Acoustic gunshot detection systems: a quasi-experimental evaluation in St. Louis,MO

Journal of Experimental Criminology - The primary aim of this study is to provide an evaluation of St. Louis’ Acoustic Gunshot Detection System’s (AGDS) ability to reduce gun violence....     

The Reader of Defamatory Texts

In many, especially English, defamation cases,the court often speaks of ``the average reader',``the reasonable reader' or similar concepts,which does not refer to any flesh-and-bloodreader of the defamatory text, but is a type ofconstruct of what the court thinks would be thenormal reaction of a person to an allegedlydefamatory text. This concept is compared to asimilar phenomenon found in literary theory inthe persona of the implied reader, created bythe (implied) author as having a given set ofvalues which will lead to an appreciativeinterpretation of the literary work. The papercompares the parallel concepts in the twofields.     

Pain, Impairment, and Disability in the AMA Guides

Physicians use the American Medical Association's Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment, 5th edition to evaluate millions of disability applicants each year. As major contributors to the chapter in the Guides devoted to assessing impairment associated with pain, we confronted the difficulties of incorporating pain into the Guides' overall evaluation system. Analysis of these difficulties is complicated by the paucity of research on the Guides, and by ambiguities and contradictions that pervade it. We propose that the ambiguities can be reduced if impairment is consistently defined in terms of organ or body part derangement, and disability in terms of activity limitations at the level of the whole person. We also propose a distinction between objective factors that may influence a person's ability to perform activities following injury. We suggest that when physicians examine disability applicants, they should evaluate both objective measures of organ or body part dysfunction and subjective reports of applicants -- especially ones regarding pain. We conclude that a comprehensive medical evaluation of disability applicant encompasses more than an impairment assessment.