Identification based on medical findings

1. The indications such as the place of finding, the identification of clothes or other personal items, represent only the first step towards the identification of a corpse. 2. An identification based on medical data, other than dental, is often possible, more often than it is believed. 3. The forensic pathologist plays a double role in the case of such an identification: a) in the phase of the inquiry, he must contact the investigators and the families to explain his wishes and the different possibilities of identification. b) he must use the gathered information in the appropriate way. 4. It would be desirable to compose some statistical tables of the various medical elements useful for the identification (mutilations, surgical operations, etc...). We present six cases of identification in our practice.     

Authoritarianism,creativity, and other aspects of a prison organization

Conclusion This analysis shows that no simple explanation will do when trying to understand a prison. The authoritarian aspects were very negative to me as a professional working there. I did not like being blamed for things I did not do, or being sent to numerous required training programs, almost all of which were worthless for me, telling me thing 1 already knew or could not use. However, there were positive sides to the prison, especially in the treatment aspect. In 1972 Messinger wrote “I must take the position that prisons and custodial mental hospitals should be abolished” (Messinger, 1972, P. 6). His position was that these institutions are so inhumane that society would be better served by their abolition. We probably need more analyses like the present one, and other studies which rely more heavily on more gathering of quantitative data in order to understand what prisons are really like. Only then can we make informed choices, without depending on stereotypes.     

Thyreoglobulin and violent asphyxia

The concentration of thyreoglobulin (tg) was determined for death caused by hanging, strangulation by ligature, and throttling. Cases of sudden death (traumatic aortic rupture, penetrating wounds of the heart) were used for comparison. The mean values in cases of hanging (149.9±202.3 ng/ml), strangulation by ligature (193.1±173.3), manual strangulation (561.6±173.9) are distinguishable from violent acute deaths (23.3±27.6) and living healthy individuals (17.3±16.1). By means of statistical comparisons, significant differences were found between throttling and strangulation by ligature and between throttling and hanging (adjusted P<0.001). In connection with examination of the bodies high tg values can be regarded as a vital reaction in obstructive asphyxia.     

Diversity and Discontent: The Relationship Between School Desegregation and Perceptions of Racial Justice

A number of recent studies have explored the consequences ofinterracial peer effects on the academic and social performanceof minority students. This article contributes to that discussion,focusing, however, on perceptions rather than behaviors. Theanalysis suggests that exposure to white peers is associatedwith declining perceptions of racial justice among black andLatino high school students. While cautioning against causalinterpretations of this finding, the article suggests that theintegrationist aims of Brown v. Board of Education will notbe satisfied without more thoughtful and vigorous desegregationefforts.     

The Principle, Politics, and Finances of Introducing Academic Merit as the Standard of Hiring for "the teaching of law as a career," 1870–1900

Compared to the practice in other professional schools and academic fields at universities, law professors are hired at a young age based primarily upon their academic merit determined through grades, class rank, and school rank. This emphasis upon narrowly defined academic merit—apart from achievement demonstrated through original scholarship or experience in professional practice—first emerged during "the professionalization of the American law professor" between 1870 and 1900 at Harvard Law School (HLS). Though normative today, this outcome was neither necessary nor uncontested. In the late nineteenth century the new standard of hiring faculty according to their academic merit was energetically opposed by those favoring the antecedent standard of professional experience and reputation. Only when financial considerations counterbalanced that traditional standard did hiring decisions tip in favor of the new principle. Not until the early 1900s, when the second generation of academic meritocrats dominated the HLS faculty, did the new hiring standard become unequivocally established as policy in the school and, by extension, in legal education.