Taking Back Druid Hills: An Evaluation of a Community Policing Effort in Birmingham, Alabama

This paper examines the effectiveness of a cooperative police‐citizen effort to eradicate open‐air drug markets in the Druid Hills neighborhood of Birmingham, Alabama. Using calls‐for‐service data, the study found that calls increased during initial efforts to organize citizen cooperation. As efforts to implement police activities in the area began, calls decreased; the types of calls changed as well. The results indicate the program was effective in reducing problems associated with the open‐air drug market in this neighborhood and illustrate the usefulness of calls for service as a way to monitor the value of a program's efforts.     

Secondary combined suicide viewed by the wife]

A 47-year-old man was found dead at the bottom of a wall outward the door of the cellar of his house. Preliminary physical examination at the scene of the death revealed a laceration of the scalp, an incised wound in front of the neck and several stab wounds in the left chest penetrating through the clothing. Questioned by the police his wife told that her husband who suffered from severe depression had inflicted the incised and the stab wounds himself, had made an unsuccessful attempt at self-strangulation and had finally jumped down from the wall beside the stairs declining to the cellar of their house. As the circumstances of the scenario were suspicious and as the pattern of injuries arose doubts concerning self-infliction homicide was taken into consideration as well. Autopsy showed additional hesitation marks adjacent to the left end of the incised wound in front of the neck. The stab wounds of the chest were restricted to the region of the heart and displayed only minimal penetration of the chest-wall, findings characteristic of self-infliction. As a consequence the manner of death could be determined as prolonged suicide, and exact reconstruction was possible with the help of the wife's testimony.     

Factors predicting verdicts in cases where battered women kill their husbands

This study tested factors influencing verdicts in legal cases involving battered women who kill their husbands. A total of 388 college students (213 females and 175 males) read a fictitious but prototypical legal case. Subjects received one of three stories varying the level of force used by the husband against the wife before she killed him. Half of the subjects received courtroom testimony regarding the Battered Woman Syndrome. One-half received judge's instructions ofnot guilty by reason of selfdefense (NGRSD), and the other half receivednot guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI) instructions. Subjects decided on a verdict and completed a questionnaire including demographics, reasons for their verdicts, and relevant attitudinal measures. Judge's instructions were most predictive of verdicts, with NGRSD being more likely to produce not guilty verdicts. Verdicts were also influenced by the subject's view of the severity of the past beatings, the testimony of the expert witness, the subject's feelings about the woman using a weapon, race of the subject, the subject's own history of abuse, attitudes toward abuse in relationships, and the subject's belief that people are responsible even if provoked. The preference the subjects showed for NGRSD belies the commonly held belief that impaired mental defenses in these cases would be more likely to yield not guilty verdicts. Situational aspects of the case rather than long-standing attitudes of subjects appeared to be better predictors of verdicts.     

Use of DNA polymorphism in forensic paternity evaluation

Problematical paternity cases were additionally subjected to DNA-polymorphism analysis. 5 cases are reported, focusing on problems due to, 'silent' allele transmittance, relatively low probability for paternity, obvious occurrence of the extremely rare Rh gene complex CWc, involvement of brothers as putative fathers, non-paternity of a man although his W-value was 99.975%. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the need for DNA-polymorphism analysis, if conventional blood group tests do not lead to a clear-cut decision. Extended typing of conventional blood group polymorphisms (except HLA) cannot compete with highly polymorphic DNA loci.     

The role of emotional abuse in physically abusive relationships

Two hundred thirty four women were interviewed to assess the relationship of emotional abuse to physical abuse. Six major types of emotional abuse were identified. Analyses determined if the types of emotional abuse were related to the frequency and severity of physical abuse. Women in long-term abusive relationships were contrasted with women experiencing only short-term abuse. Other comparisons consisted of: women who thought emotional abuse was worse than physical abuse vs. women who thought the opposite; and women who could predict physical abuse from the emotional abuse were compared with those who could not. The extent to which the women believed the men's threats and ridicule or thought their abusive behavior was justified was used as a factor to determine the impact of emotional abuse. Future research should investigate emotional abuse patterns in nonbattering relationships for comparison with battered women's experiences.     

Theoretical Perspectives in Analyzing Ideological Change and Persistence: The Case of Swedish Social Democratic Party Ideology*

This article deals with analytical approaches to the problem of change and persistence in party ideologies. After examining a number of theoretical perspectives, the article suggests an additional approach and argues that one of its major advantages is that it offers a possibility to combine significant features of several existing perspectives. The proposed approach focuses on the functions of party ideology. The thesis here is that the development of an ideology is shaped by its functions. Contrary to numerous writers who view ideological functions in dichotomous terms, I argue that the functions of ideology are multiple. The possible functions of party ideology are outlined, and a distinction is introduced between the intellectual and tactical functions of ideology. The article then comments on how tactical functions contribute to ideological change and persistence by examining the case of Swedish Social Democratic ideology.     

Reputation and behavior of battered women who kill their partners: Do these variables negate self-defense?

Vignettes describing a case in which a battered woman killed her husband were presented to college students. Independent variables were the presence or absence of verbal aggression by the woman toward her husband before the final beating, the woman's reputation and social desirability as a wife and mother, and whether or not a weapon was present when the battering husband threatened the woman before she killed him. After reading a vignette, subjects (N=413) selected a verdict, reported what influenced their verdicts, and completed attitudinal measures on sex-role attitudes, attitudes toward wife-beating, and “just world” attitudes. The presence of verbal aggression by the woman increased the odds of subjects choosing a guilty verdict by 1.71 times compared to the absence of verbal aggression. A defendant characterized as a “bad” wife/mother or a dysfunctional wife/mother was, respectively, 6.24 and 2.49 times more likely to be found guilty rather than not guilty by reason of self-defense (NGRSD) than the “good” wife/mother. Use of a weapon by the husband did not significantly increase the number of NGRSD verdicts over conditions in which no weapon was present. Neither subjects' attitudes nor demographics appeared to be related to their choice of verdicts.