number of years required for interstate diffusionmay result in similarities or differences in policy content.